The Presdestined Chosen Elect of God by Tom Gaston #ccot #salvation

There are a lot of christians who think that "many" will miss the Rapture due to failure of receiving Christ, and so I would like to address this subject here.

God is not tarrying as some think, but He is specifically waiting for the appointed time for the Church to be completed which He alone knows.  And when the Church is completed, then there will not be one person missing who was suppose to become a member of the body of Christ.  For God the Father cannot send His Son to come and get His Church UNTIL the "last member" whom God the Father has predestined to become a member of the body of Christ, has been added in.


God will save "all His elect" which He has chosen, and of which He alone has determined "how many" will make up the Church.  He has a "number" which He alone knows.  And so we can take confidence in knowing that "everyone will be accounted for" at the time of the Rapture, and no one will be missing!  Those who were left behind will have not missed the Rapture due to their failure to be saved, but because God has already "predetermined" ahead of time "how many" He has chosen within the "age of grace" to become members of the body of Christ.  God, in every dispensation of time ( past, present, and future ) will continue to "call out all His elect" whom He has chosen ( written in the Lambs book of life before the foundation of the world according to Scripture.... Eph. chapter one / Rev. 13:8,  17:8 ).

We as believers in Christ pray for many, and we witness to those whom God brings our way, but we do NOT know who God the Father will draw, and whom He will not draw ( John 6:44, 6:65 ).  Many Christians do NOT understand the "sovereignty God" and His "calling out" of His "elect."  This is why they are an "emotional basket case."  They worry and fret themselves to death by thinking that "they are responsible" for the salvation of others, but nothing could be further from the truth.  But since we do NOT know who will be saved and who will not be saved, then everyone whom "we" witness to "from our perspective" is a possible candidate as we don't know whom God has chosen.


Therefore we as believers do NOT have to worry about someone being "left behind" at the time of the Rapture, for God has decided the "number" which will complete the Church.  And so once again, Christ cannot come UNTIL the Church is fully completed. God has chosen a "number" to be saved during the Church age, and He has chosen a "number" for those who will be saved AFTER the Rapture during the tribulation period.  Therefore God from the very beginning of time has been calling out "His elect" and will continue to do so until eternity begins ( New heavens and new earth ).

I hear and read all the time, and I watch youtube videos where Christians are "all franctic" because they are afraid that a loved one, friend, and just other people in general will "miss the rapture" if they don't convince them to get saved.  There is SO MUCH that these christians do NOT understand in God's word!  Years ago when I was a young christian and uneducated in God's word I use to fret myself about all those around me thinking that "I was responsible" for their destiny.  But God finally "set me free" from this terrible "false feelings and concept" once I understood from the word of God that He is sovereign, and that "His will and purpose" is what will be accomplished, not ours.


Man in his depraved state cannot "subject" himself to God, nor to the law of God because He is "born dead spiritually" ( 1Cor. 2:14 ).  Man will NEVER choose Christ by His own will for he is not able to do so in his depraved and sinful state ( Rom. 3:10,11 Rom. 8:6-8 ).  Jesus told His disciples that...."You did not choose me, but I chose you that you should go and bear fruit" ( John 15:16 ).


Doug,  I copied and pasted below one of my old articles which I wrote on this subject of predestination. I hope it will encourage you.

God's blessings to you brother!

In Christ, Tom Gaston
rapturetj@comcast.net

                   Verses which show that every believer is "chosen" of God.
                                                        ( By Tom Gaston )

The text of Romans below is vital for all to understand the doctrine of "election."  This important  passage of Scripture clearly shows that God's process of "election" is according to His will and His purpose and not according to man's will to choose.   Many believers have a hard time with the doctrine of "election" in God's word because they view it from a "humanistic" point of view which renders a negative "emotional" response rather than understanding this teaching from God's point of view, purpose, and persepective which is so clearly laid out in His word.  I pray that what is presented here will help those who are struggling with this important doctrine.

Romans 9:6 - 23    But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; nor are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants, but: “through Isaac your descendants will be named.”  That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants.


For this is the word of promise: “At this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son.”   And not only this, but there was Rebekah also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac;  for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls,  it was said to her, “The older will serve the younger.” Just as it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there?  May it never be!  For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.  For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate My power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth."   So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.

You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault ? For who resists His will ?”   On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it?  Or does not the potter have a right over the clay,  to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?

What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His powers known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?  And He did so in order that He might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy which He prepared beforehand for glory.

Here in these verses in we can see that God's divine principle of election is made very clear.  The word "election" means to "call out."  It has to do with "selection" and God's "separation" of whom He has chosen unto Himself for His purposes according to His will.  the text of Romans 9:11 - 13 is very important in order to gain an understanding of the doctrine of "election."  Notice that it is God alone who is doing the "electing." 

