Truth is ancient; it's grey hairs may make it venerable;
it comes from Him who is the ancient of days. --Thomas Watson

 

14 October, 2008   comments: (0) Sound Doctrine   Election - a Most Sacred Truth, Horatius Bonar If I am asked, how can you preach a free gospel, and yet believe in election? I answer, I believe in both, and preach both, because I find both in the Bible. I have no authority for preaching an unconditional gospel but what I find in the Bible; and I have the same authority for preaching an unconditional personal election. God has told me that both are true; and woe be to me if I profanely attempt to mutilate either the one or the other. If one man refuses to take the simple meaning of "election," another may refuse to take the simple meaning of "gospel." And were I called upon to say which is the worse, the more profane of the two, I should say the former. I should, indeed, tremble at the thought of denying either election or the gospel; but I confess that I think the denial of the latter a less direct, and a less daring insult to the sovereign majesty of Jehovah. It would be a shutting out of his grace, a closing up of all the manifestations of his character which have come out to us since Adam sinned; and it would be drawing a dark cloud over our eternal prospects, - but it would not be taking the reins of government out of his hands, - it would not be the usurpation of his throne, - it would not be giving the right hand of fellowship to atheism. But there is no need of any such comparison. Perhaps it was wrong to make it. I have done so, however, in order that you may be led to see that election belongs to the highest and most sacred order of truths - that it is not a doctrine to be concealed and muffled as if we were either ashamed or afraid of it, but to be firmly held, and faithfully preached, whether men will hear or forbear. Mere philosophy might tell men that, if there be a God, he must be entirely and absolutely sovereign in all things. Mere philosophy might expose the shallowness and selfishness of those who trample on God's free will, in order to establish man's - even if theology and Scripture were silent on the matter. Why do I believe in a free gospel? Is it because reason has revealed it? Is it because I find it suits me best? No. It is because God has declared it; that is my sole authority. Why do I believe in election? Just because God has made it known. I may find that reason confirms this. I may see that there can be no really free gospel without election; but still my ground for believing it is because I find it most plainly revealed. You can only get rid of election by getting rid of the Bible. And hence you will find, among those who deny election and the work of Christ for his church, a great dislike at those passages of Scripture which allude to these topics. They pass them by, they turn away from them, they are angry if another even quotes them, though without a comment. Now I ask, would they do and feel thus, if they believed that these passages really contained the meaning which they put upon them? If these passages are quite in harmony with their views, why do they shrink from quoting them, or hearing them quoted? Is not this the plainest of all proofs, that they feel that theirs is not the honest interpretation? Does it not show that they themselves are secretly persuaded that these passages do teach unconditional election, and the absolute sovereignty of Jehovah? They feel that they have twisted them from their plain sense, and that the mere reading of them is enough to expose their distortions. They feel that they have not dealt fairly with the word of God, and that their one-sided dealings cannot bear the light of day. Posted by: Jim B.   Link: http://www.oldtruth.com/blog.cfm/id.2.pid.219   Be the first to post a comment about this article        Home  |   About  |  Videos   |  Calvinism