# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_August 1855_S234
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

234

(Submitted by Prof. Dr. Sihler.)

10 Theses on the Doctrine of Eternal Predestination and Gracious Election to Eternal Life.

Thesis 1. Gracious election is an act of God in which, before the foundation of the world, and thus from eternity, according to the purpose of His will, He resolved, for Christ’s sake and to the praise of His glorious grace, to make eternally blessed all those whose persevering faith in Christ He foresaw. Ephesians 1:4–6; 2 Timothy 1:9.

Thesis 2. This gracious election, or eternal predestination, differs from God’s foreseeing or foreknowledge (prescience) in that the latter also extends to the ungodly and to their ultimate rejection if they persist in unbelief, though without being a cause of evil; gracious election, however, pertains only to the children of God and is a cause of their salvation.

Thesis 3. This gracious decree of God unto eternal salvation is not absolute and does not proceed from a secret and hidden abyss of the divine will; rather, it also encompasses within itself all the causes, means, and ways leading to eternal salvation, and is set within a definite order outside of which it neither shall nor can be realized in human beings.

Thesis 4. The causes, means, and ways just mentioned, which in their interconnection constitute the divine order leading to salvation and eternal blessedness, are as follows:

A. The free and unmerited grace and infinite mercy of God, which extends to all people and earnestly and sincerely desires their eternal salvation. This is the supreme, inward, impelling, and effecting cause. Isaiah 33:11; John 3:16; Romans 11:32; 1 Timothy 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9.

B. The Father’s sending of the Son into the flesh in order, through His active obedience in fulfilling the Law and through His passive obedience in suffering the punishment for and atoning for our disobedience, to make vicarious satisfaction and to become the propitiation for the sin of the whole world. Accordingly, our Lord Christ is the external meritorious cause of our salvation. Isaiah 53:6; John 1:29; 1 John 2:2; Romans 5:18, 19; 1 Timothy 2:6; 1 Timothy 4:10.

C. The proclamation of the Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments, through which the Holy Spirit in particular causes Christ and His infinite, most holy merit to be presented and offered to all people. In this way, the Holy Spirit is the appropriating cause of our salvation. Matthew 11:28; Matthew 28:19; Mark 16:15; Acts 17:30; 1 Timothy 2:4.

D. True, living faith, worked through the Gospel, that is, the