The apostle Paul states........... "The children { Jacob and Esau }  who were not born yet, neither having done good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;

Further Paul states......."As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated."

You can see in the story of Jacob and Esau  which Paul refers to that God's election  was not determined by the response of good or evil,  for this selection by God took place while the "twins" were still in their mothers womb before either one had done any good or evil.  This shows clearly that the basis for God's selection of one ( Jacob ) and the rejection of the other ( Esau ) had nothing to do with either twins capability to either choosing or rejecting  good and evil which involves the "will " of an individual.

Therefore God's election is built upon the "sovereign will of God " which does NOT depend upon man and his ability to "choose" according to his own will.   God is calling out  those whom He has chosen in order to fulfill His will and purpose which was already determined and decided in eternity past before the creation of the world.

Many christians cannot handle this thought of "election" because it is too disturbing to them from a "human perspective", and therefore they cannot accept it and therefore it must be rejected.  This is because so many christians approach God from a "humanistic" and "emotional " point of view.  They think that God operates and makes His decisions based upon "human reasoning and emotion."  Such people will never be delivered from their human emotions on this subject until they truly study and "accept" what God has already decreed in His word conerning the doctrine of foreordiation, predestination, and election.

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Colossians 3:12  So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience;


2 Thessalonians 2:13  But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.

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( NASV ) 2 Timothy 2:10   For this reason I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen, so that they also may obtain the salvation  which is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory.
( KJV ) 2 Timothy 2:10   Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation  which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
The content and context of this verse above shows clearly that the Apostle Paul was on a mission as a chosen vessel and servant of God who wanted to make sure that God's chosen elect  will hear the gospel of Jesus Christ and thus be saved.  And he states...."so that they also may obtain the salvation" , which means then that Paul was speaking about those who were chosen of God, but of which have NOT yet come to faith in Christ.  There salvation was yet "future."


Elect / Strong's # 1588....eklektos,  elc-lek-tos....means - select; by impl. favorite: - chosen - elect


Comes from the Root word .... Strong's # 1586   eklegomal,   ek-leg'-om-ahee;  mid.  from #1537 and #3004 ( in its prim. sense);  to select; - make choice, chose ( out ), chosen
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Titus 1:1   Paul, a bond-servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the faith of those chosen of God and the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness,


1 Peter 1:1  Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who reside as aliens, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are chosen.


1 Peter 2:9  But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;


The body of Christ which is made up of all who are "chosen" ( predestined by God / His elect ) are God's ministers / ambassadors ( 2 Cor. 5:20 ) who go forth and carry out God's divine plan by proclaiming the excellencies of Him who called them out of darkness and into His marvelous light.
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Ephesians 1:3 -12   Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,  just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.   In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.
 

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him ( Christ ).   With a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth.  In Him  also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will,  to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory.


You can see clearly here from this Scripture that the believers "predestination" had NOTHING to do with man excercising "his or her own will."  Our predestination was all determined by God beforehand ( ahead of time ) according to His will and His purpose.
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Revelation 13:8   And all who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has NOT been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.

Revelation 17:8   The beast that you saw was and is not, and is about to come up out of the abyss and to go to destruction.  And those who dwell on the earth will wonder, whose name has NOT been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world,....etc...etc.

These two Scripture verses above are very clear and show by "contrast" that we who are "in Christ" ( unlike the wicked ) have been "chosen" before the foundation of the world and that our "names" are already written in the Lamb's book of life before the world began.  God created every believer ( His elect ) for His own purpose and determined their eternal destiny in eternity past by His own will.  Therefore every believer is an administrator or an ambassador on this earth who represents God for the purposing of carrying out God's divine plan whic is His will. 


( a misconception )..... A believers name is NOT written in the Lamb's book of Life on the day that they "receive Christ" as savior as many try to teach and advocate, but rather the believers name was already been  recorded in the Lamb's Book of Life  before they even came into existence.  On the otherhand you can see that the "opposite" is true of the wicked as the texts shows clearly that their names were never at any time written in the Lamb's book of Life before  the foundation of the world.


A very important observation!


The fact that the names of the wicked were never written in the Lambs's Book of Life  reveals and shows clearly the "opposite is true" for the belivers whose names were already written in this book in eternity past before they even came into existence.  Ephesians chapter 1:1 -12 is very clear about the believers "predestination" which was determined by God's will alone.   Ephesians chapter one allows no other argument about this fact, except for those who just want to argue and re-interpret or distort what the apostle Paul was teaching.  Paul is very clear about our predestination which was NOT according to "our will", but God's will and plan.

Listen carefully!   If a believers name is not  written in the Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation of the world,  but instead is written in at the time of their conversion to Christ ( as many believe and teach),  then why would God even mention in Rev. 13:8 and 17:8 that the names of the wicked were never written there in the Lamb's Book of Life in the first place, as it makes no sense whatsoever to record such a verse in Scripture concerning the "wicked" unless the "opposite is true" for the believer. 


