The chapter is divided into five parts; Are the Elect and Reprobate in Any Way Related Now?, Could They Have Been Reversed?, Are There More Elect or Reprobate?, Equal Ultimacy, and Conclusion.
This chapter is interesting in two respects. First, the author acknowledges that the chapter deals with less essential questions. Next, the author raises issues I had not contemplated in my almost 50 years of pastoral ministry.
I am reminded of a pastor who once told me of the deterioration of his relationship with the pastor of his youth when, as a young adult, he asked, “What is election?” He said his pastor responded, “I don’t want to talk about it,” and their relationship immediately began to cool and has never recovered. That is not unlike my relationship with my first pastor, who never responded directly to a question about the meaning of a Bible text or doctrinal topic.
I just finished breakfast with a Church member who indicated that his previous Church experience convinced him heartfelt questions were not welcomed nor encouraged. I asked if he felt that way now, and he said, “No.”
Pastor, even if you do not ponder such issues as are raised by this author, it may very well be that your Church members consider these issues. My recommendation is that you prepare yourself to address such matters.
Are the Elect and Reprobate in Any Way Related Now? Seven paragraphs. “The elect are the family of God. The reprobate are the family of the Devil (John 8:44) … Jacob and Esau were twins; one was elect, and one was reprobate. The same was true with Abel and Cain, Isaac and Ishmael, Solomon and Absalom, and other brothers. God was not pleased to put the elect in separate biological families from the reprobate.” “If there has been no ‘elect race,’ there has also been no reprobate race. The curse on Canaan (Genesis 9:25) was not placed on Africans but on Canaanites. But even so, there were some Canaanites such as Rahab and Uriah that proved their election by faith in the one true God. So, since God has mingled the elect in all races, we should preach the gospel to all people everywhere (Matthew 28:19 – 20; Mark 16:15; Luke 24:47; Acts 1:8).”
Could They Have Been Reversed? Six paragraphs. “God chose some, not all. Why?
Are There More Elect or Reprobate? Twelve paragraphs. Charles Hodge, William G. T. Shedd, Robert Lewis Dabney, J. C. Ryle, B. B. Warfield, John Calvin, Johann Heinrich Heidegger, John Gill, Thomas Doolittle, Jeremiah Burroughs, and the 2nd Helvetic Confession are referred to.
Equal Ultimacy. Six paragraphs. Gordon Clark, Cornelius Van Til, Alvin Baker, G. C. Berkouwer, D. A. Carson, Klaas Dijk, Herman Hoeksema, John Gill, Steve Lawson, and the Talmud referred to.
Conclusion. “Jacob
and Esau were types of the elect and the non-elect. They were eventually
reconciled (Genesis 33:1–16). But the elect and reprobate will never be
reconciled in eternity, any more than heaven and hell will be one. But they
will both continue forever to display the one ultimate glory of God.”
