The Elect of God
71
Many are Called; Few are Chosen
After days of studying the King James Bible, the New American Standard Bible, utilizing the Strongs Comprehensive Concordance (the Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries), this is what my study revealed regarding this question.
Revelation 7:4-8 identifies the elect as "those who were sealed", and here is listed the 12 tribes of Israel, which branch from Jacob (renamed Israel), the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham. There are 144,000, 12,000 from each of the twelve tribes as follows: Judah, Reuben, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Manesseh, Simeon, Levi, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin. These were eventually scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia (1 Peter 1:1).
Revelation 14:4 states that “These are the ones who have not been defiled with women, for they have kept themselves chaste. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These have been purchased from among men as first fruits to God and to the Lamb.”
Exodus 4:22 states “Israel is My son (nation), my first-born (birthright).” In these times, the first-born son received the inheritance of the family. Being the first-born, however, does not necessarily mean they will be men/nations of God. Let’s look at Cain and Abel (sons of Adam). The first-born killed the younger one who loved God and followed His ways. We also see accounts where the younger son stole the birthright from the oldest son (as with Jacob and Esau, the sons of Isaac).
Who else is God's elect or chosen One? Jesus Christ, God’s Son (family member), His first-born (begotten), who is called the "Lion of Judah" (Revelation 5:5). Scripture references are Isaiah 42:1, Luke 23:35 and 1 Peter 2:6. Jesus Christ is of the lineage of David and of the tribe of Judah, but we will later see that all that are not part of the original tribes of Israel are “in Christ Jesus” and therefore, grafted in to the elect/chosen tribe of Judah and thus inherit the promises originally meant for only Israel.
Let’s look at WHY God chose to include those outside of the twelve tribes of Israel. Let’s go back to Psalm 106 where an account is recorded of Moses having to stand in the breach before God to turn away His wrath from destroying them. Israel, after being set free from Egypt, continued to rebel against God’s ways and thus the 10 Commandments were given as the LAW of God, followed with the Law of Moses.
Though the coming of their Messiah, Jesus Christ, was prophesied in the Old Testament, the Bible states in John 1:11 that He (Jesus, their Messiah) came unto His own (Israel), but His own received Him not. Jesus was born a Jew and came to save them. This is confirmed later, after Jesus was resurrected and the apostles were sent out into the world to spread the good news, the Apostle Paul writes in Romans 1:15-16 “thus for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also that are in Rome. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”
Upon His ascension into heaven, Jesus told His disciples, which were now apostles (ambassadors of the gospel, commissioners of Christ) in Mark 16:15 “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned.” Acts 1:8 is another account of this same “commissioning”: “but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”
Keep in mind that the Jews considered these apostles Galileans (who were of the heathens). When the Day of Pentecost came ~ when the Holy Spirit did come upon the apostles and they began to speak to all the nations of Israel in tongues, each nation heard the message in their own native tongue. This was an incredible miracle! (Acts 2)
It was most shocking to the Jews (the circumcised believers) when the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out upon the Gentiles (the uncircumcised believers) also! Acts 10:44-48. Chapter 18:5-6 state, "But when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul began devoting himself completely to the word, solemnly testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. But when they resisted and blasphemed, he shook out his garments and said to them, 'Your blood be on your own heads! I am clean. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.'"
Indeed, even those who are not of God’s original elect (in this case, Gentiles) are grafted in to their inheritance as the “first-born”. In Romans 11:17-24 we see the parable of how the branches of the “wild olive tree” (Gentiles) are grafted into the “cultivated olive tree” (Israel-Jews). It’s very interesting to note here that though some of Israel‘s cultivated olive branches were broken off (because they rejected Jesus Christ and his message of salvation), they can be grafted in again to that tree (upon acceptance of Jesus Christ and salvation through Him).
We also see that Romans 9:25 restates what was prophesied in the Old Testament in Hosea 2:23: “I WILL CALL THOSE WHO WERE NOT MY PEOPLE, ‘MY PEOPLE’, AND HER WHO WAS NOT BELOVED, ‘BELOVED.’” Verse 30 states, “What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith”.
Galatians 3:28-29 states, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, neither is there slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring (the father of the elect/chosen), heirs according to promise.”
