Lapsarianism

Ephesians 1:4

“According as he has elected us in him before the foundation of the world.” We are dealing with the problem of election. “He has elected us” is the main verb. The analogy we are using is the ROM and PROM chips. The ROM chip is the sovereignty of God chip, it means read only memory, and it is an integrated circuit into which unchanging data can be read but into which no new data can be written. The integrated circuit can only be programmed at the factory and that is analogous to the fact that the sovereignty and the omniscience of God in eternity past programmed the chip. All ROM chips are sovereignty of God circuits and the sovereignty of God programmed the ROM chips; the omniscience of God programmed the PROM chips. The PROM chips are the free will of man chips. It is very important to understand the difference between the sovereignty of God programming the ROM chips and the omniscience of God programming the PROM chips. It becomes very important for a very important reason theologically, it has to do with the concept of the place of election in the theological concept.

The omniscience of God: God knows perfectly, eternally, and simultaneously all that is knowable whether actual or possible. God is infinite, His knowledge is infinite. God is eternal, this knowledge is eternal, and there is no limitation to the knowledge of infinite and eternal God. The omniscience of God perceives the free as free, the necessary as necessary, together with all their causes, conditions and relations, and this becomes the basis for feeding that PROM chip.

We should note two principles: election and faith in Christ, and predestination and faith in Christ

1. Under election and faith in Christ we have the principle that salvation always has been and always will be faith in Jesus Christ. That starts with Adam and the woman and goes all the way down to the present and into the Millennium. The pattern of this salvation is Ephesians 2:8,9; the principle is Acts 4:12. So the first point in election and faith in Christ has been and always will be personal faith in Jesus Christ.

Once in a while we run across a verse like Mark 1:15, so we have to have a second point for that one.

2. “Repent and believe,” which was the message of John the Baptist to the Jews of his day. It was designed for Jews only. The Jews were mixed up about the two advents and when Christ came they wanted Him to come as He would be in the second advent. Therefore they had to change their mind about Christ.

3. “Repent” is the Greek verb metanoew and it means a change of mind, it does not mean to feel sorry for sin, it has no emotional connotation.

4. In common grace the individual receives gospel information. Because he is an unbeliever he cannot understand spiritual phenomena — the gospel is spiritual phenomena. So the Holy Spirit takes accurate gospel information and makes it a reality in the soul of the unbeliever. As a result of that he changes his mind about Christ. The subject of the gospel is Christ. He responds a second time by believing — the doctrine of efficacious grace — and throws up that positive faith signal which the Holy Spirit picks up and carries him into salvation. Or, if you prefer, the inhale of the gospel causes repentance. In every case, whether you know it or not, you repented when you believed in Christ because just prior to that you heard the gospel and you changed your mind so that you exhaled faith in Christ. This is simply another way of expressing common grace. But faith is the way of salvation, not repentance.

5. The omniscience of God in eternity past knew simultaneously every person who would ever believe in Christ in all of history. Therefore He programmed a PROM chip with your name on it. Every believer has his very own PROM chip.

6. Consequently, that person who would believe in Christ was given in eternity past his very own portfolio of invisible assets. So the sovereignty of God, then, in eternity past had to program a ROM chip, for that is how you receive your computer assets. This means the computer assets were given. So now you have two things that were given in eternity past, your very own PROM chip and the sovereignty of God provided your very own portfolio in a ROM chip.

7. Included in the portfolio, our computer assets include the asset of election. Therefore, election occurred in eternity past — a very important theological principle. The Christian life is a supernatural way of life, it cannot be executed in the energy of the flesh, and this is the key. It includes the computer asset of predestination, therefore predestination, like election, occurred in eternity past for every believer.

8. Election is the expression of the sovereignty of God in eternity past regarding every believer. Predestination is the provision of the sovereignty of God in eternity past for every believer.

9. God the Father willed that every believer fulfil the protocol plan of God and receive the conveyance of his escrow blessing. That is election. God the Father provided the divine dynasphere so that every believer could fulfil the protocol plan and receive the conveyance of escrow blessings.

For those who can’t see this, a circle is being drawn down in the left hand corner, a circle is drawn in the middle of the page, and a circle is drawn in the top right hand corner; so there are three circles on a diagonal. In the bottom circle in the left hand corner we place an E for election. The circle in the middle has an F for faith in Christ. The circle in the top right hand corner has a P for the protocol plan of God.

Starting with the E circle at the bottom of the page: the omniscience of God knew in eternity past every person who would believe in Christ. Therefore the sovereignty of God provided in eternity past the big E, election. Election is one of two computer assets.

Then the middle circle, F for faith in Christ. Salvation is, always has been, always will be, personal faith in Jesus Christ.

