God's Election Throughout Scripture

People debating predestination frequently fail to consider God has already done considerable "electing" throughout the Bible, and in their own daily lives.  They tend to ignore the fact that as owner-creator God has the absolute right to do whatever he wants with whoever he wants however he wants and any time he wants to accomplish anything he wants.  God regularly places people when and where he chooses, and everyone accepts this ("Hey, that's life!") and simply lives with the consequences without much thought about it.    Let's look at some choices God made without our consent and without any anticipated decision on our part.

He is the irresistible force--there are no immovable objects!

God Elects Abraham and Ignores the Rest

Genesis 12:1-3 ¶ Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

From among all the people on the earth, God chose Abram.  God elected not to choose anyone else.  Had Abram done anything to deserve this honor?  No.  Abram most likely was serving Nana the Moon-god--like his father before him.  Yet, God selected Abram for particular blessings to the total exclusion of everyone else. 

Arminians might argue God choose Abram because he foreknew Abram would accept him.  But was Abram was the only man on earth who would do so?  What would have happened to God's big plan had Abram said, "No, thanks"?  Would God have settled for second choice?  Would he have gone done a list of potential candidates until he found someone willing to work with an unseen God?  Hardly.  That's not the picture Scripture paints of the creator and controller of the universe.  God chose Abraham, and ignored everyone else solely because it pleased him to do so. 

Several specific things should be noted about God's election of Abram:

God Elects Jacob over Esau

Romans 9:10-16 ...when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac; (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;) It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.  As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. 

¶ What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.  For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.  So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.

Here's another undisputable election God made totally independent of human action, will, or merit.  Esau was the first-born--legally entitled to both the birthright and blessing.  But even before his birth--before either man had done good or bad--God elected the older to serve the younger.  "Esau have I hated."  If unconditional election is not true, what could this possibly mean?  God rejected Esau and chose Jacob not because one was any better than the other (Jacob's life proved that), and not because of anything either would eventually do, but solely because it pleased God to do so. 

Malachi 1:1-5 The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi.  I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob, And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.  Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places; thus saith the LORD of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down; and they shall call them, The border of wickedness, and, The people against whom the LORD hath indignation for ever.  And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, The LORD will be magnified from the border of Israel.

God Elects One Nation and Ignores All The Rest

Isaiah 41:1-10 Who raised up the righteous man from the east, called him to his foot, gave the nations before him, and made him rule over kings? he gave them as the dust to his sword, and as driven stubble to his bow.  He pursued them, and passed safely; even by the way that he had not gone with his feet.  Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am he.  The isles saw it, and feared; the ends of the earth were afraid, drew near, and came.  They helped every one his neighbour; and every one said to his brother, Be of good courage.  So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith, and he that smootheth with the hammer him that smote the anvil, saying, It is ready for the sodering: and he fastened it with nails, that it should not be moved.  But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend.  Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called thee from the chief men thereof, and said unto thee, Thou art my servant; I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away.  Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.

Amos 3:1-2 Hear this word that the LORD hath spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying, You only have I known of all the families of the earth

Psalm 147:19-20 He sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel.  He hath not dealt so with any nation: and as for his judgments, they have not known them. Praise ye the LORD.

Deuteronomy 7:6-8 For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.  The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people: But because the LORD loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers

The purpose of electing Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was, of course, to create Israel--God's chosen nation.  Only by God's mercy were they elected to their position of blessing to the total exclusion of "all the [other] families of the earth."  The fact that they were selected apart from any goodness on their part is embarrassingly obvious, but has been their continual source of security--their election has never depended upon their own worthiness!

...one people is peculiarly chosen to the rejection of others: no reason for this appears, except that Moses, to deprive their posterity of all occasion of glorying, teaches them, 'The Lord did not set His love upon you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people; but because the Lord loved you'.  [Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion].

Throughout the Old Testament the Lord reaffirmed this election of Israel over other nations in spite of willful and defiant disobedience.  In fact, Israel was in rebellion to God throughout most of the Old Testament!  Israel is portrayed as the unfaithful wife who prostituted herself in Hosea.  But, not only did God continually reaffirm his election and reiterate his promised blessings to Israel throughout Scripture, but he flatly states he shall save them, they shall be his people, and he shall be their God:

Ezekiel 36: 24-36 For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and [I] will bring you into your own land.  ¶ Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and [I will] cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God. I will also save you from all your uncleannesses: and I will call for the corn, and [I] will increase it, and lay no famine upon you. And I will multiply the fruit of the tree….  Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations. Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord GOD, be it known unto you: be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel. Thus saith the Lord GOD; In the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities I will also cause you to dwell in the cities, and the wastes shall be builded. And the desolate land shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that passed by.  …Then the heathen that are left round about you shall know that I the LORD build the ruined places, and plant that that was desolate: I the LORD have spoken it, and I will do it.

