Ephesians 1 and Provisionism

It was prompted by the material on the screen right now which is a meme that was posted by Layton Flowers Soteriology 101 and it says. Predestination a destination is marked out beforehand for whosoever believes in Christ.

The Meaning of Predestination and the Error of “Destination”

Calvinism versus provisionism. And then you have this graphic predestined who is predestined to what under the Calvinism side who equals individuals mysteriously selected by God for no revealed reasons before the world began.

To what to become believers in Christ by irresistible means so as to receive the blessings for those chosen to be in him. Then provisionism says who is the faithful in Christ Ephesians 1 1 through 2. Whosoever puts their trust in him John 3 16.

And to what to receive the blessings promised to all who trust in Christ to be conformed to his image and made holy and blameless Romans 8 29 in Ephesians 1 4. And so I when we looked at this and I saw this I responded to it on on Twitter.

And I think it's important it's important enough to look at these things and to point some of the most important aspects of this out. First of all this a destination is marked out beforehand as a definition of predestination is based upon a very common linguistic error.

It is taking the English translation pre-destination and focusing upon that second part of the word destination when that's not a part of the original Greek. There isn't anything about destinations in Proridzo.

Literally it's before the horizon. But even then you have to be very careful. You hopefully we all know that you cannot simply take a word and chop it up and say this is what it meant. So we all know you've all heard someone say ecclesia means ek out of kaleo called out the called out ones.

Well that is the transparent history of the word in Greek. But that's not what the word means. And you've probably heard if you look at for example the word television you've got tele far and vision. See when we say television we don't mean far see.

Normally we're talking about a substantive we're talking about an actual thing. That's a television. Right there. Right. And so just to look at predestination and go. Well you know predestination is like getting on an airplane that's flying to Chicago.

Everybody who gets on this airplane will fly to Chicago. The destination has been preset as if this is predestination that's not what we're talking about. And so the provisionist idea is well what predestination is is a destination is marked out beforehand for whosoever believes in Christ.

And so this whosoever then becomes the capacity the ability that everyone has. And then predestination is just well there's a destination. The destination is glorification. A destination is heaven. The destination is all the benefits of salvation.

You see. And so predestination becomes something that is not a sovereign choice of God. It's no longer specific with an object. It's just simply a part of an overall overall scheme. So the choice on God's part is that the end result is going to be this.

But who's gonna be involved. You've managed to move that out of the focus which of course is what the focus was down through history as people looked at these things because they saw us what was being discussed.

Now we remember that Leighton Flowers claims to be a former Calvinist as I've said many times there are many people who knew him at that time that have told me news to us. But the wording of what Calvinism says here of course is completely different than anything that we would ourselves say.

And as soon as I made reference to the fact that you know it's interesting rich keeps telling me that when I speak in this room that I talk way too loud I've figured out I think why I look primarily at this camera and so I'm thinking I have to be heard by that camera when all I have to be heard by is this little thing right here so I could talk much more quietly and save my voice a great deal if I did not talk so loudly in this room.

But I bet you anything that if I try to do that right now within five minutes I'll be back to where I was. But let's see if rich can keep up with me. Okay. So let me try to save my voice and not talk so loud.

Not there's anyone my voice moment. But anyway all right who is predestined now. It's interesting even in the this side you still have a who. But the who are people who have the who are the faithful in Christ.

We're gonna see this is from Ephesians chapter 1. We're gonna look at how this is not what Paul was saying. And then whosoever puts their trust in him. We all know at John 3 16 and other places like that.

That's posthumous June everyone believing no none of that addresses is that a capacity that is inherent in all human beings no matter what their spiritual condition is in provisionism since you are providing what God does is he provides a mechanism he provides a way but he does not give specific saving grace to certain individuals that he does not give to others.

That element is missing in provisionism because all you're doing is providing the opportunity and then others can then go from there. So but you still have a who even over here. But the who here is determined by the nature of those individuals who here notice what is said individuals mysteriously selected by God.

So our first is right here mysteriously mysteriously. That's not the New Testament use of the term musterion. A mystery in the New Testament is something that was withheld from not known from preceding ages but now has been revealed in the coming of Christ and in the New Covenant this is meant to to talk about mystery.

