Answering Dr. Leighton Flowers pt. 1

In an article I posted yesterday, Dr. Leighton Flowers (a well known SBC Traditionalist scholar) replied to an article over Total Depravity. He stated that I did not lay a foundation for the Calvinistic claim that man is unable to respond freely to the Gospel. After a while of back and forth I asked him to do a written debate. He kindly stated that written debate wasn't a preference of his but that I could respond to one of his articles in which he linked me to this article: https://soteriology101.wordpress.com/2016/03/16/answering-calvinistic-proof-texts/

Now, I have high respect for Dr. Flowers and am excited to be responding to his article, so let's begin.

The article is called "Answering Calvinistic Proof Texts" and the intention was to write a short summary exegesis over Ephesians 1, John 6, and Romans 9 in response to Dr. James White's interpretation of these texts (which is how most of us would interpret these texts anyways.)

I will be posting three responses to his assumptions about these three texts.

My first reaction to this article is that I'm impressed that he would undertake this task. It would take thorough examination and thought to handle a reformed exegesis of Scripture.

The first text he handles is Ephesians 1:1-11:

"1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful[a] in Christ Jesus: 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us[b]for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known[c] to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. 11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will..."

His response was as follows:

From the first verse of the chapter we learn that Paul is addressing “the faithful in Christ Jesus.” The theme of being “in Him” continues throughout the entire passage. The question is “how does one come to be in Christ?” The Calvinist contends that certain individuals were chosen before the world began and predestined to become believers, but that is simply not what the text says. Paul teaches that those “in Him” have been predestined to become “holy and blameless” and “to be adopted as sons,” but he never says that certain individuals were predestined to believe in Christ. Paul is speaking of what “the faithful in Christ” (vs. 1) have been predestined to become, not about God preselecting certain individuals before the foundation of the world to be irresistibly transformed into believers. In verse 13, the apostle clearly teaches his readers that it was when you “heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation” and  “when you believed” that you were “marked in Him.”

Now that is a nice thought but there is a fundamental method of interpretation that Leighton is using here and that is that God's foreknowledge is simply foreseeing who would believe. Leighton writes, "Paul teaches that those “in Him” have been predestined to become “holy and blameless” and “to be adopted as sons,” but he never says that certain individuals were predestined to believe in Christ." Which is in direct violation of the text here, "4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us[b]for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace..." Ephesians 1:4-6a

Ephesians 1 is edifying the body and teaching them the origin of their salvation as it is according to God's will.
"he predestined us for adoption", "according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace", "according to the riches of his grace", "making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose", "as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth."

So the underlying lens of interpretation of Ephesians 1 for the Traditionalist is faulty because of the little phrase, "he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will..." And that is a misconception that Dr. Flowers carried throughout his whole response.