Part I: Introduction and Purpose

From Sovereign Grace and the Scope of Election: A Comparative Examination of Attainment Theology and Grace Theology, with Particular Attention to the Question of Whether God's Elect Are Found Among All Nations and Religions

This document sets two theological systems side by side and argues them against each other on the ground of Scripture alone. No denomination is named on either side, deliberately. Doctrines, not organizations, are the parties to this dispute; and a reader who meets his own church's teaching in these pages should be free to weigh the argument as an argument, without the reflex of institutional loyalty that a named opponent provokes. The systems are therefore given functional names.

The attainment system answers the great question of salvation by making eternal standing, and especially its gradations, the outcome of human performance: repentance, faith, baptism, sign-manifestations, progressive and entire sanctification, an overcoming life, and, at the summit, a consecrated ministry within one true organization.

The sovereign grace system answers that salvation is the unconditional and unfailing work of God alone: purposed in election before the foundation of the world, accomplished by Christ at the cross, and applied by the Holy Spirit directly to every one of the elect, wherever on earth they may be found, whether or not they ever hear a preacher, read a Bible, or enter a church building.

That last clause is the heart of this document. The sovereign grace position, properly understood, holds out the scriptural hope that the elect of God are scattered through every nation, tribe, tongue, and people, including among those who outwardly live and die within other religions, because the new birth is wrought immediately by the Spirit of God and is not suspended upon human instrumentality. This document will substantiate that position from Scripture, show why it is not universalism, and preempt the objections that the attainment system, in any of its forms, would raise against it.