Ezekiel 11:19-20 And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and [I]will give them an heart of flesh: That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.

Jeremiah 32:36-42 And now therefore thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning this city, whereof ye say, It shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence; Behold, I will gather them out of all countries, whither I have driven them in mine anger, and in my fury, and in great wrath; and I will bring them again unto this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely: And they shall be my people, and I will be their God: And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me for ever, for the good of them, and of their children after them: And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me. Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul. For thus saith the LORD; Like as I have brought all this great evil upon this people, so will I bring upon them all the good that I have promised them.

Just as with Abram (Abraham) his "I will"'s concerning Israel are stated unconditionally.  Israel was honored with this divine choice in sharp contrast with the treatment accorded every other nation on earth.  Israel was predestined, as the seed of Abraham, to be recipient of God's blessings, and as the Old Testament clearly demonstrates--this choice rested solely on the unmerited love of God, and had absolutely nothing to do with Israel's foreknown performance or "accepting" God's sovereign choice--which was on-again/off-again at best! 

God Elects Some Nations for Honor, but Others for Dishonor

Beyond electing Israel to a special place of prominence and blessing, and besides promising to implant in them a new spiritual heart and make them his holy people, it is also obvious that God has elected certain nations either to specific temporal blessings, or to be instruments to be used however God sees fit.  The time each government rises to power, the extent of it's authority, it's national boundaries, and even the length of it's existence have all been foreordained by the creator who controls the future and works "all things" to the good of his elect.

Acts 17:24-26 God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and [he] hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;

Romans 13:1-2  Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.  Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.

God uses each nation as he chooses in order to accomplish whatever purpose he sets. 

Romans 9:16-18 So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.  For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.  Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.

The Bible is emphatic that Amenhotep II's Egyptian government rose to power specifically so God could demonstrate his power by breaking it's back and releasing the Children of Israel from slavery--"I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go." (Exodus 4:21).  Although the Bible tells us that Pharaoh willfully resisted Moses (and therefore God), it's equally straight-forward in it's statement that God was instrumental in causing Pharaoh to resist Moses--thereby incurring the wrath and punishment of God--because this was God's plan from the beginning! 

Joshua 11:19-20 There was not a city that made peace with the children of Israel, save the Hivites the inhabitants of Gibeon: all other they took in battle.  For it was of the LORD to harden their hearts, that they should come against Israel in battle, that he might destroy them utterly, and that they might have no favour, but that he might destroy them, as the LORD commanded Moses.

Joshua tells us when the children of Israel entered the Promised Land they had to fight the existing inhabitants.  God had already foretold they must utterly destroy them.  The Lord intended these inhabitants to resist for the very reason that Israel could destroy them from the land.  Was it unfair of God to kill off these men, women, and children?  Who created the land?  Who created the people?

The Babylonian and Assyrian empires did not accidentally rise to world power, but did so at the time and in the manner planned beforehand by God.  He used them to discipline his elect nation.  When they had accomplished their intended purpose they were discarded.  History books are filled with nations God has used and discarded.  Since many are predicted by God beforehand how could anyone actually doubt that God directed the activities of these nations to accomplish his predictions?  By extension, how could anyone doubt that God directed the thoughts and decisions of key individuals within these nations to fulfill his predictions?

Isaiah 10:5-15 O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation. I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.  ...Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when the Lord hath performed his whole work upon mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks.  For he saith, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I am prudent: and I have removed the bounds of the people, and have robbed their treasures, and I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man: And my hand hath found as a nest the riches of the people: and as one gathereth eggs that are left, have I gathered all the earth; and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped.  Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up itself, as if it were no wood.

  In recent history Hitler's Third Reich served the same purpose as Egypt, Babylon, and Assyria.  Hitler's persecution and attempted extermination of the Jews focused world attention on their plight and caused such an outcry that the nation of Israel was reborn in their Promised Land after 1900 years--in partial fulfillment of Ezekiel's prophecy of the dry bones.  Now, Hitler's dead, the Third Reich's gone, but Israel remains as promised to Abraham.  Should there be any doubt about the long-term fate of any government attacking Israel today?