The idea is of course that unconditional election in Reformed theology specifically says that it is not what I do that brings about my being chosen. I am NOT choice meets. Remember remember choice meets.

I did not make that up. Okay. I I I'm not the one who has video out there talking about people who are who receive grace from God are the choice meets. All right. That's latent flowers all right. This is a clear recognition that when he talks about the ability to be humble the ability to be spiritually sensitive that no matter how hard they try there is an assertion that there are certain people in the unregenerate state who have greater spiritual capacity than other people in young regenerate state.

And it's all up to them because these are natural abilities all people have them. That's why they deny federal headship. That's why they deny original sin have to. That's why they actually go beyond Roman Catholicism in their assertions on these on these matters.

Anyways this idea of mysteriously is meant to communicate something. I guess that when God makes a free choice that God can do so without that choice being determined by what man does so I guess you would say that God mysteriously chose to create God mysteriously chose to enter into his own creation in Christ Jesus.

I guess that's what mysterious means. Mysteriously selected of course term would be chosen by God for no revealed reasons. Now latent flowers knew that that was an inaccurate statement. And how do I know that because of the fact that as soon as I mentioned that I was going to address this on the dividing line he tweeted.

Now I know that what in reality what what you're going to say. And I'm not saying that there isn't in Reformed theology a concept of the glory of God and that it's for the of God. And and that's what that church you're going to say.

But the idea is it's it's no revealed reasons in regards to what in regards to the who in regards to what they have done. So what that means is over here the who is why are they quote-unquote chosen.

Because they're faithful. Because they are the whosoever who put their trust. It's because of what they do. It's because of their placing faith in God. They're humbling themselves their repentance. That's how they become the who over against no revealed reasons for why they become the who.

And that is it's God's good pleasure. And that's not a evidently a sufficiently revealed reason. And what are they predestined to. Well here the emphasis is to become believers in Christ by irresistible means.

And again this is sometimes Reformed people listen to this kind of description and just go. What. Okay. Yes when the Spirit of God works in the life of the elect to bring them to regeneration and raise them to spiritual life he can do so at the exact time he chooses to do so and hence his work is irresistible.

Because we are spiritually dead we are then raised to spiritual life. And so in our in our unregenerate state we simply walk in the ways of the flesh. But to believe to repent to walk in holiness to believe divine truth and act upon divine truth they have various kinds of elements that are a part of saving.

Faith requires regeneration it requires a spiritual life. And so yes there is you could say it's irresistible because it's resurrection power. It's the same power that raised Lazarus from the dead. When Jesus said Lazarus come forth he was in no danger of failing.

He was in no danger of being frustrated by the will of Lazarus in that situation this was one of the ways in which the glory of the Son of God was to be demonstrated. And yet there are seriously people who will tell you that yes Jesus could have been frustrated in that situation.

Jesus could have said Lazarus come forth and Lazarus might have said no thank you it's nice in here I'm I'm gonna stay put. There are people whose theology demands that that be what they say to emphasize the free will of man.

And so certainly what is predestined faith. Faith is part of that repentance is part of that as well. No question about that these are but it's the entirety of salvation. It's all of salvation which would include regeneration faith repentance adoption forgiveness sanctification the entire golden chain of redemption the effective call all of these are a part of what that predestination involves.

And then on the other side predestined to receive the blessings promised to all who trust in Christ to be conformed with image made holy and blameless which of course is everything that is believed over here too.

So the blessings are all the same. Except I would I would point out that would seem that if this trust issue here and is faithful in here if that is coming from unregenerate men and that's a natural capacity that's something that could be lost.

And that's why consistently it seems to me that a true provisionist must also be a person who does not believe in the perseverance of the Saints you can be in Christ truly in Christ and then lost. You can walk away from that.

And I've certainly heard a number of people identifying themselves as provisionists who would say exactly that. That's the case. And so the the question becomes what how do we respond to this. How do we aside from the doing what we just did and looking at these things and going well all right this is not really the both the most fair and effective way of expressing these truths.

How should we respond to these things. So I want to do so exegetically I will try to be clear that's why we're doing this again is because I did this using annotation and was pointing to things I just cannot imagine because I assumed you could see what I was pointing to that what I did then was all that understandable.

