Election
The quick answer is … all Christian denominations do, though sometimes they don’t teach it. Election is clear from Ephesians 1, but the difference in views is not in whither or not they believe, but rather what is election based upon.
Did God choose us based upon His foreknowledge seeing of what we would do and on that basis choose us, or did He choose us for His own glory and grace, according to His own sovereign will, without any reason except His own?
The answer obviously is that God is Just. Justice has nothing to do with “being fair” The justice is God is the work of God that is based upon His holiness. But if God chooses to send some people to hell and choose to save some others then that would not be Just.
However, election is based upon that fact that all mankind is doomed to hell. If God chooses some out of that destiny that is Grace. However, he is not obligated to save all men or anyone, nor is He sending anyone to hell. Mankind is by nature receiving what is our fate for a fallen nature and a life in rebellion to God holiness. Salvation by grace means we have no claim to heaven, for “it is by grace you have been save, by faith, not of ourselves” Eph 2:8,9
I have actual heard people say, what if I want to be saved but God hasnt chosen me. Well, such a statement ignores the first issue. “There is NO ONE that seeks God” Rom 3:10 and again, “the person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.” (1 Cor 2:14) Simply put, a person outside of the the Holy Spirits drawing work has no desire, interest or intent to find God. So, if anyone is seeking the Lord that is a work of salvation, a work of the Holy Spirit. So an unsaved person would never say such a thing or have a desire to be saved unless they are being drawn by grace.
Hell
Just as the thief on the cross was immediately in paradise with Jesus, so an unrepentant person is immediately upon death in hell. It is a real place where the rich man of
Luke 16:19-31 entered into and had a knowledgeable understanding of his situation. Jesus said “For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” (Matthew 7:13,14)
So Jesus understood that the vast majority of people were heading to hell, not heaven. Jesus said “If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out.“ (Mark 9:43) But hell is only a holding tank, until the Day of Judgement then comes the Lake of Fire which has an eternal punishment. “The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death” (Rev 20:13,14) Such a horrible thought, and how much we need to point poeple to redemption in Christ.
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Free Will
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