Then the top circle on the right hand side is P for the protocol plan of God for the Church Age. As a result of faith in Christ the believer not only has eternal life but at the same time he enters the protocol plan of God with his computer assets.

A ROM chip is a sovereignty of God chip. ROM means read only memory. It is an integrated circuit into which unchanging data can be read but into which no new data can be written. Therefore it becomes the perfect illustration for that marvellous sovereignty of God chip which has our computer assets in our portfolio. This integrated circuit can only be programmed at the factory. The factory is heaven in eternity past, before the creation of mankind, before the creation of the universe, before the creation of angelic creatures. The ROM chip is analogous to the sovereignty and omniscience of God in eternity past. All ROM chips are sovereignty of God integrated circuits.

There are two printouts from the ROM chip: election and predestination. What are they to you as a believer? They are your personal assets for the fulfilment of them protocol plan of God.

There is also a PROM chip, the free will of man chip in the computer. The principle: The sovereignty of God and the free will of man coexist in human history by divine decree. PROM means programmable read only memory. It is defined as a memory device, and integrated micro circuit. It contains fixed data which can be read but not altered. In other words, the omniscience of God knew in eternity past every thought you would ever have, every motive, every decision and every action. He knew it before anything existed, and because He knew it it will never be altered. It had nothing to do with your decision, He just knew what you would do. Entering of data is performed after the device is manufactured. God manufactured free will in you and entered the data. God manufactured in you the ability to think. He knew all your thoughts. God manufactured in you the free will of your soul by which you make decisions, and God knew every thought and every decision you would ever have. He knew it in eternity past because the PROM chip is programmed by the omniscience of God.

Now, we have the sovereignty of God which programs the ROM chip. and we have the omniscience of God that programs PROM chip. What kind of a chip is E? ROM, of course. E is election. Election is the expression of the sovereign will of God for you in eternity past. It is a part of your computer assets. From it comes equal privilege and equal opportunity. Equal privilege = your royal priesthood; equal opportunity = logistical grace blessing — the only blessing some believers will ever have in time. What kind of chip is the F chip? It is an omniscience of God chip because faith is a non-meritorious decision, and God knew in eternity past that you would make that decision in time. And because He knew it His sovereignty programmed a ROM chip with your name on it — computer assets: you have election, you have predestination. And since they belong to you, you ought to know what they are. God gave us election and He gave us predestination, but they demand understanding or you can’t use them.

The principle of pre-creation reality

1. We have noted that the decrees were simultaneous in eternity past. So inasmuch as the decrees were simultaneously known by the omniscience of God they were also simultaneously decreed by the sovereignty of God. 2. To appreciate the divine decrees the believer must understand the nature of omniscience as one of the attributes of God.

3. Of all the decrees of eternity past five are related to the purpose of God in election. Hence, the rise of the theological phrase “the five elective decrees.” But you can’t say “the five elective decrees” every time you want to mention them, every other sentence, so theology always finds one word to explain it all. The name of that word is “lapsarianism.” Lapsarianism is the theological subject dealing with the five elective decrees. Furthermore, lapsarianism is the doctrine of the logical order of the five elective decrees. By logical order is meant that though the entire decree is one thought in the mind of God the principle of cause and effect must be involved in human perception and human understanding. The category lapsarianism, then, refers to the doctrine that mankind is a fallen creature.

There are four schools of interpretation dealing with the order and the arrangement of the five elective decrees. The first school is called supralapsarianism. This is hyper-Calvinism or the Bezite theory. Secondly, there is sublapsarianism. This is the view of moderate Calvinism, which is more or less acceptable. The third is infralapsarianism. This is the Biblical view. Finally there is the Arminian view, which is heresy in part and truth in part. But when you mix true and false you distort the truth and it becomes, in this case, heresy.

Distinctions are very important here. Distinction between the decree and the execution of the decree is absolutely necessary to understand the subject. We must distinguish between the decree in eternity past and the execution of the decree in time. Of course, one logically follows the other. But the execution of the decree in itself is not part of the decree itself — in the sense, of course, that the decree occurred in eternity past; the execution occurs in time.

A second distinction: We must distinguish between God’s laws and God’s decrees. They are different. For example, God’s laws regulate human conduct, while God’s decrees are His plan and His action. Laws can be broken but the decrees of God can never be broken.

A Third distinction: This is the distinction between God’s desires in the decrees — like election — and the rejection of God’s desires. It is God’s desire that every believer fulfil the protocol plan and receive his escrow assets, That is the desire expressed in election. But you can be negative and not do it. So you have to distinguish between God’s sovereign desires in the computer assets — election actually — and man’s volition; the difference between a ROM and a PROM chip. Just because God has provided all these things doesn’t mean you are going to execute His plan. Volition is involved.

