***How do we know who is the elect and the non-elect. If the elect had a big “X” tatooed on their forehead it would be easy.***
Hmm. You know what to do since God micromanages every move and thought of your elect life, yet you don’t know if someone else is elect. Is this program missing a few subroutines?
Look, it’s not a great step. The Reformed elect say that they know that they are of the elect. You preach the Gospel to people who do not have that surety inside. You say that if you are of the elect, then you know it. They don’t know it. Therefore they are of the non elect. Therefore they may come to the conclusion that you are taunting them with eternal rewards that they cannot attain.
A side question: are there any Reformed who believe that they are of the non elect? Why?
***I used “grace” not in a salvation sense but in a general sense. God would be rightful and just to strike us all down. Instead He allows us to live our lives and provides for even those who would profane His Holiness.***
What does that have to do with preaching the Gospel to the non elect?
***For a more thorough reading may I suggest the Westminster Confession. It is an excellent document complete with refereneces.***
It is a most excellent document and I am indebted to the good Dr. E. for bringing it to my attention repeatedly. I have read it through many times and read some studies on it. It certainly ranks with anything written by Nestorius, Arius or any of the Gnostics. My appreciation to those who are not embarrassed to use a government bureaucratic panel, commission, bought, paid for, and ratified by the Parliament of England.
***BTW-I’ve recently discovered that it is entirely possible one of my very distance relatives was a great Reformer, a converted Jesuit priest who was a theological doctor at one of the Catholic schools. During the Reformation the Catholics sought to kill him when he converted and preached against the Catholic Church. Wanting to reform the Church must run in the family.***
You must come from a line that contained Roger Bannister.
It is also the encyclopedia of Pharisaical Christianity.
No no, you may be mixing "elect" with the common usage of "saved". No one has to know he is elect to be an elect. I was elect before I was even a Christian, so I obviously didn't know it then. The elect are chosen from the foundations and set in stone. Only during life, at a point of God's choosing, do they even have a chance to know it. You, meaning you you, could very well be elect and never "know" it during your life because you choose to follow a particular Christian faith. That doesn't get you kicked out, since you were chosen from the foundations.
Now, "saved" is a little more complex. Obviously all of the elect are saved, but in the common usage of saved, many people point to the time of first true belief. This is perfectly good, as long as it is understood in context. So, with this premise it "could" be said that I preach to an elect who isn't (yet) "saved". At that time, neither of us knows whether that person is elect or saved. All the elect are (or will be in time) saved and all the saved are elect. A main difference is in the common usage of the terms. Another difference is that the elect are all the people the Father gave to Christ, and the saved are the same people that Christ saved. Since Christ loses NONE of those the Father gave Him, the lists wind up being the same.