Salvation Theology

R.C. Sproul opened my eyes to the thinking behind Calvinism, especially his understanding of the choice behind a person’s salvation. That choice is made by God, Mr. Sproul insists. God chooses who will and who will not be saved. The person that is chosen by God WILL BE ABLE to, in turn, choose God, and live a life representative of a Christian life. A person not chosen by God will not ever truly desire to follow God, and will not seek or be granted salvation. To put the choice of salvation into the hands of humans is to say that a person’s deed, their personal choice, is what gains them favor with God. According to Sproul, this belief makes Christianity a ‘works’ based religion when the Bible clearly states that it is not.

R.C. Sproul also sees a problem in the paradox that some believe, that God knows our future and therefore knows who will follow God. God chooses those that God knows will follow. In the end, this suffers from the same problem noted before, that somewhere along the line, it is the person that chooses God first. Again Sproul feels that this makes Christianity a ‘works’ based religion.

I differ from Mr. Sproul on two major points. I believe God loves all people. God would not create people that have no chance at salvation. God would not describe Hell as a place of ultimate suffering fully knowing that the majority of God-created people are going there, in exacting detail. This makes God hateful of people, which isn’t Biblical. God knows the future. God knows who will follow and become the Elect. God has always known this. Yet, understand that knowing is not deciding. Because God knows I will or will not choose to believe, does not mean that God chooses me to believe. If God loves me, then God wouldn’t choose from the beginning of time for me to suffer eternally with no chance at salvation.

I believe in freedom and consequences. Adam and Eve knew the law about the forbidden fruit, and yet they chose to partake. Noah obediently chose to build the ark. Jonah eventually chose to go to Nineveh. The Bible is full of choices made by people, to obey and to disobey, and their corresponding acts. The freedom of the individual is clear. If we have freedom to choose God then the love is real. If it all is God’s choice, then there is no freedom, and the love is just God using us as a tool to reflect God’s love back at God. People become nothing more than a dim mirror of God’s love, imperfect and cracked.

I also don’t believe that if a person chooses to follow Christ, that this choice can be equated to ‘works.’ When the Bible speaks of good works, or doing good deeds, it is speaking of charity, love, generosity, kindness, etc. Actual acts carried out by the human body. Prayer too falls in this category, as it already stipulates that God is Lord, that God has the authority and power to answer prayer. What other circumstance is there where a choice itself is considered a good deed? I choose to help the poor but surely it is the act of helping the poor is the actual good deed. As well, if I decide in all honesty to help the poor, but then I don’t, then there is no good deed.

Paul states that we are not saved by our works because that would lead us to boast. I gave more money to that charity, therefore I am a better Christian, for example. Yet if I am broken, coming to God maybe even as a last resort, then it is not an act I am boasting of. I may boast of it after the fact but that would be boasting of God, which we are called to do. We rejoice in God because we are saved.

In the end I must admit to agree with pretty much everything else Sproul says about theology. He is brilliant. I also want to make clear that God is completely empowered to do as Sproul states. God could choose for us and have us be what God wants us to be. I believe I see something more in scripture, namely free will and love for all people. I think it’s great that God knows the future and yet lets us choose, knows yet lets us have the consequences we seek. This is the most loving that God could do.