There are two places where mankind rejects the sovereignty of God or the desires of God. First of all, the person who rejects Christ as saviour, and secondly, the believer who rejects Bible doctrine which is tantamount to rejecting the protocol plan. So while sin and death are displeasing to God, and obviously incompatible with His divine nature, they nevertheless belong to the decrees under the category of the fall of man. Also, while many believers are losers in time, which is displeasing to God and incompatible with His will, they nevertheless belong to the decrees and the printout for every believer. The portfolio is for every believer, not winners only. The primary assets are for every believer, not just winners. God deposited in escrow for every believer. God provided computer assets for every believer; that is His will. But believers by rejection of doctrine reject His will. By refusing and resisting the doctrine of election and the doctrine of predestination they never get there.

What is election?

1. Election is the sovereign right of God over His creation.

2. Election is a Biblical term which is applied to the believer only, as in Ephesians 1:4, in the Church Age.

3. Election, long with foreknowledge, predestination, justification, glorification, are all printouts from a ROM chip, a sovereignty of God chip. Therefore they belong to the believer, as in Romans 8:28-30.

4. Election is used for believers only — Ephesians 1:4, “us” refers to believers only, “in him, before the foundation of the world.”

5. Election, then, is the sovereign expression of the will of God for the Church Age believer in eternity past.

6. Under election God the Father willed the highest and best for every believer, having previously deposited it in escrow. That is what election means to the believer. He knew that you would believe in Christ in time, prepared for you your very own portfolio, and in the preparation He expressed His will through election. He wills the highest and best for you as a believer. And if He wills the highest and best for you as a believer, count on it, He will provide it. He has provided it, He provided it first.

Why do we use the word “escrow”? Because before the escrow can be conveyed to the grantee, the grantee must fulfil the conditions of the escrow. And what are the conditions? Execution of the protocol plan of God. God provided for you the assets — election and predestination, your computer assets. Election and predestination: Equal privilege under election; equal privilege under predestination. Equal opportunity under election; equal opportunity under predestination. Think of it. You are a believer regardless of any handicap have the same opportunity as any other believer in history to execute the protocol plan of God. Why? Because this all adds up to one word: Grace. Equal privilege: every believer is a priest.

The point is, this is for you. You have exactly the same opportunity because God is keeping you alive. That is logistical grace. Logistical grace is a strange thing because it give blessing to losers and blessing to winners, and it makes no distinction between winners and losers — until you get into the final stage of divine discipline.

Election only expresses the sovereign will of God, predestination is the provision of the sovereign will of God. The privilege here: every believer is royal family.

Lapsarianism provides the logical environment and the logical order for the five elective decrees. Furthermore it provides the place for the insertion of the escrow blessings for every believer in his portfolio. Remember that all of the decrees occurred simultaneously in the mind of God, but of course we have to sort them out logically to explain both our portfolio and its relationship to the protocol plan.

The theory of supralapsarianism (hyper-Calvinism) is that first of all the decree to elect some to be saved and to reprobate all others. This is double predestination, but it is more than that, it is a heresy. It says, in effect, that God is unfair because He selected some to be saved and the rest are lost, no matter what they do, say, think, and so on. Then, secondly, the decree to provide salvation for the elect which is the basis for the false doctrine of limited atonement. Thirdly, the decree to create mankind, both the elect and the non-elect. Fourth, the decree to permit the fall. And, finally to provide salvation for the elect.

God the Father in eternity past could not have deposited greater blessings to your account, could not have capitalised you in the portfolio which belongs to you now and has since eternity past, for a nonentity. By bringing creation down to the third point in supralapsarianism that is exactly what we have in effect. Supralapsarianism places both election and limited atonement before creation and the fall. That. of course, becomes a disaster. Supralapsarianism also begins by assuming that God begins by decreeing that a certain number of men will be elected and a certain number will be reprobate. This is arbitrary and blasphemous and ignores the principle of the justice of God. Furthermore, God cannot elect until He creates logically, and obviously then, God cannot elect until He permits the fall.

Election is a term that applies to believers only. It is a part of the believer’s very own primary assets, computer assets. Election, then, is a term that applies only to believers. For believers to exist there must be a creation, there must be a fall, there must be the presentation of the gospel, there must be the response to it.