So let's let's try it again and I will try to be fairly brief. We're looking at Ephesians 1 and that was referenced in in the meme and one of the things that was mentioned was this phrase right right here the faithful in Christ Jesus the faithful in Christ Jesus.

But please note that is part of a chain as part of a chain. So an apostle of Christ Jesus and he is an apostle by the will of God diatholamitos they you by the will of God. So from the beginning there is no problem from Paul's perspective that his apostleship is dependent upon the will of God.

Was it dependent upon Paul's will. Was it depend upon some free will action along those lines question we have to ask to the Saints the ones who are in Ephesus I just noticed in passing there is a textual variant here there are certain early manuscripts and sources Marchione being one of them that does not have an F an N FSO.

This I believe was a circular letter which is why you don't have any personal greetings to the Ephesians in this material but to the Saints who are in the ones in Ephesus and faithful. So both faithful in Christ Jesus and the Saints are placed in parallel to one another.

So if this is a free will choice then this would have to be a free will choice as well. So Saints I guess by their free will choose to be Saints. Is that or is this is descriptive. Of course this is descriptive just as their location is descriptive.

So is there being Saints is descriptive and there being faithful in Christ Jesus is descriptive. So when the meme made reference to Ephesians 1 as if this faithfulness is a innate capacity of the unregenerate man it's not even talking about that.

That's a misuse of this text. That's a misuse of this text. Grace to you in peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And then we enter in verse 3. Of course verses 1 2 is the prologue the introduction verse 3 into the body of the text.

Many have said that everything on the screen here is one long sentence with many many many sub clauses. Most translations obviously break that up. But you could argue here there is actually a break in the nestle and at verse 7 but it you could construe it as a very lengthy lengthy run-on sentence.

But it's important to see from the beginning blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. So we're talking about God the Father. This blessing is being pronounced upon him for what he does for what he does.

And what we will see is throughout this entire section these are divine actions. These are things that are divinely accomplished. And I will just ask you if you think that mankind is actually the one in control of these things where in all of this does mankind get involved.

Because after the introduction blessed to be the God and Father of Jesus Christ the one who blessed us. So the article takes us back over here right there the one who blessed us so the blessing comes.

We bless him because he blessed us. And we're going to see this right here Hamas over and over and over again all the way through here us us us who's the us. Who is the us. Well it's it's the the Saints in Ephesus the Saints in Ephesus.

And there are some theologies that would say this is all of mankind in potentiality. Ask yourself if that would fit in this context because you're going to see that Hamas it's right here there's there's another Hamas right there it's another right there another one right there another one right there it all the way through us us us us us and Hamas is in the accusative form.

The accusative is the case of the being the direct object the object of the verbal actions. And who's who's who's doing the verbs in this section it's God. So God is the one who is active here he has blessed us.

What with every spiritual blessing. Every spiritual blessing comes from God the Father. And they have been given to us in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. So again this would indicate to us that Hamas has a specific audience and that is those people who will receive every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

Now a a universalist might say yeah that's that's everybody that's everyone eventually will receive those those heavenly blessings. But that's not what Paul taught. In other words this is a specific group this is a specific group who receive every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

Just as and then we have a finite verb exalixata. And exalixata has again direct object the same Hamas just as he chose us in him. And you could argue that in some fashion that's referring to God Father.

But because you have this right here and Christo right beforehand all of these in hymns in the beloved one in Christ are referring to the fact that God limits this to his action in Christ. This is I can't think of too many passages in scripture that are more directly contradictory to the idea of pluralism the idea that all roads lead to to God etc etc.

Then you would find right here it was probably less than five minutes that I was back to the same level of volume. I would say probably rich is going uh-huh. So just as he chose us in him. And then we have that please note something.

Verse 4 begins with exalixata chose and I wonder if that I'm not gonna mess up. I'm not gonna mess things up not even gonna play with it. We'll do that some other time. Verse 5 begins with another finite verb to predestine all right.

Exalixata Hamas Parasas Hamas. These again are divine actions of God the Father. In verse 4 we are given a temporal phrase before the foundation of the world so that becomes the temporal context of the verb.

