# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_October 1856_S315
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

On the Doctrine of the Election of Grace and Some Related Matters, etc. 315

connects with the perversion of their will, by which they do not believe, and therefore, for the very reason they were appointed, stumble at the word, 1 Peter 2:8 in the Greek — compare Exodus 3:19, 4:21, 7:3,13,22, 8:15,19,32, 9:7,12, etc. in the Hebrew; the avenger finds them just as they are, having been preserved by Him according to His sustaining patience, once the time of grace has run out and the dull heart has become irrecoverably closed to what is holy and divine. Of the wrath that hovered over them, they had already felt something through the voice of conscience; the demonstration of His almighty power in judgment, as of His mercy toward the elect, formerly just as wretched, unto salvation, is a matter veiled from nature.

Predestination precedes the call of verse 24; it is nowhere said in Scripture of those who are lost, compare the Formula of Concord, German edition, Rechenberg, p. 1094f., Latin, p. 798f.; the rejection of the latter and the predestination of those ordained to eternal life are opposites, Acts 13:48, compare verse 46; foresight or foreknowledge, through the latter, lifts the former — which in itself would be general — for the elect, so that they are elect before the foundation of the world was laid, Ephesians 1:4, 1 Peter 1:1f., Romans 11:2, and it is comprehended within the purpose God formed regarding their eternal salvation. Before all time He resolved to save, in Christ Jesus His Son, those men lost and damned through Adam's fall; and since it was not hidden from Him, whose eyes saw us before He had formed us, who would recognize their Savior and truly believe on Him to the end, He determined to bring these into that existence in which His gracious will was to be glorified in them; but now, since God (who had resolved this Himself, and accordingly, since He indeed wills to impart it) has foreknown them as creatures who become blessed through faith, He has, by that very act, also predestined them, as such who will not be cast away and in whom the counsel of salvation is realized, to everything that the attainment of salvation requires; and these are therefore called according to a purpose, Romans 8:28, 2 Timothy 1:9, Ephesians 3:11, 1:9 (according to the original text), 11:5. From eternity they are ordained, without merit, according to the good pleasure of His will (a will that embraces the whole human race only conditionally — John 3:16, 2 Corinthians 5:19f.), unto sonship toward Himself through Jesus Christ; and this is the reason why predestination is joined with foreknowledge, for the great number of many brethren would be lacking to the Redeemer, the firstborn from the dead, if the one were without the other and the matter were left to our own power; but those whom He has ordained, these He has also in due time called, Romans 8:29f., to enlighten them with the bright light of the Gospel. All who, before the beginning of things, were foreseen as those who do not believe, or who believe only for a time, receive the divine call of grace unto judgment and their own damnation; but those others unto salvation. It comes upon them in such a way that, by virtue of the prior ordination, all