Session 7: Objections to Calvinism

Romans 9 and the Objections Paul Anticipates

Now our last speaker for the conference, Pastor Mark Grimaldi, he's going to be handling the topic Objections to Calvinism. Pastor Grimaldi is the pastor at Grace Reformed Baptist Church in Merrick. He graduated from the Reformed Baptist Pastoral Training Institute in Worcester, Mass.

And he has been married to his wife, Julianne, for 16 years, and they have eight children. Pastor Mark, come and speak to us.

It is good to be here with you. It's been a great encouragement to sit under the teaching and the preaching of the men who have worked this conference today and yesterday, and I feel like I'm on information overload right now to some degree from absorbing all that.

But really, it was just a blessing to my soul, very encouraging, and I thought these men did a great job, just well-rounded in addressing these issues. I'm going to ask you to turn with me to Romans chapter 9.

Romans chapter 9. The good thing about Romans 9, you always hear that phrase, the good thing about it, it's Scripture, of course it's a good thing. It's God-breathed. Is that when you're dealing with objections, the Apostle Paul is anticipating objections in this text to some of the things that he's going to say.

Remember, in Romans chapter 8, he just spoke about basically that God, we have nothing to be concerned about as far as our salvation being complete, everything is secure, at the right hand of God and Christ, very encouraging for whom God foreknew He would conform to the image of Christ, those we love, right, would be predestined, so all that wonderful knowledge, that teaching on the doctrines of grace that we see in Romans 8.

And then you get to Romans 9, and Paul knows that the big question is going to be that if God does preserve His people like that, if He is faithful like that, then what happened to Israel? Why is Israel in shambles?

Why are there so many who don't believe among the Israelites? And so Romans 9 addresses some of that, and when he addresses that, he knows that there are certain objections that would immediately come from our human nature, and he deals with those objections pretty strongly in this text.

So I want to read that as a preface to what we'll be looking at this afternoon. Notice verse 1, I am speaking the truth in Christ, I am not lying. My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart, for I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh.

They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ who is God over all, blessed forever, amen.

But it is not as though the Word of God has failed. That's the question, but what happened with Israel? It's not as though the Word of God has failed, for not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel.

And not all are children of Abraham, because they are his offspring. But through Isaac shall your offspring be named. This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.

For this is what the promise said about this time, next year, I will return, and Sarah shall have a son. And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad, in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works, but because of Him who calls, she was told, the older will serve the younger.

As it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated. What shall we say then? So here's one of the objections. Is there injustice on God's part? By no means, for he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.

So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy. For the scripture says to Pharaoh, for this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.

So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. Then another objection. You will say to me then, why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will? But who are you, old man, to answer back to God?

Will what is molded say to its molder, why have you made me like this? Has the potter no right over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?

What if God, desiring to show His wrath and to make known His power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of His glory for vessels of mercy, which He has prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom He has called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles.

Let's stop there for the time being. Let's just pray for a moment. Father, we do give you thanks for your glorious word. We give you thanks for the wonderful truths that we have heard proclaimed to us this weekend.

We pray, Lord, that these things would drive us to all the more give you praise and worship in seeing what you have done, in seeing, Lord, that even as mankind thinks that we're in control, that ultimately, Lord, this is your story.

This is about your glory. This is your creation, and you have ordained to do with it as you please. And we thank you, Father, that you have included us in that glorious plan by redeeming a people for yourself in Christ.

And we pray now that you give us grace to look into your word now and to think about some of the objections that would come against the teachings that we have gone over this weekend. We ask for the blessing of your Holy Spirit.

We ask that you'd forgive us for our sins and meet with us. We pray in Christ's name, amen. To say that the five points of Calvinism make up a pill that is easy to swallow would be dishonest and offensive, especially for those who are caught in the throes of wrestling through the teachings.

I agree with our brother Eli who said earlier that we need to be careful and gracious when seeking to present these truths, not to beat people over the head with a Calvinistic club, but to graciously show them these truths.

I can remember when I first began to wrestle with these doctrines well over 20 years ago now, and I was filled with great fear and anguish, pleading with God to enable me to embrace the truth as a comfort, whatever it might be.

