Hello,
I was asked recently to start a thread on the topic of corporate election. The intention here is to explain what corporate election is and how it differs from the common concept of individual election, and why I believe corporate election is a much better ‘fit’ to scripture than individual election.
To me, it was one of those ‘eureka’ moments when I first grasped the concept of corporate election and how it applies to the church. This concept aided my understanding of so many connected topics like faith, salvation, eternal security, and falling away (apostasy). I can only hope this brief explanation will help some others.
I’m going to lay out two simple examples which illustrate the difference between corporate and individual election. I have discussed this topic (and seen it discussed) many times before, and my experience has been that lots of people have never really thought about ‘election’ in this way, and many others simply can’t bring themselves to think this way. And some of the latter refuse to acknowledge that there is any real difference between the two modes of election. (And for those who refuse to acknowledge the difference between corporate and individual election, you can voice your disagreements all you want, and someone might engage your arguments, but I’ll not engage them.)
First, let’s start with a biblical example of corporate election, and then I will try to build a hypothetical example through which I will hopefully illustrate how the wording in places like Ephesians 1 can be understood from a corporate perspective (and how they can be misunderstood by calvinists).
The biblical example is from Judges 7. If you quickly read the first 7 verses, you see how God chose the men who would go with Gideon into battle. Now God could have picked the men by any means – including picking them individually if He had wanted – but the example here is of a corporate choice. God chose a group to go with Gideon. This illustrates the fundamental difference between choosing persons individually, and choosing persons corporately. In this situation, as far as we can tell, God did not make or force any individual to drink one way as opposed to another, but the fact remains that God did choose (in a corporate sense) who would go into battle and who would not. I really hope this real-world, biblical example makes it clear how a corporate election process can work, and how it is distinct and different from an individual election process.
So on to my hypothetical example. Let's say a businessman comes to town and starts a business - like a department store. One of his first needs is employees. Now there are perhaps two ways the owner can fill the positions – he could bring in existing employees or he could hire new people. Let’s go with new hires; so the want-ads go out, and some people respond while others don’t, and of the ones who respond, the owner hires all who accept his terms of employment. Then some time later, while the owner is away, he sends in one of his top managers who comes in and says to an assembly of the employees, “You were chosen by the owner to receive bonuses and gifts, and he chose you for this before this store was even built and before you were ever hired!” In such a setting, no one would ever misconstrue the manager’s words as meaning that the owner had somehow chosen who would be an employee and who would not before the store was ever built, but rather people would rightly understand the manager to be saying that the owner had chosen to give bonuses and gifts to the store employees – whoever they might be – and that the owner had made this choice before the store had been built and before a single employee had been hired.
The reason for this example is that it should be pretty obvious that the manager did not say that the owner chose the individual employees in the far-distant past, but I will now try to point out how the manager’s words could have been misconstrued within the story by some employees (which is what I claim happens with many Christians when they read places like Ephesians 1). Let’s say some of the employees, for whatever reason, already believed (or wanted to believe) that the owner chose them in the far-distant past to be employees – even far before the store was even built. Now when these certain employees heard the words, “…he chose you for this before this store was even built…”, they immediately thought to themselves that the manager is speaking of the owner’s choice of them individually in the far-distant past – in other words, they read into these words their own preconceived notion of how the owner chose them individually in the far-distant past; but let’s be clear, the manager never actually had that meaning in mind.
It is this kind of misconstruing that I claim is going on when many people read passages like Ephesians 1. They read words like the following from verse 4, “…He [the Father] hath chosen us in Him [Christ] before the foundation of the world…”, and they read into them that God chose individuals in the far-distant past. I claim that people get individual election out of such passages because they come into such passages with that notion already firmly in mind, but the passage itself does not convey, and was not meant to convey, such a notion.
