Strive To Be Among The Number Of The Elect

Dr. Leighton Flowers, Director of Evangelism and Apologetics for Texas Baptists, walks through some of Dr. James White's misunderstandings and misapplications regarding Clement of Rome and the quotes that were used in the debate over Romans 9 back in 2015...

 

From Clement 1: 2:3

 

And you, being filled with a holy desire, with excellent zeal and pious confidence, stretched out your arms to Almighty God, beseeching him to be merciful unto you, in case you had done anything wrong unwillingly. 2:4 You contended day and night for the whole brotherhood, that in his mercy and good pleasure the number of his elect might be saved.

 

How does one become elect?

 

Why does God choose someone over other?

 

Calvinism: We don’t know. It’s a mystery and according to the secret counsel of God. All we know is that it has nothing to do with us personally or our faith, choices, behaviors or actions. God’s election is “unconditional.”

 

Provisionism: God graciously chooses to save those who put their trust in Him. God’s election to send the gospel to all people is not conditioned upon the good or bad things they do (unconditional of their morality), but it is conditioned upon their faith in Him.

 

Which of these best aligns with Clement’s own teachings:

 

59:3. …God of all flesh, who looks into the abysses, who beholds the works of men, who is the helper of those in danger, the savior of those who have lost hope, who is the maker and bishop of every soul, who makes the nations to multiply upon the earth, and out of all you have chosen those that love You through Jesus Christ your beloved Son, through whom You have taught us, and have sanctified us, and have honored us. 58:2 Accept our advice, and it will not be repented by you. For as God lives, and as the Lord Jesus Christ lives, and the Holy Spirit, the confidence and hope of the elect, he who observes in humility with earnest obedience, and repining not, the ordinances and commands given by God, he shall be reckoned and counted in the number of them that are saved by Jesus Christ, through whom is there to him glory, world without end. Amen. 52:1 The Lord of all things, brethren, is in need of nothing; neither does He require anything of any one, except to confess unto Him. 35:3-4 What therefore are the things that are prepared for them that abide in patience?... Let us, therefore, strive to be found in the number of them that await him, that we may partake of the promised gifts. 29:1 Let us, therefore, approach him with holiness of spirit, lifting unto him pure and undefiled hands; loving the kind and compassionate Father who has made us a part of His elect. 46:4 Let us, therefore, cleave to the guiltless and the just, for they are the elect of God. 48:1 Let us, therefore, remove this thing as quickly as possible, and let us fall before the feet of the Master, and beseech him with tears, that he will have mercy and be reconciled unto us, and restore us again to the grave and pure conversation of brotherly love. 48:2 For this is a gate of righteousness opened unto life, as it is written, Open unto me the gates of righteousness; I will go in unto them, and give thanks unto the Lord: 48:3 this is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter thereby. 48:4 Now, since many gates have been opened, the gate of righteousness is that which is in Christ. Happy are all they that enter therein, and who keep their path straight in holiness and righteousness, quietly performing all their duties. 48:5 If a man be faithful, if he be mighty to expound knowledge, if he be wise in the interpretation of words, if he be pure in his deeds, 48:6 by so much the more ought he to be humble, and by as much as he seemeth to be greater, by so much the more ought he to seek the common advantage of all, and not of himself alone.