Objection:
You said regarding Unconditional Election:
"God does
not base His election on anything He sees in the individual.
He chooses the elect according to the kind intention of His
will (Eph. 1:4-8; Rom. 9:11) without any consideration of
merit within the individual. Nor does God look into the
future to see who would pick Him. Also, as some are elected
into salvation, others are not (Rom. 9:15, 21)."
Under these conditions, God "elects" individuals based
purely on randomness. What would be the point in this?
Although all people may be equal in sin, not all people are
equal in talent. Some individuals may have artistic or
intellectual talents, or are more compassionate and
hard-working than others, and they would be passed over for
individuals that possess none of these traits. So this
random selection would mean God is thoroughly disinterested
in our individuality.
Response:
First, to say that something is random means that it has no
purpose, no goal, no objective, and no pattern. To apply
randomness to God's sovereign election is inappropriate and
it demonstrates that the objection does not reflect a proper
understanding of Reformed Theology. The quote above on
unconditional election specifically states that God elects
out of the kind intention of his will. Since God is not
random and he always has a purpose in what he does, his
election must also have a purpose - even if it seems random
to us. Furthermore, Reformed Theology states that God
does nothing randomly and that all things work according to
his purpose.
Second, to appeal
to different talents in individuals and then to imply that
the Reformed position denies that God predestines or elect
based upon what is in individuals is contradictory to
Scripture, sound thinking, and the Reformed position.
Ephesians 1:4-12 says,
"just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, 8 which He lavished upon us. In all wisdom and insight 9 He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him 10 with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things upon the earth. In Him 11 also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, 12 to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ should be to the praise of His glory."
Notice the bolded words through this passage of Scripture.
It is clear that Paul the apostle focuses on God's choice,
God's predestining, God's intention, God's will, God's
grace, and God's purpose. You find nowhere in the Scripture
where God looks upon an individual and bases his choice of
election and predestination based upon some quality in the
individual. Therefore, to imply in any way that God bases
his sovereign choice upon anything in an individual would be
to go against scripture and would be to accuse God of
partiality by suggesting that God puts one person above
another based upon what is or is not in a person. This is
contradictory to Scripture.
The
partiality that Scripture mentions and condemns as
exemplified in James 2:2-4
"For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, 3 and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, “You sit here in a good place,” and you say to the poor man, “You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool,” 4 have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives?"
James condemns the partiality shown by people based upon the
outward appearance of others. Since we cannot look into the
hearts of people, we judge I appearance and often do so
simply. God is able to look with in a person. It would be
wrong to attribute to God any sort of partiality based upon
what is in a person because all people are sinners. All
people are touched by sin and nobody is worthy in any way to
have God look favorably upon them.
Third, it is illogical for it is God who has made us, formed
us, etc. He is the one who formed our inward parts and wove
our personalities in place knitting into them our abilities,
disabilities, tendencies, likes, dislikes, strengths, and
weaknesses. God is perfectly capable, from all eternity, to
create us as he sees fit. It is against sound logic to
assert that the omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent
eternal God is not in control of the creative process that
governs the formation of each and every individual who has
ever lived or will ever live. Furthermore, it is against
sound thinking to conclude that God is not aware or in
control of all of the conditions in which a person is born
including family, culture, environment, etc. which would
have an influence upon the individual's choices. Therefore,
since God is the one who forms is in the womb and also
places us when and where he desires, he knows what the
outcome of those conditions will be regarding our salvation.
In this, God predestines.
Fourth, the reason not all people are equal and talent is
because God has not made them equal and talent. He has not
made them with equal artistic or intellectual abilities. He
is not granted to each individual the same amount of
compassion, energy, or laziness. If God were to look into an
individual and base his election upon what is in him, then
God is only looking upon what he has created according to
his purpose, and his will. What would be the purpose of God
looking into an individual's traits if it was God who was
the one who placed them there to begin with? It makes no
sense.
It does, however, make
more sense to believe that God is sovereignly in control and
that his will, his choice, it is kind intention, and his
grace, will be carried out.
Finally, it is not true that God is random. His choices
always have a purpose. For the critic to accuse the reformed
theological perspective of implying randomness in God's
nature and choice, demonstrates that the critic does not
understand reformed theology regarding God's greatness,
sovereignty, and divine purpose.