I knew that He had to be a good God, that had to be a given in the mathematical equation. And I knew that all of His truth must be good and proper, no matter how difficult it may be to grasp. The truth should not add shackles, but rather it should set us free, according to what the Lord Jesus Christ said.

And over time, the very doctrines that taunted my soul with questions about the goodness of God became the pillow upon which I have now rested my head and soul for so many years. But needless to say, it was a transition moving from one extreme, if you can imagine and remember before you were saved.

Pre-salvation, I lived, at least in a practical sense, even though I made some type of verbal profession of acknowledging God, I didn't live that way and I didn't believe in truth. I really thought that, in a practical sense at least, that man was in control and was the ultimate maker of his own destiny.

And yeah, God may exist and He's out there, but He's just so far away and we're really the ones that are running this ship here. So to go from there to being convinced at the other extreme, post-salvation, that God ordains every single thing that comes to pass, even down to the minutest details, you can imagine, as you know, that that's a profound wake-up call, to say the least.

To go from one extreme to the other. Thus far, you've heard sermons on all five of the points throughout the course of this conference. And so it is my task now this afternoon to address some of the objections to Calvinism which are commonly brought about by those who reject these teachings.

To be sure, there are legitimate, reasonable, and biblical arguments which proponents of Calvinism must graciously deal with. There are valid questions that must be answered while seeking to firm up the positive assertions that are made by the five points.

My aim, therefore, is to address some of what I believe to be some of the prominent objections to Calvinism. I can't possibly address every one, but we do have a rectangular table meeting afterwards where you can ask those kinds of questions or put them in, give them a questionnaire, and so we can do that.

It's impossible to address everything, but I will address what I believe to be some of the key objections that are put forth. And I want to group these objections into three main categories, the ones that I will address.

First, I want to address two key biblical objections to Calvinism. Now, when I say biblical, I mean those that would be taken from Scripture and could seem to contradict the very teachings of Calvinism that have been put before you this weekend.

Secondly, I want to address one key philosophical objection to Calvinism. And then thirdly, I want to address two key practical objections to Calvinism. Now, there's going to be some overlap amongst those categories, but that's where we're heading at this point.

So, concerning the matter then of biblical objections to Calvinism, I want to hone in especially on the various texts of Scripture which would seem to emphasize the fact that man has a free will, including all of the choice passages where we're commanded to believe.

Believe the Gospel. God commands everyone to repent. The commands to all people could seem to be contradictory to what we've been going over about Calvinism, which shows that God is the One who gives the grace to, who saves, who brings everyone into His kingdom.

Why are we commanding people then? Or why are there commands for people to believe? If God is the One who has to create that faith within us. And then the second biblical objection that I want to address is what we call the all text.

You have to address that. Seeming to indicate that God's true design is for all people, as in every single individual, to be saved and that Christ died for the whole world. And our brother Eli, I believe it was earlier, had mentioned some of those texts where it talks about Christ dying not only for our sins, but for the whole world.

For all the nations. For every person. You hear that kind of language with the all's and the every type language. So we'll address that as well. First then, what then do we do with the passages of Scripture which seem to indicate that man has the natural ability to choose Christ of his own will?

In fact, why does God command all men to repent and believe the Gospel? Acts 17 .30. And we're called as preachers, those who preach and even those who go out and evangelize, to say that God commands you to repent.

We're called to do that. Why would God do that? Knowing the doctrines we've just gone over. And why are people held accountable for rejecting the Gospel when it is beyond their power to choose Christ and to believe the Gospel?

So I'm going to address that second part of the question first, and then work back to those choose texts as well. First, let me begin by stating that the Apostle Paul himself addresses this matter here in Romans 9, particularly in verse 19.

In this context, while addressing the fact that God has not preserved all of ethnic Israel, when you look at Romans 8 .28 and all those wonderful, beautiful texts about the security we have in Christ and say what happened to Israel, we see in Romans 9 that Paul addresses the fact that God has not preserved all of ethnic Israel, but he instructs the Romans that not all ethnic Israel are part of the true Israel of God, to whom God had made all of His eternal promises throughout the Old Covenant, and especially through Abraham.

God never had in mind all ethnic Israel. He spoke of Israel in that covenant with His people when He was dealing with the eternal promises, even though He did have physical promises and locational promises that were for all ethnic Israel in the same covenant.

