Called, Foreknew, Predestined, Chosen, & Elected

[dave c]

simpletruth #138v Revisited 26JUN10 salicart@msn.com

HOSEA 10:12—Part Twenty Two: Called, Foreknew, Predestined, Chosen, and Elected

by rev. dave c

Hosea 10:12, Sow for yourselves righteousness; Reap in mercy; Break up your fallow ground, For it is time to seek the LORD, Till He comes and rains righteousness on you (NKJV).

(Jn 3:14-18, NIV) Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.

Part 21 of this Hosea 10:12 Series is a discussion of how Scripture makes it apparent that God’s desire is for all humanity to come to Him. As one of the best known verses of the Bible, John 3:16, quoted above, makes it very clear that whoever [everyone who] believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life, and that a person is condemned because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. Regarding God’s mercy, there is no ambiguity of language here: Everyone who believes in Christ receives eternal salvation...everyone who does not believe in Him is condemned to eternal damnation. If not specifically stated, it is certainly strongly implied that each and every human being makes a personal decision for, or against, Jesus. Then we read verses found in Romans 8 and Ephesians 1.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies (Ro 8:28-33, NIV). For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will...In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will…(Ep 1:4, 5, & 11, NIV).

There are also references to God’s chosen elect. If the Lord had not cut short those days, no one would survive. But for the sake of the elect, whom he has chosen, he has shortened them (Mk 13:19&20, NIV). Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience (Co 3:12, NIV). Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To God's elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance (1Pe 1:1&2, NIV).

“Those whom God called, foreknew, predestined, chose and who are divinely chosen/who are the elect.” There goes human freewill right out the window. If God has elected and selected some from before time itself to come to Him...who can over-ride His will to either refuse His call, or to come to Him in spite of a lack of being called? Jesus, Himself, tells us, All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away..."No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the Prophets: `They will all be taught by God.' Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me (Jn 6:37, 44&45, NIV). You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit--fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name (Jn 15:16, NIV).

Or consider John 17 beginning with verse 6, "I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8 For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. 9 I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. ...20 "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me (NIV).

Within these same verses we find evidences suggesting resolution to the apparent contradiction of human freewill in the face of divine predestination. “I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. ...My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message.” “Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me...go and bear fruit--fruit that will last.” We will take up the issues of those who will believe in me through their message, and fruit that will last in Part 23. Thank You, Lord, for Your sufficiency. Amen.