The election of grace: does God choose some for life and others for damnation, or does each soul elect itself in the turning of its will?

Jakob Böhme, answered from the texts and cited to the page.

Jakob Böhme answers

God chooses none for damnation. The wrath that damns is not a decree laid over a man before he is made. It is the property he has himself awakened in the centre of his soul. The centre out of which evil and good flow is in thee; whatever thou awakest in it, Fire or Light, is taken in again by its like, either by God's Anger-fire or by God's Light-fire, and each elects to itself what is like its own property.1

Will any be a devil, then God's Anger will have him, for he is of its property; will he be an angel, the election is as suddenly there.2 The soul comes out of that Eternal Beginning, without nature, and has the centre to fire and light in itself; what it chooses for itself, of that it is chosen again.3 Look at the devils, for there you see it plainly.

They were angels in God's light; their centre moved itself higher than the angelic nature allowed, awakened in them the Mother of the Original in the fierce wrath, and that caught their will-spirit and chose them for creatures of the dark world.4 Do you suppose it was God's predestinate will that it be so? Then God must have a devil's will in himself as well as an angel's, which is against the Scripture, against his love, and against the light of the eternal nature.5

Yet the Scripture says that God hardens, and I do not strike it out. But he hardens not from any strange foreign will or purpose. He hardens out of that wherein he has introduced his Word into nature and separability.6 Nor does the holy will withdraw itself so that the man must remain hardened, as Reason errs here; it is in him and would fain have him and manifest itself in him as in the image of God.7

It is the wrath in the centre of nature that has captured it and filled the broken gates of divine love with the abominations of inherited sin.8 Our own hell in us hardens us, that property and quality; and our own heaven in us makes us blessed, if it may only be manifested.9 Heaven and hell lie in one another as day and night, for God's Anger-fire is a ground of the Love-fire, of the light.10

Therefore I tell you never to dispute about the will of God: we ourselves are God's will to evil and to good, and whichever is manifested in us, that we are.11 Nor is anyone shut out while he lives. Though the soul be one that the anger has already elected to damnation, so long as the outward man lives the sparkle of God's love stands presented to him and calls him; and if it is let in again into the light of life, there the electing to the kingdom of heaven is as sudden as the other was, with greater joy than for ninety-nine that needed no repentance.12

The turning is a dying to selfness in the fire, a resignation of the will into the element, and out of that dying the light arises.13 So there are two elections in one soul. It is elected a child of grace when it is born out of Christ, out of the divine Ens; and it is elected to damnation out of the ground of its own substance, a false Ens in which no light can be born.14

Both lie in one another as one thing, to be understood in two principles.15 Whoever will, may buy my wares and be a brother in Christ; if he will not, God would indeed, but he hardens himself.16

The position in brief

God wills the salvation of all and the damnation of none. The election the Scripture speaks of is not a decree made over persons before the world, but the order of the two principles: the line of Isaac is the line of the promise, the line of Ishmael and Esau the line of the self-willed nature, and every man carries both. Whoever turns his will out of selfhood into the love is elected; whoever stays in the wrath has chosen it.

God hardens no one by decree: the hardening is the wrath awakened in a man's own property and made manifest. The complexions and the stars incline but do not bind, and the soul can turn as long as it lives.17181920