When did this choosing takes place before the foundation of the world. But then there is a purpose clause introduced in the in with the infinitive that we and there is Hamas again we might be holy and blameless before him in love.

Now differing translations. There's different interpretations as to whether in love should be at the end of this phrase or the beginning of the next. So in other words it could be that we should be holy and blameless before him in love.

Or that we should be holy and blameless before him in love. He predestined us. Both make perfect sense doesn't really change the fundamental meaning. And both are possible. Because remember didn't have any of these spaces between words didn't have any punctuation marks.

In the oldest manuscripts long line of capital letters. We could throw p46 up here look at the same text harder to read but same stuff. And so these are editorial choices. But the point is the choosing is before the foundation world and it has a purpose.

The purpose is sanctification that we might be holy and blameless before him. So from the beginning there is an intentionality. There is an intentionality in what God is going to be doing. All of reform theology has always emphasized the intentionality of God.

He is saving a people to make them like Jesus. And that's why all of the blessings must be connected together. That's why the golden chain redemption is a chain they all go together very very important.

So you have the temporal clause. Then you have the purpose clause. And then he predestined us verse 5 unto what. Unto adoption through Jesus Christ unto himself. So there is this emphasis in Ephesians 1 on union with Christ we are in him and it is a very personal union.

This is why this Hamas simply cannot be an impersonal group. It can't be an impersonal group. You see the vast majority of means of trying to get around what this text is saying is to introduce class election.

So what you have here is the choosing and the predestining is a group a class. It's not the individuals in the group that's up to us. The idea is that God is choosing a particular group. And if you get into the group this will be the result of your being in the group is that you will get adoption you will get forgiveness you will get these things.

So the object is moved from us to an impersonal group. And now you now you have all sorts of questions as to does God know who is going to be in that group. Upon what basis does he know this. If you assert as open theists or those who believe in dynamic omniscience that God cannot know as a rational element of his knowledge the actions of free creatures in the future because the future does not yet exist then the best you can say is that this adoption is an unfulfilled hope that may or may not come to fruition.

But it when Christ dies for everyone in the future. And of course on an open theistic perspective you you can't know who's going to exist in the future because every person who exists today 2 ,000 years after the time of Christ of Christ is a result of literally millions of free choices of free creatures.

And if you want to do what open theism does to try to preserve the concept of free choice in the sense of autonomous will then you you simply have to say God could not have known that I would ever exist because thousands of people up line for me might have chosen somebody else to marry or may have not chosen Mary at all.

And so I could be a very very different person or just not exist as a person so on and so forth. So the result of class election is an is a removal of the personal aspect of this. It only becomes personal if we make it personal on down the road.

But this predestination is of us unto adoption through Jesus Christ to himself. Oh so if I just hold it long enough okay I got I was personally getting tired of the same color. So we're gonna change color here for the fun of it.

And I'll remember that through Jesus Christ again becomes the repeated reality of the exclusive nature and it is ice out on to the Father. So we have our access to the Father through Jesus Christ he is the God man.

It is the second person in the Trinity who took on flesh. That's why he will always be the God man because it is through him that we are united to God. And that is a concept that you will not find anywhere else in world religion.

It is absolutely unique absolutely unique. But then we come to the key issue. Then we come to the key issue and it's found right here. And I want to make this nice and clear according to the kind intention of his will may well be the clearest statement in inspired writ that answers the mysteriously unrevealed reasons objection that was seen in the meme.

And my response to the meme on Twitter was to simply quote this and say this is enough for any redeemed heart. This is for any redeemed heart this kata then this little preposition gives us the foundation gives us the basis of all that has come before these choices that have come before.

The kind intention is that a kind intention. I'd like to submit to you that many people in their zeal to defend the autonomous will of man fundamentally blaspheme that term right there beginning here you that in Greek is good the good purpose it's a good purpose.

It is the good purpose of his will. And when people try to judge the eternal God's actions based upon their personal very limited experience and say I would never worship a God who would do these things.

What they're saying is I cannot see how that's a good purpose. And so I reject that I reject that this is the the foundation this is the basis according to the good purpose of his will his will his the lame atas please show me in Scripture.

