What is the doctrine of preterition?

Another error that has caused a difficulty as to 'election ' is the idea which some maintain that as some are ordained to eternal life, others likewise are fore-ordained by God to perdition, called 'reprobation.' But this is not taught in scripture — God desires that all men should be saved, 1 Tim. 2:4, and His election to life ensures that some will be. It was not before Esau was born, nor until long after he was dead, that it was said he was hated of God. Malachi 1:3. Some even judge that it refers, not to Esau personally, but to his descendants after their deeds had been fully manifested. Cf. Oba. 10; Ezek. 35.

προορίζω. 'To mark out beforehand, predetermine.' In Rom. 8:29-30, it forms a link in the chain that connects the foreknowledge of God in the past with the glory in the future. Election is God's choice of individuals; predestination is to a blessing, as in Eph. 1:5, 11, believers are predestinated to the adoption of sons, according to the purpose of God. Predestination does not, as insisted on by some, imply reprobation of some to wrath. God "will have [or desires] all men to be saved," 1 Tim. 2:4; but to ensure some being saved, He predestinated, called, justified, and glorified them in His sovereign purpose.

But there is one thing of which we may be sure: God's choice is always "the election of GRACE" (Rom. 11:5). That God elects to judgment is an idea reached as the fruit of human reasonings upon this matter, which so completely transcends our reason; it is never so stated in Scripture. The Scriptural presentation of the case is that all are totally ruined with no point of recovery in themselves, and that God chooses to have mercy on some and, consequently, in them to work with life-giving power.

In truth, God’s sovereignty is ever on the side of mercy. The hyper-Calvinists, who allow one side of the truth to engage them so wholly as to make them blind to and deny another truth just as much asserted in the Scriptures, viz., the responsibility of man to God, sometimes go so far as to fall into the error of saying that God elects the lost to be damned. Never was there a greater mistake.

C.C. — I think so. God’s act in choosing the objects of His mercy necessarily leaves the rest to the doom they have responsibly incurred. God did not decree that men should be sinners, but reprobated sinners to death, and the judgment after death; it is a righteous reprobation from which His elect are saved. But it is a righteous salvation.

Here it is, briefly stated; that is, it is "the counterpart of the doctrine of Election." This is a false premise based on the assumption that because God chose some in the past eternity as objects of His mercy that He necessarily thereby designed to consign all the rest to hell; that He decreed before the world was that most of His creatures should go to hell. This, we say, is definitely without scriptural warrant. There is no place where there is a "Thus saith the Lord" for the doctrine of reprobation. It is arrived at by conjecture, assumption, deduction, and human reasoning. To show that such is the case, let us quote just a few excerpts from Mr. Pink's chapter on Reprobation:

On the other hand, election is God's prerogative: this is His perfect right. Election is according to His foreknowledge. With perfect knowledge of all the future He chose certain people in Christ before the world existed. Nothing was left unconsidered in this choice: it was right, it was wise, it was wonderfully gracious, as every believer must heartily agree.

"The case of Pharaoh establishes the principle and illustrates the doctrine of Reprobation. If God actually reprobated Pharaoh, we may justly conclude that He reprobates all others whom He did not predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son. This inference the apostle Paul manifestly draws from the fate of Pharaoh, for in Romans 9, after referring to God's purpose in raising up Pharaoh, he continues, 'therefore.' The case of Pharaoh is introduced to prove the doctrine of Reprobation as the counterpart of the doctrine of Election." pp. 110, 111.

This sovereign, gratuitous work in man, done in accordance with that eternal counsel which all things work out, defines clearly for us what is election. It means the gracious interference of divine love in behalf of those who, no different from others, dead in the same sins, instead of being given up to perish, are given to Christ to be the fruit of His blessed work, "that He might be the first-born among many brethren." It is love, and only love, righteously and in perfect goodness manifested in salvation only, and of those worthy of damnation. To charge upon it the damnation of the lost is blasphemy, however unconscious, of that in which the whole heart of God is pouring itself out. If others remain obdurate in pride and careless unbelief, and going on to destruction, while we, justified by faith, and having peace with God, rejoice in hope of the glory of God, is it because we are better than they? What Christian heart can believe this? No; it is because "God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ." No man has found his true level who has not come down there, and only there do we find the full and impregnable assurance of perfect and enduring peace. "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?" A love that found us with nothing, to indue us with all, is a love that has in it no element of change.

Thus not a sentence of God's word shall fail. It is most blessedly true that He has mercy on whom He will have mercy; and it is also solemnly true that whom He will He hardens. Ah, should a careless despiser of His grace read this, beware lest He take you away with His stroke! Remember, it is not God electing you to be lost, but your own wilful, wicked determination to reject His truth. And before you lay down this paper, the church of God may be taken away, and you may be left to be given up to strong delusion to believe a lie. Nay, take care that you are not even now believing a lie. Oh, how long has God borne with the wilful wickedness of man in mercy! as it is written, "What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared to glory." Thus the despising, defiant Pharaohs prepare themselves for everlasting woe, and God deals with them as they deserve in righteousness. If He dealt with all personally in righteousness, all must be lost. But He can, yes, does, exercise His blessed prerogative, "He has mercy on whom he will have mercy."

And mark, it is not written that He makes one vessel to honour, and another to dishonour. It is an ignorant, if not worse, mistake to say so. What is written is this, that He is sovereign, that is, that He has power to do so — has right to do so. Now, is it not evident, as we are all by nature rebels, sinners, rejecters of God, and despisers of His grace, that if God left us all to our own free will, and dealt with us as we deserve in absolute righteousness, we should all have perished, and thus Christ would have died in vain? Surely, then, it should bow every believer's heart in worship, that "He has mercy on whom he will." Oh, how blessed! when we should never have chosen God, God has chosen us in Christ before the world began.