Best Christian Books on Election and Predestination: 9 Classics
If election troubles you, start with Spurgeon's sermon "Election No Discouragement to Seeking Souls" in Sermons of C. H. Spurgeon, Series 8. It is short, it is pastoral, and it was written for the person who worries that God may not have chosen them. For the whole debate laid out side by side, go to A. A. Hodge's Outlines of Theology. For a sense of how earnest Christians have disagreed, read about the friendship and the quarrel of George Whitefield and John Wesley.
The Bible speaks of election plainly. "He hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love" (Ephesians 1:4). Every writer below believes that verse. They differ on what lies behind God's choice. Spurgeon, Ryle, Hodge, Haldane and Bonar taught that God chose His people freely, out of His own good pleasure, and not because He foresaw anything in them. Wesley and the Arminian tradition taught that God's election rests on His foreknowledge of those who would believe. Finney took a position of his own. Each side believed it was guarding the grace of God.
Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 1:2
They also agreed on more than you might expect. Election never makes holiness optional. It never excuses anyone from repenting and believing. And no one should try to read God's secret decree before coming to Christ. TheWay Library holds far more books from the Reformed side than from the Arminian side, so we say plainly below where each book stands.
Start here
1. Sermons of C. H. Spurgeon, Series 8
Spurgeon was a convinced Calvinist and a passionate evangelist, and this sermon shows how he held the two together. He tells the anxious sinner to deal with God's commands, not His secret purposes. You don't refuse a doctor's medicine until you have read the doctor's private diary.
As an awakened sinner, I have vastly less to do with the secret purposes of God than with his revealed commands.
Sermons of C. H. Spurgeon, Series 8, Election No Discouragement to Seeking Souls
Spurgeon also argues that election destroys the false hope of being saved by God's general kindness apart from Christ. Read the sermon in Series 8.
2. The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Vol. 30, by C. H. Spurgeon
Twenty years later Spurgeon preached "How to Meet the Doctrine of Election," on the Syrophenician woman. When Jesus seemed to turn her away, she did not argue. She took His hard word and turned it into a plea. Spurgeon tells seekers to do the same. Read the sermon in Vol. 30. For more Spurgeon, see his books in the library.
3. Old Paths, by J. C. Ryle
Ryle's chapter on election, the last of the book, is the clearest short statement on the Calvinist side. He states the doctrine in plain sentences, gives the texts, and then warns against misusing it. He says the election of Scripture always comes with the Spirit's sanctifying work, and that we have no way of knowing who God's elect are, so the gospel must go to everyone.
We know not who are God's Elect, and whom He means to call and convert.
Old Paths, chapter XVIII
Read the chapter on election in Old Paths.
The Reformed classics
4. An Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans, Volume 2, by Robert Haldane
Romans 9 is the chapter every discussion of election has to face. Haldane, the Scottish lay preacher whose Bible studies in Geneva helped spark a revival there, takes it verse by verse: Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau, the potter and the clay. He reads it as Paul's teaching on God's sovereign choice of individuals. Read his chapter on Romans 9 in Volume 2, and see Robert Haldane's books.
5. Outlines of Theology, by A. A. Hodge
Hodge's chapters on the decrees and on predestination are set out as questions and answers. He is a Calvinist, but he is careful to state the other views fairly before he answers them. He asks, "What is the Arminian doctrine of election?" and then explains that Arminians grant God's foreknowledge but deny that He absolutely foreordains the salvation of individuals. That makes this the best place to see the whole debate laid out side by side. Read Outlines of Theology.
The other side, and a famous friendship
6. Lectures on Systematic Theology, by Charles G. Finney
Finney did not accept the Calvinism of his day, and his lecture on election shows a different reading of the same texts. He agreed that God's choice is eternal and certain. But he taught that God chose people on condition of their foreseen repentance, faith and perseverance, as those He foresaw He could win.
God did not elect them to salvation, for or on account of their foreseen good works, but upon condition of their foreseen repentance, faith and perseverance.
Lectures on Systematic Theology, Lecture XLIII
Read the lecture on election in Lectures on Systematic Theology. See also who Charles Finney was.
7. Wesley and His Century, by W. H. Fitchett
The library has no Wesley sermon on election, so this biography is the best way to hear his side. In "In Search of a Theology," Fitchett shows the young Wesley working through predestination with his mother, Susanna, who held an election grounded in foreknowledge.
God has an election … but it is founded on His foreknowledge, and does in no wise derogate from the glory of God's free grace, nor impair the liberty of man.
Wesley and His Century, In Search of a Theology
The chapter "The Controversy with Whitefield" tells how the two great evangelists divided over election and still loved each other. Fitchett notes Wesley's rule in such disputes: "Think and let think." Read Wesley and His Century.
8. The Works of George Whitefield, Vol. 4
Here is the other half of that story in Whitefield's own words: his open letter to Wesley answering Wesley's sermon on free grace. It is a Calvinist reply, but it quotes Wesley's arguments one by one, so you hear both men. Whitefield writes as a brother, grieved to differ.
I am very apprehensive, that our common adversaries will rejoice to see us differing among ourselves.
The Works of George Whitefield, Vol. 4, A Letter to the Reverend Mr. John Wesley
Read the letter in Vol. 4. See also who George Whitefield was.
9. Truth and Error, by Horatius Bonar
Bonar wrote these ten letters to a friend confused by the debates of his day. Letters IV and V take up election, predestination and foreknowledge from the Reformed side. They are gentle and readable, and they keep coming back to Christ freely offered.
God presents salvation to all; he gives it to those that believe.
Truth and Error, Letter VII
Going further
If you want the heavier Reformed treatises, Jonathan Edwards's Freedom of the Will, John Gill's The Cause of God and Truth and Zanchi's Absolute Predestination are all in the library. Our guide to the best books on the sovereignty of God covers them. On how election bears on the reach of Christ's death, see the best books on the atonement.
How to read on this subject
Read with your Bible open to Romans 8 and 9, Ephesians 1 and John 6. Read one writer from each side before you settle anything. And remember Spurgeon's advice to the seeker: the question in front of you today is not what God decreed, but whether you will come to Christ, who said, "him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out" (John 6:37).