Sherwin L.
Puritan Board Freshman
So I've been making my way through Boettner's classic, The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination, and have found it to be an enjoyable read so far. But I've found myself scratching my head after reading this passage under the section entitled 'Many are Chosen' in the chapter on unconditional election (emphasis mine):
I'm having a hard time seeing how this doesn't contradict Matthew 7:13-14 and Matthew 22:14 (many called, few chosen). Perhaps I'm reading the chapter wrong, but I'm baffled why Boettner and Shedd would make such statements, given the plainness of Christ's word in the gospels. Is there really Scriptural support that the elect outnumber the non-elect?
When the doctrine of Election is mentioned many people immediately assume that this means that the great majority of mankind will be lost. But why should any one draw that conclusion? God is free in election to choose as many as He pleases, and we believe that He who is infinitely merciful and benevolent and holy will elect the great majority to life. There is no good reason why He should be limited to only a few. We are told that Christ is to have the preeminence in all things, and we do not believe that the Devil will be permitted to emerge victor even in numbers.
Our position in this respect has been very ably stated by Dr. W. G. T. Shedd in the following words: "Let it be noticed that the question, how many are elected are how many are reprobated, has nothing to do with the question whether God may either elect or reprobate sinners. If it is intrinsically right for Him either to elect or not to elect, either to save or not to save free moral agents who by their own fault have plunged themselves into sin and ruin, numbers are of no account in establishing the rightness. And if it is intrinsically wrong, numbers are of no account in establishing wrongness... At the same time it relieves the solemnity and awfulness which overhangs the decree of reprobation, to remember that the Scriptures teach that the number of the elect is much greater than that of the non-elect."
I'm having a hard time seeing how this doesn't contradict Matthew 7:13-14 and Matthew 22:14 (many called, few chosen). Perhaps I'm reading the chapter wrong, but I'm baffled why Boettner and Shedd would make such statements, given the plainness of Christ's word in the gospels. Is there really Scriptural support that the elect outnumber the non-elect?