If one reads the Book of Ephesians as a whole, I think one should recognize that perhaps the single, biggest theme is the “mystery” which Paul speaks of in chapters 1, 3, and 5. Here is how he puts it in Ephesians 5:32, “This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.” The mystery of which he speaks concerns Christ and His relationship to the church. Now, for whatever reason, many people read Ephesians 1 and don’t realize that Paul is speaking of this same “mystery” – but they are more than willing to read into that chapter individual election in various places – but Paul never says anything of the sort. So, I believe, to be consistent with his “mystery” topic, when he says things like, “…He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world…”, Paul is not describing or alluding to election of individuals to salvation when he says “us”, but rather he is speaking of the election of the church – the church has been elected and chosen “in Him”. “…He [the Father] hath chosen us [the church] in Him [Christ] before the foundation of the world…”
In chapter 5 Paul compares the relationship of Jesus and the church to the relationship between a husband and his wife, so to me, one of the clear implications is that as a husband by relationship shares all he has with all his wife, so too does Jesus share what is His with His bride - the church - and a part of what He shares is His election. Jesus is the Elect One – chosen by the Father as His Elect One before time began. (See Isaiah 42:1 and Luke 9:35.) So I kind of think of it as two figures drawn side-by-side; one is a stick figure of Jesus, the other is an outline of a woman – His bride. The stick figure represents one person - Jesus; the outline figure represents one body – the bride.
So how did a corporate understanding of election help me in other areas? Well, for starters, the various warning on the individual level to remain faithful and persevere make no sense at all if one believes in individual election. The bride is elect and chosen by God; I then make a choice to join the elect body, and I understand the very real consequences for failing to remain in that elect body.
The bottom line (I am trying to end this post here) is that the notion of individual election to salvation that so many believe in is actually read into many texts rather than being drawn from them. If you go in with that line of thought, you may think you see it confirmed in many places, when it is actually not there, and on top of that, you now will have issues with passages which speak of warnings to the individual. It is hard for the individual to be responsible for their standing before God if God is actually the one who decides who stands and who does not. Okay, I’ve opened the door on this subject, hopefully it will prove beneficial to some.
I was asked recently to start a thread on the topic of corporate election. The intention here is to explain what corporate election is and how it differs from the common concept of individual election, and why I believe corporate election is a much better ‘fit’ to scripture than individual election.
To me, it was one of those ‘eureka’ moments when I first grasped the concept of corporate election and how it applies to the church. This concept aided my understanding of so many connected topics like faith, salvation, eternal security, and falling away (apostasy). I can only hope this brief explanation will help some others.
I’m going to lay out two simple examples which illustrate the difference between corporate and individual election. I have discussed this topic (and seen it discussed) many times before, and my experience has been that lots of people have never really thought about ‘election’ in this way, and many others simply can’t bring themselves to think this way. And some of the latter refuse to acknowledge that there is any real difference between the two modes of election. (And for those who refuse to acknowledge the difference between corporate and individual election, you can voice your disagreements all you want, and someone might engage your arguments, but I’ll not engage them.)
First, let’s start with a biblical example of corporate election, and then I will try to build a hypothetical example through which I will hopefully illustrate how the wording in places like Ephesians 1 can be understood from a corporate perspective (and how they can be misunderstood by calvinists).
The biblical example is from Judges 7. If you quickly read the first 7 verses, you see how God chose the men who would go with Gideon into battle. Now God could have picked the men by any means – including picking them individually if He had wanted – but the example here is of a corporate choice. God chose a group to go with Gideon. This illustrates the fundamental difference between choosing persons individually, and choosing persons corporately. In this situation, as far as we can tell, God did not make or force any individual to drink one way as opposed to another, but the fact remains that God did choose (in a corporate sense) who would go into battle and who would not. I really hope this real-world, biblical example makes it clear how a corporate election process can work, and how it is distinct and different from an individual election process.
