Objection 47

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

Look at the fruit. Our people pray before dawn, fast without complaint, give sacrificially, and live in holiness while easier churches sleep. God is manifestly with us. Dead doctrine could not produce living devotion.

Answer. The fruit is real, and this study has already said so without reservation (Part X): the discipline, the prayer, the sacrificial giving, the seriousness about holiness are honored here, and nothing in these pages asks anyone to do less. But the objection rests on an inference Scripture explicitly forbids: from impressive devotion to divine endorsement of the doctrine underneath it. The men of Matthew 7:22 will plead prophecy, exorcism, and "many wonderful works," a resume of manifest power, and hear "I never knew you." The Pharisee's twice-weekly fast was a real fast (Luke 18:12). Saul's zeal was real zeal, "concerning zeal, persecuting the church" (Philippians 3:6). And Paul's grief over Israel grants the devotion while denying the inference: "they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge" (Romans 10:2). Devotion measures the seriousness of a people. It does not certify their system, or every religion on earth with early prayers and long fasts is certified together, and the objection proves them all.

And if fruit is to be the test, honesty requires weighing all of it. Beside the discipline and the sacrifice, set the fruit named in the preface of this study: the sleeplessness, the crushing burdens carried for the unsaved, the broken family relationships, the believers privately unsure after decades whether God is for them. "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace" (Galatians 5:22), and "fear hath torment" (1 John 4:18). A system must answer for its whole harvest, not its best baskets. The claim of this study is not that the devotion is false. It is that the devotion is better than the doctrine, and deserves a foundation that can bear its weight.