In spite of claims (and thoughts) to the contrary, Jesus Christ came and died, and was buried, and resurrected for all creation (not just “Christians”). The word “Christian” was used in the negative sense (originally) to describe those who belonged to “The Way of Christ.” It was not an end-result of a conversion, but a categorical description of a people; a way of life. “Christians” described “Those belonging to Christ;” or better yet, “Those owned by Christ.” The term was intended by the hecklers to alienate those of The Way from those of the norm. But Christ, Himself, never intended to alienate anyone (nor did he intend to be normal). In fact, He intended quite the opposite.

The work of Christ (in the past, as well as the present) benefits all creation, not simply the church. The Church is the expression of Christ on earth. Both of these statements being true, then, all creation generally and all humanity in particular is the Church. Because Jesus was the Last Adam – the one to rectify the deficiency of the First Adam and his posterity (Rom. 5:14; 1Cor. 15:22, 45) – His cross and subsequent resurrection affects all humanity. Not only that, but it also affects all creation because of the place humanity was given in creation (Gen. 1:26-28). In short, Christ died (and was resurrected) for “All,” not only for some.

Obviously, however, “all” do not express Christ (whether within or without the church). Yet, this does not change the fact of the reality. What Jesus has done, with His death and resurrection, is to activate something that had been dormant in humanity since the Fall of Adam. Christ’s act did not institute an imposition of conversion, but it gave life to something that was already there; something in which we were created. It awakened the image of God in humanity. It resuscitated the Mission of God in creation, even if “all” humanity does not realize it. It transformed…

God has a mission. The mission of God has a Church. God’s mission forms the church (not the other way around). The mission of God is not concerned with conversion, but transformation. When the church has a mission it always entails a conversion (the conversion from any certain culture to a “Christian Culture;” i.e. the norm). But when the Church is empowered by the mission of God it is the expression of Christ – it is the embodiment of the death and resurrection; it is the express image of God in the resurrected life of Christ, again, in human form. Conversion is a form of alienation (despite the claims to the contrary). Transformation is the mission of God through the church (from the beginning of humanity) in community.

And what does the Mission of God in the church communicate? It communicates God’s love in the face of Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. It dares to risk, necessarily involved in that love. It communicates the intent for creation generally and humanity in particular to love out of the love of transformation. In a word, the mission of God is “love” – a love that transforms brokenness and alienation into healing and wholeness.

As David is to Goliath, so the faith of Christ is to counterfeit religion. Goliath, a giant among humanity; a huge bronze helmet, heavy bronze armor, a powerful iron spear, and a shield carried by others. Intimidation, insults, and bully tactics are his strength. David, just a young shepherd; the memory and experience of God’s grace; without the weight of human vanity, a staff, a sling and a stone. Belief in who God says He is empowers him. Goliath fights with the fury of humanity; David, the power of heavenly forces (read 1Sam.17:1-49).

The church, in its religious form, is driven by the might of human desire; measured by the size of its head-gear, the weight of its defense mechanisms, the vulgar display of its judgment, and the numbers enslaved by its own fear. Yet, in the faith of Christ, the Church is the mission of God’s grace; expressing the love of God to humanity, living in and out of the story of a tree (the staff), a purpose (the sling) and a grave (the stone), and is immeasurable by human means.

Religion comes in many forms, but it is always motivated by the human will. The faith of Christ is a singular force, and it is always inspired and expressed by the Spirit of God. Religion is transference – the vanity of humanity onto God. The faith of Christ is transformation – the character of God into humanity. Religion dictates; faith leads. Religion enables admirers; faith equips followers. Religion produces adherents to itself; faith reproduces disciples of Christ. Religion envelopes; faith pushes the envelope. Religion is bondage to human sin. Faith is freedom from it. Fallen humanity is on display in religion, where redeemed humanity is seen through faith.

