Chapter XIII: Response to Some Questions in this Mystery
CHAPTER XIII: RESPONSE TO SOME QUESTIONS IN THIS MYSTERY
A summary of the preceding FONT.
§ 207. This concludes our discussion about the difficult mystery of election and reprobation. The summary of these things is that one must not claim an absolute decree, either of election or of reprobation, nor ought one base election on the foreseen merits of people, nor should one introduce a universal election of all people. From all these one can readily understand how to respond to other questions which are often stirred up about this mystery, because their elaboration and resolution depend on what has been said above.
The first question, whether anyone can be certain about his election.
Thus the question arises, first: Can anyone be certain about his election in his life? We respond. We shall teach in its own place that the regenerate and those who truly believe in Christ can and should be certain about the grace of God and the forgiveness of sins [On Justification through Faith(Commonplace XIX), §§ 82–109]. Here what must be proved is only the former, and also that they can and should have in their hearts a firm confidence about their perseverance, for this confidence relies upon the omnipotence, faithfulness, and goodwill of God. (See § 184.)
We should proceed in this way: The Good Shepherd will not allow those who adhere to Christ in true faith to be snatched out of His hands. Yet I have been reborn and cling to Christ through true faith. Therefore the Good Shepherd will not permit me to be snatched out of His hands [cf. John 10:28]. If temptation whispers that many of the truly reborn have in turn fallen from the grace of God, faith will answer: “They turned away from Christ voluntarily and by intentional wickedness but were not rejected by God out of some absolute hatred. I, on the other hand, shall steadfastly cling to my God; He will not abandon me forever, for I rely on the very promises of God.” Rom. 11:29: “The gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” 1 Cor. 1:9: “God is faithful, by whom we have been called.” 1 Cor. 1:8: “He will strengthen us to the end.” 1 Cor. 10:13: “God is faithful and will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we are able to endure.” Phil. 2:13: “God is at work in us both to will and to do according to His goodwill.” 2 Tim. 1:12: “God is able to guard what has been entrusted to us.”
§ 208. The Council of Trent claimed (sess. 6, ch. 12): “As long as one lives in this mortality, he ought not presume anything about the secret mystery of divine predestination so as to claim with certainty that he is certainly in the number of the predestined, for one cannot know whom God has chosen for Himself except by special revelation.” However, in this way we would be forced to struggle wretchedly in constant billows of doubts, and we would have to fear that we would be tossed by these billows of doubt into the whirlpool of despair and in the end perish. We readily admit that filial fear ought to be connected with faith, lest, instead of faith and the security of the Spirit, carnal security creep into our souls. So one should pay careful attention to that declaration of the Holy Spirit in 1 Cor. 10:12: “Let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed, lest he fall.” Phil. 2:12: “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” Nevertheless the certainty of faith must not be weakened or overturned through such fear. Peter says, 2 Pet. 1:10: “Be zealous, brethren, to make your calling and election firm.” Surely, then, these can be made firm for us too. The apostle says, 2 Cor. 13:5: “Examine yourselves, whether you are in the faith.” Surely, then, one can know that he is and will be a partaker of the true faith unto the end and, as a consequence, also a partaker of the benefits of Christ.
Statements of the fathers on the certainty of election.
§ 209. In order to drive off carnal security and to correct rash presumption, the fathers often seem to deny that we can and should be sure about predestination, but they correctly explain their position: that they are driving out not the certainty of faith but the presumption of carnal security. Ambrose (De vocat. gent., bk. 2, ch. 9): “There is a truly perfect and secure happiness, not in this life but in the next. In the present there is the uncertainty of the struggle, where all of life is a trial and there is no safe victory from insidious arrogance, nor is [life] without the peril of change. Although divine protection gives countless saints the strength to persevere to the end, it still does not remove from anyone the fact that he contends with and against himself so that in all his pursuits and efforts he battles with himself to will and not to will.” But Ambrose explains himself and adds:
Deservedly, then, not only beginning saints but even the very advanced ones uniformly pray to God and say, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” [Matt. 6:13]. To all who continue in faith and love He grants them not to be overcome in temptation so that whoever boasts may boast in the Lord [1 Cor. 1:31; 2 Cor. 10.17], etc. What the Father gave to the Son, the Son did not lose, nor can anyone pluck out of His hand what he has received [cf. John 10:28–30]. The firm foundation of God stands [2 Tim. 2:19], and the building of His temple which shall endure forever does not waver, while the truth and mercy of God extend over all. This He effects in those to whom He has promised it (which is denied to no one and owed to no one).
