Why Christians Need the Doctrine of Election

​I pastor a Reformed Baptist church in Belton, Texas.  If you are not certain what a Reformed Baptist church is, a simple explanation would be to say that by “Baptist,” we mean we hold to and practice credobaptism (believers’ baptism) as the only biblical form of baptism.  That is, we believe that a person should be baptized based on one’s confession of faith.  By “Reformed” we mean that we stand in the tradition of the Protestant Reformation, a movement which can be summarized by the five solis which came out of that movement--sola gratia (grace alone), sola fide (faith alone), solus Christus (Christ alone), sola scriptura (scripture alone), and soli Deo gloria (to God be the glory alone).  In other words, we believe that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone according to the Scriptures alone and to God be the glory alone.  That last soli is the linchpin. We believe that salvation is a sovereign, monergistic, unilateral work of God.  We believe that salvation is 100% God’s work, and 0% man’s contribution.  By sovereign, we mean that God chooses whom he will save and when he will save them and answers to no one.  By monergistic, we mean that salvation is a work of God alone (monō = one or only + gineō = work).  And by unilateral, we meant that salvation is one-sided.  As Martin Luther once famously said, “Man does contribute to his salvation.  Man contributes sin and resistance.”  

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