Desire to Know God and Go to Heaven as Evidence of Election
Election to salvation divides Christian traditions along lines that run deeper than exegetical method—they reflect divergent understandings of divine sovereignty, human agency, and the nature of grace itself. The question of whether a person's desire to know God and reach heaven serves as evidence of election hinges on whether election is understood as unconditional and monergistic, or as conditional and synergistic.
The Reformed Position: Desire as Fruit, Not Cause
Reformed theology, rooted in the work of Calvin and systematized by theologians like Charles Hodge, maintains that election is "eternal, sovereign, immutable, and unconditional" [3]. According to this framework, God's choice precedes and produces all spiritual desire in the elect. Hodge emphasizes that "we are chosen to holiness; that we are created unto good works; in other words, that all good in us is the fruit, and, therefore, cannot by possibility be the ground of election" [5]. The desire to know God is thus an effect of election, not its evidence in the sense of a prior qualification.
John Gill, commenting on 1 Thessalonians 1:4, identifies election as "the eternal choice of them to everlasting life" [6], distinct from the effectual calling that follows. The Reformed reading of 1 Peter 1:2—"Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father" [2]—interprets "foreknowledge" not as God's passive awareness of future faith, but as "foreordaining love" [4]. Jamieson-Fausset-Brown argues that "God's foreknowledge is not the perception of any ground of action out of Himself" [4], meaning election flows from God's sovereign will alone. In this view, a person's longing for heaven confirms that God has already acted; it does not establish election but reveals it.
The Wesleyan-Arminian Position: Desire as Response to Prevenient Grace
Wesleyan and Arminian traditions contest the Reformed claim that election is unconditional. Adam Clarke, interpreting the same passage in 1 Peter, argues that "elect according to the foreknowledge of God" refers to God's foreknowledge of who would respond to the gospel call, not an arbitrary decree [7]. Clarke insists that if election were to eternal life irrespective of human response, "no one could have received such a letter, because no one could have been sure of his election in this way till he had arrived in heaven" [7]. Instead, election is corporate and conditional: God elects all who believe, and foreknows who will believe.
In this framework, the desire to know God arises from prevenient grace—grace that precedes conversion and enables (but does not compel) a positive response. A person's longing for God is thus both a gift and a choice: God initiates, the person responds, and that response confirms participation in the elect community. The desire is evidence not of an eternal decree selecting individuals, but of a present participation in the covenant people.
Shared Ground and Divergence
Both traditions affirm that no one seeks God apart from divine initiative. Romans 8:29 and Ephesians 1:4 anchor both readings [1, 3]. The disagreement turns on whether God's initiative is resistible and whether election is individual or corporate. Reformed theology reads election as "personal" and "irrespective of merit" [1], while Wesleyan theology reads it as conditional upon foreseen faith.
The hermeneutical divide reflects prior commitments about the nature of grace. Reformed theology prioritizes God's absolute sovereignty and the total inability of fallen humanity to contribute to salvation. Wesleyan theology prioritizes God's universal salvific will and the moral responsibility of human beings to accept or reject grace. Augustine's influence is evident in both, but interpreted differently: Reformed theology follows his later anti-Pelagian writings on unconditional predestination, while Wesleyan theology retrieves his earlier emphasis on the universality of grace [8].
The question of whether desire for God evidences election thus cannot be answered without first answering: What kind of election does Scripture teach? The desire itself is not contested—both traditions see it as a work of grace. What remains contested is whether that grace is irresistible and particular, or resistible and universal.
Sources
- Torrey's Topical Textbook “Torrey's Topical Textbook: Election — Of Christ, as Messiah -- Isa 42:1; 1Pe 2:6. Of good angels -- 1Ti 5:21. Of Israel -- De 7:6; Isa 45:5. Of ministers -- Lu 6:13; Ac 9:15. Of churches -- 1Pe 5:13. Of saints, is Of God. -- 1Th 1:4; Tit 1:1. By Christ. -- Joh 13:18; 15:16. In Christ. -- Eph 1:4. Personal. -- Mt 20:16; Joh 6:44; Ac 22:14; 2Jo 1:13. According to the purpose of God. -- Ro 9:11; Eph 1:11. According to the foreknowledge of God. -- Ro 8:29; 1Pe 1:2. Eternal. -- Eph 1:4. Sovereign. -- Ro 9:15,16; 1Co 1:27; Eph 1:11. Irrespective of merit. -- Ro 9:11. Of grace. -- Ro 11:5. Recorded i”
- I Peter “I Peter 1:2 (KJV) — Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.”
- Easton's Bible Dictionary “Easton's Bible Dictionary: Predestination — This word is properly used only with reference to God's plan or purpose of salvation. The Greek word rendered "predestinate" is found only in these six passages, Acts 4:28; Rom. 8:29, 30; 1 Cor. 2:7; Eph. 1:5, 11; and in all of them it has the same meaning. They teach that the eternal, sovereign, immutable, and unconditional decree or "determinate purpose" of God governs all events. This doctrine of predestination or election is beset with many difficulties. It belongs to the "secret things" of God. But if we take the revealed word of God as our guid”
- 1 Peter (Presbyterian) “Jamieson, Fausset & Brown on 1 Peter 1:2: foreknowledge--foreordaining love (Pe1 1:20), inseparable from God's foreknowledge, the origin from which, and pattern according to which, election takes place. Act 2:23, and Rom 11:2, prove "foreknowledge" to be foreordination. God's foreknowledge is not the perception of any ground of action out of Himself; still in it liberty is comprehended, and all absolute constraint debarred [ANSELM in STEIGER]. For so the Son of God was "foreknown" (so the Greek for "foreordained," Pe1 1:20) to be the sacrificial Lamb, not against, or without His will, but His ”
- CCEL (Reformed (Old Princeton)) “Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 2, section 66: and just [u poses come from God, it is of Him, and not of us, that we seek and find his favour. Election is to Holiness. 4. Another plainly revealed fact is, that we are chosen to holiness; that we are created unto good works; in other words, that all good in us is the fruit, and, therefore, cannot by possibility be the ground of election. In Eph. i. 3-6 , the Apostle says: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: according as He hath chosen us ”
- 1 Thessalonians (Baptist/Reformed) “John Gill on 1 Thessalonians 1:4: Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God. Which intends not an election to an office, for this epistle is written not to the officers of the church only, but to the whole church; nor to the Gospel, the outward means of grace, since this was common to them with others, and might be known without the evidence after given; nor does it design the effectual calling, sometimes so called for this is expressed in the following verse as a fruit, effect, and evidence of the election here spoken of, which is no other than the eternal choice of, them to everlasting”
- 1 Peter (Methodist/Wesleyan) “Adam Clarke on 1 Peter 1:2: Elect according to the foreknowledge of God - If the apostle had directed his letter to persons elected to eternal life, no one, as Drs. Lardner and Macknight properly argue, could have received such a letter, because no one could have been sure of his election in this way till he had arrived in heaven. But the persons to whom the apostle wrote were all, with propriety, said to be elect according to the foreknowledge of God; because, agreeably to the original purpose of God, discovered in the prophetical writings, Jews and Gentiles, indiscriminately, were called to ”
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “NPNF1 Vol 7: Augustine — Homilies on John — Chapter XIV. 1-3. (part 2): between those who have labored less and those who have labored more: (4) by which penny, of course, is signified eternal life, whereto no one any longer lives to a different length than others, since in eternity life has no diversity in its measure. But the many mansions point to the different grades of merit in that one eternal life. For there is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory; and so also the resurrection of the dead. The ”