Monday, October 06, 2008

Election Season

Have you ever seen a game where a team never punts the football, has no penalties, has over 530 yards of total offense with over 310 of those yards rushing, has one back with over 8 yards per carry and another back with over 7 yards per carry...and loses the game?

I have.

The loss to Hawaii Saturday night remains one of the most mystifying, ridiculous events I've ever seen in sports. A real head scratcher in every sense.

---------------

It's election season and in a matter of one month, American voters will go to the polls to elect the next person who'll serve as the Chief Executive of the nation.

In the Bible, the idea of election shows up, but not in the sense we conceive of election politically. Over 15 times in the New Testament, the Bible speaks of "God's election" (Romans 9.11) or the "elect of God" (1 Peter 1.1).

John Calvin built a theology on these references to election in the Bible that believed God makes an advance decision as to who will be saved and who won't. Calvin's theology of unconditional election proposes that God, as if stepping into the voting booth, colors in the bubble for some individuals and doesn't for others. For Calvin, the response of faith in a person's life is secondary to God's predestined choice to elect some.

I don't believe the Bible backs up Calvin's claims. The Bible speaks of the election, not of individuals in a predetermined fashion, but of a group. God did, in advance, choose a group of people to be his own. And when an individual responds to God's act of mercy in Jesus Christ, then that person is added to the elect group that is the church, the people of God.

When God chose Abram in Genesis 12, God determined that through Abram's seed, all nations of the earth would be blessed. It wasn't for an absence of people-groups at the time of Abram -- there were ample options of people-groups available for God. But God chose Abram in order to create a group of people who would represent God to the nations.

And now, post-Calvary, we bask in the blessing of living each day as the elect people of God.

This election season, as a child of the King and a member of Christ's body, remember...it's not about me, it's about us!