The Bottom Line on Predestination, Election and Common Sense Hermeneutics

Highlights from our Deep Dive (Inductive Bible Study) on the Chief End of God according to St. Paul in the Book of Romans chapters 9 to 11:

The Cornerstone of CrossCulture theology is God's Purpose in History or to borrow Calvinist Linggo, "The Chief End of God". We state it simply as " The chief end of God is to create a people of faith who would willingly love Him back the way He loves them".

This seems to be confirmed by the whole synthesized narrative of Scripture and is the specific focus of the chapters of Romans 9 to 11. To provide some background and widen the perspective on this subject, we have distributed copies of my old blog, God's Trial-and-Error Attempts to Create a People of Faith

We summarized Romans 9 to 11 as follows:

The Jews as the original and prototype of the "kingdom of God" failed their covenant organizer, God Himself in the following ways:

1. They thought that the Kingdom of God was physical and exclusive only to the Jewish race
2. They had zeal but without knowledge
3. They thought that they could create their own individual righteousness by following the law as closely as possible
4. They were ignorant of the righteousness of God
5. They heard but did not understand because they "read with colored lens"

Nevertheless, the "gifts and calling of God are irrevocable", meaning to say it is going to happen by hook (the word of God understood correctly) or by crook (make Israel jealous of a people [the Gentiles] that did not even seek God initially). However, ONLY A REMNANT WILL BE SAVED, meaning that God IS CONTENT to get a MINORITY to join His Kingdom project. Jesus Himself confirmed that ONLY A MINORITY OF GOD's CREATION will be saved when He declared in Matthew 7:14 that "the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life"and ONLY A FEW will find it.

Why only a minority? Because the way is hard. Because the gate is narrow. Because it is hard to hear the gospel. Because even when the gospel is heard, only a few will understand. Because even if some will understand and be saved, they may still eventually fall away and LOSE SALVATION entirely and permanently. This is the essence of the analogy of the olive tree in Romans 11. 

Note that the GENUINE branches were cut off (lost their kingdom status). Romans 9 starts by saying that the Jews were given everything but subsequently lost it. And the ones grafted in (Gentiles adopted into God's kingdom) also face the danger of being cut off if they do not remain faithful. Romans 11 clearly declares this and no amount of hermeneutical mambo-jambo can disclaim this simple interpretation. (Romans 11:20-22).

Following is our inductive study conclusion on the most troublesome issue of Romans 9:

1. Paul's focus on chapter 9 is the prerogative of God to make choices even at the expense of some not ever entering the Kingdom of God. Examples were given of how God chose one person over another in implementing his divine plan of creating a people of faith or building the Kingdom of God. In such a discussion we run over the terms predestination, foreknowledge and election.
2. Whenever the New Testament mentions "the elect" it is ALWAYS in PLURAL form except for the elect lady in 1 John 2 and it is even refers to a lady and not a man. So election is for the people of God, the church, not necessarily for individuals.
3. 99% of the Bible support free will. Only less than 1% of scripture talks about election and predestination.
4. Therefore God SHOUTS free will and only whispers predestination and election. 
5. This means that the sovereign God can do both
6. Simple logic, however, simply shows that free will is the RULE and predestination is the EXCEPTION just by preponderance of coverage of Scripture
7. Therefore it is irrational to make the exception become the rule and use it to interpret the preponderance of verses that are supposed to be the rule, the SHOUTS of God.
8. Those who make predestination a rule have a very difficult time of logically and simply interpreting the rest of Scripture.
9. Those who follow simple common sense hermeneutical principles have no problems with the 99% of Scripture and will easily discover logical alternative interpretations to the 1% exceptions.

For example, when God hardened Pharoah's heart, it simply meant that God continued to challenge the claim that Pharoah was "god" to the Egyptians, thereby playing on the pharoah's pride and causing pharoah to harden his heart. Exodus 9:7,34,35 also state that it was pharoah who hardened his heart. In fact, even God Himself chided pharoah, in v.17 for exalting himself against God's people, a hypocritical statement from God if God was indeed the one who molded Pharoah's heart to be hardened. 

To synthesize with good logic and common sense, God stimulated Pharoah;'s pride instead of courting him into the Kingdom. This is the essence of election, NOT that God over-rules free will but that God honors it by working around it. The end result is the same but God preserves and does not violate free will, for man was created in the image of God and central to this is autonomy and " "honest, unqualified TOTALLY UNCONTROLLED" free will..