But, here's another consideration regarding national election:

Acts 16:6-10 Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia, After they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia: but the Spirit suffered them not. And they passing by Mysia came down to Troas.  And a vision appeared to Paul in the night; There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia, and help us.  And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavoured to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them.

Have Arminians seriously considered the ramification of this verse?  Paul was well on his way to Asia to spread the "good news" to the millions of people there in obedience to Jesus' command to go into all the world.  But God specifically forbade Paul to share the salvation message with these people!  Instead, he was shown a vision of a man calling him to Macedonia.  So, Paul went to Europe instead of Asia. 

By God's sovereign election, Europe was given the Gospel and that salvation was withheld from Asia!  Millions (if not billions) of souls in Asia and the Orient have died in Spiritual darkness--going to hell never hearing the "good news" because God elected Europe over Asia.  Western Civilization not only received the Gospel, but embraced the Judeo-Christian philosophy, ethics, and body of justice.  It's not an accident that the United States of America developed into the richest, most powerful, and most industrialized nation in the world while Asia--in general--remains generally poor, agrarian, and dictatorial.  How different our world would be had God elected Asia as Paul's missionary field instead! 

Can anyone claim God has not deliberately chosen to bless the "West" in multiple ways?  Would someone be foolish enough to claim God chose Europe over Asia because he foreknew Europe would "accept" him but Asia would not?  Hopefully, not.  Europe got the Gospel--and Asians ignorantly went to hell--because that's the way God planned it.  Our founding fathers called this "Divine Providence"--God chose... and (of course) that's the way it happened! 

That is not to say that billions of people haven't individually made trillions of decisions to move history along to the point where we are today--it's just that knowingly or unknowingly all those decisions conformed to God's predetermined plan because God controls His-story.  And just like we can't point to any special worth in Israel that influenced God's decision to select him instead of Egypt or Assyria, we certainly cannot present a credible defense why God should bless America so richly in rights, privileges, material and spiritual blessings over any other country while children in South America, Africa, India, and other nations starve to death.  We are the beneficiaries of God's grace although we did absolutely nothing to deserve these blessings.

God Elects Some Individuals to Special Blessing from Birth

Which brings up another type of election--that of individuals receiving the grace by which they can hear or read the Gospel, associate with believers, and generally share in the benefits of living in a civilization where the Gospel has greatly influenced the laws, common understandings, and society. 

Have you ever wondered why you were born here, and now?  What might have been different had you been born to different parents living somewhere else--in another place and time?  None of us were able to choose our parents!  Who determined whether you were born in Tucson or Tibet?  1952, or 1592?  Who determined whether your parents were God-fearing believers who loved you and trained you in Spiritual things, or irresponsible parents who considered you an inconvenience to be aborted and dumped in the trash?  Who determined whether you were born to status, health, wealth, and privilege, or whether you were destitute, deformed, and hungry?  Either you must accept that these events were determined by the "luck of the draw," or acknowledge that all of these things were sovereignty decided for you beforehand--by your creator.  All these variables that determine your very being were predestined by God.

C. H. Spurgeon says it this way,

First, let me ask, must we not all of us admit an over-ruling Providence, and the appointment of Jehovah's hand, as to the means whereby we came into this world? ...What circumstances were those in our power which led us to elect certain persons to be our parents? Had we anything to do with it? Did not God Himself appoint our parents, native place, and friends? Could He not have caused me to be born with the skin of the Hottentot, brought forth by a filthy mother who would nurse me in her "kraal," and teach me to bow down to Pagan gods, quite as easily as to have given me a pious mother, who would each morning and night bend her knee in prayer on my behalf? [Spurgeon, A Defense of Calvinism]

Surely no one would insist that a Kennedy or Rockefeller baby has so much more personal merit that he actually deserves being born to the status and privilege he will surely become accustomed!  Likewise, no one admits to being such a loser they actually deserve a drunken father to beat him.  We don't receive what we get based on merit, personal worth, or God simply foreknowing someone would be better off living in a mud hut along the Amazon River worshiping a wooden stick.  It is only by God's choice that I was born in America of Christian parents who loved me, and taught me to fear and worship the God of the Bible. 

God Elects Some Individuals To Receive Particular Gifts While Passing Over Others

1 Corinthians 12:4-30 Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.  And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord.  And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.  But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.  ...God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.  ...And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.  Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? are all workers of miracles?  Have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret?

