BIBLE FORE-ORDINATION

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · June 3, 1880

FromThe Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 55, No. 23

BIBLE FORE-ORDINATION.

A VERY apt illustration of the Bible idea of election seems to be furnished us in the experience of Gideon and his army. In Judges 7:4 we read: “And the Lord said unto Gideon, The people are yet too many; bring them down unto the water, and I will try them for thee there; and it shall be, that of whom I say unto thee, This shall go with thee, the same shall go with thee; and of whomsoever I say unto thee, This shall not go with thee, the same shall not go.”

It would be very easy to infer from this that the Lord was about to take the decision of individual cases into his own hand, and designate the persons by name who were to go with Gideon, and who were not. But when the time for the decision came, it was accomplished in this way, as the next verse records: “So he brought down the people unto the water: and the Lord said unto Gideon, Every one that lappeth of the water with his tongue, as a dog lappeth, him shalt thou set by himself, likewise every one that boweth down upon his knees to drink.”

These men that lapped were to go with Gideon; so the words in the preceding verse, “Of whom I say unto thee, This shall go with thee,” did not refer to any particular individuals, but only to a class who should comply with certain conditions. It was not, Here Asa, and Joel, and Asaph, and Ethan, I have decreed and decided that you shall go with Gideon, but simply whosoever, whether Asa, or Joel, or Ben, or Jeiel, or Eliab, lappeth water like a dog.

Just so of the final salvation. Of whom God has said that he shall be saved, he shall be saved. But of whom has he said this? Not (omitting the exceptions) of any individuals, but of a certain class; that is, whosoever believeth in the Lord Jesus Christ. He does not say to James, John, Thomas, and Ezra, I decree and elect that you shall be saved; but he does say to all men, without distinction, I decree and elect that if you will believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you shall be saved; just as the Lord said to Gideon, “Every one that lappeth of the water with his tongue like a dog.”

We know of no expression in all the Bible which gives to the doctrine of election a more individual or personal application than Judges 7:4 gives to the decision to be rendered in the case of Gideon’s men. Yet in this case the decision was not rendered concerning individuals as such, but concerning a class who would perform a certain act. So in the other case, no man is predestined or elected to be saved as an individual, but it is the immutable decree of God from the beginning of the plan of salvation, that a certain class, namely, whosoever will believe in the Lord Jesus, shall be saved. This, and this only, is the election which the Scriptures teach, as we understand them.