“I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.” John 17:9
Does Jesus Christ love the entire population of the world? Did He die for the entire population of the world? Is there really such a thing as election which excludes a large section of the world population? In today’s churches pastors preach that all have the opportunity to be saved; it is just a matter of making a decision, choosing, praying a prayer, being baptized, joining a particular church, or etc, etc, etc. They would demonize the doctrine of election as something horrible on God’s part if it were true. They whip their congregations into a hatred frenzy over the teaching and then tell their people to do things that they cannot do, like making a choice to allow Christ into their hearts, or turn over a new leaf. But I must ask where are those terms used in the bible? In all the accounts of salvation, no where are these commands ever quoted. Why not? Because they are man made terms and are useless. The truth is no one has an opportunity to do any of these things, because salvation is not of man, it is of God, Who gives salvation to whom He choose and not to any who would choose Him. The short answer to our question “is there exclusion with God” the answer is yes! Yes because without election not one single person would have ever been saved. Romans 3:11 “There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.” They will not seek Him because they neither understand Him nor want Him. They want to be religious because they believe they have something, it makes them feel good, or it makes them think they have something they neither want nor have. People simply want to feel good, they want to feel like they have made a difference in their life and have something special because they are good people, but the truth is they have neither. There is an exclusion with God, He hated Esau, He chose Judas Iscariot to be a devil, and without election all souls would have went to hell. God chooses a lot more than you think He does and He has chosen and adopted His children to be His and also delivering them. God loves the elect and hates the rest of the population. His judgments will be great upon them, and in eternal hell fire will they suffer. The truth is election is real and exclusive and those that believe it to be a lie are in danger of eternal suffering. How could God leave salvation up to man, if man will never come to Him for salvation? John said in John 6:44 “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him…” and in Romans 8:14 God said “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” Then I must ask who can make a decision for Christ? Do all have the opportunity to be saved? If you look up the word draw in John 6:44 it means “to drag” because we will never come on our own. We see it in Jeremiah 31:3 “The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.” We also see it used in John 12:32 “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” Where we must exclude the word “men” because it was added by the translation and is not part of the original text. It is additions like this which confuse the weak. I will conclude with this thought. If you are one who thinks election is of the devil then simply study it. Read the scriptures it is used in and think about them. Just because election is exclusive does not make it of the devil, it makes it Gods love toward them who otherwise would have never repented from sin, and that makes it wonderful!
