Election Is the Spring

God’s saving actions in the Pentateuch are primarily focused on his chosen people, the nation he has chosen from all others to be his “treasured possession” (Ex. 19:5; Deut. 7:6). Thus understood, any atonement that encompasses the entire community of Israel cannot really be interpreted in a general or universal sense; rather, it must be seen to have a definite or particular focus. The community it encompasses is a special community—the object of God’s love and special favor, a people evidently distinguished from all others (cf. Deut 4:32-35; 32:8-9). Thus it would be inappropriate to infer some kind of general atonement from Israel’s corporate experience of atonement. Any such atonement is accomplished and applied on the basis of Israel’s divine election—the latter is the spring from which the former flows; atonement is made for Israel as God’s elect people.

From Paul R. Williamson’s essay, “Because He Loved Your Forefathers”: Election, Atonement, and Intercession in the Pentateuch in From Heaven He Came and Sought Her: Definite Atonement in Historical, Biblical, Theological, and Pastoral Perspective. 

Previously posted quote from this “comprehensive resource on definite atonement”:

• Death Is the Penalty
• Someone for Some People

Theological Term of the Week

Ten Commandments
Ten laws that God wrote on two stone tables and gave to the nation of Israel after the Exodus. They summarize the Sinai covenant, defining “the life that the Lord calls his people to live before him and with each other”;1 also called the Decalogue or the Ten Words. 

• From scripture:

And God spoke all these words, saying,

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

“You shall have no other gods before me.

“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for theLord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

“You shall not murder.

“You shall not commit adultery.

“You shall not steal.

“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.” (Exodus 20:1-17, ESV)

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Linked Together: Isms

Molinism
As you may know, I’m not a fan of Molinism. For one, it is not derived from God’s revelation of himself, and speculating about God and his ways is a no-no in my book. And then there’s the grounding objection. How can a Molinist get around that?

But let’s pretend it’s true. Would the God of Molinism be fallible? (James N. Anderson).

Calvinism
From Clint Archer, an explanation and defense of each of the five points: 

1. Despicable Me? The Doctrine of Total Depravity
2. Pick Me, Pick Me: Unconditional Election
3. One for All, or All for Naught: Limited Atonement
4. Simply Irresistible … Grace
5. Keep Keeping On: Perseverance of the Saints