Clarifying "Election" & Wesley's "Assurance"

Thanks for that informative post, Oscar.  I had never had anyone explain to me the difference between Calvin and Barth's views on election.  And I'm sure you could say plenty more!  I do have a couple of questions, though, as I process what you are saying:

1.  Are you saying that individuals are no longer elected, but only the community (i.e. Church) of God?  If so, I want to say that I fully agree.  I believe in a doctrine of election -- that God has elected a chosen people for Himself and "predetermined" that the Church would be His primary vehicle for ushering the kingdom.  Wesleyans prefer to speak of election in terms of a community rather than of individual election.  Is that what Barth was teaching?

2.  Some of what you say seems to point to human free will in choosing to "live into their election" or choosing not to.  So how would that be any different than choosing to be saved or to reject salvation?  I guess I always thought that Calvinists like to insist humans have absolutely no role in their own salvation -- even in choosing to accept or reject the gospel.  Am I misunderstanding the Reformed tradition here?

It is very interesting to me that both those of the Reformed and Arminian traditions have wrestled on an existential level with the question, "Am I really saved?"  I remember hearing that great Calvinist band Caedmon's Call sing, "Sometimes I fear / maybe I'm not chosen / maybe You've hardened my heart like Pharaoh's."  That always struck me as odd because I had thought that this existential crisis over one's salvation was peculiar to Methodists (after all, we're the ones who insist that "without holiness no one will see the Lord").

John Wesley developed a doctrine of "assurance" which has lived on ever since then in the Methodist tradition to respond to many who feared for their salvation.  He divided it into objective and subjective types of assurance.  "Objective assurance" comes from the Word of God which promises us that "The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children" (Romans 8:16).  "Subjective assurance" is an inner, spiritual experience in which God grants the believer an overwhelming sense of peace that s/he rests in God's hands.  Do you find the same tradition of "blessed assurance" within the Reformed church?


We have spoken together before that I am still plagued by too much worry over my salvation -- thoughts that I have to do something for God in order to earn my way to heaven.  Of course, this is not true Wesleyanism or true Christianity (it is Pelagianism).  But I do appreciate about the Calvinist tradition the emphasis on "chosenness" and perhaps sometimes I just need a good healthy dose of Calvinism to cure me! 


Learning and Growing,
Greg the Arminian