Augustine (De corrept. et grat., ch. 13) asks: “Who of the multitude of believers may presume, as long as he lives in this mortal state, that he is in the number of the predestined?” But he correctly explains himself:
The fact that these things are said to the saints who are going to persevere as if their perseverance were considered uncertain should be heard as applying to them so that they not become proud but fear, etc. For this reason the apostles were told: “If you abide in Me” [John 8:31], by Him who surely knew that they would persevere. Many similar things are said because of the usefulness of this secret, so that no one would become arrogant, but rather that all, even those who are running well, should fear as long as their destination is hidden, etc. If it never happened to anyone (falling again from the grace of God), people would have that healthy fear by which the sin of arrogance is held down only for as long as it takes them to reach the grace of Christ by which a pious life is lived. Then for a time they would be secure that they would never fall away from Him. Such presumption instead of trials is not useful, because here our weakness is so great that security can produce arrogance.
Note that Augustine is excluding the carnal security and rash presumption through which the zeal for piety and prayer is weakened. However, he is not removing the certainty and security of faith, for he writes in his commentary on Psalm 148:
Human frailty should encourage itself; it should not despair nor beat itself nor turn away. It should not say, “I shall not be a recipient of His promise,” etc. He has promised us that we will be with Him where He is [cf. John 14:3]. What has God promised you, O mortal man? That you are going to conquer in eternity! Do you not believe? Believe! Believe! Already He has done more than what He promised. What has He done? He died for you. What did He promise? That you would live with Him. It is more unbelievable that the Eternal One should die than that a mortal would live forever. We already possess what is more unbelievable, etc.
Bernard (Sermon 1 Septuag.) says: “Who can say: ‘I belong to the elect; I belong to those who have been predestined to life; I belong to the number of His children’?” However, he does explain himself correctly, for in the same sermon he adds: “Some obvious signs and indications of salvation have been given so that there is no doubt that he in whom those signs endure belongs to the number of the elect.” Bernard again (Sermon 2 in octav. Pasch.): “When would God leave His elect without testimony? What comfort would there be between hope and fear, if they had no witness of their election at all? Therefore it is a faithful saying and one worthy of all acceptance, which commends the testimonies of salvation.” (In § 184 above, we brought out a beautiful passage from the Sermon de fragment. sept. miser.)
What kind of certainty of election the devout have.
§ 210. Therefore we contend against the Papists for the certainty of faith concerning election without opening the doors to carnal security, as do those who teach that those who once have been reborn and endowed with the Holy Spirit cannot again lose faith and the gracious indwelling of the Holy Spirit through sins against conscience. One must not imagine such an absolute certainty of election and salvation that it be claimed that, even if the regenerate become involved in severe sins against conscience, they still do not lose faith, the Holy Spirit, and salvation. God has made us certain but not carnally secure about our salvation. The unfailing promises of God free us from doubt. The threats and exhortations of God free us from carnal security, and thus the ship of our faith follows the polestar of the Word and holds a midcourse between the Scylla of constant doubt and the Charybdis of absolute security. We trust in God because of the wonderful, unfailing promises He has given us. At the same time we also fear God because of the weaknesses and temptations of our flesh. Therefore with our earnest groanings we ask God for the gift of perseverance, and we trust that we shall certainly receive it. Meanwhile, however, we cast out carnal security and ask that our faith may be strengthened by our meditation on the Word and by our use of the Sacraments, and we are eager to advance daily in the running of piety.
The second question, from what source we know that we are in the number of the elect.
§ 211. Second, the question arises: From what source can we know that we are in the number of the elect? We respond. 1 John 5:10: “Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony within himself.” Those whom God has predestined from eternity He calls in time through the Word and justifies through faith (Rom. 8:29). Such faith exhibits itself through true invocation of God, through bearing the cross, and through a zeal for holiness. However, if faith is made weak in the midst of trials and the feeling of faith is almost extinguished in us, we should look to the universal promises whereby God offers His grace to all. We should look to the merit of Christ, which concerns all; to the ministry of the Word and Sacraments, in which God offers all the benefits of His Son; and to Baptism, which is the testimony of a good conscience [cf. 1 Pet. 3:21]. We should have recourse to the use of the Holy Supper, in which Christ offers that very body which was given up into death for us to eat and that very blood which He shed on the altar of the cross for us to drink. From all these we ought to conclude that God earnestly wants us to acknowledge our sins, to believe in Christ, and to become partakers of eternal salvation through faith.
The third question, whether there is a certain number of the elect.
