Are You Among the Elect?

It is a question that plagues many Christians. Calvinists will typically say that we simply cannot be sure, but little do they know that tucked away in his discussion of the canon of Scripture, John Calvin seems to have given us a means of discovery:

“For as God alone can properly bear witness to his own words, so these words will not obtain full credit in the hearts of men, until they are sealed by the inward testimony of the Spirit. . . . the conviction which revelation from heaven alone can produce. I say nothing more than every believer experiences in himself…This singular privilege God bestows on his elect only, whom he separates from the rest of mankind.”   (John Calvin, Institutes 7.4-5)

Per Calvin, God’s elect can tell what is inspired Scripture and what is not because He tells them! So, determining who is elect seems to be a rather straightforward matter…

Elect Test

If you are one of the elect, you should easily be able to identify which of the following passages are inspired Scripture and which are not (No cheating – unless you are predestined to do so.):

1. “But the idol made with hands is accursed, and so is he who made it; because he did the work, and the perishable thing was named a god. For equally hateful to God are the ungodly man and his ungodliness, for what was done will be punished together with him who did it.”

2. “May God do good to you, and may he remember his covenant with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, his faithful servants. May he give you all a heart to worship him and to do his will with a strong heart and a willing spirit.”

3. “Therefore, when I, your servant, learned all this, I fled from them; and God has sent me to accomplish with you things that will astonish the whole world, as many as shall hear about them.”

4. “All wisdom comes from the Lord and is with him for ever. The sand of the sea, the drops of rain, and the days of eternity—who can count them?”

5. “In that year two elders from the people were appointed as judges. Concerning them the Lord had said: “Iniquity came forth from Babylon, from elders who were judges, who were supposed to govern the people. These men were frequently at Joakim’s house, and all who had suits at law came to them.”

6. “Saviors shall go up to Mount Zion to rule Mount Esau; and the kingdom shall be the Lord’s.”

7. “Two years later the king sent to the cities of Judah a chief collector of tribute, and he came to Jerusalem with a large force. Deceitfully he spoke peaceable words to them, and they believed him; but he suddenly fell upon the city, dealt it a severe blow, and destroyed many people of Israel.”

8. “Righteousness belongs to the Lord our God, but confusion of face, as at this day, to us, to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to our kings and our princes and our priests and our prophets and our fathers, because we have sinned before the Lord, and have disobeyed him, and have not heeded the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in the statutes of the Lord which he set before us.”

9. “Mordecai saw in this dream what God had determined to do, and after he awoke he had it on his mind, seeking all day to understand it in every detail.”

10. “Righteous art thou, O Lord; all thy deeds and all thy ways are mercy and truth, and thou dost render true and righteous judgment for ever. Remember me and look favorably upon me; do not punish me for my sins and for my unwitting offenses and those which my fathers committed before thee. For they disobeyed thy commandments, and thou gavest us over to plunder, captivity, and death; thou madest us a byword of reproach in all the nations among which we have been dispersed.”

11. “The Lord has destroyed without mercy all the habitations of Jacob; in his wrath he has broken down the strongholds of the daughter of Judah; he has brought down to the ground in dishonor the kingdom and its rulers.”

12. “Wherefore, there must be faith; and if there must be faith there must also be hope; and if there must be hope there must also be charity.”

How’d You Do?

Only two of the above passages are Scripture (according to Protestants): 

*I assume the satirical nature of this post is evident, but just in case it isn’t obvious enough (like, if James White reads it), this is indeed meant to be tongue-in-cheek.