As part of Phil Johnson’s series at Pulpit Magazine, Why I Am a Calvinist (Part 5), the following question has come up in the comments: If some are elected to salvation, are others elected to damnation?

Specifically, one commenter, Jerry M, has asked the question this way: “As a 4 point Calvinist I am thoroughly comfortable with monergistic language in reference to salvation – but does monergism apply to damnation?”

While I do not intend to answer the question directly in this post, I will point the interested reader to some resources available in this discussion:

• Curt Daniel’s History and Theology of Calvinism, linked from part 3 of Phil’s series as a Microsoft Word document, contains a series of chapters on this very subject:
  • Chapter 47, The Doctrine of Reprobation
  • Chapter 48, The Hardening of the Reprobate
  • Chapter 49, The Destiny of the Reprobate
  • Chapter 50, The Relation of Election and Reprobation
• The audio of the source lectures for Daniel’s work are also available, including parts 47, 48, 49, and 50, corresponding to the above chapters.
• Desiring God contains an essay titled What does Piper mean when he says he’s a seven-point Calvinist? which discusses, among other things, John Piper’s view of “double predestination” (as this is sometimes called)
• R. C. Sproul’s book on election, Chosen by God, contains a chapter titled Double, Double, Toil and Trouble: Is Predestination Double?

I hope this collection of resources will be of some help to those examining this question.

In his book, How to Help People Change, Jay Adams uses the term “radical amputation” to describe what Jesus taught in passages such as Matthew 5:29-30:

Matthew 5:29-30

29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell. (ESV)

The basic point of the teaching is this: take radical measures to safeguard against sin. And given that the stakes are so high, we ought to be willing to do anything to avoid eternal punishment.

As John Piper writes in What Jesus Demands of the World:

The point is not that inward desires can be controlled by external maiming. The point is how enormous the stakes are. They are so great, we must do what we have to do to defeat the bondage of sinful desire. It is astonishing how many people deal with their sin casually. Jesus demands otherwise.

Our desire to deal with sin must be so strong that “radical amputation” is not out of the question. Whether we are amputating ourselves from the desires of the flesh, or amputating ourselves from our worldly riches, like the rich young man of Matthew 19:16-26, we ought to be so willing to follow Christ that we will give up anything that draws us toward sin and away from Him.

Don’t misunderstand – it is not sinful to have two eyes, two hands, or even money and possessions. These things are sinful when they prevent us from following Him.

So how are we doing? Are we taking extreme measures to purge sin from our life? Are we radically amputating the temptations of flesh and worldliness?