Supralapsarianism is actually the work of a Bergundian noble and theologian by the name of Theodore Beza — 1519-1605. He was the rector of the theological seminary at Geneva which was founded by John Calvin. Beza assumed that God began by decreeing to elect some to be saved. This is the tenet of hyper-Calvinism and it is sweeping fundamentalist circles today. It has become extremely popular in almost every theological seminary that is worthwhile. The problem with Beza’s hyper-Calvinism is that he makes God elect a nonentity on the one hand and on the other hand he makes God unfair because, according to it, salvation really begins not when you believe in Christ but in eternity past because you were elected; someone else wasn’t .it also leads to what is called sitting-on-the-hands syndrome or limiting your service to argumentation about hyper-Calvinisitic theories. Therefore the decree of election and limited atonement has no real object. Under hyper-Calvinism as a theory of Beza man is an abstract concept of non-existence, therefore the blasphemy of ignoring selection before election and ignoring the part of human volition in human history.

So by putting election and limited atonement first in the order of the elective decrees Beza had to assume that nonentities existed from which to elect and reject. He also had to assume, sooner or later, that God was unfair, unfair to those who were not elected in eternity past.

The basic problem with the order of elective decrees in supralapsarianism is that the Bible indicates the fact that the elect and the non-elect are taken out of existing aggregate of beings, as per John 15:19 — “I have elected you out of the world.” You can’t get around this phrase and it wipes out hyper-Calvinism — and so do a lot of other things. He didn’t elect them out of eternity past, He elected them out of time. Hence, man must logically be created and the fall must be permitted, and he must be saved by grace through faith before he can be said to be elected. We have already noted that the computer assets were given at the moment of salvation, the two computer assets are election and predestination. Unbelievers are never said to be elected or predestined, that principle must be remembered. This becomes important theologically for a lot of reasons but the first and most obvious is that election and predestination are a part of your assets.

Now when we say that unbelievers are never predestined, Calvin said just the antithesis. He said there is a double predestination — believers are predestined to go to heaven and unbelievers are predestined to go to hell. That is a Calvinistic concept. That is wrong. Believers are said to be predestined but that is a part of their computer assets. But no unbeliever is ever said to be predestined to hell. The unbeliever is said to go to hell or the last judgement because of unbelief, because of the use of his volition, not the determination of the sovereignty of God. “God in not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to a change of mind about Christ.” The fact that people do indicates immediately that the sovereignty of God is out if the sovereign will of God is for every person to be saved. That is why when Jesus Christ was on the cross the sins of the entire world were in one PROM chip and God the Father called for the printout, and every sin in the history of the human race was personally imputed by God the Father to God the Son on the cross and judged. Jesus Christ became our substitute.

Isn’t that double jeopardy, you say, I’ve heard that the wages of sin is death? No. When it says the wages of sin is death it is not talking about your sins. Your personal sins were not judged except at the cross. The wages of sin is death is Romans 6:23. The answer is found in the context of Romans 5:12ff. “For by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, so death passed upon all men because all have sinned.” Adam’s original sin is imputed to each one of us at the point of physical birth, and furthermore it is imputed to the genetically-formed old sin nature, just as human life is imputed to the human soul. So we are born physically alive and spiritually dead. We are born spiritually dead so that if anyone should die before reaching accountability he is automatically saved under the principle that condemnation must precede salvation. There is no salvation without condemnation. That is a part of the elective decrees, by the way. And since salvation cannot exist without condemnation the sooner you are condemned the sooner you can be saved. And of you do not reach accountability — like David’s first child by Bathsheba — you are saved. True evangelism says sin is not an issue in salvation, the only issue is Christ — “What think ye of Christ?” Sin is not an issue because Jesus Christ on the cross was judged for the sins of the world. There are eight major passages on unlimited atonement and they all teach the same thing. Our sins were judged on the cross. So it is not feeling sorry for sin, it is not renouncing sin, it is not giving up sin that saves. It is “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” Christ is the issue.

The Principle: John 3:18 — “He that believeth on him is not judged [last judgement]; but he that believeth not is judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the uniquely-born Son of God.” Note then, faith is the issue in judgement or non-judgement, and faith is the function of positive human volition, non-meritorious. Cf. John 3:36.

What does this add up to? Unbelievers are not predestined to hell. Unbelievers go to hell by an act of their own volition. There is no such thing as double predestination and yet double predestination has swept the theological world. Predestination originates from the sovereignty of God. The condemnation of mankind-unbeliever originates from his own negative volition. The elect are chosen to justification and sanctification — 1 Peter 1:2. Therefore they must have already fallen. To fall they had to be created in the first place, and they had to be created with the same volition that angelic creatures have. So logically you cannot have election before the decree to create and to permit the fall. God the Father did not say to the members of the Trinity, “Let us elect.” and then one of the members of the Trinity say, “Elect whom?” Since election, then, is a term that applies to believers only, and since election along with predestination are the believer’s very own computer assets, they are yours. Believers cannot exist until they are saved by faith in Christ, and they can’t believe until there is a fall which necessitates faith in Christ, and there cannot be a fall until there is creation. So the mistake of John Calvin was that he never understood that the sovereignty of God and the free will of man coexist in human history by divine decree.