Goliath, true to form, was agitating David again as religious leaders hurled insults at Jesus at Golgotha. Religion has its own ideas of what God should be and what God should do. It donned its armor, helmet and shield, and brandished its spear as the leaders demanded that Jesus come down off the cross (if He really was the Rescuer of humanity). Jesus meets the onslaught armed with only faith – Faith in who God says that God is; faith that the agony of the cross is God’s plan and purpose; faith that generated life – the faith of Christ that slays the giant.

David and Goliath meet again, today, as the church battles within itself – the faith of Christ Vs. religion. Goliath is running his mouth. David is collecting stones. Humanity is encamped around the battlefield. Goliath plays the fool for the crowd. David dances with God. Religion assumes outer appearance. Faith believes inner identity. Religion offers ultimatums. Faith, eternity…

Humanity has been designed to search for things. There is a gnawing, nagging inside of us that wants to find the answer and solve the problem or just figure out the issue. If the desire gets perverted it becomes broken. This longing to know has been placed there by God to draw us to Himself. Our souls are pulling us towards God with their cravings and longings that will not be satisfied by anything less than the Eternal One. Our souls know God, and they persistently desire that which is unattainable or not within immediate reach, though we are not always aware of the ache. Our souls were designed to be a beacon that draws us back to the Father.

We must choose to participate in God’s worldview or, by default, we choose to participate in the lie. Humans are driven to be; and it’s always big. We pursue success and achievement. We dream and gravitate towards greatness. We have a mission, a purpose, and a destiny (not simply some feel good task, destiny points to a destination, and the only one that matters is back to the heart of God). It is written into our DNA to become. Part of “being” is struggling to “become” and this struggle is constant. We can endure so much when we are convinced that there is a purpose to our struggle. Increases in struggles usually indicate a change, while decreases indicate to settle in. Whatever you choose to become is what you begin to call others to. Becoming is an enemy of the status quo.

The fear of rejection haunts us as we try to live in ways that gain the acceptance of the status quo. We have to learn to accept God’s choice of us in eternity. His choice is not based on how much He likes who we are or how good we are. His choice is based solely on His worldview. Purpose drives design. We have been chosen according to what God already knew. God chose you in eternity and designed you for this moment. The enemy of your identity will have you to believe that you are rejected and of no value, when in essence you are the very opposite. It is the work of the Holy Spirit, and the completed work of Jesus Christ that re-aligns you with God’s eternal choice. We were created by God as solutions to problems; answers to prayers. He made us to engage and get involved in something that is both personal and communal. Your soul is being pulled forward to a God who has chosen you.

We are capable of far more than we think. This is not some irrational “you can become whatever you dream” kind of thinking. But dreams fuel our desire to “become,” and the pursuit of dreams requires faith. If it takes faith to please God, then it must be of God’s primary ideal to transfigure faith in us to an actual reality upon which he can build his kingdom, and not just some philosophical nuance without a concrete foundation. As we live our dreams we become proof of God. Remember that the nature of faith is to make its object real.  And faith is never developed in isolation. It is developed in community. In order to fully “become” we must fully engage in the lives of those God places around us, because He has determined that this is the best environment for our development. God uses faith to propel us forward.

The aim of humanity (whether we know it and acknowledge it or not) is to do God’s will, not to be useful. And so, by faith we choose His will over our own desire to be accepted, loved, praised, supported, and valued. We think our works bring that value, but that value is already present if we would just seek to know the One in whom that value exists. The soul longs for what only God can accomplish through us, what He chooses to do with us, and what He loves to do for us. As life is happening we must remain poised by truth that settles and establishes, instead of poisoned by lies that stir our emotions and cloud our thinking. Our souls know that God is faithful. Our souls know that God has chosen us. Our souls know that we are designed for more than the life we have been living. We were made to become. And so we search. We search for the evidence of His faithfulness. We look for expressions of His love and we are dying to know that He has chosen us, because we know that there is more.

