In addition, the Lutheran and Reformed views are challenged by the NPP’s view that Paul has in mind a corporate election. Israel had been elected, but now the elect are defined by being “in Christ” as a body of saints. Paul is not arguing that individuals are elected to salvation by God’s eternal decree; for when he speaks of individuals in the context of the doctrine of election, he refers to them as representatives of races wo have been elected and those who have not been. Thus, the NPP tends to support the Arminian interpretations of election as a corporate election that does not support individual predestination to salvation or damnation. Predestination means that God has promised an inheritance to those who are found “in Christ” among the body of the saints. The body of saints as a whole has been elected and predestined to glory among many brethren; but no particular individual is necessarily destined to be a part of that body. Indeed, predestination is not really related to salvation and damnation by Paul, for he never discusses predestination to salvation or damnation Rather, he speaks of “having predestined us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will (προορίσας ἡμᾶς εἰς υἱοθεσίαν διὰ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ εἰς αὐτόν, κατὰ τὴν εὐδοκίαν τοῦ θελήματος αὐτοῦ)” (Eph 1:[5]). What we, as a body or Church in Christ, are predestinated to is not salvation or damnation, but to adoption as sons and daughters of Jesus Christ. Predestination is not about being destined for salvation; it is about being destined for glory if one is found “in Christ” on the day of judgment.
Blake T. Ostler, Exploring Mormon Thought: The Problems of
Theism and the Love of God (Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2006), 317
