Saturday, October 15, 2011

Double Predestination: The Elected Ones and the Crowd of the Condemned By Jürgen Moltmann

Here is an interesting essay by Jergen Moltmann commenting on Karl Barth and his reworking of Calvin's doctrine of Double Predestination. 



“The doctrine of election is the sum of the Gospel because of all words that can be said or heard it is the best: that God elects man; that God is for man too the One who loves in freedom,” said Karl Barth in § 32 of his Church Dogmatics (trans. is from Bromiley ed.). Why is this so? Because “God took upon himself the condemnation of sinful men with all consequences, and elected man to participate in his eternal glory (§ 33).” Is Barth teaching “double predestination?” Yes! But in a new dialectical form: God took the condemnation upon himself in order to embrace all in his election of grace. This is the new dialectical form of the old doctrine of “double predestination.” 

He goes on further and address what some say is Barth's Universalism. 


"Another question is whether universalism is the result of this reformulation. The answer is “No,” because we are witnesses of the Gospel not judges in the final judgment of God. Whether God will in the end embrace all with his transforming grace is His sake, ours is the witness of the Gospel to everybody."
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