§ 212. Third, the question arises: Is there a certain number of the elect? We respond in the affirmative. Augustine writes (De corrept. et grat., ch. 13): “John the Baptist shows that there is a certain number of those predestined for the kingdom of God: ‘God is able from stones to raise up sons of Abraham’ [Matt. 3:9]. He shows that they” (the Jews) “will be cut off if they will not bear fruit, but without the number promised to Abraham falling short. This is said more clearly in Rev. [3:11]: ‘Hold fast what you have, lest someone else receive your crown,’” etc. Thomas ([ST,] part 1, q. 23, art. 7): “The number of the elect is certain not only formally, such as: ‘One hundred will be saved,’ but also materially, such as: ‘These one hundred will be saved.’ It is also certain not only with regard to knowledge but also with regard to a determination.” Those are Thomas’s words.
Now, if the elect’s “names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:20), if God “knows those who are His” (2 Tim. 2:19), if with God “even the hairs of our head are numbered” (Luke 12:7)—how is there not also a certain number of the elect with Him? However, the finite character and certainty of that number must be understood not as referring to an absolute decree by which God has excluded the rest from that number out of some absolute hatred, but as a reference to: The certainty of order [τάξις] in this decree, for God made this truly fixed and immutable decree: whoever perseveres in faith in Christ will be saved. As well as to: The certainty of the foreknowledge of God, because God knows from eternity who and how many are going to believe in Christ through the efficacy of the Holy Spirit.
The fourth question, whether the number of the elect can be neither increased nor diminished.
§ 213. Fourth, the question arises: Is the number of the elect so certain that it can be neither increased nor diminished? Augustine asserts this in clear language in the passage just cited. However, we must warn that the question can be understood in two ways, namely, absolutely and on condition [ex suppositione]. [It is understood] absolutely if we understand the question in the sense that more could not have been elected nor reprobated whatever their condition. In this way it is false to say that the number of the electcould not have been increased nor diminished, because had more believed by the grace of the Holy Spirit working through the means, surely they would have been elected and thus the number of the elect would have been increased. On the other hand, if any of the blessed had departed from the faith by voluntary wickedness, God, who foreknows all things, surely would have counted them among the reprobate. Hypothetically and on condition, however, it is correctly said that the number of the elect can be neither increased nor decreased, for here the number is considered as it actually is. Moreover, according to the rule of Boethius, whatever is, by the very fact that it is, it is impossible for it not to be or to be otherwise.
The fifth question, whether the elect can become reprobate, and the reverse.
§ 214. Fifth, the question arises: Can the elect become reprobate, and, on the other hand, can the reprobate become elect? From the preceding statements one can draw an easy conclusion, because this question also can be understood in two ways, namely, absolutely and hypothetically, or (what is the same) in a divided and in a composite sense.1 Lombard (Sent. 1, dist. 40, sect. 2):
Both cannot exist at the same time, namely, that someone is saved and is not predestined, or that someone is predestined and is condemned. You see, understanding of the implicit connection makes truth in the statement and impossibility in reality. However, if it is understood simply, the impossibility is not admitted, as when one says: a predestined man can or cannot be condemned, and a reprobated man can be saved. For in these and similar statements, the sense of the statement must be judged on the basis of what is said. You see, there is one way to understand this if these words are taken through conjunction, and another way to understand it if they are taken through disjunction.2 If, when you say, “One who is predestined cannot be condemned,” you understand this to mean that it is impossible for a man to be predestined and condemned, then you speak the truth, because you are understanding it through conjunction. However, it would be false if you understood it through disjunction, that is, if you took it to mean that the one I claim is predestined cannot be condemned, for he might not have been predestined and thus would be condemned.
Socinas (Sent. 1, dist. 30, q. 2, concl. 3) explains this question in the same way.
The sixth question, whether the elect ultimately can perish.
§ 215. Finally, the question arises: Can the elect ultimately perish? Christ clearly denies this. Matt. 24:24: “So as to lead astray, if that were possible, even the elect.” John 10:28: “No one will snatch My sheep out of My hands.” The apostle denies it. Rom. 11:7: “The election has obtained it,” namely, its end and terminus. The fathers deny it. Augustine (De Trin., bk. 13, ch. 16): “None of the predestined will perish with the devil; none will be under the power of the devil unto death.” Treatise 45 on John: “If he has been predestined, he erred for a while, but he has not perished forever.” Again, however, this question is to be understood in the composite sense, nor should one describe the elect on the basis of an absolute decree. Just as God begins faith in the elect through the Word and the Spirit, so also He preserves them in faith and sanctification to eternal life through means. Those who fall from faith and godliness through intentional wickedness are recognized not to be in the number of the elect.
1 The composite sense is the meaning of a concept when considered together with other facts or concepts. The divided sense is the meaning of a concept in itself, apart from its relation to other facts or concepts. For example, in the proposition “It is possible for one sitting to run,” if running is taken in the composite sense with sitting, the proposition is false because one cannot sit and run at the same time. But if running is divided, or taken in the divided sense, from sitting, the proposition is true because he who is now sitting can run later.
2 That is, in the composite sense or the divided sense.