Few are Chosen, Part 2
In considering our question, it is important to dismiss right away some of the popular but empty arguments. For example, it is popular to argue that the number of the saved will certainly be much greater than the unsaved because God will surely seize the "victory" in the end; that is, he will never "lose" to Satan in the battle between good and evil, and over human souls. Some of the most prominent Reformed theologians of the past and the present have argued this way.
But this argument is silly — it is arbitrary and self-defeating. It is arbitrary because it assumes that "victory" in this situation is determined by numbers, but they fail to produce biblical evidence or any kind of rational support for using this premise or standard. Then, the argument is self-defeating because if we were to determine "victory" by sheer numbers, then even if one person ends up in hell, it would necessarily mean that God fails to obtain total victory over Satan and evil. But many people are already in hell.
Although it is used by more than a few Reformed theologians, this argument carries a certain dualistic flavor with it — that is, it implies that Satan is a powerful evil force with whom even God himself must contend, that God will win some and lose some, only that he will win more than he loses in the end. What a pathetic view of God! What an anti-scriptural understanding of redemptive history! When a Calvinist is using this argument (or any other like it on any other topic), he is being inconsistent with his own otherwise sound and biblical beliefs.
Now, those who end up in heaven are saved because God has predetermined their salvation, and those who end up in hell are damned because God has predetermined their damnation. So how could God "lose" when all those who will end up in hell will be there only because God himself has predetermined to send them there?
God could only "lose" if what he has predetermined to happen fails to happen, or if what he has not predetermined to happen still happens anyway. For example, if some of those whom God has chosen for salvation fail to be saved and end up in hell, then we could say that God loses; or, if some of those whom God has chosen for damnation somehow end up in heaven, then God also loses. But it is plainly stupid to say that God loses if more people end up in hell than in heaven even if this is exactly what he wants, even if this is what he has predetermined to happen. In fact, if God had decided that every sinner should end up in hell, then we could say that he loses even if one person manages to enter heaven.
So, whether more people will end up in heaven than in hell in itself has no direct relevance to whether God "wins" or "loses," but if what happens is exactly what God has predetermined to happen, then he wins.
(to be continued…)
April 09 2005 | Expositions, Theology