Now consider the man Josiah for an example. This man was beloved of his God! He was one of the few men in history of whom the prophets, through God, prophesied his existence through calling him by his name, centuries and generations before his birth. Josiah was one of the last kings to rule in Judah. So late was his rule, he lived on the eve of judgment, in the very generation in which God was beckoning Babylon to come and make an end of His people’s nation. God spoke of the name Josiah centuries before his birth, at the very nativity of apostasy under the twisted rebellion of Jeroboam; this was no mistake. At the arising of apostasy, God declared the END of it, and it was going to be by the man Josiah. God proclaimed to Jeroboam – to his face – that He, through Josiah, would avail to accomplish vengeance! God spoke of “Josiah by name,” that he would be used to defile, destroy, and demolish this apostasy according to the mind of our Jealous God (1 Kings 13:2). When rebellion is born, God does, at times, longsuffer it to go on, and if He lets it rage on, it means immense Personal suffering, that God will be put in great weariness over the long continuance of sin. God longs for the death day of rebellion and sin! “Josiah by name” was born to bring penalty upon iniquity to God’s satisfaction and rest – Hallelujah! What more than this could verify God’s everlasting love, foreknowledge, and election of Josiah? Consider the scene of Josiah's prophecy…a no-named prophet, opposing king and nation, bold and unflinching in the face of this newborn rebellion against God, spoke what can be read in the following account:
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"And, behold, there came a man of God out of Judah by the word of the LORD unto Bethel: and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense. And he cried against the altar in the word of the LORD, and said, O altar, altar, thus saith the LORD; Behold, a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name; and upon thee shall he offer the priests of the high places that burn incense upon thee, and men’s bones shall be burnt upon thee. And he gave a sign the same day, saying, This is the sign which the LORD hath spoken; Behold, the altar shall be rent, and the ashes that are upon it shall be poured out. And it came to pass, when king Jeroboam heard the saying of the man of God, which had cried against the altar in Bethel, that he put forth his hand from the altar, saying, Lay hold on him. And his hand, which he put forth against him, dried up, so that he could not pull it in again to him. The altar also was rent, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the LORD. And the king answered and said unto the man of God, Intreat now the face of the LORD thy God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored me again. And the man of God besought the LORD, and the king’s hand was restored him again, and became as it was before. And the king said unto the man of God, Come home with me, and refresh thyself, and I will give thee a reward. And the man of God said unto the king, If thou wilt give me half thine house, I will not go in with thee, neither will I eat bread nor drink water in this place: For so was it charged me by the word of the LORD, saying, Eat no bread, nor drink water, nor turn again by the same way that thou camest. So he went another way, and returned not by the way that he came to Bethel." (1 Kings 13:1-10)
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Jeroboam introduced a system of religion peculiarly similar to Judaism, but acutely defiant of all God’s righteousness. He made a falsified system of worship, supposedly to the one true LORD, and so he deceived the people that they would not go to the Temple anymore for worship. The people were led to believe that worship elsewhere, other than the Temple, was acceptable and directed to the same God of Israel which the people of Israel had historically worshipped up to that day. He set up two golden calves and called them the God of Israel (1 Kings 12:25-33), and Israel went a whoring after them. The inventor of this rebellion in the disguise of true religion, Jeroboam the son of Nebat, is mentioned by name more than any other criminal in the chronology of the kings. He, at this point, introduces such damaging and contagious doctrines that the people can scarce escape it, and continually, king after king, generation after generation, the people followed in his sins which he introduced in his generation. Therefore Jeroboam’s name, and specifically – “the way of Jeroboam, and in his sin wherewith he made Israel to sin” – is referenced approximately thirty times throughout the generations (1 Kings 15:34). Josiah therefore, by the sovereign election of God, was a man set apart, unaffected and defiant against pressure and popular rebellion which did snare the masses! My reader, “know that the LORD hath set apart him that is godly for himself” (Psalm 4:3)! What does this mean? Glory and credit must be given to the sovereign grace of God! What an amazing accolade which strongly implied the everlasting love of God, that Josiah was prophesied by name as an instrument of God’s pleasure, and that he would be an accomplisher of perfect obedience – “Josiah by name!”
