I believe that God has decided to Glorify Himself in BOTH Mercy and Wrath.
RE>>the fact that there are very few that could be considered "elect", <<
We as created beings reason that God "owes" it to us to be saved since He created us.
However Jesus teaches that what belongs to Him is His
to do with as He pleases and not as we see right or fair.
Matthew 20:14 Take that thine is, and go thy way: I will give unto this last, even as unto thee.
15 Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good?
16 So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.
God could have left us all to perish even as Sodom and Gomorrah.
Isaiah 1:9 Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.
In this verse Isaiah explains that the only reason God had not judged Israel as he did Sodom was for the sake of "few" saved individuals. See Lot.
This unfortunately led the people to feel confident that God would not Judge their Land as long as the Temple and the few Elect were around.
Ezekiel later warns that God was not going to save the Temple of the Land for that reason anymore.
Ezekiel 14:20 Though Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter; they shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness.
The "few" would have to get out of town :-}
Did Isaiah believe in Election in Christ.... Oh yes.
Isaiah 53:1 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?
This is how the most "Well Known" O.T. Passage starts before describing in detail the Crucifiction of Christ.
Isaiah asked "Who has believed in Christ" and then quickly follows with:
===== to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? =====
True Religion is Revealed Religion not intellectually reasoned belief.
Even in the Psalms it say this:
Psalms 65:4 Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts: we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple.
Now concerning that they be FEW.
Many people point out that what Jesus said in this statement should have been translated differently..
Matthew 7:14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
The word "FIND" is written in the 'Present" tense and so cannot be translated as being an ongoing principle but neither can it be denied.
It is true that Jesus was saying and few are finding it RIGHT NOW
However it does lend weight to the concept that the elect are yet small in number. Also this statement to those whom we know for sure are part of the chosen:
Luke 13:23 Then said one unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved? And he said unto them,
24 Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.
Jesus was asked the very question you have asked me and His answer even to those we know were called was to Strive to Enter because MANY will indeed seek and not find!
Also when you study how Peter spoke to this fact in the epistle even after Jesus was glorified and the Spirit sent ( Some argue that the Holy Spirit was not among men until Pentecoste which is very wrong therefore I answer this way )
1Peter 3:20 Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.
21 The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:
Why did Peter mention that it was "Few" and a like figure of Baptism NOW.
This is something that every man of God must deal with.
The Fact that God alone decides who will or will not be saved and the number thereof.
Paul puts it this way:
Romans 9:19 Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?
Paul does not answer the charge against what God is doing but rather addresses the "attitude" of the formed and created man.
What if God wants to send everyone to hell for their sin
that they have committed freely but that He predestined them to do?
We are not here to judge God but rather to STRIVE.
Daniel 4:35 And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?
God ordains whatsoever comes to pass.
I see throughout the history of the world the elect have always been but a Remnant ( small piece of the whole )
I do however see an age that is coming and in which no one will be doing what I am doing for they shall all "know" the Lord.
Jeremiah 31:34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
That verse concerns the Elect Nation in the Restoration we have yet to see.
However we may see a great increase in the Knowledge of God when the "Natural Branches" be grafted back in and all the Nations become in a practical sense " The nations of our God.
Then I could see a shift from the current situation...
An old friend of mine used to ask this ( illegal argument ) of me and smile:
Brian... is the world a wheat field or a tare field? :-} |
