I agree that no one knows who is elect in this scheme and that would include the Calvinist who says he is. There is not a passage in scripture that one can go to and find God personalizing election for a single one of you. Everything is subjective and election is always in a corprate context, except in the case of Jesus Christ. Ask a Calvinist how he knows he is elect and he will not quote God saying he is but will begin to present evidence of good works to validate his election. This will not cut it in the judgment.
Why would a man show up at the judgment claiming he is elect and he did not even have faith, the only principle that God requires of man, and expect to be accepted of God? Especially since God has said words like these, "Jer 17:9 The heart [is] deceitful above all [things], and desperately wicked: who can know it?" And "Pr 20:6 Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness: but a faithful man who can find?"
You say that doctrine of election promotes grace and I say it does not. It promotes limited atonement! Grace is the "giving" of God, it is not the withholding of God. How can the word "limited" even be used in the context of a sovereign God?
Grace is the operative principle of God's divine dealing with mankind in the present age we are living in at this time. It is grace because from Pentecost in Acts 2, God has poured out his Spirit on mankind and offered him as a "gift" to all who would receive him in the name of Jesus Christ. This is divine giving! It is especially "grace" for the gentiles seeing as how God had said this about them in time past! Eph 2:11 Wherefore remember, that ye [being] in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; 12 That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: 13 But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
The Spirit was promised to Jews in a covenant promise, but not to gentiles. Eze 11:19 And I will give them (Israel) one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh:
Therefore, the giving of the Spirit to the gentiles beginning in Acts 10 to the present day is an act of pure grace by God seeing as he had made no promise to us that he was obliged to keep. The historical book of Acts reflects this truth as well. In the first 10 chapters the word "grace" is mentioned once when Peter was the preacher and the Jews were the focus of his evangelistic efforts but in the rest of the book, "grace" is mentioned 9 (the number for fruitbearing) times when the focus was on the gentiles and Paul was the preacher of record.
Notice how this is expressed in Ephesians, the epistle that explains the church!
Eph 2:1 And you (gentiles) [hath he quickened], who were dead in trespasses and sins; 2 Wherein in time past ye (gentiles) walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together (Jews who were saved first and gentiles) with Christ, (by grace ye (gentiles) are saved)
Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye (gentiles) saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the gift of God:
One needs to ask why Paul would have spoken as if to say that it is the gentiles that are saved by grace through faith like in this statement: 5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved). He uses the pronoun "us together" and then singles out the gentiles as being saved by grace. Was paul saved by grace? Yes, but the epistle is explaining the inclusion of the gentiles and on what godly principle they were included. This is the revelation of the "mystery" that both groups were put together in one body and accepted by God IN THAT BODY.
Grace, Holy Ghost, salvation, THE gift of God, and eternal life are all synonyms and mean the same thing in the NT.
I could continue and offer even stronger proof but you are not predisposed to allow anything to challenge your presuppositions. I can ask if you would consider that Calvinism is a systematic error and is not a right division of scripture.