Amazingly, as with David and others, Josiah’s youth was spent in peculiar fervency for the righteous, good causes of God. He was “eight years old when he began to reign” in Judah. He was born in what God had intended to be the generation of wrath and judgment, the generation where He removed all the rest of His people into captivity and dispersion through the Babylonian invasion (2 Chron. 34:1). This is a shocking mystery, I mean, that God intended Josiah's generation to be the generation of wrath, which included the destruction of Josiah. Josiah would be the king upon whom the woeful curses of old were finally executed, he and his people, but because of his availing righteousness, Josiah did change the mind of God which at first was set against him; thus it was by intercession he did win peace for himself and Israel! Eternally, or in sovereignty (God in the ways of God), the Lord had always willed and determined for Josiah to be the second to last king in Judah, not the last. But in time, the simultaneous will of God (God in the ways of man) was minded to destroy him and Israel, and bring the whole people into the furnace of fire. Please follow carefully with me as I trace Josiah’s life to show you the point of turning, wherein Josiah turned the mind of God through the intercessions of judgment and heartbreaking, terror-driven prayers for help and hope – and behold, the man beloved of God and famed of old, "Josiah by name."
As stated before, Josiah began to reign at eight years old (2 Chron. 34:1). Centuries had passed since the days of Jeroboam, and since then, the depravity of man had taken greater advantages to invent greater evils which were accepted because of the declining, degenerating conviction amongst the common people, who were, through the experience of sin, emboldened to further corruption unimaginable to previous generations. One generation of evil is unsatisfactory to the lusts of the next, until further mischief is wrought. “Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied” (Prov. 27:20). Because apostasy springboards further apostasy, by the time Josiah was born, lo, the Bible was nowhere to be found…THERE WAS NO BIBLE! All that Josiah had to follow was the verbal traditions of the former kings which remained faithful to God in their lifetimes, kings who were very few in number. As much as Josiah knew of righteousness and truth – that he did! He “did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the ways of David his father, and declined neither to the right hand, nor to the left” (2 Chron. 34:2). He probably learned of David’s ways from the priesthood, elders, counselors, and ancients of his day. Therefore Josiah was a seeker of “the old paths”, not a follower of the majority and all the kings of church history. He did as Jeremiah said: “Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls” (Jer. 6:16).
When Josiah was 16 years old, and in “the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father” (2 Chron. 34:3). Josiah was seeking, listening, studying, meditating, and learning…and four years passed by. At 20 years old, “the twelfth year” of his reign, “he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images. And they brake down the altars of Baalim in his presence; and the images, that were on high above them, he cut down; and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images, he brake in pieces, and made dust of them, and strowed it upon the graves of them that had sacrificed unto them. And he burnt the bones of the priests upon their altars, and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem. And so did he in the cities of Manasseh, and Ephraim, and Simeon, even unto Naphtali, with their mattocks round about. And when he had broken down the altars and the groves, and had beaten the graven images into powder, and cut down all the idols throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem" (2 Chronicles 34:3-7).
Intercession by judgment began, and Josiah went forth all abroad to purge the land! AFTER he was finished doing all these things “throughout all the land of Israel,” NOTICE my reader, “he returned to Jerusalem” (2 Chron. 34:7). “The eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him,” and surely, God was finding a man (2 Chron. 16:9)! After righteous judgment was wrought, Josiah returned. “Let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream,” then let the people of God offer sacrifices, offerings, prayers, and worshipful celebrations – and they will be accepted (Amos 5:24, Psalm 51:19). But if we persist to do evil and yet trust in God’s promises, “and come and stand before Me in this House,” God says, “which is called by My name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations” (Jer. 7:10), then we will suffer a like damnation according to the saying, “Is this House, which is called by My Name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the LORD,” it is full of “the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil” (Jer. 7:11, Eccl. 5:1).