There is a spiritual Israel. Those who share the same faith as Abraham, and not those who are merely physically descended from Abraham, who are the true Israel of God. It's those who are justified by faith.

They have the same faith, and not just physically descended from Abraham. Indeed, a remnant among ethnic Israel is part of the broader universal spiritual Israel of God, which includes all who are joined to Christ by faith from every nation.

And to explain this reality, Paul first gives the examples of Jacob and Esau here in chapter 9. Remember, both of them were physically descendants of Abraham, right? Both Jacob and Esau came from the loins, ultimately, of Abraham.

And Paul shows how God loved and chose the one, that is Jacob, and hated and rejected the other. And just when you want to interpret that as loved less, go back and see where Paul is quoting from the Old Testament, and see how God spoke about Edom against Esau, and seek the language he uses there about condemning them and bringing destruction doesn't mean hate.

I don't know how else hate can be defined when you look at what God says about the judgment He bring upon them. And he says here that even before either one of these children were born, before they were born, before they committed any act of good or evil, so that God's purposes, and this is important in this text, His preordained plans according to election might stand, He chose the one and not the other.

So that His purposes in election might stand, He chose the one and not the other. Nothing about He saw something better in Jacob. He saw something that Jacob might at some point come to his senses on his own at some point, and he saw down the tunnels of time.

No, it's according to God's purposes in election. His own design will that He had desired to save the one and not the other. We're not doing an altar call here. I don't know if we are. I'm kidding, I'm kidding, he's fine, I'm joking.

I'm just kidding. He's cute. Following this, Paul then turns to the example of Pharaoh. And he shows how God had intentionally hardened the heart of Pharaoh so that He might show forth His power and glory through Pharaoh's ultimate demise.

So he raises Pharaoh up, and you see that in how many times, when I went back and read Exodus, I was amazed to see how many times God says in advance to Moses, He's not gonna let you go. Because I'm not gonna let Him let you go, because I'm gonna glorify My name in bringing destruction upon Him and the gods of the Egyptians.

And I'm gonna harden His heart. And they didn't get that, but He kept saying it in advance. And so Paul concludes then, therefore, verse 18, God has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills, He hardens.

And then it's immediately following this point that Paul addresses the very question that we're dealing with at the moment, and which many continue to pose today. In verse 19, because naturally when you hear that truth about what God does, ordaining the one and not the other before they even did wrong, or before they were born, you can see logically how you would ask this question.

And so Paul says, how can God still find fault? For who has resisted His will? How can God hold accountable a people whom He hardens, and who are incapable of turning to Him of their own free will, since He chooses not to extend mercy to them?

Isn't that the objections we hear today? Paul is speaking in the sense, he knows that that's the natural question that we would ask. But then verses 20 and 21, Paul answers that question in a very sobering way, but it's right and proper.

And he says in verses 20 and 21, but indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? I mean, right there, we can just say amen, let's close in prayer, right here. Who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to Him who formed it, why have you made me like this?

Does not the potter have power over the clay from the same lump to make one vessel for honor, and another for dishonor? And so what's Paul's point here? We really have no right to question the Creator concerning what He does with His creation.

And He has every right to reach into the fallen mass of mankind, the whole lump is fallen, and that's the whole idea of extending mercy in this context, to reach into a fallen lump and to extend mercy to some while hardening and bringing judgment upon others.

He has that right. That's His prerogative as the Creator to extend mercy or not to extend mercy in accordance with His will. None deserve the mercy whatsoever, but some receive it freely and justly in accordance with God's desire.

But then notice verses 22 and 24 as well, Paul adds to this, and even in a sense entertains the question. He says, who are we to question God anyway? But then he kind of opens up the door a little bit and says this, what if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels, remember that idea of vessels in that context, formed clay vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels, again, prepared by the potter, of mercy which He had prepared beforehand for glory.

Even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles. You see, all in all, God having created all things for His glory reveals to us that His ultimate design for this creation is to glorify Himself.

That's the ultimate reason why we exist. This is for His glory. And He glorifies Himself by revealing His own nature and being and exhibiting His glorious attributes before His creatures, spiritual and physical, angelic and human alike.

