Dabney - Election not Selection

Predestination More Than Selection of A Character To Be Favored

"This class of passages is peculiarly convincing: and especially against that phase of error, which makes God’s election nothing else than a determination that whosoever believes and repents shall be saved, or in other words, a selection of a certain quality or trait, as the one which procures for its possessors the favor of God. This feeble notion may be farther refuted by remarking that all the language employed about predestination is personal, and the pronouns and other adjuncts indicate persons and not classes. It is "whom (masculine) He foreknow, them He also did predestine." It is "As many as were ordained to eternal life, believed," (masc.) Acts 13:48. The verb proorizw means a definite decision. Christ tells His disciples that their names are written in heaven; not merely the general conditions of their salvation. Luke 10:20; In Phil. 4:3, Clement and his comrades’ names are written in the book of life. The condition is one; but in the book are multitudes of names written. Again: a mere determination to bestow favor on the possessors of certain qualities, would be inert and passive as to the propagation of those qualities; whereas God’s election propagates the very qualities (see Rom. 9:11. 18, 22, 23; Eph. 1:4, 5; 2 Thess. 2:13). "He hath chosen us to salvation through, etc." And once more: were this determination to bestow favor on faith and penitence the whole of election, no one would ever possess those qualities; for, as we have seen, all men’s hearts are fully set in them to do evil, and would certainly continue impenitent did not God, out of His gracious purpose, efficaciously persuade some to come to Him. These qualities which are thus supposed to be elected, are themselves the consequences of election." (Robert L. Dabney, Section Two—Basic Doctrines of the Faith - Chapter 18: Predestination)



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