S. H. Froehlich on Predestination

Samuel Froehlich (1803-1857) was the man who effectively founded my former denomination. He was originally a Reformed Church minister in Switzerland who eventually was brought to Anabaptist convictions and carried out a zealous itinerant ministry.

One of the things I’ve always appreciated with him was how he would at certain times follow the implications of Scriptural texts to their clear implications,  even if it made himself or others uncomfortable!  He was pretty gutsy like that at times.  It is very evident that He was not first of all trying to make a consistent, coherent system. Sometimes it lead to surprising conclusions that would shock those who came after him and esteem him. And despite certain errors in his theology, I think we can all admire the way he would throw caution to the wind and take what God says in his Book seriously.

His sermons on a number of books of the Bible are published, including a book of sermons on Ephesians. Here are a few excerpts from various writings, both things he has specifically written and also written excerpts from his sermons:

“We must make our election sure in Christ. We dare not become participant in evil things and fall as Israel; which is a good lesson to us. Adam fell and Israel also fell. We, however, cannot fall when we stand and are blessed and called through the Gospel, for in love toward us He has predestinated us unto sonship—we shall be His children. We shall believe and let Him reign in us. Then it is manifest that we were, in times past, called and chosen to become His sons. The Father beforehand appointed this in His Son that we should be children of God; reborn of the spirit. So let us bestow care upon our being acceptable to Him, for our calling follows our being chosen.”

(Samuel H. Froehlich in Writings of Samuel Froehlich;  pp.206 ;  from his comments on Ephesians 1:4-6 ; published by The Heritage Center Foundation)

“Paul says here that the Father, through the Son, hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings and made us citizens of heaven, which is based on the eternal decision of God, which was made through Christ before the foundation of the world was laid.

The election is deeply grounded with God. When a person is called to the true church of Christ, so that he is converted from darkness to light, it is a predestination which was made before the foundation of the world. This is certain—that if a person who is  called, was predestinated by Christ before the foundation of the world, he will accept the call. The predestination is an election, through which it becomes manifest whom God bath chosen, and the elect come forth so that they may be blessed with all spiritual blessings The election is deeply grounded with God. When a person is called to the true church of Christ, so that he is converted from darkness to light, it is a predestination which was made before the foundation of the world. This is certain—that if a person who is called, was predestinated by Christ before the foundation of the world, he will accept the call. The predestination is an election, through which it becomes manifest whom God bath chosen, and the elect come forth so that they may be blessed with all spiritual blessings earthly. Yet, therefore, we have the spirit in us—the image of the heavenly.

There is much indeed in us. Whoever is from above will also come again thereto; whoever is not from above, will come into the pool of the devil: for a kingdom is already prepared for us. Our destination has been fixed for us by God before the foundation of the world. We must needs rejoice in that our futurity has been established by God— before the foundation of the world! Let us rejoice in that our succession is an election, so that we stand firmly therein and do not serve another spirit, for it is now an inward, hidden kingdom of grace in us—that it may become manifest at His appearance, when the people will be separated from one another and it shall be said, ‘ . . . Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.’ Matthew 25:34.

‘Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:’

He hath chosen us to be holy and without blame in the world—and the chosen in the world are easily recognized because of their holiness and blamelessness. In God, everything that occurs was fore-known. He knows what takes place. He knew beforehand of Adam’s fall. For that reason the harm that we sustained through Adam was healed again in His Son.  Before our redemption takes place, there is this definite resolution of God. We have tasted, seen and experienced what sin in the world is. Therefore if we are chosen, we cannot turn back and take it on again. Adam took from us what we had and Christ restored it again and gave us an earnest in heaven, namely, the Spirit. We cannot then throw it away.”

(Samuel H. Froehlich in Writings of Samuel Froehlich;  pp.203-204 ;  from his comments on Ephesians 2; published by The Heritage Center Foundation)

“And our predestination is also simultaneously old for He had, in time past, appointed us unto adoption to Himself. The disclosure of adoption is already made known here when God enlightens us, so that the light in us shall shine forth out of the darkness. If we were thus called, so that we are now with Christ, when this calling has come to light, we then know that is as old as the calling of the Son was from the Father, that is, from everlasting. For nothing has happened and nothing can happen which He did not know and assign from eternity. So whoever was (or is) called may know thereby that he was predestinated before the foundation of the world was lain.”

