God Chooses Faith!?

Earlier this month, the well-known Bible teacher Ab Klein Haneveld passed away. I have been very familiar with his teaching since the early 1980s. One of his recurring statements was: “God chooses faith!” He meant that God does not choose certain people beforehand, but chooses people because they believe. Whoever believes belongs to the elect. And whether someone believes is ultimately that person’s own choice. An idea that may sound very plausible—but is it Scriptural?

No partiality

Klein Haneveld based his reasoning on the Biblical fact that there is no “partiality” with God (Acts 10:34; Rom. 2:11; etc.). There can be no misunderstanding about that. But what does this expression mean? Leviticus 19:15 sheds clear light on it. There, judges are instructed neither to favor the poor nor to give preference to the prominent. The issue, then, is partiality: favoring or disadvantaging someone because of their background, standing, or social position. God does not do that. He judges righteously and without partiality.

The fact that God is impartial, however, certainly does not mean that He makes no distinctions. As Creator, He makes them all the time! One person is born here, another there. One is born male, another female. One into a wealthy family, another into a poor one. One grows up in a Muslim family, another in a Buddhist or Christian environment. One has a sharp mind, another has an intellectual disability. One is perfectly healthy, another faces severe disabilities. No one has any choice in these things. God makes distinctions in background, circumstances, abilities, and destiny. But making distinctions is fundamentally different from being partial!

We see the same principle in God’s election. He chooses people for a special calling and destiny, without their background, status, or merits being decisive. Thus, God set Jeremiah apart as a prophet even before his birth (Jer. 1:5). He chose Cyrus for a special task, even though Cyrus did not know Him (Isa. 45:4–5). And Paul was set apart from his mother’s womb, even though he would later become a persecutor of the ecclesia (Gal. 1:15–16). There is no partiality involved. God chooses people according to His own purpose, not on the basis of their status or merits.

And consider Israel. God chose that nation from among all the nations. Not because it was larger, better, or more believing than other nations. Quite the opposite! Moses explicitly states that YAHWEH did not choose Israel because of its size, for it was the smallest of all the peoples (Deut. 7:7–8). The basis of that election lay not in Israel, but in God’s love and His faithfulness to the fathers.

And did that election mean that God gave Israel preferential treatment when it came to its conduct? Quite the opposite! In Amos 3:2, God says to Israel: “Only you do I know of all the families of the ground; Therefore I shall visit on you all your depravities.” Israel’s special election therefore came with a special responsibility. Election is something very different from favoritism!

Was Abraham chosen because of his faith?

Klein Haneveld also appealed to Abraham. God supposedly chose him because he was a believer. But where does it say that? Nowhere do we read that Abraham’s faith was the basis of God’s choice. Scripture tells us that God called Abraham and made him a promise. And Abraham believed God. Hebrews 11:8 says: “By faith Abraham, being called, obeys,” His faith was therefore the response to God’s calling, not the stated reason why God chose him. And the fact that his faith was reckoned to him as righteousness (Gen. 15:6) is an entirely different matter from the question of why God chose him.

God’s purpose in election

In Romans 9, Paul then decisively rejects the idea that God’s election depends on what people themselves do. He writes of Jacob and Esau that they had not yet been born and had not put anything good or bad into practice, “that the purpose of God may be remaining as a choice, not out of acts, but of Him Who is calling,” (Rom. 9:11). Notice that contrast! Not out of acts, but of Him Who is calling. Paul is telling us not only what the basis of God’s election is not, but above all what it is: God Himself! It is His purpose that is decisive, not human choice.

Why does one person believe while another does not?

The statement “God chooses faith” also leaves an essential question unanswered. Why does one person believe while another does not? Is it because one is more intelligent, more receptive, or more willing than another? Does the believer ultimately have something within himself to boast about?

Scripture teaches something entirely different. Our salvation is by grace, through faith, and this is God’s gift, not something that comes from ourselves (Eph. 2:8–9). And we read of Lydia that the Lord opened her heart to heed what Paul was saying (Acts 16:14). It is God who made both the hearing ear and the seeing eye (Prov. 20:12). Moses declared to Israel that, to that day, YAHWEH had not given them a heart to understand, eyes to see, or ears to hear (Deut. 29:4). No one regards the ability to see or hear as a personal achievement or choice. Why should it be any different when it comes to spiritual seeing and hearing? Here too, people depend on God. He opens eyes, ears, and hearts, but He can also close and harden them (Rom. 11:7–8). Of those whose eyes God had blinded and whose hearts He had hardened, John even explicitly writes that they therefore could not believe (John 12:39–40)!

But does this mean that God grants faith to one person and not to another, and is therefore partial after all? No, because making distinctions is not the same as showing partiality! God certainly makes distinctions in whom He calls, when He grants faith, and what destiny He gives someone. But those distinctions are not based on human qualities or merits, nor do they mean that others are excluded from His salvation. After all, election is not the same as salvation. God chooses some for a special position and destiny, but He is the “Saviour of all mankind, especially of believers” (1 Tim. 4:10). Notice: especially, not exclusively, of believers! God’s election therefore concerns a special privilege for some, while His salvation ultimately embraces all. Anyone who believes that a person’s own decision to believe is ultimately decisive, however, cannot possibly recognize this universal salvation. It is therefore no surprise that Klein Haneveld opposed this message so fiercely.

From election to mercy on all

This brings us back to the question with which this article began: what is ultimately decisive, God’s election or human choice? According to Paul, the answer is unequivocal. God’s mercy is determined not by our willingness or our exertion, but by God Himself. Or, as Romans 9:16 so powerfully puts it:

Consequently, then, it is not of him who is willing, nor of him who is racing, but of God, the Merciful.

And how far does that mercy extend? Paul himself answers that question too. It is the grand conclusion of his entire argument in Romans 9–11, in which he explains God’s ways with Israel and the nations. Everything culminates in this declaration (Rom. 11:32):

For God locks up all together in stubbornness, that He should be merciful to all.

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