Mouw on Unconditional Election
“Now, I understand how people can say that this pattern of God’s selectivity does not seem fair. Why does he choose this person and not that one? Doesn’t this make it all seem quite arbitrary? I understand this complaint, and I take it seriously. But frankly, it does not seem to be a complaint that is properly lodged against Calvinism in particular. It is better understood as a complaint about the facts of life. When a non-Calvinist Christian friend asks me how I can believe that God favors some people over others, it seems to me sufficient in many cases simply to point to the person’s own life. Let’s say that she was born in 1950 in Illinois, and that from her earliest days she was nurtured by the Christian community: they provided her with teachers and books and friends who encouraged her growth in the faith. In all of this, her life is much more privileged spiritually than, say, a person her own age who lives, say, in an isolated rural village in North Korea. And when my friend testifies to the grace of God in her life, she has no qualms about thanking the Lord for the special blessings that have been directed her way - blessings that are, in fact, missing in the life of her North Korean counterpart. Has Calvinism invented the notion of divine selectivity, or are we simply acknowledging something that seems to be really there in the way we experience our lives?”
(Richard J. Mouw, Calvinism in the Las Vegas Airport, p.33)