6 years transpired as the man of God, Josiah, considered all the evil that Judah and Israel had done, and after 6 years of perpetual purging, he returned to Jerusalem “in the eighteenth year of his reign” (2 Chron. 34:8). He was 26 years old at this point, and he turned his face to purge “The House” of God (2 Chron. 34:8). “He set Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the governor of recorder, to repair the house of the LORD his God” (2 Chron. 34:8). As all the men began “to repair and amend the House” and “the men did the work faithfully,” God, in His great mercy toward Josiah, did provide for him a way of escape from wrath! You may think that Josiah had already escaped the wrath of God by this point in his life. You may think he was already fulfilling the course which was prophetically determined for him; but it was not so reader, not yet! God is still angry enough with Josiah that he would perish (2 Chron. 34:10, 12). Reader, we need to seek after and obey God with all the heart and conscience within us, and still yet understand that this does not mean that we have escaped wrath (in one sense), but we must do intercessory righteousness “until the fierce wrath of our God for this matter be turned from us” (Ezra 10:14).
While repairing the House of God, “and when they brought out the money that was brought into the House of the LORD, Hilkiah the priest found a book of the law of the LORD given by Moses” (2 Chron. 34:14). They found the BIBLE! This is great evidence that God is providing an opportunity for mercy, and we will see, by deeds, if Josiah will truly go through with God. Josiah was born in a day like the prophetic WOE:
Amazingly, as with David and others, Josiah’s youth was spent in peculiar fervency for the righteous, good causes of God. He was “eight years old when he began to reign” in Judah. He was born in what God had intended to be the generation of wrath and judgment, the generation where He removed all the rest of His people into captivity and dispersion through the Babylonian invasion (2 Chron. 34:1). This is a shocking mystery, I mean, that God intended Josiah's generation to be the generation of wrath, which included the destruction of Josiah. Josiah would be the king upon whom the woeful curses of old were finally executed, he and his people, but because of his availing righteousness, Josiah did change the mind of God which at first was set against him; thus it was by intercession he did win peace for himself and Israel! Eternally, or in sovereignty (God in the ways of God), the Lord had always willed and determined for Josiah to be the second to last king in Judah, not the last. But in time, the simultaneous will of God (God in the ways of man) was minded to destroy him and Israel, and bring the whole people into the furnace of fire. Please follow carefully with me as I trace Josiah’s life to show you the point of turning, wherein Josiah turned the mind of God through the intercessions of judgment and heartbreaking, terror-driven prayers for help and hope – and behold, the man beloved of God and famed of old, "Josiah by name."
As stated before, Josiah began to reign at eight years old (2 Chron. 34:1). Centuries had passed since the days of Jeroboam, and since then, the depravity of man had taken greater advantages to invent greater evils which were accepted because of the declining, degenerating conviction amongst the common people, who were, through the experience of sin, emboldened to further corruption unimaginable to previous generations. One generation of evil is unsatisfactory to the lusts of the next, until further mischief is wrought. “Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied” (Prov. 27:20). Because apostasy springboards further apostasy, by the time Josiah was born, lo, the Bible was nowhere to be found…THERE WAS NO BIBLE! All that Josiah had to follow was the verbal traditions of the former kings which remained faithful to God in their lifetimes, kings who were very few in number. As much as Josiah knew of righteousness and truth – that he did! He “did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the ways of David his father, and declined neither to the right hand, nor to the left” (2 Chron. 34:2). He probably learned of David’s ways from the priesthood, elders, counselors, and ancients of his day. Therefore Josiah was a seeker of “the old paths”, not a follower of the majority and all the kings of church history. He did as Jeremiah said: “Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls” (Jer. 6:16).
When Josiah was 16 years old, and in “the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father” (2 Chron. 34:3). Josiah was seeking, listening, studying, meditating, and learning…and four years passed by. At 20 years old, “the twelfth year” of his reign, “he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images. And they brake down the altars of Baalim in his presence; and the images, that were on high above them, he cut down; and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images, he brake in pieces, and made dust of them, and strowed it upon the graves of them that had sacrificed unto them. And he burnt the bones of the priests upon their altars, and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem. And so did he in the cities of Manasseh, and Ephraim, and Simeon, even unto Naphtali, with their mattocks round about. And when he had broken down the altars and the groves, and had beaten the graven images into powder, and cut down all the idols throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem" (2 Chronicles 34:3-7).