Sources

  1. The CENTER out of which Evill and Good, floweth, is IN thee; that which thou awakest in thee, be it Fire, or Light; that will be taken in again by its Like
    The First Apology to Balthasar Tilke, for the Aurora
  2. Will any be a Devill, then Gods Anger will have him; for he is of its property: the Election or choosing is suddenly there; but will he be an Angel, then is the Election or Choosing also suddenly there.
    The First Apology to Balthasar Tilke, for the Aurora
  3. it hath the Center to the fire, and Light, in it self; to evill and Good; what IT Electeth or chooseth for it self, of THAT it is re-Elected or chosen againe and taken up
    The First Apology to Balthasar Tilke, for the Aurora
  4. They were Angells in Gods Light; and their Center Moved it self yet higher then the right of the Angelicall Nature was, and awakened in them the Mother of the Originall in the fierce wrath
    The First Apology to Balthasar Tilke, for the Aurora
  5. then must God have a Devils will in himself, and also an Angelicall: which is quite contrary to the Holy Scripture, also against Gods Love, and against the Light of the Eternall Nature.
    The First Apology to Balthasar Tilke, for the Aurora
  6. God makes his Wrath known, and hardens them, but not from or out of any strange, foreign, or Divine Will, or predestinate Purpose, but from or out of that wherein he has introduced his Word into Nature and Separability or Distinction.
    Of the Election of Grace
  7. Not that the holy Will of God withdraws itself from them, so that they must remain hardened, as Reason errs here; for it is in them, and would fain have them, and manifest itself in them, as in the Image of God.
    Of the Election of Grace
  8. But the Wrath in the Center of Nature, wherein the Will of the Abyss has separated and distinguished itself into Darkness, has comprehended or captivated it; and filled full the broken Gates of Divine Love with the Abominations of the innate, inherited, or original Sins.
    Of the Election of Grace
  9. Our own Hell in us hardens us, viz. that Property, or the Quality thereof: And our own Heaven in us makes us also happy and blessed, if it may be but manifested.
    Of the Election of Grace
  10. Heaven and Hell are verily in one another, as Day and Night; and Hell is a Ground of Heaven; for God's Anger-Fire is a Ground of the Love-Fire, viz. of the Light.
    Of the Election of Grace
  11. Never dispute about the Will of God. We ourselves are God's Will to Evil and Good; which of them soever is manifested in us, we are that, whether it be Hell or Heaven.
    Of the Election of Grace
  12. yet letteth in the sparkle of Gods Love, again, into the Light of Life, which not withstanding, all the while the outward Man liveth, standeth presented to him, and calleth him; then is also as suddenly, the Elector or chooser to the Kingdome of Heaven in THAT sparkle
    The First Apology to Balthasar Tilke, for the Aurora
  13. and wholly dye to its Selfness, and enter into the Resignation of the Eternal Will in the Salnitral Flagrat into the Element... thus from the dying in the Fire ariseth the light
    Signatura Rerum, the Signature of All Things
  14. The Soul is in itself elected to be a Child of Grace, when it is born out of Christ out of the Divine Ens... And it is in itself elected, chosen, or predestinated to Damnation out of the Ground of its own Substance, which is a false or evil Ens, wherein no Light can be born or generated.
    Of the Election of Grace
  15. and these are both in one another as one Thing, but to be understood in two Principles.
    Of the Election of Grace
  16. God would indeed, but if thou thy self wilt not, then thou hardenest thy self.
    The First Apology to Balthasar Tilke, for the Aurora
  17. Now tell me, Reason, where the predestinate Purpose and Will of God to the hardening of Man exists: where is the predestinate Purpose, whereby he has in his predestinate Purpose ordained one Part to Damnation, and the other to Eternal Life? 61.
    Of the Election of Grace
  18. Thus it is to be understood of the Devil's and the human Fall; not that a Man can say God willed it, so far as he is called God: But the Divisibility or Variety, proceeding from Nature in the Creature, that hath willed it, which is not called God. 80. God introduces his sole and only Will into the Formation and Compaction of his Word to the Divisibility or Distinction, viz.
    Of the Election of Grace
  19. The Soul is spoken out of the Abyss into a Creature, who will break or interrupt the Right of Eternity, so that the Eternal Will of the Soul, which is come into a Creature out of the one only Eternal Will, should not dare to demerse itself with that same Will of the Creature into its Mother again, out of which it proceeded? 144.
    Of the Election of Grace
  20. But if I convert in Repentance, so that Gods Love apprehend me, then I am also from Eternity foreseene out of the Anger into the Love; for in God, ALL is Eternall, whatsoever at this day, beginneth to alter in the Eternall, that is, from Eternity, to Eternity, equally in the Eternity. 207.
    The Second Apology to Balthasar Tilke, of Predestination and the Incarnation, with the letter-preface to J. D. K

Where the argument is made

  • Of the Election of Grace (1623) in full, especially chs. 2-4 on the eternal speaking Word and the forms of nature, ch. 6 on the fall, chs. 9-10 on the objections from Scripture (Romans 9, the potter and the clay, Jacob and Esau), and ch. 12 on the question whether God hardens man
  • The Second Apology to Balthasar Tilke (1621) on predestination
  • The First Apology to Tilke against "the Grace-Electioners"
  • Mysterium Magnum on Cain and Abel, Ishmael and Isaac, Esau and Jacob as figures of the two lines
  • A Consolatory Treatise of the Four Complexions (1621) on the melancholic's temptation to despair
  • 177 Theosophic Questions

How the argument was received

His answer to the Calvinist decree and the most irenic part of the corpus; the part that the English Behmenists and William Law used most, and the one his Reformed critics attacked first.