#927 Corporate Election

Dr. craig’s response

I agree with you, Daryl, that the idea of corporate election is startling and insightful. I’m currently dealing with this subject in working on the Doctrine of Salvation for volume IV of my Systematic Philosophical Theology. For a preview check out my Defenders 3 lessons on Doctrine of Salvation on our website.

One of the most important questions concerning election is whether election is primarily corporate or individual. That is to say, is the primary object of God’s election a group, which individual persons may choose to join, or is it individual persons, who taken together constitute a plurality? Augustinians claim that election is primarily God’s choice of individual persons to be saved, whereas many Arminians take the object of God’s choice to be a people for himself.

God’s election of a people for himself finds its protype in God’s election of Israel. Deuteronomy is a foundational document that sheds light on the Lord’s choice of Israel. Moses declares,

Israel is graciously chosen by God, without any merit of her own, to be God’s beloved people. It is evident that Israel’s election was the choice of a corporate entity, a people or nation. Individuals were the beneficiaries of God’s promises to Israel insofar as they were faithful members of this people. Thus, election was primarily corporate and secondarily individual or particular. God’s commitment to the corporate entity did not imply a similar commitment to every individual in it, for individual Israelites, such as the 3,000 involved in worship of the golden calf (Exodus 32.28) or the 15,000 who perished as a result of Korah’s rebellion (Numbers 16.49), might be judged by God for failure to keep the terms of the covenant. Indeed, the corporate entity might be preserved, even as its current population or membership is wiped out (as in the wilderness wanderings) on account of disobedience (Numbers 4.28-35).

Just as under the old covenant Israel was the primary object of God’s election, so under the new covenant the object of election is plausibly primarily the church and secondarily those who are members of it. In Romans 9-11, a classic Pauline text on the doctrine of election, the corporate perspective seems to me almost undeniable. Although Augustinians have typically interpreted Romans 9 in terms of individual election, such an interpretation sits very ill with the wider context, especially chapter 10, which features a universal offer of salvation. The question which presents itself is this: Given God’s sovereign right to choose to save whomever he wishes, whom has he, in fact, chosen to save? Paul’s answer is that God has sovereignly chosen to save all who have faith in Christ Jesus, whether Jew or Gentile.

So in Romans 10 we find a universal appeal for faith in Jesus to salvation: “For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and bestows his riches upon all who call upon him. For, ‘every one who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved’” (10.12-13).

Then in chapter 11 Paul’s illustration of the olive tree in vv. 17-24 well illustrates the relationship between corporate and individual election. The olive tree symbolizes the corporate group which is the object of God’s election; the branches are individual persons who may be broken off the tree or grafted into it (note Paul’s first- and second-person singular pronouns throughout). Paul admonishes his Gentile readers to keep in mind that the natural, Jewish branches “were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast only through faith. So do not become proud, but stand in awe. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you” (11.20-21). Only and all individual persons, Jew or Gentile, who have faith in Christ Jesus are incorporated into the elect group. “Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness; otherwise you too will be cut off. And even the others, if they do not persist in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again” (11.22-23). God’s sovereign election of the corporate group is unconditional, but membership in that group destined to salvation is conditioned on faith in Christ Jesus. 

So in answer to your question, one of the most important books defending corporate election is William W. Klein, The New Chosen People: A Corporate View of Election, rev. ed. (Eugene, Ore: Wipf & Stock, 2015). But I would also recommend Robert Shank’s little book Elect in the Son (Springfield, Mo.: Westcott Publishers, 1970). In fact, I actually find Shank to be rather more persuasive than Klein.

The main failing of these authors, I believe, is their failure to recognize individual election as a complement to corporate election in the New Testament. There are certain passages (e.g., Acts 13.48) that cannot be plausibly interpreted as corporate in intention. Therefore, I believe that Luis Molina’s doctrine of individual  predestination based upon divine middle knowledge provides the needed complement to corporate election. For that see my book The Only Wise God: The Compatibility of Divine Foreknowledge and Human Freedom (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Bookhouse, 1987) or Kirk MacGregor’s excellent Luis de Molina: The Life and Theology of the Founder of Middle Knowledge (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2015).