So Calvin pioneered the theory of double predestination which gave Beza a chance to put election before creation. Double predestination means the unbeliever is predestined to hell and opens the door for an arbitrary election which is blasphemous. Neither Calvin nor Beza could relate the divine creation of the free will of man to the prehistoric angelic conflict. God is glorified when the free will of man executes the sovereign will of God, but both Calvin and Beza rejected the freedom of human volition and self-determination. In double predestination Calvin followed the pattern of the Hegelian fallacy which says that for every thesis there must be an antithesis and when you put the two together you have synthesis. However, if the Bible does not state the antithesis the antithesis does not exist. While predestination applies to believers only there is no predestination for the unbeliever. And whole the sovereignty of God wills that no one should perish but that all should come to salvation human volition can and does reject the saving work of Christ on the cross. There is no such thing as double predestination.

The problem of sin is also important. Calvin ignored the fact that the computer of divine decrees contains that PROM chip and that all personal sins in human history were programmed into that chip, and the printout occurred once at the cross where Jesus Christ was judged for the sins of the world. In the court of heaven ignorance is no excuse for sin for volition wanted to do it and did it. The woman in the fall was ignorant, and ignorance was used as an excuse. But she was condemned along with Adam, she wanted to do it and she did it. Her volition desired this even though she didn’t know it was a sin. Hence, ignorance is no excuse for sin, for crime, for failure, because human volition is involved whether you know the issue or not. Ignorance was no excuse for the woman in the fall — Genesis 3:13; 1 Timothy 2:13,14. Of course, the man knew what he was doing. But this dramatises the fact that human volition not only exists but human volition in sinning opposes the sovereign will of God. Furthermore, we do not sin by decree — that is blasphemy — but through the function of our own free will. The decree merely recognises in eternity past the function of human volition in sin. The omniscience of God programmed into your PROM chip all of your thoughts, all of your motives, all of your decisions, all of your actions; including your sins and failures as well as your successes.

Unlimited atonement is the demonstration that the sovereignty of God desires that no one should perish. Yet, human volition can and does reject the saving work of Christ, and that means the alternative is the lake of fire.

There are five elective decrees, the order becomes very important. Long before we had a lot of denominations people were always wondering why Christianity was so divided. It is because of the five elective decrees. These five elective decrees are: 1. Creation; 2. the fall; 3. the atonement; 4. the election; 5. salvation. It is important to understand that the Bible states that mankind is the object of grace after, not before, the fall. After the fall the coats of skins were provided, not before. This is taught in John 15:9; Romans 11:5-17; Ephesians 1:4; 1 Peter 1:2. In other words, condemnation is not an act of God before creation. God did not condemn us and then create us. Both infralapsarianism and sublapsarianism, the two views of modern Calvinism, recognises the doctrine of election as an expression of the sovereignty of God in eternity past.; the expression of God’s grace apart from every form of works foreseen or actual.

Sublapsarianism is moderate Calvinism. It notices that:

1. The first in the order of decrees is the decree to create all mankind.

2. The decree to permit the fall.

3. The decree to elect those who believe in Christ and to leave in just condemnation those who do not believe in Christ. This is sometimes stated the decree to elect some out of fallen mankind and leave the others to their misery. But that has a question mark by it!

4. The decree to provide salvation for the elect which could be construed as limited atonement. That is where they went astray.

5. The decree to save the elect through faith in Christ, sometimes stated the decree to apply salvation to those who believe.

Arminian lapsarianism is the other heretical view. The Arminians have mixed truth with error and therefore distort.

1. The decree to create all mankind.

2. The decree to permit the fall.

3. Unlimited atonement.

4. This is where they get in to error: Salvation by foreseen human virtue plus faith plus obedience — hence, the blasphemy of salvation by works.

5. Election as an act of God in time — not correct because it ignores the portfolio of invisible assets.

The problem goes back to the decrees. If the decrees make all things certain, and they do, there is no occasion for man to use means being able to avoid the results decreed. That is the problem with the false views. This ignores the fact, then, that God has decreed the means as well as the end. God decreed means and result. Under the principle of the PROM — the free will of man chip — man’s destiny is the outworking of his own thinking, his motivation, his decisions, and his actions, all of which God knew simultaneously in eternity past. Man’s volition or self-determination is the immediate cause. But God knew in eternity past what this decision would be and what out thoughts and motives that preceded it would be, and what the actions that followed it would be. That is omniscience. The decree of God removes no man from what within the sphere of his own experience is the outworking of his own choice, acting from his own judgement — based on his own desires, his own motives, his own thoughts and his own circumstances. Whatever free will choice anyone makes on a given occasion in time is the execution of the divine decrees. There are no surprises to the omniscience of God. No decree itself, therefore, opposes human freedom.