Ephesians 2:17-22 is where Paul quotes the prophesy of Isaiah 57:19 “AND HE CAME AND PREACHED PEACE TO YOU WHO WERE FAR AWAY, AND PEACE TO THOSE WHO WERE NEAR; for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you (non-Jews) are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.” Here's a clue on "heaven", which is written about in my hub: "Our Heavenly Home": http://hubpages.com/hub/Our-Heavenly-Home
Some faiths believe salvation is not for the entire world today. We can obviously see through scripture that Jesus sent His apostles out to the entire world to preach the gospel, the message that Jews and non-Jews alike can be saved = joint heirs. For we know that we are saved by grace through faith, and that faith comes by hearing the Word of God. I truly believe all who hear this gospel and believe on Him now (before your physical death) will be included in the catching up of the Church and the first resurrection (1 Thess 4:13-17; Luke 17:34-37; Rev 20:5).
So what does it mean then in Matthew 22:14, “Many are called, but few are chosen?” Well, we now know who the chosen are, and look now in Revelation 7:4-8 (listing the 144,000 chosen); the next verse (verse9) states, "After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands;". In Revelation 17:14 we see "the chosen, the called and the faithful.” What does “the called” mean? Greek #2822 kletos (klay-tos’); invited, i.e. appointed, or (spec.) a saint:-called. Who are the faithful? First, those who lived according to faith (Abraham in Romans 4), and everyone who is/has been saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9) ~ faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Because Jesus is the ELECT, ALL in HIM are the chosen, the called, and the faithful!
This is confirmed in 2 Corinthians 1:21-22 "He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come".
WE TRULY ARE ONE NATION OF BELIEVERS UNDER GOD; INDIVISIBLE, WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL! PRAISE GOD!
If you have received Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior and want to know more about your "sonship" in Him, I invite you to read my hub, "The Son and sons of God": http://hubpages.com/hub/The-Son-and-sons-of-God
If you are being called to receive salvation today, please see my hub, "Come to JESUS: Salvation": http://hubpages.com/hub/Come-to-JESUS-Salvation
|
Under One Olive Tree: Jews and Gentiles Grafted In
Price: $8.91
List Price: $10.49 |
PrintShare it! — Rate it: up down flag this hub
Comments
Such a great compliment coming from you, Gicky! You are a powerful minister, anointed by our Lord. Thank you so much and God bless you!
Speaking to the Elect - "TO HIM THAT OVERCOMES"
No matter how hard these things are they are benefits, doing all of this stuff is called OVERCOMING. I have a lot of stuff to overcome yet.
Here is an interesting thing. You live a while and you overcome certain sins. God gives you the victory over them and you feel good about that. Then your conscience is clean, because you can look back yesterday and you know in your heart and mind you were not flagrantly, willingly, willfully, knowingly sinning, practicing sin. You were trying to do what’s right, you are getting in the habit and the routine of doing what’s right.
Then low and behold you have to do it all over again. How so? God sends a bigger trial, bigger. What happens? Well with the same capacity of spirituality that you had yesterday and was making progress, it’s not enough to beat this trial today, it’s not enough. If you don’t get help from someplace, then you are going down. Is this a secret to any of you? It’s like whoa, I thought we were doing pretty well when I wiped out some of those other hurdles, you know. I thought that was a pretty good victory there. Now it’s not some strange thing from outer space, it’s the same trials you always have. Paul says;
1Peter 4:12
Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:
These are things that are common, these are common to humanity, they just get bigger. I could deal with that, but now God hits me with this and this amount of spirituality from yesterday isn’t going to take care of this problem today. That’s what it means when we have to grow in grace and knowledge. Grace trains us, now you’ve got to grow in your training.
It’s like you go to boat camp in army. They call it basic training. Why is it basic? Because what you do the first week gets harder the second week and the third and forth. It gets harder, but you get good at doing the stuff that was hard on the first day. Now they give you stuff that’s harder yet.
And low and behold if you should ever want to be an officer. Boy they really put the thumb screws to you then. I use to just hang around the corner in Fort Knox, Kentucky and watch. They would be training officers out on the grounds and I would just watch and I would pretend, could I take that kind of harassment and physical excursion, if I were trying to be an officer. It’s pretty tough, pretty tough stuff.
