Who are the elect?

We don’t often fight over truth.  We fight over miscontruth. 

Miscontruth happens when words are misconstrued. 

Construe: to analyze the arrangement and connection of words; to construct (to build):

Mis- : badly

Miscontruth: a bad analysis of, or a badly analyzed- arrangement and connection of words

Anything we build on a foundation other than the gospel of Jesus Christ…

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” John 3:16-17 (italics mine)

…is subject to being a miscontruth. 

Granted, if you look up the word “miscontruth” in the dictionary you would be hard pressed to find a definition.  Why?  Because it is not a word that appears in the dictionary… but just because it is not in the dictionary does mean it is not a word.

word: something that is said; a written or printed character or combination of characters representing a spoken word

So, what miscontruth are we discussing today, and why have I spent so much time building up to it?;  Election, or more specifically the Elect.

I posit that by and large the Christian Church argues over a miscontruth when they

discuss doctrines such as Calvinism or Arminianism. 

John and Jacob were arguing over the wrong thing.

And I stand on the position that the reason we spend so much time arguing over it is because we fail to acknowledge that much of the theological position the church developed was anti-Israel.  There appears to have been, however subversive, underlying agreements that

1. the body of believers known at Antioch as Christians were suddenly the ones in the spot light (rather than Jesus, the Messiah, the Anointed One of Israel)
2. the New Testament was never read by anyone who was of Israel, and that the authors – or even better, the Author – of the letters never intended them to
3. Israel was never referenced or mentioned in the New Testament, but that it was all about the gentile believers (the Church)

The Church needs to repent of this.   

We need to stop viewing the Word of God apart from all of the promises of God. 

The covenant that God made with Israel is an everlasting covenant.  Period.  They were and still are the chosen people of God. Jesus came to Israel and spoke to Jews.  As it was promised that He would.  And when He released His Spirit on those who had accepted Him, predominantly if not exclusively Jews at first, He still had a lot to say to Israel.

Where we get into trouble is when we forget this and ignore what He is saying to Israel in scripture.

Israel, the Jews are the Chosen.

But we, as Gentile believers are the Called.

“So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called (Gentiles), but few chosen (Jews).” Matt 20:16 (additions in parenthesis mine)

So let us break down this misconstruth and reconstruct it on the foundation of the gospel.

Abraham was Called.  Israel was Chosen.  We are sons of Abraham, not of Israel.  We are Called.  But the sons of Israel are Chosen.  We, as the Called, are brothers to Israel, God’s Chosen people. 

Chosen = Elect

In the KJV (King James Version of the Bible) the word “elect” appears 20 times. Four of those times were in Isaiah.  The rest were in the New Testament. 

If we accept that “the elect” is a reference to Israel, then fights over predestination and election can be dissolved and we can embrace the Word of God regarding those who are “called” and who are “chosen.”  No bible believing Christian we deny that God chose Israel, that there are only a certain number of Jews, and that not all who claim to be Jews are truly Jews.  

The word for “called” is the same as “invited”.  Those who accept the invitation are then referred to as “The Invited.” 

Those promises include not only the “whosoever” of John 3:16 but also the “all flesh” of Joel 2:28 and the “all the nations” of Genesis 22:18.

There are many “called”.  In fact, they cannot be counted.  The promise to Abraham was that his descendants would number as the stars.  We are Abraham’s children of that promise when, by the blood of the Lamb, we are “bought and brought”… “Redeemed and remembered”… when, in the spirit of adoption we cry Abba, Father!

The call goes out to everyone.  God does not send anyone to hell.  It is a choice.  People choose eternal life in Christ when they accept the invitation, or they choose eternal death apart from Him (hell) when they do not accept the invitation.

Lord,

That the “called” and the “chosen”… the elder and the younger sons… would learn to live under one roof in unity.

In Jesus’ Name!

AMEN

SDG