Important Note

This section on selective salvation is 66 chapters long. If you arrived at this page via an Internet search engine, you might want to start with the first chapter. This will provide you a complete presentation of this subject.

Click Here to go to the first chapter
Click Here for a quick summary
Click Here to view all 66 chapters
Click Here to download a book version of this study

Chapter: 14.14
(Section 14: Selective Salvation)
Copyright © Michael Bronson 1998 - 2005
BibleHelp.org

I have found most Christians do not believe in selective salvation. They believe the gift of salvation (through Jesus Christ) is open to everyone. People who believe salvation is open to everyone are "Open Salvationists." I have found most open Salvationists fall into one of three groups:

• Those who are unaware of the controversy.

• Those who have thoroughly studied this issue (the minority).

• Those who have heard a fair amount about election and predestination, but find it very confusing (the majority). They can’t figure out how it ties with the rest of the Bible, so they assume it must be one of those unsolvable "mysteries of the Bible."

It is this third group I want to talk about. Most Open Salvationists have made the Bible their final authority. Even if it teaches something they don’t like or understand, they accept it. So, when they run across the verses that talk about predestination and election, they feel obligated to "accept it." Of course, they don’t really know what they are accepting because it so confusing to them. As a result, they end up locking it away into the little vault in their mind. Seldom, if ever, do they bring up the subject of predestination or election.

These people strongly believe salvation is open to everyone. Yet, if you were to specifically ask them about predestination and election, some would say there has to be some truth to it because it is in the Bible. If you were to ask them how they are able to reconcile predestination with open salvation, they usually cannot provide a solid answer. They usually say they do not believe God would arbitrarily select certain people to go to Heaven or Hell. They would say this selection must have something to do with God’s foreknowledge of who is going to get saved in the future. In other words, they try to rationalize this confusing doctrine into something they find plausible. If you ask them to provide scripture to substantiate this interpretation, they can’t.

The purpose of this section is to look at this confusing subject and try to help you make sense out of it. The issue of selective salvation is very complex and covers several subjects. In order to unravel this complex issue, we will study each of the components separately.

Other Chapters in this Section

Home
Up
PART 1: What is Selective Salvation?

What is Selective Salvation?
Summary of Why Selective Salvation can't be True
The Chosen Few
Summary of Calvinism and Armininism
Are You a Calvinist, Armenian, or in-between?
Highlights from from the Canons of Dort
The TULIP
Calvinism Versus Hyper-Calvinism
The "Privilege" of Being one of the Elect
How Long has Selective Salvation been Popular?
Why did Selective Salvation gain Popularity?
Are All Men Created Equal?
Interesting Facts about Slavery and Equality
Open Salvation
This is not an Attack
Being Misunderstood
Why is this Issue Important?

PART 2: What Does the Bible say about Selective Salvation?
PART 3: Problems with Selective Salvation
PART 4: “Choice” –The Achilles’ Heel of Selective Salvation
PART 5: Difficult Questions Answered
Appendix: Foundational Documents used by Selective Salvationists

Tell a Friend about this page

-Top of Page-