“Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God.” (1Thessalonians 1:4)
This Scripture can be divisive and misleading. The Bible does speak of selection. There are many Scriptures on being chosen of God, but did the Scriptures mean God has made a selection of who will be saved? This topic is controversial. My personal opinion is biased by my belief in that anyone and as the Word of God says, “whosoever,” believes is saved. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” (John 3:36) I can understand and see how some believe that God has preselected and chosen certain ones to receive salvation. But that view doesn’t agree with other Scriptures in the Bible. So, this selection has to be based on something other than God’s pick and choose who will be saved.
Now we know that God sees all at the same time, past, present and future. He is omnipresent. “Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:” (Isaiah 46:10) God declares to us future things because He sees and knows what it will be. There is no limited time in God’s world as there is here on earth. So, I believe we were selected and chosen from the beginning of time because since the beginning God saw our repentance and salvation. So He claimed us, back then when we were not even saved. In terms that we might understand (my husband’s example), in Alpine skiing, the skier is ready to start. We know he is going to ski down the slope not because we chose for him to do it, but because it’s the inevitable future. He skies down the slope not because we wanted him to do it, but because it was the inevitable of what he was going to do. In the same way, the Lord knows we will be saved not because He chose us to be saved, but because He sees and knows our inevitable future. And those He knows are His in the future, He knows from the beginning of the world and He has chosen them as His to receive His benefits.
Now there is another Scripture which can further confuse the issue. “Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in My name, He may give it you.” (John 15:16) To believers, this is a comforting and loving statement that Jesus made. Some quote it to affirm that that they’re “in.” But Jesus was talking to His disciples at that time. He chose the apostles after praying all night. “And it came to pass in those days, that He went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. And when it was day, He called unto Him His disciples: and of them He chose twelve, whom also He named apostles; (Luke 6:12-13) This Scripture is not saying that He did chose us specifically. But the requirements mentioned of a disciple which Jesus spoke to them at that time is also required of us as His disciples now. Specifically in this verse Jesus is talking to His disciples then and more definite to the apostles He had just chosen.
There is another argument for our free will choice. There’s the Great Commission. (Matthew 28:19-20) Jesus told the parable of The Wedding Feast. In it He commands us in a metaphor to evangelize. “Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage.” (Matthew 22:9) One other Scripture for evangelizing the unsaved. God provided gifts to the church. In Ephesians 4:11, Paul includes evangelists. If God has selected already who will be saved, there would not be a need for evangelists and those chosen wouldn’t need to be preached the Gospel.
God wants us to choose Him out of our free will. Joshua told the Israelites to choose which God they would choose. (Joshua 24:15) Even the Israelites, the chosen people of God to carry the oracles of God to the world were able to choose who they would serve. In the beginning God gave people a choice to choose Him or not. “See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil;” (Deuteronomy 30:15) And God calls on heaven and earth to witness that He has given us a choice. “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:” (Deuteronomy 30:19) And in His mercy He tells us the consequence of not choosing Him and the reward of choosing Him. (Deuteronomy 30:15-20). So, in my opinion and belief from all my studies and core beliefs, I doubt very much that God picks and chooses who will be saved. And therefore, the election of God is for those who have chosen God and those who will choose God, God already knowing who these are and who belong to Him in the future. This is hard for us to understand because we live limited by time.
So, I praise God that the Gospel is preached to the world and that we can hear, believe, repent and choose God and become one of His chosen ones for blessings, the beloved and the elect.
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