Conclusion: All decrees are efficacious in that they certainly determine all there ever was or ever will be. However, they are categorised as either efficacious, which means directly wrought by God as per election and predestination, or they are permissive, which means they are wrought by secondary causes — the free will of man. That means that an efficacious decree in related to the ROM chip, the sovereignty of God chip in the computer. It also means that the permissive decree is related to the PROM chip, the free will of man chip in the computer. God has decreed ends as well as means, causes as well as effects, conditions as well as instrumentalities. That means that all of these things always depend on them.

Some things God has eternally decreed to do Himself. Other things God has decreed to do through the free will of man. This is the one thing to which so much of theology has been blinded and that is why dispensationalism was covered up by covenant theology. God has eternally decreed to do certain things Himself, such as creation; other things to bring to pass through the action of secondary causes acting under the law of necessity; other things He has decreed from free will agents.

You cannot execute the Christian way of life unless you know the assets provided by God to do so. Like everything else in the plan of God the execution of the plan is grace. God has provided everything to do it. Morality belongs to the entire human race under the laws of divine establishment and morality is not the Christian way of life, although certainly it would be included. But everything an unbeliever can do is not Christianity and the unbeliever can be very, very moral. So it becomes important for us to understand what is God’s plan for the Church Age, and how do we execute it?

In eternity past, long before the creation of the universe and mankind, God provided for every believer. His omniscience obviously knew simultaneously all the knowable and He knew that you personally would believe in Jesus Christ during your life time on this earth. Therefore God provided for you personally your very own portfolio of invisible assets. These assets are divided into three categories.

First of all there are the primarily assets which are mentioned in Ephesians 1:3-5. They include in order in which the are taught and in order in which they were provided, your escrow assets, and secondly, your computer assets. Then there are some secondary assets that are related to human volition, including your Christian service. Then there are some personnel assets and they have to do with your spiritual gift. So that basically there are three categories of assets which God the Father provided for you personally in eternity past.

Verse 3 — “Worthy of praise and glorification is the God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”

There you have your escrow assets. God the Father is the grantor and in eternity past he deposited in escrow greater blessings for you. The escrow officer in the depository is our Lord Jesus Christ. So that “in Christ” generally has two meanings throughout the New Testament epistles, first for positional truth, and then as the depository of our escrow blessings. The grantee is every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ during the Church Age. And anything deposited in escrow always has conditions for the conveyance or the transfer of what is the escrow. In this case the condition is the execution of the protocol plan of God for the Church Age. And when the protocol plan is executed then the grantee receives the conveyance of greater blessing — greater blessings for time and greater blessings for the eternal state. The first thing God ever did for you in the means of glorifying Him, and this is the first.

Then, immediately afterwards, one other primary asset. God the Father, from His sovereignty, actually programmed one ROM chip with two special assets. The first of these is election and the second is predestination. This is the printout from the sovereignty of God chip. It is the expression of the sovereignty of God in eternity past with regard to your life from the time that you believe in Christ until the day that you depart from this life, either by death or the Rapture, whichever occurs first. Under election you have equal privilege and equal opportunity. Your equal privilege: every believer is a royal priest, every believer represents himself before God. Every believer, therefore, is to become spiritually self-sustaining, using metabolised doctrine in his own soul in order to live his life as unto the Lord. Equal opportunity: That is the blessing for all believers before spiritual maturity, logistical grace blessing. Under logistical grace you as a believer receive from the justice of God, one half of divine holiness or integrity, to the indwelling righteousness of God. Since the day you believe in Christ you have the imputation of divine righteousness, and all blessing goes from the justice of God to the righteousness of God. And by this God avoids any compromise of His attributes. You cannot earn or deserve blessing from God.

The election of God is the expression of His sovereign will. What is His sovereign will? That you as a believer receive your very own escrow blessings. The very first thing God ever did for you, depositing in escrow, is the means of glorifying Him. You glorify God when you receive the conveyance of your escrow blessings. Then, equal privilege and equal opportunity means that all believers, regardless of handicaps or any problems of any kind, have exactly the same privileges and same opportunity under election. Under predestination we have the provision of God in eternity past for everything you need to execute His plan.

