I’ve been reading a series by a well known pastor whom I respect very much. But on the issue of election I disagree with him. He says that we can’t say that God foreknew who would choose Him and then elected people according to that foreknowledge because if that were true then God can’t be sovereign. He also says that if God chose some for heaven and lets others go to hell by not choosing them, then He is right because He is God, and His ways are higher than our ways. We are not to question Him– you know, the clay talking back to the potter. I feel like it makes God into an unfair tyrant and humans into some type of pawns in a game, basically worthless. Why would God even create the human race since He would be condemning some to hell without them ever having a choice?
I have never heard an argument in favor of election by someone who doesn’t believe he’s one of the elect. The simple fact is that if God did not grant us free will then Matt. 7:7-8 (ask, seek and knock), John 3:16 (whosoever believes) and a whole bunch of other verses can’t be true. In my opinion, this doctrine also makes the Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-19) into a “make work” project of no real value to the Kingdom.
The very first transaction between God and man in the Bible center’s around man exercising his own will (Genesis 3). So does the second one (Genesis 4). It’s also interesting that those who teach election can’t refute Romans 8:29-30 (foreknowledge) so they just deny it.