Or man's will in this matter is considered to be eudaic. The will that is presented to us here is God's will as being good. And this is enough for the redeemed heart in the darkest of times in the darkest of circumstance.

God's people look at that and say I can trust him to see what we're gonna see that he's gonna be described right down here as having predestined according to the purpose of the one working all things according to the counsel of his philemon toss right there.

That's the Christian God. That's not the pagan God who tries that's the Christian God. And it's amazing to me there are so many Christians that don't want that Christian God. That is amazing. So kata is our preposition here according to.

And then we have the next unto ice the praise of his glorious grace or you could simply say praise of the glory of his grace that is acceptable. It's not as flowing as the NIV might want. But you could translate Doc's ace taste caritas out to as to the praise of the glory of his grace or his glorious grace.

But there are you there are your two big answers. The big answers kata. Well that's that's the basis. That's the foundation result the praise of his glorious grace praise of his glorious grace. And again that for the heart that recognizes the depth of its own sin and its own slavery to sin this will be sufficient.

This would be enough. I simply suggest that if this is not enough for you it may be because you have yet to come to realize how much you are dependent upon us. And this glorious grace that we are to praise right here was which relative pronoun pointing back was graced to us a car.

It doesn't. You see caritas right here. Then we've got the verb a car. It doesn't. And look who's right behind it. There's our hamas again which we were abundantly graced which we received as a gift and toe a gap a minnow.

Now I told the story yesterday. I'll go ahead and repeat it even though I'm trying to get through this as efficiently as I can. I grew up in a context where you called everybody in the church the beloved.

Well beloved here we are. And so beloved was a plural it was a it was a y 'all it was it was a religious y 'all it was what beloved was. But even if the percipial form looks strange to you you've got a article right there toe.

And whenever you have toe with the eota subscript that's singular as is of course standing right there. So in the beloved one that's in Jesus that's in Jesus that's so again where do we receive his glorious grace.

Where is it graced to us. It's in the beloved one. It is in Christ Jesus in him alone. And so as soon as you have the presentation of the idea of Christ in whom we have and echo men there's your amen at the end.

So we're. We're continuing the hey ma same group in whom we have redemption. How diya to haima toss out to through his blood. I see in light of Romans chapter 8 particular redemption here obviously those who would say well this is not determined the the content of the plural is not determined by God's choice is determined by our choice can then expand out the atonement and make it impersonal again so that we're the ones who fill out who actually ends up benefiting from it which is very difficult with with substitutionary atonement.

Substitutionary atonement is a reformed doctrine. When non-reformed people try to embrace substitutionary atonement they are unbeknownst to themselves contradicting their own position. Because if you died with Christ either everybody died with him or nobody died with him.

The idea that he died and then we join ourselves to him at some point later on doesn't make any sense. And certainly is not what is being taught here. But our redemption is through his blood. And that redemption then in a positive phrase you'll notice you see the accusative article here.

Then you have an accusative article repeated here. So this becomes in a positive phrase that is the forgiveness of our trespasses. So redemption the forgiveness of our trespasses. How many of our trespasses can possibly be forgiven.

Well a whole bunch. How do we know. Because it is according to the riches of his grace. See here's here's katah again. Remember katah up here. Remember that one katah gives us the foundation it gives us the basis.

So this was according to the kind intention as well. Now how much forgiveness. How much forgiveness. It's according to the riches of his grace. I can't help but think that there might not be a lot of folks in the audience who need to hear the fact that the standard the depths of that grace is his grace not ours.

It's inexhaustible. The riches the riches top plutus. That's one of the reasons I just feel I just am so sad for Roman Catholics. Because of the sacramental system of Rome the riches of his grace becomes limited.

You don't have a finished sacrifice. You have to go to that mass over and over again. You have to go to that man who calls himself an altar Christos. You have the penances. You have the false doctrine of sin.

And that's why you don't have peace is because you don't understand the riches of his grace. It's not funneled. These riches are not funneled through the sacramental system of Rome. He has made those riches that the riches of that that grace he has made which going back again which he has made to abound unto I hope by now.

Hey moss has become one of your favorite Greek words because it's a beautiful Greek word. He has made to abound unto us. We didn't make it about. Have you seen man doing anything here. Yeah the only thing that I can find about man in all of this mess is right here our sins we we do the sinning we do what makes us need redemption.