These two important Scripture verses of Rev. 13:8 and 17:8 show clearly by just "reason alone" that every chosen / elected saint of God has had their name written in the Lamb's Book of Life  before the foundation of the world,  and that they were not written in this book at the time of their conversion to Christ as many would "assume."   These two verses of Scripture support "election / predestination" of the beleiver by the hand of God.  Ephesians chapter 1:1-12 is in harmony with Rev. 13:8 and 17:8.


  Man was not around in "eternity past" in order to excercise his will when God decreed, determined, and foreordained by His own will what "His plan" would be and who would be the ones that He would create in order to "carry out " His plan that He already decreed and purposed by His own divine will apart from man's will.


  When God predestined every believer to be conformed to the image of His Son He did not do so by looking down through the "tunnel of time" thereby using His "omniscience" in order to peer into the future so He could see ahead of time who would receive His Son or who would reject His Son.  If God had used His "omniscience"  to look into the future ahead of time for the purpose of determining who He was going to predestinate unto eternal life based on mans will and response,  then God would no long be a "sovereign God" as He now would become subjected to the whims of "human will."  God predestines no one according to their will, but only according to His will which Ephesians 1:1-12 so clearly teach.


Now if God was to take such a course of action by using His "omniscience" to determine His plan,  then He would be demonstrating and suggesting that "man's will" is now "steering and directing" the will of God and that all of mankind is now "calling the shots" and determining his own destiny apart from God's divine will and purpose.  If that was the case, then God would be "dethroning" Himself as the divine creator and putting Himself on the same level as man.  This is impossible for God to do!   And yet this is what many are suggesting when they promote the teaching that "man" determines His own eternal destiny.  God is the director and the sole determiner of His own will which is NOT influenced nor subjected to man's will and his human finite reasoning which God has not adopted nor implemented into His divine order.


Romans 8:29.......For those whom He foreknew,  He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;


Foreordination has to do with creating or determining a plan before it can be executed.  God has already determined what His plan would be in eternity past,  and this is simply what foreordination is.  God didn't need to look down the tunnel of time and into the future by using His omniscience in order to determine how His plan should unfold, but rather He already determined ahead of time "how it was to unfold" according to His will.  He designed it and then He carries it out and fulfills it.  Man and "his free will" had nothing to do with what God had decided to carry out as it was already decreed and established before the foundation of the world.


Therefore this means that God had every right to create, elect, and predestinate whoever he so desired in order so that they can carry out His will and fulfill His plan.  It is really very simple to understand, but for many not easy to accept, as in their minds it "diminishes" their view of God from a human perspective,  as they cannot understand how such a divine creator could do such a thing!  God has every right to do what every He so chooses to do. He doesn't answer to "man."  It doesn't matter whether or not "man" likes what God does or does not do.  God is the "creator" and "man" is the created.   Once again, this is where Romans chapter 9:19 -23 comes into play.

Romans 9:19 - 23.......

You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault ? For who resists His will ?”   On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it?  Or does not the potter have a right over the clay,  to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?

What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His powers known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?  And He did so in order that He might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy which He prepared beforehand for glory.

In first Peter 1:2 the apostle teaches that all believers are God's "elect " according to the foreknowledge of God who had predetermined the "destiny" of each one whom He created for Himself in order to carry out His divine plan ( 1 Peter 2:9 ).

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( NASB ) Acts 13:48   When the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord; and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.

( KJV )   And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.


This term "ordained" is Strong's # 5021.....Tasso, tas'-so.......means to appoint, determine, ordain, set.


Acts 13:48 reveals that God in eternity past had already....appointed, ordained, and determined ahead of time those whom He would "appoint to eternal life."  This verse shows the "foreordination" and plan of God who already determined who would receive eternal life.  Those whom He appointed are his ministers or ambassadors ( 2 Cor. 5:20 ) who carry out "His divine plan" according to His will. 


No Christian knows who the "called, chosen, or elect" of God are?  This knowledge belongs only to God.  Therefore because we do not know "who is" or "who isn't" one of God's "elect",  then every person whom we meet from our perspective as far as we are concerned is a "candidate" for possibly being one of God's elect, which is always a secret until such a one comes to know Christ as savior.  Once this has happened, then their identity as one of God's "elect" is revealed to all of us.


When we as Christians "live and witness for Christ" to those around us, then we are carrying out what God had ordained us to do on His behalf.  We are commissioned by Christ to carry out the will of God.


Ephesians 2:10....For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.


This important Scripture here shows us that we are God's workmanship and not our own.  God preordained and predetermined each step of our lives in Christ Jesus beforehand, that is to say, that He foreordained and determined in eternity past what works we would do for Him through Christ.  This scripture shows that we are God's chosen and His elect  whom He has predestined unto His glory.