*Taken from Searching for Something More, by Dante Poole

Crisis, not unlike the one in which the church finds itself today, is either a definitive ending or an opportunistic beginning. We can hold our eyes tightly shut, ignoring and denying that a crisis is at hand, and disappear ignorantly into history. Or we can open our eyes widely, searching curiously (but not frantically) for the opportunity that God has placed before us, and shift powerfully into a newly designed future. Responding to crisis is not simply about whether someone is a pessimist or an optimist, it is more about whether someone is unimaginably certain or passionately curious. This is about the difference in a response based in the status-quo or one driven by innovation.

Albert Einstein once commented, “I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.” It is curiosity which drives innovation, and innovation is born in opportunity. Crisis is an opportunity of innovation by the curious. Innovation occurs in places that were once innovated, but are now stagnate. Curiosity kills the status-quo of stagnation.

Innovation does not reinvent the wheel, but redefines it. Innovation finds its imagination in curiosity. Where certainty says, “This is all the wheel is and does,” curiosity asks, “But what else can it do? What else can I do with it? What else could it be? What else could be like it? How could it do it differently?” Curiosity thrives in opportunities. Opportunities are birthed in crisis.

Curiosity dreams of people coming into community because they are part of a cause. Community looking for a cause has a certain end-result of status-quo (which causes crisis). God has always been at work in the needs of the people. The cause is to be the work of God in those needs – His Vision of the Church; a community derived from the needs of the people. Curiously we ask, “What does this look like? How can we be God’s meeting of the needs – the expression of Christ on earth?” Either opportunity or desperation will spring out of need. One is an expression of Christ; the other, an ignorance of Him.

If “necessity is the mother of invention,” then crisis necessitates innovation. The Vision of God is certain. Leadership in the Vision, however, is out of curiosity. Curiosity in leadership equips innovation in others. Crisis has forced leaders to seek God and God’s Vision. God and God’s Vision empowers leaders to be curious about how God is innovating opportunities in the crisis.

God is already at work in mission to his lost world. Will leadership maintain its management of status-quo in a desperate, definitive ending? Or will it take the opportunity of crisis to be curious and wonder the possibilities; giving permission for people to dream of innovations, imagine new definitions, and passionately walk with their God in His Vision for the Church?

Because of the paradigm shift, individuals can find themselves in one of four fundamental categories concerning new paradigm thought [this is inclusive of individuals everywhere, whether in the church or without]:

1) I Don’t Know that I Know – I only need to learn how to think about what I know
2) I Know that I Know – I only need a means to live out of what I know
3) I Know that I Don’t Know – I need to learn from an outside source what I don’t know
4) I Don’t Know that I Don’t Know – I do not see a need to learn to think differently

1) If we don’t know that we know how to think in the new paradigm, then we only need someone (or something) to affirm that which is seated deeply in our memory. We simply need someone to remind us of what we know but don’t realize that we know. Perhaps we find ourselves thinking differently than the accepted norm, but we just thought there was something wrong with us.

2) If we know that we know how to think in the new paradigm, then we are probably living it out in opposition (or at least, in competition) and in spite of the dominate “system.” The thinking of the new paradigm and its shifting comes natural to us; it is the only way we know how to think and live. Normally we find ourselves as the outcasts if we are operating in the system, or many of us have simply abandoned the system in search of an alternative avenue to exercise our thoughts. We find ourselves thinking differently than the norm, but we know that there is nothing wrong with our thinking.

3) If we know that we don’t know how to think in the new paradigm, then we must first attempt to learn that which we don’t know. Usually, if we don’t already know (either knowing we know or not knowing that we know), however, we will never know. Therefore, realizing that we don’t know how to think in the new paradigm and its shifting we must equip others who do know to live and move in their knowing. Because we don’t know doesn’t make us useless, but extremely useful. We supply cover and support – we are a connecting bridge from the old – for the new thinking. We are a necessity in the wholeness of humanity.

