3.24.10-3.24.11 Perseverance of the Saints, Part II

I finally have some quiet time to finish these last two sections that I started on Wednesday. These two sections deal with what some people refer to as a "seed of election" among those who are among the elect who have not yet converted. Calvin clearly refutes this idea of this seed. He writes, "they do not differ at all from others except that they are protected by God's especial mercy from rushing headlong into the final ruin of death." God protects His own, even before they realize that they are His. Those who do not belong to God do not receive this same protection from committing all sorts of evil. Calvin continues, "For those who imagine that some sort of seed of election was sown in them from birth itself, and that by its power they have always been inclined to piety and the fear of God, are not supported by Scriptural authority and are refuted by experience itself."

Calvin points out several examples in Scripture of people who committed all kinds of evil before they came to know Christ. Paul for instance persecuted Christians before being confronted by Christ himself. Rahab was a harlot before she did God's work. As the beginning of Isaiah 53:6 reads, "All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way..." We have all gone astray and done what is right in our own eyes. Fortunately for the elect, God awakens them to His way. "Those whom the Lord has once determined to snatch from this gulf of destruction he defers until his own time; he only preserves them from falling into unpardonable sin."


Later today's reading: 3.24.12-3.24.17