1 Corinthians 1:30,31......."But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption.....That just as it is written,  "Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord."

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John 6: 37- 40   All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me;  and the one who comes to Me I will ceratinly not cast out.....For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me..... And this is the will of Him who sent Me,  that of all that He has given me  I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day......For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son, and believes in Him, may have eternal life;  and I Myself will raise him up on the last day."


John 6:44   No one can come to Me, unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.


John 6:64 - 65   But there are some of you who do not believe.  For Jesus knew from the beginning who did not believe, and who it was that would betray Him....And He was saying,   "For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me,  unless it has been granted him from the Father.


No one can, nor does anyone have any ability to come to Christ by their own will and power ( 1 Cor. 2:14;  Rom. 8:6-8 ).  An individual must be drawn by God the Father or they will not come to Christ.  These two powerful Scriptures above in John's gospel shows clearly that man cannot use "his will " in order to determine his own eternal destiny.  Man in his sinful condition is incapable of surrending his own life to God by his own will.  


Romans 3:10 -18.....As it is written.......“There is none righteous, not even one; There is none who understands, There is none who seeks for God;  All have turned aside,   together they have become useless;   There is none who does good,   There is not even one.    Their throat is an open grave,  With their tongues they keep deceiving,    The poison of asps is under their lips;  Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness”;    Their feet are swift to shed blood,    Destruction and misery are in their paths,   And the path of peace they have not known.”   There is no fear of God before their eyes.”


John 10: 27 - 29    My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me;  and they shall never perish;   and no one shall snatch them out of My hand.....My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all;  and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.


John 15:16    You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He may give to you."


When God the Father "draws" someone ( John 6:44,  65 ), then they will come to Christ and surrender to Him because God the Father is "changing their hearts" in order to "call out " those whom He has chosen and predestined in order to be conformed to the image of His Son, thus fufilling His own will, plan, and program.  Jesus Himself stated......."All that the Father gives to me shall come to Me" ( John 6:37 ).


When God the Father draws some one who is one of His chosen elect, then He does not do so by the method of overriding or "forcing" that person to surrender their will like someone "twisting their arm."   But instead God simply changes their "heart response" which will always lead to that person to "surrendering themselves" to Him.   The "heart" controls the "will " of an individual.  By changing the heart response God is not violating or overriding the will of man by force.


Psalm 33:13-15.....The Lord looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men;  From His dwelling place He looks out On all the inhabitants of the earth, He who fashions the hearts of them all,  He who understands all their works.


Everyone of us who are already saved were drawn by the Father and we all came to Christ ( John 6:44, 65 ).  God called each one of us according to His appointed time for our salvation.  Some people have the distorted view that God the Father draws someone for a period of time and then stands back and say something like, for example:......."Ok, I have been working with you for sometime now, so what's it going to be?  Are you going to receive my Son and my forgiveness or are you going to reject it?  It's now up to you! What are you going to do?  The choice is yours!


I can guarantee you that this is "not reality."  Everyone who is drawn by the Father will surrender their lives to Him at the appointed time which God the Father has designated for them.  Jesus makes this clear in John 6:37-40,  44,  65;  10:27-29 ).  And every person who surrenders does so because they are "God's elect" whom He has chosen and predestined and whom He is calling out unto His glory according to the kind intention of His will, and not according to their own will ( Eph. 1:1 - 12 ). 


In closing I would like to say that one of the most popular Scriptures people use in order to "reject" the doctrinal teaching of "election"  is found in 2 Peter 3:9.


2 Peter 3:9....."The Lord is not slow about His promise ( the promise of His coming for His own ),  as some count slowness, but is patient toward you ( the elect believers / not the world ), not wishing for any to perish ( John 10:27 - 29 / the elect whom the Father has given to Christ will never perish ) but for all to come to repentance" ( all of God's elect to come to repentance who are "chosen", but who are not saved as of yet,  which is still yet future ).  Once the body of Christ is complete, then Christ will come.  This is the reason why Christ has been "tarrying."  And as Christ continues to tarry His coming, then the world will continue to mock the "promise" of His coming.


  I looked at this verse and studied it in its context and then came to a conclusion.  Then I went online in order to try and find some commentary on this passage of Scripture.  Well, I found two short commentaries which came to the same conclusion as I had after sincerely looking 2 Peter 3:9.  So instead of writing on this passage I will simply send these two short commentaries so you all can view them for yourselves.  This will save me time.  They are very short, but they will be very enlightening for those who have never really studied this particular verse in the boundaries of its "context" ( which I believe many have failed to do ).


The context of this passage is about the "elect" and the "promise" of Christs' coming for His "elect" and the scoffers who mock because Christ hasn't come yet.  These two short commentaries will be an "eye-opener" for many.


In Christ, Tom Gaston
Rapturetj@comcast.net