Election and Evangelism in Acts

Many themes are traced throughout the book of Acts. There is the Spirit, Word, witness, courage, encouragement and care, perseverance, etc. One commonly overlooked area is God’s sovereignty (i.e. the doctrines of grace or predestination, election and providence, from here on simply ‘election’). This shouldn’t surprise us as Paul, Luke’s travelling companion, wrote a great deal on these doctrines in his epistles. Yet, election and evangelism are often seen as being in contradiction rather than complimentary. Examining this theme in Acts reveals this as untrue. Election undergirds evangelism, recognizing that this doctrine is not the content of our witness.
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Acts, like most New Testament letters, is not written to a general unbelieving audience but a Christian one. Acts is written by Dr. Luke to Theophilus, “to have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.” (Lk 1). We teach election, not preach it. As such, in Acts, the Gospel is always what is proclaimed to unbelievers even while Luke’s narrative is seasoned with election for the teaching of believers.

Election in Acts

• 1:8- Jesus promises that His mission will succeed
• 2:23 & 4:27–28- Christ was predestined to die
• 13:48- “as many as were appointed to eternal life believed”
• 16:7-“the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them” (the Macedonian call, which meant that some heard the Gospel and the others didn’t)
• 16:14- “the Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.” (effectual call)
• 18:10, 27- “many in this city who are my people” and “those who through grace had believed.”
• 20:24- “the Gospel of the grace of God.”
• 23:11- promise that Paul will go to Rome
• 26:16/Paul’s testimony- chosen to be an apostle to the Gentiles
• 27—God providentially preserved Paul in the storm
• 28:26–27- a citation from Isaiah that “a partial hardening has come upon Israel” (Ro 11:25). Curiously Luke bookends Acts with reminders of God’s sovereignty.

Acts, which is about evangelism, is entirely consistent with election.

We also see this from a simple review of history from recent centuries.

History
The following all upheld election and are all likewise famous examples of evangelism.

• During the Reformation Calvin’s Geneva was at the centre of a European wide missions movement sending missionaries across the continent.
• Puritans were at the forefront of evangelizing England.
• The evangelist George Whitfield was the most prominent figure on both sides of the Atlantic in the 1st Great Awakening/Evangelical Revival.
• William Carey was the “father” of modern missions.
• Charles Spurgeon helped to found hundreds of churches and preached to thousands more making a beeline to Christ in his sermons.
• Ontario Baptists upheld the “election and effectual calling of all God’s people” in 1925 as they zealously supported Western and Francophone missions.
• Martin Lloyd Jones preached Christ crucified—truth on fire—especially cultivating indigenous missions throughout the Empire.
• John Stott advocated Christian mission in the global world, especially amongst students.
• There are many more contemporary examples that could be given.

From Acts and recent history one sees that election and evangelism are compatible.

Specifically, it teaches a humble dependence upon the Lord to fulfil such a Great Commission; it grounds us that we preach grace through faith in Christ; it assures us that our mission or fishing for men isn’t in vain, that some will indeed believe the Gospel (2 Ti 2:10- “I endure everything for the sake of the elect”; Tit 1:1); it produces comfort in affliction; and inspires worship for in the end God alone is glorified.