Geisler Book Review on the Elect

The issue of the elect versus free will has been a huge debate between Calvinists and those who oppose them. I find it hard to agree that with the point of unconditional election. The Calvinists point is that because of certain verses in the Bible that Jesus among others point to the idea that there are certain people who have been chosen to go to Heaven even before they were born while others were eternally condemned to Hell. I find that hard to agree with because God did not choose only certain people to become members. One reason why is because Christ would not have come to Earth to die if He had already known that they would come to Heaven regardless of Jesus’ sacrifice. The fact that Jesus came to Earth and sacrificed Himself for the sake of sinners shows that He came to save all of His people. And when I say all people, I mean all the people that God created so everyone on Earth. That leads to my next point. If God created everyone in His own image and formed each individual person in the womb then why would He just decide to condemn those He didn’t elect. The only explanation is that those verses that talk about those who were chosen according to God’s will includes all in the world and that we all have the choice to follow Christ or deny Him. Even John 3:16 says that whoever believes in Him will have everlasting life because God gave His only son to be killed on a cross so I find it hard to believe that God would choose some to be condemned to Hell because the sacrifice that Christ gave would be useless because it didn’t save everyone, only the elect. I like that Geisler says in his book that salvation is justified by faith so regardless of whether we are “elect” we are still responsible for bringing others to Him as well as growing closer to God ourselves. Basically he says that even if we are the elect it doesn’t matter unless we are living in a way that shows we are pursuing God’s elect call on our lives. But that also brings up the question of whether the elect can choose to not follow Christ or if God even provides the free will for the elect to choose not to follow Him. This brings me to the conclusion that unless God is more of a tyrant in His love for us, He must allow all of His creations (humans) to either choose to follow in His plan for salvation or to deny Christ and condemn ourselves to eternity without Him. But I believe that God is a loving God that allows us to choose or not choose Him for ourselves. 

Is baptism of infants Biblically correct?

I think the idea of pedobaptism, or the baptizing of infants, is an incorrect way to baptize a person. The idea came when the question of where infants go if they die in the early years of their life came up. The idea of baptizing an infant gave security to those who were concerned that their children might not go to Heaven without being baptized. Unfortunately this early tradition led to centuries of rotting tradition and has led to many in the church to believe that they have already been baptized considering they had been baptized at such a young age. I think that the Bible points us in another direction that shows baptism is not for infants, but for confirmed believers whether they be young or old. Romans 2:15 even states that we are not judged on unconscious sin but only sin that we know we are committing so for an infant to be baptized would be meaningless because they are not aware of sins they’ve committed. I would say Jesus is an excellent example of baptism occurring as a confirmed believer. Many say that Jesus was the first Christian and had he chosen to be baptized as a child he would have been. But Christ chose to be baptized as a believing adult. The problem with infant baptism is that baptism is a conscious decision to make public their faith in their Savior and infants are not capable of making such huge decisions because they do not have a full sense of God’s love. So I feel that baptism must be done at an age where a person can make the conscious decision to follow Christ as their Lord and Savior and then they can be baptized in order to make public that decision they made. I think it’s interesting that so many denominations have bought into the idea of infant baptism even though there isn’t a single case in the Bible where someone is baptized as an infant anywhere. It makes me wonder why tradition is so much more important than Biblical truth. I think that the church needs to collectively realize that baptism is something special and should be a decision, not a tradition.

My Testimony for Theology 202

My family has always been involved in the church ever since I was born. Both my parents are Christians and I was at church every Sunday and Wednesday. So it was expected that I came to know Jesus as my Savior when I was 7 years old. At the time all I knew about being a Christian was that there was a scary place called Hell and that if I accepted Christ as my Savior and asked for forgiveness of the bad things I had done I could go to Heaven. God then pressed on my heart to get involved with the church and fulfill the role that God asked of His people which is to reach others with the message that God had reached me with. During my middle school and early high school years I was always looking for opportunities to serve. As I got older and became interested in school activities and dating and I lost my focus. Occasionally God uses things to bring us back to Him and thats what He did with me. From the summer before my senior year of high school through the beginning of my first semester at college 6 people close to me died in different ways and it really caused me to rely on God because there was nothing I could do to help myself. Although God didn't do these things just to teach me to depend on Him and it has helped me to get through very hard times and has helped me to be there for others and He still is working in me.