Does God pick people for Hell

Does God pick people for Hell

Does election mean that God chooses people not to be saved?

JOHN:  Well, technically no. God doesn’t choose people not to be saved. Everybody’s born with that potential already. You know, at this particular point, we get trapped in our human thinking and our human reasoning and driving everything to what we think is its logical conclusion. The bottom line is this: the Bible does not teach that God chooses people to be damned. It only teaches that He chooses people to be saved. That’s explicit in Scripture. He fits vessels unto honor and glory, but vessels are fitted to destruction. He distances Himself - that’s Romans 9 - He distances Himself from damnation. And this is what is very important, because if you err in this point, then you come up with the [false] hyper-Calvinistic, double predestination where God says, “You go to heaven; you go to hell; you go to heaven; you go to hell.” 

👉God does not take personal responsibility for the damnation of the lost. He takes responsibility for their judgment, but their guilt and their culpability and their sin is a responsibility they bear themselves.

I know that’s a mysterious thing to consider, and human reason isn’t going to be able to resolve that. But being faithful to Scripture, “God finds no pleasure in the death of the wicked,” the scripture says. But at the same time, no one can be saved unless God purposely chooses them.

So, the way to understand it is the whole human race is headed to hell. God, in His mercy and grace, uninfluenced by anyone, chooses some from those that are headed to hell by their own sinfulness, for salvation.

PHIL:  You know, there’s even a technical theological term for that: preterition. And it means God passes over. In the language of most of the creeds, He chooses those – His elect – for salvation, and the rest He passes over.

JOHN:  Right. And I think that’s a good way to view it. He chooses not to choose them

Election & Human Responsibility 

PHIL:  Another question we receive on the same subject, how does divine election, then, mesh with human responsibility. You’ve sort of referred to that to say we bear the responsibility for the bad things we do. How does that work, then, if God is sovereign?

JOHN:  Look, this is the greatest mystery to people. You know, I’ve been doing this for a long time, 40 years of teaching the Bible. This is the question of all questions that you get asked in every single question and answer session you do, no matter where you are on the planet. How can we be held responsible for our sin and our judgment when God chooses who is going to be saved? And the answer is I don’t know. All I know is what the Bible says. Man is responsible for his own sin. He is held responsible for his own unbelief. He is therefore culpable. He is condemned because he will not believe. That’s what Jesus said, “You’re condemned because you believe not.” Jesus even said, “You will not come to Me that you might have life.”

Now, how that resolves rationally is a great challenge, because I’ve never been able to resolve that in my mind. All I know is God holds all sinners responsible, and they are judged as culpable and guilty and condemned because they refuse to believe the gospel. On the other hand, people who are saved are saved because of the sovereign power of God.

Now, perhaps the best way to help people with the question is to simply say this is a mystery that’s consistent with trying to mesh human thinking with the divine mind. And I like to illustrate it by saying this: if I ask you who wrote the book of Romans, what are you going to say? Well, you’re going to say, “Paul wrote the book of Romans.” Then you’re going to stop and say, “Well, wait a minute, the Holy Spirit wrote the book of Romans.”

Well, so who’s responsible for the book of Romans? Is it Paul who’s responsible for it? Well, yes. Every word came out of his mind, his vocabulary. But yet it’s inspired by God. Every word is inspired by the Holy Spirit. You have this same dilemma. You have a fully responsible and accountable Paul, who’s not a mechanic, but who’s writing out of his own heart, his own mind, and yet you have every word coming from the Holy Spirit. How can it be all Paul and all the Holy Spirit? It’s a mystery again.

Or I ask the question, “Who lives your Christian life?” And that’s a simple question.

And when I ask people that question, they just stop in their tracks like, “What? Who lives your Christian life? Well, I do.” And then you say, “Well, wait a minute; I can’t take credit for my Christian life. Christ does.”

Well, how can it be your responsibility and your obedience and your faithfulness that God demands, and yet, “In your flesh dwells no good thing,” and, “For me to live is Christ,” and, “I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me.” You have the same exact mystery.

On the other hand, you could say, “I believe in eternal security. I believe that if I’m once saved, I’m going to be kept saved until I get to glory.”

And yet the Bible talks about the perseverance of the saints. “You will be saved if you endure. You will be saved if you continue.”

So, you have this same kind of very difficult, apparent paradox in all major doctrines that relate us to the divine. And that’s the way it is in this matter of election. We have full human responsibility regarding our sin and our call to believe the gospel. And yet, at the same time, salvation is a sovereign work of God. I can’t resolve that. I can be content to accept what Scripture says and leave the resolution to God.

PHIL:  It’s important to maintain that tension, too, isn’t it? Even practically, in the Christian life, Scripture’s full of it. Paul says, “Work out your own salvation.” Then he turns right around and says, “But it’s God...”

JOHN:  “But it’s God who works in you to will and to do of His own good pleasure” – Philippians.

PHIL:  That’s the key to practical Christian living. So, it isn’t just a theoretical –

JOHN:  Well, actually, I love the mystery of it. I fully embrace the mystery because, otherwise, I’m going to be able to figure everything out, and then I’m going to be sure this is a manmade religion.

PHIL:  Hmmm.

JOHN:  The fact that this is such a dominating reality on the pages of Scripture is to me one of the great evidences of its divine authorship.

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