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Called - Elect - Chosen - Foreknown
This section is intended to be a brief, outlined overview of the terms titled above to prepare the reader for the next section. If “The Golden Chain” of Romans 8:28-30 can be dissolved, and yet, in a higher, mysterious righteousness of God, He declares it, even still, infallible in its links, untouched by the happenings of condescension and time, then the terminology which identifies predestination and election – “called”, “elect”, “chosen”, and “foreknown” – should also represent this mysterious contradiction. Therefore, there is a kind of collision in terms, between the eternality of what is forever and outside of time with what is mutable and experienced inside of time. Sovereignty in God’s eternality, here again, like as all other places formerly addressed, is still exulted right beside the condescension of God’s will, word, and works. |
Many Golden Chains: The Golden Chains Throughout History The PURPOSE & INTENT for Salvation NT Intercessions & NT Repentances Called - Elect - Chosen - Foreknown "Many Are Called But Few Are Chosen" The Marriage & The Called, Chosen, and Faithful The Epistles: A Commentary, Echo, and Practical Application of the Parables of Jesus Christ A Pastor's Sermons to Make Sure Biblical Mercy |
Called -> Elect -> Chosen -> Foreknown -> * <- Foreknown <- Chosen <- Elect <- Called
If God’s condescension is contradicting sovereign, eternal, unchanging glories in this chain, then these very terms – “called”, “elect”, “chosen”, and “foreknown” – will all have a real and genuine meaning, use, and experience, according to how God speaks it and performs it inside of time, and this contradicts the real and genuine meaning, use, and experience outside of time. This is just as we have studied and noted thus far, how there is a will and word of God (God in the ways of man) which is contradictory to the will and word of God (God in the ways of God), but they both exist simultaneously in God. We should not be surprised to find these four terms – “called”, “elect”, “chosen”, and “foreknown” – to indicate realities in both spectrums of God’s relationship to man (God in the ways of man & God in the ways of God). Should we be at all surprised that we could add the four bullet points below to the previous list of terms which was used as initial and present progressive salvation, and also that which is finally to be consummated?
CALLED
- Elect now (2 Jn. 1:1, 13, 1 Pet. 1:2) – Consummating Election to come (2 Peter 1:10)
- Called now (1 Cor. 1:26) – Consummating Calling to come (Php. 3:14)
- Chosen now (1 Peter 2:9) – Consummating Choice to come (Matt. 22:14, Rev. 17:14)
- Know Him now (1 John 2:4, John 17:3) – Consummating knowing, “even as also I am known” to come (1 Cor. 13:12)
CALLED
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1) Initial & Present Progressive Salvation of Calling:
We have studied “The Gospel Calling” of NT Christianity in great detail, and I hope it is now needless to say, yet again, that the “calling” of a man means initial salvation, and as we have studied all the terms of the calling experientially described (light, holiness, etc.), when a man comes short of this experience, he is falling short of the experiential terms of what his salvific calling is (falling from light to darkness, holiness to unholiness, etc.), thus in this way we can see that this calling refers to initial and present progressive salvation. |
Matt. 22:14, Jude 1, Rom. 1:7, 9:7, 1 Cor. 1:2, 1 Peter 2:9, 1 Cor. 1:26, Heb. 9:15, Gal. 1:15-16, 1 Thess. 2:11-12, Eph. 1:18, 4:4 |
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2) Final Salvation (on Judgment Day) of Calling:
We must make our “calling” “sure” if we want to be saved (2 Peter 1:10). This corresponds with the burden of Paul, which was to “walk worthy of God” (1 Thess. 1:12), for, if a man walks in those adverse sins which are at enmity with God, it is then that God will no longer acknowledge such a one as His son or daughter. We must make our calling as “sons” and “daughters” sure by walking in God, and not in the flesh (2 Cor. 6:18). |
Rev. 17:14, Php. 3:14, 2 Thess. 1:11, 2 Peter 1:10, 1 Tim 6:12, Eph. 1:18, 4:4, 2 Cor. 6:17-18 (called sons of God). |
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3) Predestination of Calling:
If a man is initially called, and then walks worthy of that calling so as to presently and progressively abide in that calling, then the calling is “sure,” and if a man successfully walks in these three senses of calling which describe salvation (initial, present progressive, and final), we can be assured that he has done it by eternal election. The calling of God outside of time did irresistibly lay hold upon the man, and so, salvation was begun and finished. CHOSEN or ELECT |
1 Cor. 7:20 (sovereign ordination of birth, race, family, habitation, carnal vocation, & events), Rom. 11:29, Rom. 9:7, 11, 24-26, 2 Tim. 1:9 (sovereign election for salvation) |
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1) Initial & Present Progressive Salvation of Chosen:
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John 15:16-19, 1 Peter 1:2, Romans 16:13, Neh. 9:7 (same as called, Heb. 11:18)
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2) Final Salvation (on Judgment Day) of Chosen: |
Matt. 22:14, Mark. 13:20, Rev. 17:14, 2 Peter 1:10 |
We must lay hold upon election, even though we are elect now (2 Peter 1:10). As the elect, we are regenerate, thus our nature is the nature of the elect, and so we are charged thereto, that we must “put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye” (Col. 3:12). Like the preciousness of the precious “Living Stone,” which was “chosen of God” and “elect” (1 Peter 2:4, 6), we are supposed to abide in Him in spiritual union and become “lively stones” ourselves, which means that we are abiding in His nature and deed, and thus, we too walk out the preciousness of our choosing and election, being built together as a House that is a dwelling place for Him. How do you know if your election is sure? Ask yourself this question according to the tests of scripture. Are you fulfilling the purpose of God for which He has elected you for, which purpose is, “to be conformed to the Image of His Son” (Rom. 8:29), or in other words, are you in the Image of God’s Son Jesus Christ – in NATURE and in DEED? In other words, are you perfect? Will you be one of those to whom God says, “upon whom My Name is called” (Acts 15:17), not only now but in the END?
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3) Predestination of Chosen:
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Eph. 1:4-5, John 15:16-19, 2 Thess. 2:13, Ps. 78:67-68, Mark 13:20
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If a man walks out in the three experiences of salvation termed in the word chosen (initial, present progressive, and final salvation), it is certain that it is because of the irresistible and eternal choosing of God.
KNOWN or FOREKNOWN
KNOWN or FOREKNOWN
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1) Initial & Present Progressive Salvation of Knowing:
2) Final Salvation (on Judgment Day) of Knowing: 3) Predestination of Knowing: |
Gal. 4:9, 1 Cor. 8:3, 2 Tim. 2:19, 1 John 2:4, John 10:14-15, 27, 17:3, Jer. 31:34, Ps. 1:6, Nah. 1:5-7, Amos 3:1-2
Matt. 7:23, Lk. 13:25-27, Rev. 3:5, 13:8, 17:8, 2 Tim. 2:19, Amos 3:1-2 Rom. 8:28, Jer. 1:5, Rom. 11:2, 1 Peter 1:2 |
The same definitive principles in the words “knowing” or “foreknown” are perfectly aligned with the other three terms – “called”, “chosen”, and “elect” – but before I address this term in great detail, I would like to show you the colliding, side by side, scriptural examples of these terms, so that, when it is all understood side by side, then we can accept it as the same mystery patterned all throughout the scripture. In this way, we can avoid the heresy of “eternal security” and receive the clear burden of God that He desires us to have. To exposit the term “known” or “foreknown”, foreknowledge, election, and the Book of Life must be addressed as well, and unto this I will arrive before long.