The Bible says God elected three groups because, through His
foreknowledge, He knew that they would be a blessing to Him. Israel, as we
know, was called and a future judgement and resurrection will determine which
individuals of that body will be chosen. More will be discussed about this later.
The other "chosen" groups mentioned in the Bible are the elect angels and the
Church of God. The Greek word for the elect is EKLOGE, referrring to the
careful sifting or choosing on the basis of aptness or serviceability for a
specific end.
The elect angels are created beings who do God service in both the physical
and spiritual realms (as opposed to the unholy angels or demons which hinder
God's purposes and along with the devil will be disposed of at the end times).
See I Timothy 5:21:
"I charge thee before God, and the elect [EKLEKTON] angels, that thou
observe these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing by
partiality."
The other elected group is the Church of God; the one body of born-again
believers called and at the same time chosen from among all men--both
Israel and the Gentiles in this Grace Dispensation.
In order to clarify the term "church" let us consider the Greek word which it is
translated from. It is EKKLESIA; which is translated "chosen assembly". It was
a term used for those summoned to discuss specific issues of government.
The modern conception of "church", where adherents to certain denominations
meet every week in a steepled building to hear one man profess his faith is a
far cry from the dynamic activities that occurred in the first century church.
The EKKLESIA of the Grace dispensation is the spiritual body of born-again
believers who function according to Christ, the spirit of God, the Bible, and the
gifts of individual members. The government of this body is largely invisible
with Christ Jesus actively functioning as the head.
The Church is called. Refer to Romans 8:29 and 30.
"For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the
image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also CALLED: and whom he
CALLED, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also
glorified."
The Church is also chosen; refer to Romans 8:33:
"Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect [EKLEKTON]? It is God
that justifieth."
Because of His omniscience, God could know in advance those who would
believe Him. These He then chose and predestinated even before the world
was made. The Church of God, along with all things, are predestinated in the
mind of God, because God is without time and knows all.
On the other hand, man is free to believe what he will. Because of God's great
love he allows his creation the freedom to choose whether or not they will
return his love through worship and obedience. And there is no man excluded
from this choice, for Christ died for all. This author is not an adherent of
predestination in the Calvinistic sense (whereby all of mankind is predisposed
to either blessing or cursing; there being no genuine freedom of choice). Man
has absolute freedom to decide what he will do with God and his Son, Jesus
Christ.
The Church of God was chosen before the foundation of the world. See
Ephesians 1:4:
"According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:"
The Church will not be a part of any future election or mortal judgement
because it is already elected and justified in Christ.
If then the saying "many are called but few are chosen" does not include the
Church of God (as some commentaries claim), or the Gentiles
(as the majority of commentaries claim), there is only one group (of God's
division of people: Jews, Gentiles or Church of God) who it can wholely apply
to--the Jews, who are Israel. For, as a group, they were called but as we shall
see they will not all be chosen.
| Chapter 6 The Elect |
