Once there was God, and nothing else. This stretches the mind. It is doubly difficult because we first try to imagine vast expanses of nothing, a sort of infinite sea of black. But there is no expanse, and there is no black. Then we try, treading on dangerous ground, to envision the triune God, who is invisible. Nevertheless, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit were, and nothing else was. There was no time when They were not, though there was a They when time was not. If we really understood this, there would be no doubters as to the sovereignty of God in His works of providence, or of election. Because there was God and nothing else, there are no conditions of which He is not the ultimate cause. Because the Bible begins with “In the beginning God,” the Bible teaches unconditional election.
When we deny this truth we do so by denying one of the most fundamental of truths, the law of causality. This law recognizes that every effect must have a sufficient cause. If something happens, it happens because something caused it to happen. That’s a fancy way of saying that you get nothing from nothing. There never was nothing. We know this for two reasons. First, the Bible doesn’t begin with “In the beginning nothing,” but “In the beginning God…” Second, if there ever was nothing, there would have to be nothing now. You can’t get something for nothing. Even in metaphysics, there’s no such thing as a free lunch.
Let’s suppose, for the sake of argument, that the elect are in fact made such conditionally. The most common view is that God elected those whom He saw, by peering down the corridor of time would choose Him. But we can, in this argument choose anything as God’s condition for election. Suppose He elected all those who have an odd number for their shoe size. Both of these look like conditions. They serve as a measurable way of separating the elect and the reprobate. The trouble is that in both instances, and indeed in any like condition, a part of the equation is hidden. If we push the causes for the conditions back far enough, eventually we will get back to “In the beginning God.” What, for instance, would God foresee if He peered down the corridor of time? Only those things of which He is the ultimate cause. If He foresaw that I would choose Him, we are left asking why I would choose Him. Our Arminian friends will try to squirm away from giving any kind of meritorious answer for that why, knowing that we’re not supposed to have reason to boast.
It doesn’t help. Whether I chose Him in this make believe unplanned future because I was smarter or dumber, more or less pious, begs the same question again; How did I get that way? I can’t make myself smarter or more pious, unless I am already smarter or more pious than the reprobate. Not even Cinderella’s step sisters could choose, or change, their shoe size. The trail will lead back to God. If He foresaw that I would choose Him, because of my piety, He foresaw the fruit of the piety that He gave me in the first place.
If the difference is not meritorious, it doesn’t help any. Suppose God looked down the corridor of time and saw that I would choose Him. The reason, what separates me from the lost, is the godliness of my parents, that they worked faithfully to raise me in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. I certainly didn’t choose my parents, and so cannot take any credit. But who did choose my parents? God did. And who gave them the godliness to raise me in such a way? God did. The final answer is always, “God did.”
In short, if there are conditions for election, then God determined who would meet those conditions. How He made the choice as to who would be given the conditions simply moves the question back one step. He then must have elected unconditionally who would be elect. Naturally causes are rarely if ever so individual. Usually effects come about because of the convergence of several causal factors. We can rarely if ever pinpoint those causes. But God can. If there were some sort of secret recipe of causes that either brings the faith that saves, or brings the hypothetical faith that God foresees in election, if it takes the combination of godly parents and personal piety, and hearing the ad for the Billy Graham crusade on the radio, God still makes the soup. He wrote the recipe, and mixes the ingredients.
Unconditional election is simply another way of saying that God is the sovereign one, that He alone is the ultimate cause of whatsoever comes to pass. To be sure He uses secondary causes, the faithful proclamation of the Word, the heartfelt prayers of the saints, the work of apologists and preachers, an ad on the radio, even the conscience of the yet unregenerate elect. But it is He who is using these things, to bring about what He purposed from before all time, when there was God and nothing else.
