The results from my previous post are in. By unanimous decision, 5 points go to Mike from Halifax, England. (He was actually the only one to respond!) Nevertheless, he definitely had the right idea in pointing out that contrary to the diagram, "we are all headed towards hell... [and] God has chosen us out of that line."
I had asked "What possible presuppositions represented above would certainly make specific election seem unfair and even unjust?" In this post, I will provide one possible answer to the question. The presupposition that stood out to me was represented by the heavy arrow pointing toward heaven. I suppose part of the "fairness" they see here is that a man's own choice sends them to hell.
Now if you started with that diagram and then said, "No, God determines whether an individual will go to heaven or hell," they might have a picture in their mind somewhat like the following:
I can understand why this seems unfair. They might respond, "Now according to the idea of specific election people don't have a choice, and a lot of people are going to end up in hell whether they like it or not. That doesn't seem to mesh with the idea of a God who loves everyone."
Now I would venture to guess that the objection comes not because God specifically picks individuals to be saved. Who could complain about that? The real objection is that God must therefore specifically pick individuals for hell in some fashion.
How would I answer these objections? First, I would say that we both agree on two facts: 1) there is a sense in which a man's own choice sends them to hell and 2) there is a sense in which God's choice sends them to hell. As I pointed out in a previous post, the choice of man which sends them to hell is NOT merely the choice to reject the gospel. If that were the case, then hiding the gospel would be in others' best interest; for if they don't hear the gospel, then they haven't had a fair chance to choose their response. Thus by default they would be eligible for heaven.
On the contrary, the choice which earns them eternal punishment is the choice to disobey God's law. The choice is the choice to sin. God must execute punishment for that person's sins. In fact, because of His very nature (and the fact that He cannot actualize a contradiction), God has no choice. His choice is never whether or not He will carry out justice. The choice I'm talking about is His choice to establish His Law and to establish the penalties for violations of that Law. That was the choice that put anyone who would sin on the path to judgement. And could anyone say that God's determined penalties are unfair?
Another part of the objection to the notion of specific election could be this: "How could it be fair to send anyone to hell if they had no fair chance?" So a second point to consider is whether anyone truly has a chance. In a certain sense, everyone does have a chance to gain eternal life on their own. The first real chance a person has is to obey God's Law. No one who keeps His Law (all of it) will be subject to God's wrath. Thus, this first chance is genuine, and even those who say that salvation is determined by man's choice rather than God's specific choosing would have to admit that in a certain sense the gospel is really a second chance,
However, in another sense, no one has a chance to gain eternal life life on their own. Why? Because everyone blew their chances through sin. Ironically, it is the choice of man to disobey God that causes them to forfeit their chances. They carried out their sin willingly. They took pleasure in the defiant acts that would earn them eternal and ultimate displeasure. Their will turned them away from life instead of towards it.
Any claims of unfairness are only hypothetical. You would have to find a case where despite a clean record of Law keeping, God chose to send the person to hell. Obviously, such a case does not exist.
Furthermore, to claim unfairness, you would have to say that if God gives anyone a second chance then He owes everyone a second chance. Is God then obligated to show mercy in equal degree and duration to all people? Are variations in mercy unfair?
My intention here was shed some light on a presupposition I came across in Bible study handout with regard to the fairness of specific election. If you started with that diagram when considering specific election, then God's determination the fate of individuals could seem unfair.
If you're going to have a simplistic diagram showing the path of salvation, I put together what I think is a better alternative.
I welcome comments. What are some other reasons why specific election seems unfair?