Intercession by judgment began, and Josiah went forth all abroad to purge the land! AFTER he was finished doing all these things “throughout all the land of Israel,” NOTICE my reader, “he returned to Jerusalem” (2 Chron. 34:7). “The eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him,” and surely, God was finding a man (2 Chron. 16:9)! After righteous judgment was wrought, Josiah returned. “Let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream,” then let the people of God offer sacrifices, offerings, prayers, and worshipful celebrations – and they will be accepted (Amos 5:24, Psalm 51:19). But if we persist to do evil and yet trust in God’s promises, “and come and stand before Me in this House,” God says, “which is called by My name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations” (Jer. 7:10), then we will suffer a like damnation according to the saying, “Is this House, which is called by My Name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the LORD,” it is full of “the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil” (Jer. 7:11, Eccl. 5:1).
6 years transpired as the man of God, Josiah, considered all the evil that Judah and Israel had done, and after 6 years of perpetual purging, he returned to Jerusalem “in the eighteenth year of his reign” (2 Chron. 34:8). He was 26 years old at this point, and he turned his face to purge “The House” of God (2 Chron. 34:8). “He set Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the governor of recorder, to repair the house of the LORD his God” (2 Chron. 34:8). As all the men began “to repair and amend the House” and “the men did the work faithfully,” God, in His great mercy toward Josiah, did provide for him a way of escape from wrath! You may think that Josiah had already escaped the wrath of God by this point in his life. You may think he was already fulfilling the course which was prophetically determined for him; but it was not so reader, not yet! God is still angry enough with Josiah that he would perish (2 Chron. 34:10, 12). Reader, we need to seek after and obey God with all the heart and conscience within us, and still yet understand that this does not mean that we have escaped wrath (in one sense), but we must do intercessory righteousness “until the fierce wrath of our God for this matter be turned from us” (Ezra 10:14).
While repairing the House of God, “and when they brought out the money that was brought into the House of the LORD, Hilkiah the priest found a book of the law of the LORD given by Moses” (2 Chron. 34:14). They found the BIBLE! This is great evidence that God is providing an opportunity for mercy, and we will see, by deeds, if Josiah will truly go through with God. Josiah was born in a day like the prophetic WOE:
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"Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD: And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it. In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst" (Amos 8:11-13).
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Yet now, behold, Josiah has a chance to hear TRUTH, unadulterated by history, untainted by church degeneracy, unfollowed by most, and revealed to very few. Josiah found THE BIBLE! But can you believe it? At this point in Josiah’s life, at 26 years old, after following the traditions of David which were verbally passed down to him with all of his heart, after 10 years of seeking and serving God – and now – even at this very moment, the wrath of God is burning upon him to destroy him! Do you believe it? Follow with me in the subsequent events after Josiah receives and hears the written word of God -->
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"Then Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest hath given me a book. And Shaphan read it before the king. And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the law, that he rent his clothes. And the king commanded Hilkiah, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Abdon the son of Micah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah a servant of the king’s, saying, Go, enquire of the LORD for me, and for them that are left in Israel and in Judah, concerning the words of the book that is found: for great is the wrath of the LORD that is poured out upon us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the LORD, to do after all that is written in this book" (2 Chronicles 34:18-21).
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Behold, Josiah “rent his clothes”! Why? “Great is the wrath of the LORD that is poured out upon us because our fathers have not kept the word of the LORD, to do after all that is written in this Book!” How do you look at Church history? Do you view the centuries of consistency in extrabiblical Church history as the measuring stick for truth? When Josiah looked at Church history, he recognized that his fathers had not kept the word of the Lord! He was terrified and tenderhearted! He did humble himself, rent his clothes, and wept after he heard the words of the Bible! Why? Because they condemned them and him! He found that men like him were consistently condemned throughout history, and that, consistently, all throughout Church history, the people of God often slipped into hell, and this time he was in desperate straits to be one of those few inconsistent persons who went through with God. In such a state of brokenness and horror, Josiah sent for a prophet, hoping to hear of God’s mind toward Josiah and Israel right then, if haply, in that very moment in time, there could be a possibility for mercy and hope. As it is written, “Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: IT MAY BE that the LORD God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph” (Amos 5:15). And again, “Seek ye the LORD, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought His judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: IT MAY BE ye shall be hid in the day of the LORD’S anger” (Zeph. 2:3). Huldah the prophetess sent back a word of a scarce salvation:-->
