A Study of Verses

I have been on a study for the last few years trying to find the verses that are clearly about the doctrine of election vs. verses that are clearly about the idea of free choice or free will. The key word here is “clearly” as there are some verses that are more open to interpretation than others. These verses I left out. For example, many Christians use John 3:16 to show free will. I have found that many people think that this verse means that anyone can come to Christ. The problem, however, is that there is no reference to the word itself or even the idea of “anyone” in that verse. The only definitive argument is the assurance that those who do believe will receive, while there is no suggestion that anyone or everyone can receive.

My conclusions are that while I have found many verses that are clearly support the doctrine of election, I can find no clear verse about free will. I have found a few verses that gave me much pause but upon further study I realized that I was wrong in my initial assessment. An example of this would be Phillipians 3:11-14. I always thought that this was not only about choosing salvation but also about maintaining salvation. Once I learned that a gift (salvation) and a “prize” were not synonymous I realized my error.

Another one would be 1 John 1:9. Some people would read that and say that your salvation is conditional to the word “ if ”. My first answer would be Ephesians 2:1-10 and my second answer would be that this verse is not about conditional salvation but of the assurance that the believer has in his salvation.

Anyway, I have compiled several verses that attest to the doctrine of election. I have an asterisk, *, next to the verses that I would call a pivot verse. Like in basketball when you have a pivot foot you can step anywhere as long as you do not move the pivot foot. Once you do then you are immediately in error. Such is a pivot verse. The verse is so sound and so clear that it cannot be misinterpreted. If I have a verse that I cannot quite understand I know that I can always go back to my pivot verse. As soon as I disregard this verse then I am immediately in danger of misinterpreting another verse, especially one that isn’t very clear or that could easily be misinterpreted.

I will start off with a bonus verse and then I will give you the rest of the list. Some verses will lead to another specific verse. I have looked these up in NASB. I encourage you to print this off and take time to go through the list.

Bonus verse Jn 3:16 à Jn 17:9

Matt 11:27, *15:24, 20:28, 22: 14, 24:22,31, 25:34, 26:28
Luke 4:17-28, 18:7
John 5:21, *6:37-45, *15:16, *17:1-2, 7, 9, 12, 15, 24, 18:4-9
*Acts 2:37-39, 4:27-28, 5:31, *13:48, 20:28
Rom 1:1-7, 4:16-17, Rom 6:23 à Rom 11:29, **8:29-30,33, Rom 9 (all of it), (specifically) *Rom 9:8 à Rom 11:25-29, 9:11, *9:18-23, Rom 9:27 à Rom 11:5,
1 Cor 1:21-31, 6:20, 7:22-24,
2 Cor 4:3-4, 5:17
Gal 3:16-18, 3:26-29, 4:21-31
Eph 1:4-14, *2:1-10, 3:11, 4:7
Phillipians 1:6, 29 Collosians 3:12
1 Thes 1:4, 2 Thes 2:13-14
2 Tim 1:8-9, 2 Tim 2:10
Titus 1:1-2, Heb 1:14, 6:17, 12:17, *James 1:18, 2:5
*1 Peter 1:1-4, 1:20, 2:9, 3:9,18, 2 Peter 1:3,10, Jude 3

*Genesis 15:17-18
Exodus 6:7-8
*Deuteronomy 4:35-38, 7:6-7, 10:15, 14:2, 32:6
2 Samuel 7:23-24, Esther 4:14, Proverbs 16:4
Psalm 4:3, 20:6, 74:2, 105:43, 135:4
Isaiah 41:8-9, 43:1-7,21, 44:1-2, 46:10-13, *53:10-12, 54:6, 55:10-11, 65:1
Jeremiah 1:5, Ezekiel 36:22-32, 37:5-6, *Amos 3:2, Haggai 2:23