Ephesians 2:3
Ephesians 2:3 (see also 1st Corinthians 6:9-11; Romans 5:10)
Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
How, then, were Calvinists ever the “children of wrath, even as the rest”? That’s what confuses me. A Calvinist would most likely just attribute it to an outward appearance only, as being untrue in a deeper, spiritual sense of Unconditional Election. So when a Calvinist says things like, “Only we take Scripture seriously,” the claim itself is what’s hard to take seriously.
Question: Do Calvinists really ever consider themselves as having been “children of wrath,” prior to coming to Christ?
Answer: Most Calvinists will insist that they were never actually headed to Hell, at any point, given their presumption to an Unconditional Election. Therefore, from the Calvinist standpoint, they were never on the path to wrath, and never along the wide road to destruction. It seems, then, that a Calvinist would have to defer to the “Revealed Will” vs. “Secret Will,” in order to explain how they were once “children of wrath, even as the rest,” though not really, since all the while they were “His people” (in the Calvinist sense).
