There was recently a discussion in which common grace vs special (or saving) grace was bandied about. Curiosity got to me, and I wondered just how special is God’s saving grace? And so, I looked up some numbers to calculate a ballpark figure. I’ll assume, for argument’s sake, that half of the world’s population of Evangelical Christians comprise God’s “elect”. Therefore, if my math is correct; 0.5(600M/7.6B) = 3.95%. That is, God’s election is only extended to about four percent of the world’s population.
Put another way, for every soul born throughout the world, there is a likelihood of ~96% that the child is NOT of the elect. Well, at least I now know my approximate odds of God having found favor with me before the foundation of the world.
Author: Bob
Martin’s Mercurial Musings began when I started asking deeper questions related to my Christian faith. Matters of faith became confusing and I was baffled at the disparity of doctrines beliefs given that Christian work from the same “source material” (aka the Bible). How can there be so much variance as to what Christians believe? Or more importantly, where is the truth? That which I thought I knew and believed – well, I’m not so sure anymore.
Although born in OH, I grew up in Tucson AZ. After college, a job offer lured me to Eagan MN where I worked in process development at a semiconductor chip manufacturing facility over the next 40yrs. I’m now in the “Buick stage” of life (retired) and currently reside in FL. In no specific order, things which make life more enjoyable include coffee in the morning, making sawdust in the garage, roughhousing with the grandkids, playing various fretted instruments, participating in online chess tournaments, growing fresh tomatoes, and an occasional IPA.
In addition to my musings on Christian faith and Calvinistic doctrines, I also like to write about my experiences in the Coast Guard along with various news, political and social items of interest.
I’m truly delighted you’re here. Feel free to poke around and comment as you wish. I value the insight of others with a different perspective and welcome cordial discussions regarding any disagreements.
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I think I’d consider the rest of the world population as well… How many untold millions in China are “underground” Christians, for example? And what about throughout world history, especially during the times of the early church in which “the whole world was turned upside down?” But, no matter what, “many are called; few are chosen.” This is, indeed, a biblical concept.
Exceedingly few are chosen according to Calvinistic doctrines. Makes me wonder if there’s a particular group from some country with a statistically significant difference with regard to the number of elect persons?