God also reserves the exclusive right to make choices and distinctions in the distribution of Spiritual gifts within the church (and God does not distribute spiritual gifts outside the church at all).  Few are apostles.  Not everyone speaks with tongues or interprets.  A few work miracles, some teach, some shepherd the flock.  But no one chooses these Spiritual gifts for themselfes--the Holy Spirit distributes spiritual gifts as He wills. 

Human endeavor, desire, or personal merit do not determine who receives any spiritual gift.  God's foreknowledge of who will do the best job is not a determining factor.  God distributes Spiritual gifts based solely upon his own pleasure and purpose!  He didn't pick Billy Graham (you can insert any name you highly esteem) and pass over you because you weren't as good as Billy, weren't as worthy, didn't have as much faith, didn't pray as hard, speak as well, or because he foreknew Billy would win more souls than you ever could.  God elected Billy Graham to be an evangelist solely because it pleased him to do so--then he made Billy Graham willing to exercise that gift, and placed him in situations where he could.

The identical logic can be applied to non-Spiritual gifts as well--vocations, talents, and other special abilities.  "Perfect pitch" is a musical gift that less than one in a thousand have--one either has it or hasn't; it can't be learned.  Others can't carry a tune in a bucket with both hands--they literally cannot distinguish tone or pitch.  Gifts that enable one person and not another to be an excellent musician, artisan, doctor or lawyer are distributed by God based solely upon his will and purpose. 

How about gifts of personal beauty, intelligence, disposition and personality.  How about body shapes and sizes?  Why do some people have greater capacity for compassion and empathy while others struggle with a propensity toward addiction or homosexuality?  All of us have to work with whatever God's given us, but it's plain that some are born with considerably more in particular areas than others.  No one would attribute any of these differences to varying degrees of personal worth, or God's foreknowledge of what a person might accomplish with his beauty, brains, talent, or money.  Again, it has to be either fate, "luck of the draw", or God's choice.

God Elects Some Individuals to Eternal Salvation

Arminians have little difficulty acknowledging that God has sovereign control over who gets these Spiritual and non-spiritual gifts--they allow God to distribute these blessings however he sees fit.  They also don't have much problem with God choosing Abraham for special blessing while ignoring everyone else.  It's also ok for God to to raise up Pharaoh and smack him down again (although they tend to emphasize the part about Pharaoh hardening his heart and ignore many verses in which God says (beforehand) that he will harden Pharaoh's heart).  Actually, all the examples of God's sovereign election I've provided so far are generally acceptable to Arminians. 

However, in discussing this last kind of election--eternal salvation--they want to remove control from the Creator's hands and place it firmly in their own hands.  Yet all these forms of election are essentially the same in principle.  In each instance God gives what he wants to whoever he wants--and withholds it from all the rest!  He does this with no accountability to anyone else, and without requiring the cooperation or assistance from anyone to fully complete his plan.

Personal experience, and the everyday world around us, reveals that God bestows various blessings upon some--but not all--irrespective of (and frequently in spite of) any worth or goodness on their part.  The most gifted scientists and philosophers seem to deny God even exists.  Many truly gifted musicians become hedonistic rock stars.  Beautiful people flaunt their sins on TV and in movies for fun and profit.  Nations who have benefited much from God's blessings have turned their back on God.  It follows logically that this same principal must hold true for God's choice of who he adopts into his family.

"We are pointed illustratively to the sovereign acceptance of Isaac and rejection of Ishmael, and to the choice of Jacob and not of Esau before their birth and therefore before either had done good or bad; we are explicitly told that in the matter of salvation it is not of him that wills, or of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy, and that He has mercy on whom He will, and whom He will He hardens; we are pointedly directed to behold in God the potter who makes the vessels which proceed from His hand each for an end of His appointment, that He may work out His will upon them. It is safe to say that language cannot be chosen better adapted to teach Predestination at its height."  [Warfield, Biblical Doctrines]

As previously stated, Arminians maintain that God's predestination is based upon his foreknowledge of an individual's prior choice.  However, Christ explicitly told his disciples, "You have not chosen me--I chose you," thereby indicating God’s choice to be first and primary while man’s choice results from God's prior choice.  God didn't choose us because we were worthy but in spite of the fact that we were unworthy.  He didn't choose us because he foreknew we would choose him; we chose him because he fore-chose us--"before the foundations of the world."  With man's God-hating, rebellious, sinful nature it couldn't have ever happen any other way.

John 15:16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.

Romans 5:6-9 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.  For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.  But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.

Ephesians 1:4-5, 11-12 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.