He reveals Himself to those whom He's created in great ways. He shows forth His characteristics. And that's how God is glorified. See, it comes back to realizing that God had no reason to create this creation because He was lacking in some sense.

He wasn't up there in the Trinity having a conversation with a cup of coffee and saying, you know, this is kind of getting boring eternally. We need to do something to kind of have fun. No, this is a holy and good desire of God as He creates this creation.

The motive for creating is to glorify Himself and He's already perfect and has everything within Himself, and so He wants others that are created by Him to experience and witness His glory and His attributes and who He is.

And that's how God is glorified. And so He is glorified, we see here in Romans, in showing His mercy and grace legally in Christ toward vessels of mercy, while revealing His justice, power, and righteousness in bringing judgment upon vessels of wrath.

Now, that might not be something that's comfortable to the taste buds, but that's the reality. God wants to reveal His righteousness. God wants to show that as a people are against Him and turn against Him and rebel against Him and hate Him and go against His will and think they're getting away with it, that He is a just and righteous God.

And He's going to show that by bringing judgment upon those rebels. But He's also amazingly going to show this grace by taking amongst that naturally condemned lump of clay, pulling some out, sending His Son to be ashamed and die for them so that He can redeem them and set them up as kings, as it were, along with His Son.

To this end, it's also important then to recognize, and this gets back to the question about the freedom of the will, it's important to recognize and why we command people to repent and to believe, why we give that command, whether or not they have the ability of themselves to do that in accomplishing God's will.

And this just came out in, I think this was Brother Micah, somebody, one of you had mentioned this. In fact, a lot of the messages you heard, they stole my notes, just in case you're wondering about that.

That's the kind of men we're dealing with here, integrity-wise. And I was really ashamed to see that. Eli, I never even met this guy and he's stealing my notes too. I mean, I have at least some decency to know me.

In accomplishing His will, God has also ordained various means of obtaining these ends. And the means equally bring Him glory as much as the ends do. And so He ordains means. And His means of extending mercy and grace to vessels of mercy is through the preaching of the Gospel.

That's His ordained means. He calls His sheep, through the proclamation of the Gospel, by men and women, by human beings, which the Holy Spirit brings to the hearts of God's elect with power. And those who reject the Gospel are still responsible for doing so because they reject it willfully and intentionally.

They reject it of their own will. God doesn't put a button inside of them and say, you know what, these people would naturally want to believe, so I'm going to turn their heart in the sense where I'm going to actively try to change something in them to bend their will in this direction.

He doesn't have to do that. As we learned from Total Depravity with Brother Anthony Novino, if you weren't here yesterday to hear those two messages, please listen to them. They were very well done. Both of the first two messages were done well also.

It's not in them to be able to come to God, right? Because of their depraved nature. But they reject it willfully and intentionally. Is it the case that God hardens individuals and chooses not to regenerate them unto receiving the Gospel?

Yes, that's the case. But at the same time, they willfully reject it and want nothing to do with it. God chooses not to overcome their willful rejection, but they are still guilty of that nonetheless.

And those who do receive the Gospel, God has overcome, as Pastor Rich did a fine job in talking about irresistible grace, God has overcome by the power of His Spirit so that they would be awakened to and receive the Gospel gladly.

Not dragged, kicking, and screaming. But they desire it. They're made willing in the day of His power. In other words, God acts unto the salvation of the elect but He leaves the non-elect to themselves not choosing to act, which leads to their own willful condemnation.

The door to hell, as it were, is closed from the inside. It's what they're desirous. When God hardens, and brother Jim Campbell stole this from me yesterday. When God hardens, He removes His power of restraint over the sinner's heart, leaving them to do what they would do naturally because of their fallen condition.

But God is constantly restraining this entire world. And if He left His restraint off, if He removed His intentional restraint, we'd all be eating each other alive and raping one another. We'd do all the worst things imaginable that you see out there.

We'd all do it. But He removes His restraint and leaves people to their condition. And that's exactly what happened with Pharaoh. Which is why in Exodus, we're told both that God hardened Pharaoh's heart, but we're also told that Pharaoh hardened his own heart.

In those texts as well. God didn't push Pharaoh to act wickedly. He simply removed all restraint and gave Pharaoh over to the power of his own wicked, deceptive nature. And so we're called to preach the Gospel to all with sincerity, presenting Christ as more than willing and able to save all sinners.

