impleri

“Salvation” needs to be though of as a 2-step process.  Why?  If it is a single-step process, then it would have to be God’s choice; there is too much evidence in the Bible to deny this.  This excludes what is typically called Arminianism.  However, that would also mean that, no matter how random God’s choosing was, it was still preferential.  Furthermore, there is too much evidence in the Bible to suggest that God acted for all mankind, all flesh, to all the ends of the earth.  This leaves two options: (1) universalism as most people see it (that is, God eventually “saves” everyone), or (2) something else.  We’ve already excluded what can be called predestination (which most people equate with Calvinism, but that is another debate).  Lastly, we can exclude Pelagianism because (again) there is too much evidence which suggests that we humans are not free in and of ourselves to choose God.

Now that I’ve touched every major theological stance on the matter, it is time to turn to the two-step process I believe fits what we read in the Bible.  All I want to do here is describe it briefly in process.  First, man has chosen corruption (we see this in Genesis with the story of Adam and Eve; it is echoed in Romans and throughout the NT).  This is followed directly by the Cross where God “saves” all of mankind, universally.  We cannot simply say that this action is only effective on some of mankind (as if God was using a pen to reveal what was written with disappearing ink).  The Bible is clear that this action is for the whole world, all of sin, all flesh, everything.  However, the Bible is also clear that not all of mankind ends up on the “saved” team.  Hence, the next step: mankind must accept this gift.  There is much difficulty if one wants to add in here that God chose all who do accept this (or something similar).  This is because it would bring us back to the same difficulty above if God chooses some for salvation: it doesn’t fit with what we have in the Bible nor does it reflect an image of God as being impartial.  One can add in here that God somehow “knew” this, but it cannot affect God’s actions (or again we get into the same sticky situation).  As a final result, we have the Great Commission: Christ calling all disciples of all time to spread the good news to all ends of the earth, to all peoples.  Perhaps one could also add into here that if one truly hears the good news, it is too appealing to reject, but I’m not sure how this properly fits.

That’s it.  There’s no need to explain away the passages in the Bible that speak of God saving all mankind, passages of not all mankind being saved, nor passages of mankind choosing God.  This is still a work in progress and will need some tweaking.  If any reader sees a possible flaw in the logic or a possibly difficulty with a passage in the Bible, please join in the discussion.