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"Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the curses that are written in the book which they have read before the king of Judah: Because they have forsaken Me, and have burned incense unto other gods, that they might provoke Me to anger with all the works of their hands; therefore my wrath shall be poured out upon this place, and shall not be quenched. And as for the king of Judah, who sent you to enquire of the LORD, so shall ye say unto him, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel concerning the words which thou hast heard; Because thine heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God, when thou heardest His words against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, and humbledst thyself before Me, and didst rend thy clothes, and weep before Me; I have even heard thee also, saith the LORD. Behold, I will gather thee to thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace, neither shall thine eyes see all the evil that I will bring upon this place, and upon the inhabitants of the same. So they brought the king word again." (2 Chronicles 34:24-28)
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Because Josiah was elect and loved with an everlasting love, is this why God saved him? Inevitably YES! But is that why God saved him in the circumstances under the counsel of God in the ways of man? In other words, what was God’s revealed mind and counsel directly before this word, when Josiah first heard the words of the Law? Was it wrath or love, damnation or salvation? Was Josiah saved because he was assured of his election, and therefore he believed he could never be damned, he could never aggravate the anger of God, and never be condemned? NAY! Josiah was saved by plainly hearing the word of God which declared his own damnation, by hearing that God was intent to destroy him…BUT God changed His mind! Did you not read it? God said, "Because thine heart was tender... when thou heardest His words against this place" – it was then, by soul-riveting humility – bone-breaking, soul-shaking, garment-rending, and desperate-weeping – THEN God turned away His wrath, but NOT BEFORE! Why? God says of Josiah, “Because thine heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God, when thou heardest the words against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, and humblest thyself before Me, and didst rend thy clothes, and weep before Me; I have even heard thee also, saith the LORD” (2 Chron. 34:27)! God heard Josiah because of these things, not separate from them! Therefore, just previous to hearing the words of the law, and just before God observed Josiah's faith, repentance, humility, and weeping, the wrath and destruction prophesied by scripture was still yet impending upon Josiah, even though he lived his life the way he did up to that day, even though he had done all the righteousness that he knew of by verbal tradition. In this way, Josiah made his election sure, as it is written – “make your calling and election sure” (2 Peter 1:10).
If Josiah would have believed that he was the elect, and that this made impossible the possibility of wrath or damnation, he would not have been saved. I repeat, though he followed God with all of his heart for ten years up to that day, though he followed the ways of God as much as he knew them by the traditions and truth which was available to him, when he heard the truth as it was written, his eyes were opened to the wrath and damnation which was yet kindled…and had a priest taught Josiah the contrabiblical tenets of Calvinism, and Josiah encountered such a time like this, Calvinism would have blinded his eyes from seeing God’s wrath and damnation, leaving him hopelessly hard-hearted and slipping into rightful woes. This terrifies me! Will you now open your eyes to the unadulterated truth, my reader, and will you follow that which theological systems account as inconsistent and historically nonexistent, and yet, will you follow it because it is biblical? Will you judge your integrity and weigh all of your works, numbering them throughout all your years, and decide that, everything you have done up to this day is availing to nothing, if, and only if, there is just a word of holy scripture which assures that wrath is yet against you – no matter how high your ministerial position is, no matter how kingly you have become to your generation – and though these things (by appearance) cry out your justification before the Almighty, will you hear the written word of God against the famed system of Calvinism, against the extrabiblical cloud of witnesses which shout to hold its tenets firm?
Are you elect of God? Then show it by looking steadfastly on the kindled wrath of God over your sin – when it is indeed kindled – and so be violent, be moved to wrestle for mercy! But instead, you vainly imagine yourself to be one of the eternally elect persons of God, when no man can know such a thing (except by prophetic revelation or present progressive blamelessness), when the greatest evidence of election is obedience, and yet you rest in disobedience thinking that God (from eternity past) thinks solely in an unchanging, ever-present love towards you, and so, you are deluded from the strong crying that would be the evidence of your eternal election. The sovereignty of God was manifest by softening Hezekiah’s heart, so that he would humble himself to tears at the report of the word of God. So the question remains: has a report of the wrath of God, the warning of God, or the word of God humbled you to tears? Has a revelation of a present-tense wrath because of the written word of God’s blame terrified you to broken humility? Then this is the evidence of your election! Election is not made sure by a comprehension of an eternal, unconditional love, or by the joy and thankfulness that comes from realizing the absence all possibilities of damnation, but rather, it comes from the awareness of the anger of God toward you when the written warnings of God are binding them upon your life. It was not a comprehension of the eternal, unchanging, everlasting love that saved these men; it was an acknowledgement and belief of present-tense damning wrath. Calvinism is an amalgamation of truth with a deadly mixture of lies; it is the same deadly doctrinal snares of historical false prophets, because it secures the former mindset of inordinate peace and safety, as the only possible faith for a Christian, and it disannuls, makes void, and hinders the latter comprehension from even entering the mind, namely, that destruction is impending upon them. “For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape” (1 Thess. 5:3). “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” (Hos. 4:6).