4) However, if we don’t know that we don’t know how to think in the new paradigm, then we are (as a rule) in an impossible predicament. We fight to maintain the old system with its old ways of thinking and doing things; not realizing that we are actually fighting against God and His constant movement in the cosmos. Not realizing that we don’t know that God is doing a new thing, we see anyone who thinks differently as a threat, an outsider, and/or a trouble-maker. And since we don’t know God is doing a new thing we don’t know that we are maintaining an organization, and not moving as a part of a living organism. It is a certain fact that we will never know that we don’t know, simply because we don’t recognize that which we don’t realize.

Now, what do we do with these facts? How do we begin to understand the facts of these differences between us? If God is reconciling the cosmos to God’s-self through God’s Son, how do we live with one another, reconciled in these differences?

The church is hemorrhaging humanity from open wounds. Some studies show that over half of the folks under 30 who were raised in the church have left it. Not to mention the same age-group which has been completely unaffected by the church at any point in time in their lives (in a positive sense, anyway). At best, many in the church are attempting to stop the bleeding. While credit should be given for recognizing a problem, points are deducted for applying a Band-Aid to a sucking chest wound. At its worst, others have “circled the wagons,” fortunate enough to have entered before the doors shut, they simply peer out of stained-glass windows at an alien world around them.

Contrary to the faith movement founded by Jesus Christ and carried into humanity, the religion termed “Christianity” (as a rule) is utterly disconnected from the world in which people actually live. Love, by design, has an inherent risk. Yet the church has a tradition of fear, while irrationally claiming to love (which drives out all fear, by definition). Likewise, when Jesus came he brought abundant life with Him. Why, then, is the experience of many within the church empty, hollow, shallow, and ineffectual to their daily lives? In another bit of irony the church has taken upon itself the role of Doctor, all-the-while suffering from internal bleeding itself. The church has no answers to certain questions, so it decided to answer questions that are not even being asked. Again, it claims moral/ethical supremacy while its own adherence to the claim is selective and situational. And another thing, the leadership within the church is hereby called into question. If you can’t or don’t lead me, I will not follow. Incidentally, leading is not synonymous with being a busy-body. Leading does not imply that you are anyone’s conscience but your own. Nor does leading imply that you are the final authoritative word on any given subject. By leading you are an example to imitate as you seek out Christ in your life and living, daily. A leader casts the Vision as it flows out of the mind of Christ. People follow the leader only as far as said leader is casting said vision.

Restructuring, reorganizing, and revitalizing are simple attempts to rebuild, in the hopes of reproducing that which is shattered and broken beyond repair. In this paradigmatic shift in which we find ourselves today, the old is being crushed to dust by the new. While this crushing can be painful, it is not pointless and unproductive. As He did when He broke-in to time and space nearly 2,000 years ago, God is moving the massive plates of change on which we have been standing. As economies, countries, and polities (and the religion called “Christianity”) sway and collapse under their own weight, the faith movement termed “the church” – the Body of Christ – by design, shifts and rolls with the every quake and aftershock. And as He did after the cold, cruel death of His flesh, God resurrected the body making something new and extraordinary. It’s terminal… Let the carcass of the old lie… And watch the Body of the new live.

Our obsession with our own counterfeit religions is a necessary result of humanity being alienated from God. We are built to be in proper relations with God, but being separated from Him our inert knowledge of Him drives us to attempt to reach Him on our own. Upon our failure, we do not abandon our counterfeit religions, we simply compound the confusion by multiplying our converts; we think force-feeding our perverse religious views on an underprivileged humanity is what God demands. The church, not excluded from this insanity, expresses the human condition by parading an impaled icon as the means to reach God. All-the-while, He is just another tool in the proverbial “toolbox” of counterfeit religion.

Counterfeit religion has blinded humanity to such an extent that most aren’t even sure of the identity of the God (god?) for which they are desperately groping. The human condition has so profoundly baffled our perception that some angrily deny that they are making the attempt, ignorantly ignoring God altogether. Our minds have been manipulated to such a degree that many of us even deny that we are religious as we dedicate ourselves to a dearly held belief system, the fabric that holds together an entire group of people (the definition of “religion”). We can try to remold God into a deity of our own fashion, but that is illogical because God (by definition) defines God’s-self. We can try to dismiss God with a passive-aggressive attitude, but that is irrational because one is not angry with a God one doesn’t believe or doesn’t care exists. We can deny it all and disclaim the need or use of any and all religions, but that is self-contradicting (and self-defeating) because a belief system that denies the need and use of belief systems is unintelligible.