Going back to our illustration. Down in the left hand corner of our page we draw a circle. It represents your computer assets, election and predestination with equal privilege and equal opportunity. This is part of your primary assets. Next to that we draw another circle with represents the moment of salvation through faith in Christ. That was the moment of eternal salvation and that is the moment when your computer assets were conveyed to you. Among the 40 things you receive at salvation are your computer assets. They were conveyed to you at salvation so that you personally can execute the protocol plan of God. Next we draw another circle. This is the other part of your primary assets in your portfolio. This is escrow blessing for time and eternity, and they are not conveyed until you reach spiritual maturity. So the advance to spiritual maturity is through the utlisation of these assets. Once, then, you reach spiritual maturity by executing the protocol plan of God you receive these fantastic blessings. That is basically the story of Ephesians 1:3-5.

You cannot lose the escrow deposit. Furthermore, under the concept of relation-backed doctrine the actual escrow begins at the date of deposit, and the date of deposit is eternity past. Therefore your escrow blessings are irrevocable, and either you will receive the conveyance of them by advancing to spiritual maturity — using your portfolio assets — or you will be a loser and be ignorant of your assets, and fail to execute the protocol plan, in which case your escrow blessings remain on deposit forever. Since the date of deposit is eternity past they cannot be cancelled by your failures, they are irrevocable. And in heaven in your resurrection body, minus any escrow blessings or decorations or special privileges, you will have the opportunity of going to the eternal hall of records and seeing it in escrow, in deposit forever, your greater blessings for time and eternity, and that is a memorial to lost equal privileges and lost equal opportunities from your computer assets. Therefore, there is nothing more important than that you should understand your computer assets. This requires inculcation. Inculcation requires repetition.

Selection

God knew in eternity past that you were going to be a member of the human race, and He knew simultaneously that you would believe in Christ, He does two things to you. He selects you before He elects you. So selection must precede election is the next point we have to examine in connection with this passage. Selection is technical here, it is a term related to the divine imputation of human life at the point of physical birth.

God is the inventor of human life just as God is the creator. Human life is given at birth and it is imputed to the format soul. The moment it is the individual becomes alive, and that is selection. When God imputed life to you [He didn’t have to but He did] it meant that your life had meaning and purpose and definition. Simultaneously Adam’s original sin was imputed to the genetically-formed old sin nature, and that is spiritual death. So in selection we are spiritually dead but our personal sins were never imputed to us for judgement, instead they were collected in a PROM chip and they were imputed to Christ on the cross. Our sins were judged at the cross.

Selection is a term relating to the imputation of human life at the point of physical birth. Election is a term relating to the spiritual birth or regeneration, for while God provided election in your portfolio in eternity past you receive it at the point of salvation. Up to that point we are under selection, selection which began with the imputation of human life at birth. Once we believe in Christ (Regeneration, by the way, is the imputation of eternal life. Human life is imputed to the soul) the Holy Spirit creates a human spirit and this human spirit is the basis for the imputation of eternal life at salvation. So the imputation of eternal life we call regeneration. Regeneration is the ministry of God the Holy Spirit in creating a human spirit for the imputation of eternal life at the point of salvation. Therefore regeneration is one of forty things that God does for every believer at the point of salvation.

We differentiate, then, between selection and election. Simultaneously with regeneration we have election. We also have predestination. Those are our computer assets. We are looking at a principle here and it is a very simple one: selection precedes election. Hyper-Calvinism says you are elected in eternity past [which is true because of omniscience] and because you are elected you believe. That is fallacious, that is where hyper-Calvinism flips. History is chronology and election becomes part of our portfolio given to us at salvation. We are not given election before salvation. Unbelievers are not said to be elected; unbelievers are not said to be predestined to hell, they go by an act of volition, as we have noted. Selection precedes election. Selection is a term related to the divine imputation of human life at the point of physical birth while election is a term relating to spiritual birth at regeneration. The very fact that any person is born and at that time receives the imputation of life from God, but he might have been forever a squirrel, etc. This is the principle. God selected you as category mankind when He imputed life to you. So the very fact that any person is born and at that time receives the imputation of human life from God when he might have been forever nonexistent, or some form of lower creation, is selection. You are selected by birth — category homo sapien, rational creature. Selection occurs when the sovereignty of God imputes human life to the soul at birth. Election becomes a reality when anyone believes in Christ for salvation, and at the moment of receiving the imputation of eternal life you receive also your computer assets. The one in view at the moment is election, the one coming up is predestination. And the fact that any person is born again through faith in Christ when he might have been forever under condemnation is the motivational challenge of election which follows selection.