So on to my hypothetical example. Let's say a businessman comes to town and starts a business - like a department store. One of his first needs is employees. Now there are perhaps two ways the owner can fill the positions – he could bring in existing employees or he could hire new people. Let’s go with new hires; so the want-ads go out, and some people respond while others don’t, and of the ones who respond, the owner hires all who accept his terms of employment. Then some time later, while the owner is away, he sends in one of his top managers who comes in and says to an assembly of the employees, “You were chosen by the owner to receive bonuses and gifts, and he chose you for this before this store was even built and before you were ever hired!” In such a setting, no one would ever misconstrue the manager’s words as meaning that the owner had somehow chosen who would be an employee and who would not before the store was ever built, but rather people would rightly understand the manager to be saying that the owner had chosen to give bonuses and gifts to the store employees – whoever they might be – and that the owner had made this choice before the store had been built and before a single employee had been hired.
The reason for this example is that it should be pretty obvious that the manager did not say that the owner chose the individual employees in the far-distant past, but I will now try to point out how the manager’s words could have been misconstrued within the story by some employees (which is what I claim happens with many Christians when they read places like Ephesians 1). Let’s say some of the employees, for whatever reason, already believed (or wanted to believe) that the owner chose them in the far-distant past to be employees – even far before the store was even built. Now when these certain employees heard the words, “…he chose you for this before this store was even built…”, they immediately thought to themselves that the manager is speaking of the owner’s choice of them individually in the far-distant past – in other words, they read into these words their own preconceived notion of how the owner chose them individually in the far-distant past; but let’s be clear, the manager never actually had that meaning in mind.
It is this kind of misconstruing that I claim is going on when many people read passages like Ephesians 1. They read words like the following from verse 4, “…He [the Father] hath chosen us in Him [Christ] before the foundation of the world…”, and they read into them that God chose individuals in the far-distant past. I claim that people get individual election out of such passages because they come into such passages with that notion already firmly in mind, but the passage itself does not convey, and was not meant to convey, such a notion.
If one reads the Book of Ephesians as a whole, I think one should recognize that perhaps the single, biggest theme is the “mystery” which Paul speaks of in chapters 1, 3, and 5. Here is how he puts it in Ephesians 5:32, “This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.” The mystery of which he speaks concerns Christ and His relationship to the church. Now, for whatever reason, many people read Ephesians 1 and don’t realize that Paul is speaking of this same “mystery” – but they are more than willing to read into that chapter individual election in various places – but Paul never says anything of the sort. So, I believe, to be consistent with his “mystery” topic, when he says things like, “…He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world…”, Paul is not describing or alluding to election of individuals to salvation when he says “us”, but rather he is speaking of the election of the church – the church has been elected and chosen “in Him”. “…He [the Father] hath chosen us [the church] in Him [Christ] before the foundation of the world…”
In chapter 5 Paul compares the relationship of Jesus and the church to the relationship between a husband and his wife, so to me, one of the clear implications is that as a husband by relationship shares all he has with all his wife, so too does Jesus share what is His with His bride - the church - and a part of what He shares is His election. Jesus is the Elect One – chosen by the Father as His Elect One before time began. (See Isaiah 42:1 and Luke 9:35.) So I kind of think of it as two figures drawn side-by-side; one is a stick figure of Jesus, the other is an outline of a woman – His bride. The stick figure represents one person - Jesus; the outline figure represents one body – the bride.
So how did a corporate understanding of election help me in other areas? Well, for starters, the various warning on the individual level to remain faithful and persevere make no sense at all if one believes in individual election. The bride is elect and chosen by God; I then make a choice to join the elect body, and I understand the very real consequences for failing to remain in that elect body.
The bottom line (I am trying to end this post here) is that the notion of individual election to salvation that so many believe in is actually read into many texts rather than being drawn from them. If you go in with that line of thought, you may think you see it confirmed in many places, when it is actually not there, and on top of that, you now will have issues with passages which speak of warnings to the individual. It is hard for the individual to be responsible for their standing before God if God is actually the one who decides who stands and who does not. Okay, I’ve opened the door on this subject, hopefully it will prove beneficial to some.
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