Humanity cannot disengage or otherwise subdue its religious nature, it creeps into literally everything that humans attempt to do (or not). It cannot use this counterfeit religion in a positive sense, because (whether we admit it or not) the point of any religion is to reach God, which cannot be done (whether we know it or not). But God has provided an escape from this vicious cycle, not in lists of moral/ethical codes (which would only serve to display God’s-own holiness) and not in a preferred culture (that soon corrupts). God has displayed a means to an end of the alienation, not a tool of counterfeit religion which exasperates it. We have not reached God. God has reached out to us. In our fallen condition, what exactly does our religion counterfeit? Religion (our attempt to reach God) counterfeits Faith (God’s move within humanity). Not some generic play-on-words and not some ironic production of a belief system. But the actual Faith of Christ, the faithfulness of Christ that drove Him to the cross, the very faith that Christ contained in Himself which raised Him in Resurrection Life. It was not an ideology that was impaled, but the reality of God in human form. The icon of religion was killed on the cross, the answer for human counterfeit religions. Alienation from God is ended in Faith. The faithfulness of Christ in us – the Church – ends the necessity of religion in humanity.

The primitive church of the first three centuries practiced Radical Hospitality, and it thrived. The church of the twenty-first century must practice likewise or it will survive unrecognizable, and indistinguishable from any other religious ideology of human concoction. Christendom is no longer relevant, it is a bygone paradigm. The church today must be a living organism, not a lifeless organization. It cannot assume a common culture, but must take for granted the diversity in the mass of humanity and, therefore itself. We must return to the Radical Hospitality of Jesus Christ and the church He brought to life.

“Radical” is from the Latin word radix, meaning “root” (Isaiah 11:10; Rom. 15:12; Rev. 22:16). Today it is describes someone who “advocates violent change; a revolutionary.” But it originally meant “fundamental, or basic.” In chemistry a radical is a group of two or more atoms acting as a single atom. In math a radical is an equation where the root of a number is to be extracted. The root word, in Latin, for “Hospitality” is hospes (where we get the word “hospital”), and it means “good cheer, companionship, and good fellowship.” So, etymologically, we could say that the church is a basic, revolutionary place; a dispensary of holistic healing, where the whole acts as one and Jesus is the single root.

The church that practices Radical Hospitality (John 5:1-9) understands that humanity is hurting and broken; that it’s separated from one another and alienated from God. It realizes that at their core, humans are strangers to healing and wholeness. It gives these strangers a sense that the church really cares about them personally. And it reflects the truth of God’s love toward humanity. A church that practices Radical Hospitality does not simply place an “All Are Welcome” sign in front of the building, have a “covered dish” meal, and stand around waiting for the strangers to darken the doorway of their establishment (which strangers, by-the-way, never appear). The church is the people who, having answered the invitation to experience the transformation of Christ’s healing power, goes out in Christ’s transformation power inviting others to answer and experience the healing; having been reconciled, goes out to carry on the mission of reconciliation (2Cor. 5:18); having been made disciples, goes out and makes disciples (Matt. 28:16-20; Mark 16:14-18; Luke 24:45-49; John 20:21-23; Acts 1:8-11).

Radical Hospitality is not inviting people to be spectators at church, but participants in the church – the Body of Christ. It is not about an ideology that competes with other differing ideologies, but a reality which encounters no competition and is the fount of all truth. It is an invitation into the very heart of God; sharing God’s worldview in creation. While Radical Hospitality cares for those within the church, it is focused on those strangers who are without the church. Radical Hospitality is the church fulfilling its purpose as the image of God; offering the love of God (something people need) – Jesus Christ! It shows humanity that God loves them, that it is of value, that life has meaning and purpose, and that it is not on its own. Radical Hospitality teaches humanity how to love (out of God’s love). And it teaches us that we do not need to be told what we need, but we need to be shown what we need.