If Josiah would have believed that he was the elect, and that this made impossible the possibility of wrath or damnation, he would not have been saved. I repeat, though he followed God with all of his heart for ten years up to that day, though he followed the ways of God as much as he knew them by the traditions and truth which was available to him, when he heard the truth as it was written, his eyes were opened to the wrath and damnation which was yet kindled…and had a priest taught Josiah the contrabiblical tenets of Calvinism, and Josiah encountered such a time like this, Calvinism would have blinded his eyes from seeing God’s wrath and damnation, leaving him hopelessly hard-hearted and slipping into rightful woes. This terrifies me! Will you now open your eyes to the unadulterated truth, my reader, and will you follow that which theological systems account as inconsistent and historically nonexistent, and yet, will you follow it because it is biblical? Will you judge your integrity and weigh all of your works, numbering them throughout all your years, and decide that, everything you have done up to this day is availing to nothing, if, and only if, there is just a word of holy scripture which assures that wrath is yet against you – no matter how high your ministerial position is, no matter how kingly you have become to your generation – and though these things (by appearance) cry out your justification before the Almighty, will you hear the written word of God against the famed system of Calvinism, against the extrabiblical cloud of witnesses which shout to hold its tenets firm?
Are you elect of God? Then show it by looking steadfastly on the kindled wrath of God over your sin – when it is indeed kindled – and so be violent, be moved to wrestle for mercy! But instead, you vainly imagine yourself to be one of the eternally elect persons of God, when no man can know such a thing (except by prophetic revelation or present progressive blamelessness), when the greatest evidence of election is obedience, and yet you rest in disobedience thinking that God (from eternity past) thinks solely in an unchanging, ever-present love towards you, and so, you are deluded from the strong crying that would be the evidence of your eternal election. The sovereignty of God was manifest by softening Hezekiah’s heart, so that he would humble himself to tears at the report of the word of God. So the question remains: has a report of the wrath of God, the warning of God, or the word of God humbled you to tears? Has a revelation of a present-tense wrath because of the written word of God’s blame terrified you to broken humility? Then this is the evidence of your election! Election is not made sure by a comprehension of an eternal, unconditional love, or by the joy and thankfulness that comes from realizing the absence all possibilities of damnation, but rather, it comes from the awareness of the anger of God toward you when the written warnings of God are binding them upon your life. It was not a comprehension of the eternal, unchanging, everlasting love that saved these men; it was an acknowledgement and belief of present-tense damning wrath. Calvinism is an amalgamation of truth with a deadly mixture of lies; it is the same deadly doctrinal snares of historical false prophets, because it secures the former mindset of inordinate peace and safety, as the only possible faith for a Christian, and it disannuls, makes void, and hinders the latter comprehension from even entering the mind, namely, that destruction is impending upon them. “For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape” (1 Thess. 5:3). “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” (Hos. 4:6).
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Point to conclude: If Jeremiah, Joshua, Jacob, and Josiah had believed they were elect (according to the simplistic misappropriations of sovereign election which are common today), they would have been damned in their most desperate hour. Because they did believe they were not of the elect (God in the ways of man), they were fervent in mind to make their election sure, especially by the message of God which assured the terror of possible and sure wrath, if indeed, they lived in transgression of biblical warnings. They were not saved by believing they were the elect, but when they believed that their election was in danger, that they were presently damned at various points in time, they were so moved to a saving degree of repentance and faith, and ironic as it may be, this became the manifest quality of their election (God in the ways of God).
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