1 Thessalonians 1:4, how is the chronological order according to Calvinism?
Upvote:0
You are trying to make the loving and the choosing two separate issues. Really they are the same.
What does it mean to love?
Romans 5:8 nkjv " But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. "
So the work of Christ, particularly his atoning death was his primary act of love.
What then is his election? Well election is a "choosing". What did he choose us for? Look at what Paul teaches in Ephesians 1.
Ephesians 1:4-6 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He [a]made us accepted in the Beloved.
So we were chosen to be made Holy by the Son (Via the atoning death previously mentioned). The choosing in itself is the first expression of that love. A key doctrine of a calvinist/reformed understanding is that God did not choose us because of anything that we have done or will do. This is the "Unconditional" portion of the unconditional election.
this makes the Gospel of Grace truly by grace, and not by any merit of our own.
eph 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.
So to be concise, we can clearly remove option "A" from your question. With option "B" being closer to the understanding. But really the answer is that God's choosing is just the initial expression of his loving, and not really separable. His choosing and his loving are one in the same.
The best consolation we are given as to why God chose is in the above verse from
ephesians 1:5(partial) "according to the good pleasure of His will"
Upvote:2
Since both the love of God for his own, and the election of God, in Christ, are an eternal matter, rather than a matter of time, I think that the question, in its present form, cannot be answered.
What is made clear in scripture is the following :
I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. [Galatians 2:20, KJV.]
Three things are made clear :
The reason that the Son of God redeemed Paul was because the Son of God loved Paul prior to that redemption.
The redemption of Paul was not a corporate matter, but an individual matter. Paul was not redeemed as one of an indiscriminate crowd, but as one personally known and loved.
The redemption of Paul occurred before Paul did any good works. Paul only 'now' lived by faith. Only 'now' after redemption is Paul crucified with Christ and walking in the Spirit.
Since the love is called the love 'of the Son of God' (not the love 'of Jesus') what is being drawn to the attention is the Divine and eternal love of Christ, in Deity, towards the man Paul.
If an eternal love, then a love that is not a matter of time, a love that had no temporal beginning and a love that cannot be separated (in terms of time) from other aspects of the Divine knowledge (that is to say foreknowledge) of the man Paul.
Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. [Jeremiah 31:3, KJV.]
More post
- 📝 In Catholicism, what is the proper order of the sacraments of initiation and what are the summary arguments in support of this order?
- 📝 What evidence exists to support church traditions regarding the deaths of the following apostles?
- 📝 Seeming paradox arising from idea of eternal life
- 📝 Does God create some people Heterosexual and others Homosexual?
- 📝 Is Jesus seen as both the Passover Lamb and Goat(s) of the Atonement in any Protestant Theology?
- 📝 Do angels come in the divine category?
- 📝 According to Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, what are the strongest apologetic arguments for the divine inspiration of the deuterocanonical books?
- 📝 How do Catholics understand how the title “Lord” for Jesus is dependent on his resurrection at Ro 14:9 if it means he is God?
- 📝 Does the Bible require us to vote?
- 📝 What is the difference between these versions of the KJV?
- 📝 How does the Pope's recent evolution comments line up with the Gen 1; 1-5 text?
- 📝 Why do adherents to Hypostatic Union believe that God the Son (Jesus) must be fully Human?
- 📝 From a Fundamentalist viewpoint, what does it mean to "take the Bible literally"?
- 📝 Why did the high priests try Jesus on charges of Blasphemy if He fulfilled their prophecy?
- 📝 How did the early Christians and Apostles Get into the temple? Shouldn't they have been stoned by the Jews for preaching Jesus as God?
- 📝 "You must use the psalms of the day at Sext" - why?
- 📝 How does Pope Benedict XVI reconcile conscience and authority?
- 📝 What is a prophet in Catholicism?
- 📝 What is joy? How is it different from happiness (or is it)?
- 📝 Were the sins of the Israelites forgiven with the animal sacrifices or simply held in abeyance until Jesus death on the cross?
- 📝 How do opponents of penal substitutionary atonement theory handle Isaiah 53?
- 📝 Does the Catholic Church put the death of Samson in the category of suicide?
- 📝 Is it possible for a non-Jew to join Messianic Judaism?
- 📝 How do non-sacramental denominations identify and ordain pastors and other leaders?
- 📝 Why did God create such complexity in man?
- 📝 Is there a sound doctrine or biblical explanation why Satan is called "the ape of God"?
- 📝 Did God change from a wrathful God to a loving God between Old Testament and New Testament?
- 📝 God | The Shepherd That "Breaks Legs"?
- 📝 Did Philip see Jesus turn water into wine?
- 📝 Stars in the sky
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 1 Thessalonians 1:4, how is the chronological order according to Calvinism?
- 📝 How do Christians who believe that Jesus preached to the dead in Sheol justify reversing the chronological order of verses 18 & 19 of 1 Peter 3?
- 📝 According to the Bible, how should Christians meditate?
- 📝 According to believers in the inexorable damnation of the unreached, how is God not unfair for letting someone be born in unreachable conditions?
- 📝 According to the LDS Church (Mormons), how specifically did Joseph Smith translate the Book of Mormon?
- 📝 According to the Catholic Church, how do you perform an examination of conscience?
- 📝 How were women to serve the church according to the Apostolic Fathers?
- 📝 How is the situation of "divorce her quietly" in Matthew 1:19 according to Catholicism?
- 📝 According to reformed theology, how does the fall glorify God?
- 📝 According to a ‘forgiveness in Christ alone’ framework how did ‘sin offerings’ make atonement for sin under the Mosaic Law?
- 📝 According to Roman Catholic teaching, did Martin Luther's alterations to the order of the Mass invalidate his consecration of the elements?
- 📝 How to receive the gift of tongues according to the New Testament?
- 📝 According to Jehovah's Witnesses, how many of the 144 000 have already been identified?
- 📝 How can it be said that Paul taught a pre-tribulational rapture of the Church given 2 Thessalonians chapter 2?
- 📝 According to the Bible how does one receive the gift of the Holy Ghost?
- 📝 According to Catholic Church tradition, where, when, how and by whom did the devotion of the Stations of the Cross begin?
- 📝 According to Ravi Zacharias's apologetic argument, how could love have existed prior to the fall?
- 📝 According to the Catholic Church, how did Paul become a saint?
- 📝 How are ectopic pregnancies supposed to be dealt with according to the Catholic Church?
- 📝 What order were the Pauline epistles written, according to evangelical critical scholarship?
- 📝 According to Reformed Covenant theology, how were the people of Israel "purchased" per Exodus 15:16?
- 📝 According to Mormons, how did the unclean spirits sin by "not keeping the first estate"?
- 📝 According to Catholicism how does a person discriminate between hearing the true word of God versus a hallucination or a demon?
- 📝 According to Jehovah's Witnesses and Unitarians and all who deny that Jesus is the Almighty God, how can He be in you and live in you?
- 📝 According to LDS, do all non-LDS Christians lack the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and if so, how does this lack manifest itself in the lives of non-LDS?
- 📝 How did the world get populated according to Bible?
- 📝 What is the difference between the two creations of humans, according to those who believe they are in chronological order?
- 📝 According to the scripture, when and how is the world destroyed?
- 📝 According to Jehovah’s Witnesses how many people will live on the earth?
- 📝 How does the Catholic Church tell us to do reparation for our sins according to Church teachings?