The fact that selection at birth and election at regeneration occur for every believer opens the door for the greatest opportunity ever extended in the human race. This opportunity is described by two technical words: election and predestination. And so great is the opportunity under election and predestination, and so fantastic is the principle behind it — grace. Grace means we can’t earn it, we can’t deserve it. God doesn’t use us because we have a nice personality, because we are somehow attractive. God provided everything for you to execute His plan and He provided it knowing that you and I would have an old sin nature, and knowing every manifestation of it, every failure, and yet He still selected us at birth and He still gave us our election at regeneration. The first clue we had was that faith is a non-meritorious system of perception. There is no merit in faith, it is the most basic learning process in life. But the point is, it isn’t the subject that has the merit in faith, it is the object. In salvation it is “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” The principle is grace. Which is us ever earned or deserved these computer assets? None of us. Only God can invent equality of opportunity; man cannot do it.

So next we have infralapsarianism which is the correct view of the five elective decrees. Notice the order. First of all, the decree to create all mankind. There must be something to elect; secondly, the decree to permit the fall. Principle: Condemnation must precede salvation. Here is where selection comes into focus. There must be a way to perpetuate the human race after the fall. Hence, man procreates [but does not create life] and God selects by inventing and imputing human life at birth; the third is the decree to provide salvation for all mankind. This is the doctrine of unlimited atonement which is taught in Romans 5:6; 2 Corinthians 5:14,15,19; 1 Timothy 2:5; 4:10; Titus 2:11; Hebrews 2:9; 2 Peter 2:1; 1 John 2:2. These are some of the passages which deal with the fact that when Jesus Christ was on the cross He received the imputation of all the sins of the world; not the sins of the elect but the sins of everyone. The fourth is the decree to elect those who believe in Christ and leave in just condemnation those who reject Christ as saviour. The fifth is the decree to apply salvation to those who believe in Christ. Hence, the decree to save anyone who believes in Him.

But there are not five elective decrees but six.

Thieme lapsarianism

1. To create all mankind for the purpose of bringing many sons into glory — Hebrews 2;10 — and resolving the angelic conflict.

2. To permit the fall of mankind and the extension of the angelic conflict to the human race thereby.

3. To provide salvation for all mankind — unlimited atonement.

(So far this is infralapsarianism, but the next point is different)

4. The first primary asset: The decree to provide a portfolio of invisible assets for every believer by depositing escrow blessings for every believer for time and eternity.

5. The second primary asset: The simultaneous decrees of election and predestination — Ephesians 1:4,5.

6. To apply salvation to those who believe in Christ. This is the decree, then, to provide election in eternity past as a computer asset for those who believe in Christ in time. While the sovereignty of God programmed the ROM chip remember that the omniscience of God programmed the PROM chip.

So the principle: Selection precedes election. Selection relates to physical birth; election relates to regeneration. In selection God imputes at birth physical life to the soul; in election God imputes eternal life to the human spirit. While God has a right to do with His creatures as he pleases God is not arbitrary, He is not irrational, He is not incompetent; the thought is blasphemous and unthinkable. In human history the sovereignty of God and the free will of man coexist by divine decree.

Now what is the application? The application is the fact that computer assets are found in three words: a) Dependent; b) Independent; c) self-sustaining.

First of all the believer is spiritually dependent. Under election equal opportunity is the divine provision of logistical grace. Logistical grace blessing are motiferous, but in Ephesians logistical grace emphasises the divine provision of your right pastor and his communication of doctrine. Remember that logistical grace includes the provision of both your physical and spiritual food. Spiritual food is provided by your right pastor as emphasised in Ephesians 4:11-16. Consequently you are spiritually dependent under the equal opportunity of election. You are dependent upon whomever is your right pastor-teacher for the communication of Bible doctrine, your spiritual food to sustain your spiritual life.

The believer is also spiritually independent. Under election equal privilege is the function of your royal priesthood. So under dependence we have equal opportunity. Under independence we have election, equal privilege. The function of your royal priesthood is found in 1 Peter 2:5,9. As a royal priest every believer represents himself before God and therefore every Church Age believer is designed to be spiritually independent. Spiritual independence, however, depends on the perception, metabolisation and application of Bible doctrine. It must be Bible doctrine transferred to your soul, therefore dependence. It must be Bible doctrine applied from your soul, therefore independence.

Thirdly, the believer is spiritually self-sustaining. This concept refers to equal privilege and equal opportunity under predestination. So we go right back to our computer assets. We have the printout from the ROM chip of election — equal privilege, equal opportunity. Equal opportunity is dependence; equal privilege is independence. Printout of predestination: equal privilege — union with Christ; equal opportunity — your very own palace, the operational type divine dynasphere. That is self-sustaining.