The sufficiency of His sacrifice is there for all. It's sufficient. If God wanted, Christ's sacrifice could pay for the sins of this whole world. If He wanted to do it, it could be done. And yet, only the elect will efficiently receive of the benefits of His sacrifice, leading them to salvation in accordance with God's elective purposes.

Man is called to believe because everyone whom God saves will and must believe. And everyone whom God does not save does not believe because of their own unwillingness to believe. Calling one to believe and having the power to believe are two different things.

I think Brother Bruce Bennett stole that from me, if I remember, right? It's two different things. The command is still valid and we still have the responsibility just as we do to keep God's commands.

Whether or not we're able to do that because of our own sin nature is not the issue. But the command is still legitimate to believe and so we do that. Secondly, you know, what about all the all passages?

What of those texts that speak of Christ dying for all nations or for the whole world? That kind of language. How are we to understand them within a Calvinistic context? Now there are different all passages and some have to do with, as Brother Eli said, the word all, I mean, they spoke the way we speak today as well and they use language, like when he said everyone is going out to John the Baptist.

The disciples turn the whole world upside down. I mean, they use that kind of language in the ways that we do in a general sense, not meaning every individual and so that's important. But there's also something else to recall, to remember as well.

How are we to understand these all passages within a Calvinistic context? Well, first we have to understand them within a Judaistic historical context. The entire world, think about this, think about this for a moment.

See, we're up here in the rafters, the infrastructure of the church we've been building on the foundation for 2 ,000 years. We're all the way up in the rafters here somewhere. We don't realize how intense it was, how dramatic it was with what was taking place when the foundation of the church was being laid.

What an amazing point in history. For us, it's easy to just take it for granted, but for them, it was a big deal. Remember, for literally thousands of years, God was dealing only with the nation of Israel.

The entire world was closed off to the blessings and privileges which Israel had enjoyed. The Old Covenant was with Israel alone. And so following the coming of Christ, the kingdom of God is now expanded to the whole world.

Every nation was to be welcomed in with the dividing wall which once separated Israel from all other nations for thousands of years, having been torn down, not only physically as we see in AD 70, but spiritually more importantly in Christ.

This was by far not an easy reality for anyone to grasp, and especially the first century Jew. One only needs to look at how hard it was for Peter to come to grips with this reality, to get a taste and appreciation for the magnitude of the transition was taking place.

Isn't there a part of you looking at Peter and saying, Peter, how can you still not get it? You had the blanket come down in his vision three times. You're still struggling, arguing with God. And oh Lord, I never ate anything unclean.

And you go into the Gentiles. And then later on, at some point, he's eating with the Gentiles, but when some of the Jews come in, he pulls back and Paul rebukes Peter publicly. It was a very huge transition to bring Jew and Gentile together.

And if one of the key apostles is having trouble, what does that say for the rest of the apostles and the average Christian Jew in that day? It's difficult for us to appreciate this some 2 ,000 years later, after the foundation has been well established and we're up in the rafters.

But needless to say, this expansion of the kingdom of God was a very big deal to Jew and Gentile alike. And it certainly came with many bumps and bruises in the church. See how much time is given to dealing with the issue of circumcision to get an appreciation.

How long did it take them to get the point across that the Gentiles don't have to be circumcised to be part of the Jewish community, to join together to serve Christ? How long did that take? How much Scripture was written to deal with that from the apostle Paul and others?

Also, one of the major purposes of the sign gifts was to bring together, to show that God is bringing together Jew and Gentile. Peter decided to see that Cornelius and then they had the gift of the Spirit.

He said, how can I forbid baptism to these Gentiles? And so when we hear of Christ dying for the whole world or for all people or for everyone or for all nations, we're not meant to think of the Scriptures as referencing every single individual in the world.

Rather, the emphasis is to be placed on the fact that this glorious Gospel is not limited to the sphere of the little strip of Israel anymore. It's not limited to the old covenant people of God. The biblically consistent emphasis is on a people from every nation and not on every person in every nation.

Jesus says, my sheep, hear My voice. And He specifically says to some of the religious leaders, you're not of My fold, which is why you don't hear Me. But His sheep are from all over the world. And so that is a major reason why you see some of those old texts about the whole world.