Hospitality is to always be Radical. It is always advocating basic revolutionary change. In the words of Edwards Deming, “A system produces what it was designed to produce.” No other results will occur if a change has not occurred in the system. We cannot continue to do things the way they have always been done and expect different results. We must return to the radical beginnings of the “original, basic, and native” church established by Christ. Church must be about a group of “atoms” acting as one single “atom” (Jesus!). Church must be a hospital where people are healed by the Great Physician. Church is to be an organism, rather than an organization, where its Root (Jesus) is extracted from its number (The People).

The notion that anything in the New Testament replaces anything in the Old is quite unintelligible. Likewise, the idea that Jesus left us – the church – with two commandments is a case of missing the point entirely. Matthew 22:37-40 (and Mark 12:29-31) deals with the question of which of the Commandments are the greatest, not which were left for the church to embrace. In fact, if this were about commandments (which it is not), then there would be simply one – Love (John 13:34; 15:12)! God supplies what God demands. To the point, Paul clues us in (Gal. 5:14), which has nothing to do with a commandment and everything to do with a single affection of the heart; not emotional, but purely logical. After a discourse on the irrational and irreligious (not to mention, theologically suicidal) notion of Christians adhering the Laws of Moses – to which he adds a rather graphic conclusion to such nonsense (Gal. 5:12) – Paul declares that the Law is fulfilled in (not replaced by) love.

The subject matter of Jesus’ discourse on this heading is not the commandments, but the love by which they are fulfilled. When God issued the commandments to the Israelites it was, then too, about love. The problem at hand for Israel was the fact that this love was precisely the unconditional and unmerited love of God, which outlet was only found in a shadowy set of commandments, ordinances, sacrifices, and simply mirrored in cultic worship. It was not until the Cross (and Resurrection) of Christ that the outlet for such love became widely accessible to all humanity. In Christ the two fulfill the others. Humanity needs only to live out of God’s perfect love, lavishing it on one another. In fact, this mutual lavishing of God’s perfect love on one another (“loving neighbor”) is the means to “loving God with all your faculties.” To be exact, it is God’s love for us collectively, which we accept individually and pour out corporately, by which we individually and corporately love God, thereby fulfilling all demands of the Law (which is not only written on stone, but on our hearts). There can never be a replacing of commandments (or all logic falls to the ground) and there can hardly be certain Mosaic Laws that are left for the church (which is highly irrational). It is love, however, which fulfills anything “old,” making it “new.”

The reason for the commandments was because of Law – the Law of Love, from the foundation of the earth. The Mosaic Laws were but a reflection of God’s original Laws – God’s worldview; God’s plans and purposes for creation – they are a reflection of who God is. Like the Natural Laws (i.e., for example, gravity) the Law of Love is older than humanity, let alone any commandments; for, it proceeds from the mind of God. The idea of “love” as a “law” does not concern a “command” but, rather, a foundational precept. God spoke creation into existence out of love, designed to express God-love within that creation. Love, having issued in a creative quality, is also experienced as a redemptive quality when humanity is healed by it. Loving God by loving neighbor is the work of God’s own love in creation. It is the image of God in us; the Law of Love at work in humanity, reconciling all things to God. The greatest commandments are fulfilled by love, and the Law of Love fills full (to overflowing) the image of God in creation.

John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, lived about 200 years after John Calvin, but labored under the results of Calvinism. Likewise, as an original Protestant Reformer, Calvin labored under the results of Roman Catholicism. Calvinism is a movement out of a perceived works/righteousness of the Roman church. Likewise, Methodism is a movement out of a perceived idleness of Calvinism. 1,000 years before Calvin, Augustine of Hippo (of the Roman church) labored on the Doctrine of Election out of a perceived doctrine of works/righteousness. Calvin expanded Augustine’s work and Wesley worked to undo Calvin’s.  [This essay is an expansion of an earlier entry]

It (basically) boils down to the Doctrine of Divine Election to Salvation and/or Reprobation, and it’s Five Tenants:

1)      Humanity is in a state of Total Depravity because of the inherent sin nature of Adam.

