My Thoughts on Calvinism and Jeremiah 1:5

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I usually don't feel the need to argue too much about Calvinism and non-Calvinism. I did respect some Calvinist churchgoers while I maintained a non-Calvinist view. David W. Cloud of Way of Life Literature still embraces Calvinists who show signs of true conversion. I usually felt Cloud's view was the view I tend to embrace the most. Paul David Washer of Heartcry Missionary doesn't even make it an issue even if he's a Calvinist. John F. MacArthur's book "The Gospel According to Jesus" still quotes fron non-Calvinist writers such as Harry A. Ironside and Aiden W. Tozer. Jeremiah 1:5 can become a topic for an argument if it supports Calvinism or not. The verse is usually said by non-Calvinists that it isn't evidenced that Jeremiah was saved from birth. Rather, it was that Jeremiah was destined for that office. Again, it's a serious mistake to believe that Calvinism believes that those who are considered elect are saved from birth. Instead, Calvinism teaches that certain people are elected unto salvation but it doesn't teach people are saved from birth. I'm amazed at how some people snipe at Calvinism without doing much research! 

Why do I think Jeremiah 1:5 can be used to defend Calvinism? Well, here's a rendition from the KJV which is also a Calvinist translation of the Bible:
Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. (KJV)

Meanwhile, the ESV rendition (which was based on the RSV that Charles H. Spurgeon occasionally used) renders it as:

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

I don't see any reason not to see unconditional election there. The reason has to be that God knew Jeremiah before the latter was formed in the womb. God had done more than ordain Jeremiah to the office of a prophet. God had ordained Jeremiah to eternal life as well. Jeremiah (at this time) was already a saved man, no doubt. However, I think what God is telling Jeremiah is that he was chosen to salvation aside from the fact that Jeremiah was already destined to be a prophet of God when the right time comes. 

Here's an interesting note from Examining Calvinism about Jeremiah 1:5:

John Calvin writes: “Similarly the Lord says in Jeremiah 1:5 that he knew Jeremiah before he was in his mother’s womb, though he calls him at last to become a prophet in God’s own good time.”  (John: Calvin, The Crossway Classic Commentaries, p.361, emphasis mine)

Calvin adds: “The Lord spoke in the first chapter of Jeremiah a little differently from Paul so far as the words go, but in the same sense: ‘Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee; I gave thee to be a prophet to the nations’ (I.5). For when he was not yet even begotten, God had sanctified Paul to the office of apostle, just as also Jeremiah to the office of prophet. But He is said to separate us from the womb because we are sent into the world for this purpose, that He may accomplish in us what He has decreed. The calling is delayed till its proper time, when God has adapted us for the task which He commands us to undertake. Paul’s words may therefore be resolved thus: ‘When it pleased God to reveal His Son by me, who called me as he had separated me.’ He wanted to show that this calling depended on the secret election of God, and that he was ordained as apostle, not because he had fitted himself for undertaking such an office by his own industry or because God had discerned that he was worthy of having it bestowed upon him, but because, before he was born, he had been set apart by the secret purpose of God.” (Calvin’s New Testament Commentaries: Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians, p.20, emphasis mine)

John Gill also writes the following in this regard to Jeremiah 1:5 and Calvinism:

Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee

Not merely by his omniscience, so he knows all men before their conception and birth; but with such a knowledge as had special love and affection joined with it; in which sense the Lord knows them that are his, as he does not others, and predestinates them unto eternal life; and which is not only before their formation in the womb, but before the foundation of the world, even from all eternity. The forming of the human foetus is God's act, and a curious piece of workmanship it is; see ( Psalms 139:15 Psalms 139:16 ) . And before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee;

not by infusing holiness into him, but by separating him in his eternal purposes and decrees to the office of a prophet before he was born, and even before the world began; just as the Apostle Paul was separated to the Gospel of God, ( Romans 1:1 ) , for it follows, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations;

not to the Israelites only, who Jarchi thinks are so called, because they now followed the usages and customs of the nations; but to the Gentiles, against whom be was sent to prophesy, ( Jeremiah 46:1 ) as Egyptians, Philistines, Moabites, Ammonites, and Chaldeans. This ordination of him to be a prophet was not done in time, but in eternity, in the mind and thought of God; he was foreordained to this office before the foundation of the world, of which a declaration was made unto him when he was now called unto it; to which he makes answer.

I really would think that Jeremiah 1:5 is indeed proof of Calvinism. God told Moses the wonderful truth that He knew Jeremiah before conception. What an amazing thing to think that before Jeremiah's first fetal heartbeat was formed - God already knew Jeremiah! Calvinism's view of soteriology really gets summarized by the song "I'm Forever Grateful" and "Why Have You Chosen Me?" I don't see any reason why Jeremiah himself wouldn't be a good example of Calvinism's view of unconditional election.  

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