So it’s all overcoming. Paul likens this to overcoming and John wrote the first three chapters of Revelation, “To him that overcomes.”
Repenting of your past sins, accepting Jesus as your Savior and receiving God’s Spirit does NOT pronounce you “SAVED.” It is not the conclusion of your spiritual life, but rather the very beginning.
What Paul did, this is called “overcoming,” and it’s the hardest thing in life to do, but the rewards are high. A few fringe benefits are:
Access to the TREE OF LIFE, which means you will be given immortality, never die again or fear death or worry about death.
You avoid THE SECOND DEATH, which is not only the second death spiritually, but all the judgment and stuff that goes with it. Why? Because you are judged now, if you are judged here you don’t need to be judged and condemned with the world later.
You get a NEW NAME, this means a lot of things, but it’s like you have to believe in the name and the name is everything that it represents and not just a new name, a better name.
POWER over the nation(s).
RIGHTEOUS garments, which mean we will be clothed in a perfect attitude, perfect righteousness.
Your new name will be CONFESSED BEFORE GOD THE FATHER.
Made a PILLAR, a mainstay, a vital support in the Temple of God.
SIT WITH CHRIST IN HIS THRONE - (Rev. 2 & 3)
That is a lot of good stuff. In fact here’s the problem with it. It’s too profound; we almost don’t even meditate on it.
See if you could go into some kind of training and after so long you would be like a cabinet member of the president of the United States, you would say that would be pretty neat. You might put up with a lot to go into some kind of training like that, because you would hob knob with the president on Air Force One, that a pretty neat plane. You would meet all the other royalty around the world and so on and that would be pretty good.
Don’t you reckon being a member of the Elect is a little higher calling then that? It is the HIGHEST calling! Really high! Probably too high for our spirit to take it in. We’re just... oh okay that is pretty cool. But it really is great and I suppose, I’m thinking the further we go in life, if we believe these things, then it becomes more tangible. Not only will we believe them and think about them, we’ll start expecting them. Where the King James uses HOPE, the Concordant uses EXPECTATION. The Elect will expect it, those called and then eventually chosen will be looking for it that much.
This is what separates the Elect from the rest of mankind. The Elect’s understanding of these truthful Scriptural explanations.
JL, that's quite inspirational! I have a hub called, "Will He Know You" I invite you to read, to confirm what you are talking about.
I do want to mention that there are those who will be "least in the kingdom of God" and "great in the kingdom of God". This would be a great study and hub. For instance, the scripture that says, if we don't keep the commandment of God and teach others to do the same, we will be least in the kingdom of heaven. Likewise, when the disciples wanted to sit at Jesus' right hand, He confronted them with the question, "Are you willing to be baptized with the same baptism I am baptized with?" Jesus overcame the world and took our sin to the cross. We are to take up our cross daily and die to flesh.
However, remember the parable in the Bible about the Master of the field? Some came to work for him at the beginning of the day and agreed to two pennies (I can't remember the exact amount, but let's say two pennies). As the day went on, others would come to work for the Master, and they were paid two pennies. At the last hour even, men came to work for the Master and were paid two pennies. The ones who came to work at the beginning of the day were miffed! But, the Master said they agreed to that pay, and that's what they received; He reminded them He is the Master and is in charge of what He's paid.
I believe the meaning of this parable is, even if someone receives the Lord as his/her personal savior on their death bed (the last hour of the day), they still inherit the kingdom of God, though there will be few if any rewards awaiting them.
We do work out our salvation with fear and trembling, because it's a constant battle to die to the flesh and live in the Spirit, to walk by faith. The righteous shall live by faith, the Word says. Some have wandered away from the faith and turned away their ears from the truth. That hub will cover all of this in more detail.
We are transformed from faith to faith, from glory to glory, by the renewing of our minds. We are consistently being transformed into His likeness, but we are indeed saved from the time we accept Him as our Savior and submit our will to His. Many people profess to be Christians, but the fruit is not evident in their lives. These are the ones that will say, "Lord, Lord" and Jesus will tell them to depart.
He says, "These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me."
God bless you, JL ~~
Thanks Carrie, I will read your suggested hubs and comment.
-JL
Gicky Soriano says:
5 months ago
Well written and concise. Another excellent biblical resource to tap into. Thanks.