(Samuel H. Froehlich in Writings of Samuel Froehlich;  pp.207 ;  from his comments on Ephesians 1:4-6 ; published by The Heritage Center Foundation)

“The children of God, therefore, are well known in the world by their love towards one
another, as well as by the hatred and enmity with which they are persecuted by men
because they are no longer of the world but of God, and indeed are so separated and set
apart from the world that they constitute an unmistakable contrast to it (enter into
opposition with it), yet not according to their own choice or bidding but by God’s
election and calling of grace”

(Samuel H. Froehlich in Writings of Samuel Froehlich;  pp.923 ;  from his comments on I John 3:11 ; published by The Heritage Center Foundation)

“But because the world cannot receive the Spirit of truth, for it neither knows nor sees Him, it is evident that all who do receive Him and become children of God must be singled out and set apart from the world, on God’s part by election as well as on the world’s part by expulsion and rejection.”

(Samuel H. Froehlich in Writings of Samuel Froehlich;  pp.923 ;  from his comments on I John 3:11 ; published by The Heritage Center Foundation)

“For the zealous champions of the doctrine which teaches the restoration of all things cast me aside as an upholder of the doctrine of predestination, and the latter believe that they can detect an inconsistency in my teaching concerning the election of grace. And yet, I do not hold to two conflicting doctrines, for I believe in the election of God according to the Scriptures; but instead of maintaining my view in the character of a point of doctrine, I rather preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ in a simple manner wherever I chance to be, and leave the separation to God.”

(Samuel H. Froehlich in Writings of Samuel Froehlich;  pp.432; “A Short Statement Wherein I Make Clear My Religious Convictions to the New English Continental Society In Answer to Six Questions Propounded by Them”;  published by The Heritage Center Foundation)

“I well know that the elect of God are preserved unto blessedness by the power of God; but who the elect are, in their persons, that we do not know. God alone knows and He knows them that are His, and I think that they who thus boast and insist are least of all the elect, because the former are humble and work out their salvation with fear and trembling.”

(Samuel H. Froehlich in Writings of Samuel Froehlich;  pp.493; “Hauptwyl April — 1836 From a letter to a brother in Ebenat”;  published by The Heritage Center Foundation)

No doubt, many of the things Froehlich said in these passages are horribly inconsistent with other things he’s said and he certainly does not follow the implications of these insights consistently. To be honest, his theology is severely muddled at certain points. But all these quotes are reflective of the fact that there are certain things in Ephesians and other Bible texts that you just can’t avoid (if you are committed to following the Bible wherever it goes, that is).   And Froehlich is honest enough to not avoid them.

Certainly Froehlich, for all his theological problems, to some extent saw the glorious divine grace which is electing grace towards those who, to quote the Westminster Confession of Faith,  “God hath predestinated unto life, and those only, He is pleased, in His appointed time, effectually to call, by His Word and Spirit, out of that state of sin and death, in which they are by nature to grace and salvation, by Jesus Christ; enlightening their minds spiritually and savingly to understand the things of God, taking away their heart of stone, and giving unto them an heart of flesh….renewing their wills, and, by His almighty power, determining them to that which is good, and effectually drawing them to Jesus Christ: yet so, as they come most freely, being made willing by His grace”.

It is evident that while Froehlich taught  some elements of the Reformed teaching on predestination, he was very inconsistent in how he worked that out, and I believe, was not so Biblical in the way he handled various implications/related issues pertaining to divine grace. He very much obscured what he said on election by many other things he taught. Froehlich is no longer around. But it would be a wonderful day when all those who came after Froehlich would concede the predestination evident in the glorious divine, electing grace of God, as reflected so clearly in Ephesians and elsewhere in the Bible.  And then perhaps at that time they could also be willing to go past Froehlich in not only following the Biblical texts into predestination but to continue and also follow the Biblical implications of this predestination (many of which Froehlich clearly did not grasp–or at least did not like).