But this is God. He here it is again there. See it see the end of you. He made to abound unto us. This is how God does it. And he's done it in all wisdom and understanding. Isn't it funny that we have Sophia right there.

Because mankind is so so focused on wisdom and demonstrating wisdom. And there's some there's some young men out there you think you are just the sharpest thing that's come along and forever. And yet in your heart you know you're in rebellion against all this.

There is a wisdom in all of this. But it's a wisdom in recognizing that God is the source of all these things wisdom and understanding. And he made known that interesting it's to us that's partly because of the meaning of notices but made known to us the mystery of his will.

Now here here here we go. Here's here's mystery there we had that in the in the meme right. The mystery he has made known the mystery of his will to us. Well what's what is it. Well he's made known the mystery of his will.

Here's another katah according to his. You'd I can't. Where have we seen. You'd I can before here still remains completely in the realm of what God is willing to reveal and why God wants us to know the foundation of our salvation.

And that is which which he has purposed in Christ which he has purposed in Christ. This is you know the idea that God wanted to do one thing and then that didn't work out. And so he adopted plan B and that didn't work.

And now he's on plan C. And and all this stuff that you can get in process theology and all this kind of of utter philosophical nonsense out there just crashes against the rocks of inspired scriptures such as this he intended these things in Christ Jesus.

And what was that intention unto the you can actually call this dispensation in a sense I kind of me on the the working out the government of the fullness of the times that the fullness of the times the things that were being looked forward to by the prophets being fulfilled now.

And what is he intending to do in the fullness of times. I need a I need a new color here. So I've got so many cool colors up here already. It's uh there's only so many left and we'll go with a bright one right there to sum up.

It is a infinitive. You can see Kefale right here head so to to to sum up to bring into one all things in Christ all things in Christ the things in heaven of things upon the earth. So that should sound somewhat familiar to us.

Remember what is Ephesians the parallel letter to Colossians. You can see the connection in the language all things in heaven and where in him in him in Christ in whom in Christ going back right here in whom we have been called.

And there's your there's your ending which connects us back to Haman Hamas same thing all the way through having been predestined there's Proridzo one again once again having been predestined here it was up here.

So here's your two occurrences right there having been predestined kata here's kata again word we first see it up here there's we keep pointing to that one up there to the purpose of then you're we already noted this before the one working according to his will here's will down here the purpose of his will bullae all things all things all things in this heaven this earth being worked according to his will.

This becomes the foundation of Paul's understanding. He starts here. Then he makes application to what we experience in time beginning in verse 12. So we might be to the first to the praise of of him.

So on and so forth. I'm not going to try to scroll everything and and redo everything that's up there. So what do we see. We see that for the redeemed heart it is sufficient to understand that our salvation is due according to the kind intention of his will and that its result is the praise of his glorious grace.

If you find that to be insufficient then you find God's revelation to be insufficient. And I'll simply say to you if you think you've found something that goes beyond that it will not satisfy and will eventually lead you away from what is found right.

The Redeemed Heart and the Good Purpose of God’s Will

Provisionism reminds us that the Reformation is still ongoing because provisionists if they were to take a side between Luther and Erasmus will take Erasmus's side and will actually say that Erasmus seeds too much territory to Luther because some of them that I'm seeing today go beyond Roman Catholicism.

They go beyond Erasmus into beliefs that I know historically when they have entered into the external Christian Church before have always led any denomination infected by them to utter apostasy. That's the verdict of history.

Wow. I like that. That's what I did yesterday. Okay that that. That's what I did yesterday. That's I know. I know when I went back and looked at that video I just wanted to cry. I just wanted to cry. I really did.

But that's what we did yesterday. I hope this has been useful to you. I hope what we'll probably do is we'll probably break this section out and maybe post it separately. That would be a good idea. Yeah.

That'd be a good idea. So if you're seeing this we and you'll see it after the the interview I don't know what we'll do but we'll get it all up there so that people can see it and hopefully utilize it and be helpful to you.

Thank you for watching and we'll have more to say on this subject in the future I can assure you that. But God bless.