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NASB | Romans 5:6 ¶ For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Romans 5:6 ¶ While we were still helpless [powerless to provide for our salvation], at the right time Christ died [as a substitute] for the ungodly. |
Subject: Not my will? |
Bible Note: Greetings, You said: “If predestination inevitably leads to regeneration, (I imagine you mean rebirth) and belief in Christ. Why then do we have the scripture that many are called but few are chosen? (Matthew 22:14) This would seem to me to be saying that all who are called, (predestined) will not be chosen because of unbelief.” My reply: Matthew 22:14 is often ripped out of its context and used as supposed support – with no Biblical justification whatsoever – for a hypothetical “dual-calling” scenario; in which everyone without any exception is supposedly called to respond to the Gospel, but only “the lucky few” are chosen. This peculiar idea is utterly foreign to the Scriptures. The Biblical Fact is that there is only one Divine call to salvation and that Divine is always effectual to those who are called to salvation, and those who are so called are always none other than God’s elect and pre-destinated people. Others; i.e. the Reprobate, are never called to be saved because it was never the will of GOD that any of the Reprobate be saved. This misuse of Matthew 22:14 is impliedly insulting to GOD’s character because it infers that (a) GOD is double-minded in that He calls those who He never intended to save, and (b) GOD is frustrated in His illogical calling of the Reprobate. Since the context of Matthew 22:14 [refer Matthew 21:23 onwards] clearly shows that Christ is addressing the Jewish religious leaders per se, Matthew 22:14 is totally Irrelevant to Election and Pre-destination unto salvation, described by the Apostle Paul in Romans 8:28-30 [see below]. Even though Matthew 22:14 includes the words “called” and chosen,” this doesn’t justify the popular but obviously mistaken simplistic assumption that Christ is thereby alluding to salvation by grace as referred to by Christ and His apostles. Romans 8:29-30 - “For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified.” Romans 8:29-30 clearly confirms that the number of those who are called is precisely synonymous with those who have been pre-destinated (and thus elected) to salvation, and those who are justified and ultimately glorified. God’s calling of His elect and pre-destinated people is always entirely effectual. Only GOD’s elect people are called to salvation; there id no other calling to salvation; no others are called to salvation, and it is presumptuous and insulting to GOD’s integrity to insist otherwise. You also said: “We also have those who come to Christ believing they were entitled to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. They said, Lord, Lord, we have prophesied, cast out demons, and done many wonderful things in your name. Jesus said, get away from me, I never knew you; depart from me you evildoers.” My reply: Your reference is to Matthew 7:21-23, and those whom Christ commanded to depart from Him were obviously mere empty professors; “christians” in name only, tares among the wheat, reprobate, and therefore they were justly condemned by the Saviour of GOD’s elect. These people were never called by GOD; instead, they called themselves, i.e. they were mere “free-will" decisionists, unregenerate, mere religionists, and there are vast numbers of such people in today’s “churchianity.” Regards, Michael |