It's to emphasize this is not just for the Jews and here in Jerusalem. It's for the whole world. He's died for the whole world. And we could say that in a sense today, although people can misunderstand that because we're not in that early context.

But in that time, that was a big deal that there were people speaking all kinds of other languages who were worshiping all kinds of foreign gods up to that point, who are now welcomed into the kingdom of God.

They couldn't even eat together, the Jews with the Gentiles up to that point. And so that's where your emphasis on a lot of those old texts should be placed. Furthermore, this concept of all also includes classes of people in accordance with God's desire to save all types of people, not just the poor and lower classes.

There were some people, and Paul addresses this with Timothy. He says, look, I want you, Timothy, as you are there laying hands on people and working with people in Ephesus and those regions, I want you to understand that you need to have them pray for all people, not just the poor.

You need to pray for those kings. You need to pray for those governors. See, they were neglecting that prayer, thinking this is not for them, this Gospel. It's only for the lower classes. And he says, no.

He says that God, that Jesus Christ, right, died for all people, and that God is looking to save all people. He has a desire for all types of people. He's talking about in that context in Timothy, which is often misunderstood, and people think it is literally every single individual when he's talking about types.

And so it's important to consider the context of those old passages. Well, let me quickly move on, because I'm running out of time quickly here, to one key philosophical objection to Calvinism. One key philosophical objection.

How can we believe that God is a just God if He only chooses some to be saved from their sins? Isn't that unfair? This would be the philosophical one. How can that be fair? Why should you be saved and God chooses you and not this individual over here?

How is that fair? Now, we've already addressed this a bit when considering man's lack of ability to choose to believe, but I want to add a few more comments here. Once again, Paul actually addresses this very objection in Romans 9 when dealing with the matter of God's having chosen to love Jacob and hate Esau before either was born or had done right or wrong.

Knowing our natural response, Paul adds in verse 14, what shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not. And again, Paul goes on to state that God is very right to do whatever He wishes, to show mercy or not to show mercy to whomever He wishes because He is the potter over the entire lump of fallen clay.

What we have to recognize again, friends, is that God is not obligated to show mercy to anyone. We're not dealing with a righteous lump of clay where God simply wants to damn people to hell for the sake of damning people to hell.

Now, I don't believe that God has any desire in Him, innate desire to say, you know what? I'd like to create a creation because I'd like in part to see people burn. God doesn't delight in the death of the wicked.

He doesn't rejoice in the expression of His wrath even. He's glorified in it. He's revealed in it, but He doesn't get joy in people burning forever and ever. We're dealing with a completely fallen, utterly depraved, lost and ungodly batch of clay which by right, universally deserves hell.

But God reaches in through the incarnation, crucifixion and death of His Son and rescues some to bring glory to Himself in the manifestation of His grace. And to this end, God's ultimate design for this entire creation is to glorify Himself by holding up on display both His grace and His wrath.

He's revealing both His wrath on those whom He does not save and His grace on those whom He does save. You see, what ultimately delivered me from any fear of God being unrighteous or unjust in the ordering of every aspect of the salvation of man was when I came to understand more deeply the doctrine of man's total depravity.

I think that's the linchpin for me as well. I think Brother Anthony had said that and I agree with him. That is the linchpin. Because while we can say that we're all depraved, we don't know the extent of that depravity as far as to the extent of how it affects our abilities or not.

Are we dead or are we a part of a lot? We don't get that. Just how depraved we are. When you come to see some of the inner trenches of wickedness in your own heart, and that there is nothing naturally good, godly or lovable in you, and then you consider that God loves you, has sent His Son to die for you, and has made you a new creation, and all of that in the light of His impeccable holiness upon which angels cannot even gaze, you begin to question not why God saves some, but why God saves anyone, and even more so, why has God saved me?

See, that was the place that God took me in my own walk. As I prayed that prayer, I didn't realize He was going to say, okay, you want to get a comfort from the doctrines of election and see the truth and get comfort from them?

First, let me take you on a tour into your own heart to see some of the wickedness that's naturally there. And that helped me to appreciate His grace. And when you consider that God loved you at your worst, and called you effectually when you cursed and hated Him in your heart, the power of the reality of God's unchanging and unfathomable love overwhelms your soul.