All reasonable parties agree with this thought based on the Genesis account of the Fall of Humanity and according to the apostle in his Corinthian Correspondence and Letter to the Romans. Outside of Christ, humanity does not have the ability to choose God. The only possibility of salvation comes by the grace of God in Him first acting toward us.

2)      God Unconditionally Elects certain human beings for salvation; which logically, then, simultaneously elects the rest to reprobation (or, not-salvation – i.e., Damnation).

I find no reason to assume “Unconditional Election” because of “Total Depravity.” In fact, I believe it more rational that there is a conditional election because of Total Depravity. This necessitates a choice. “But how,” you may ask, “does one make a choice if that one is totally depraved?” John Wesley answers this question with what he termed Prevenient Grace. When Christ died for all humanity, all depraved humanity received the ability to, then, choose God (Prevenient Grace). But the choice is on each individual to receive this salvation. Calvin explains, likewise, that God shined His light of grace (as it were) onto the depraved of His choosing, thereby, unconditionally electing them. Augustine exclaimed, “There is no Free Will before Christ, but there certainly must be afterwards.” How does Calvin, here, agree with Augustine?

3)      Limited Atonement: Christ’s death was for the salvation of the elect and no other members of humanity. God chose whom He would save and Christ died only for them.

If, according to Paul, Adam brought sin to all humanity, then the Second Adam (Christ) brought atonement to all humanity [This conclusion rests on the Law of Opposites, as well]. All have been rescued at the Cross of Christ, but all have not received this rescuing act (unfortunately). If you do not believe that all have been rescued by Christ, then you cannot logically believe that all received the sin nature from Adam. Either all are condemned by sin and, then, rescued by Christ, or all are not condemned by sin and therefore not in need of Christ’s atonement. You cannot have it both ways; logic does not permit it. Christ’s death is sufficient for all (because death came for all), but efficient only for those who believe (because one must choose it).

4)      Irresistible Grace: The one God calls cannot resist the grace of salvation that God offers.

While it is true that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, it does not necessarily follow that this hardening led ultimately to reprobation (or, damnation). God predestined Pharaoh to be the tool by which He would show His mighty strength. The idea that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart is altogether incidental to the argument of salvation and reprobation. It is a fine example of Divine Providence, but a philosophical stretch as an example of a salvation doctrine.

What of God’s “love for Jacob” and His “hate for Esau.” While both were still in the womb, before they could do anything right or wrong, God elected Jacob to be the recipient of His love and Esau He elected not. [The discussion of the divine love and hate is beyond the scope of this essay.] The fact that God loved Jacob and not Esau doesn’t necessitate that Jacob was, therefore, elected to salvation and Esau to reprobation. Scripture clearly explains that Christ would be the direct descendent of Jacob, not Esau. Thus, God, not concerned with the persons of Jacob or Esau, elected Jacob, and Esau He elected not.

5)      The Perseverance of the Saints: Whom God has chosen is saved for all eternity with no possibility of losing their salvation.

John Wesley (and Arminius – under whom Wesley formulated most of his theology) rejected the idea of the Perseverance of the Saints and insisted that one could lose the salvation for which Christ died. But this argument defies all known logic. Again, the Law of Opposites dictates that if one did not do anything to earn salvation, then one cannot do anything to lose it.

As such, then: God, in His Providence, has predestined certain folks for certain things and He has elected certain folks for certain things; but it is not logically or biblically necessary that either is for salvation and/or reprobation. He has elected that there would be a church, but he has not predestined who would belong to it (do not confuse Predestination with Foreknowledge). Humanity is totally depraved through Adam so that it could be totally rescued through Jesus; but it must choose Him, having been given the ability to choose correctly. And that rescuing which is not earned cannot be lost.