What does scripture teach about election?

   First of all the Bible does teach the doctrine of election, it just doesn’t teach the man-made doctrine of unconditional election created by John Calvin, and popularized today by John Piper.

  God’s word warns us that Satan uses seducing spirits and doctrines of devils to decieve us.  This is not to say that John Calvin, or other men are devils, but that the doctrine that they have propogated has a lot of problems with it, and the devil has used this system to confuse millions over the centuries.

   Let us allow the Bible to tell us just who the elect are, and how they became elect, and just what election means, and not some YouTube site that switches from the Biblical doctrine of election to a man-made doctrine called unconditional election.

   First, lets look at the root word from which we get the word election, and that is the word elect. Where is the word elect first found in the scriptures?

   The hebrew word that is translated as elect is found thirteen times in the Old Testament, and only four of those times is it translated as elect in the whole Old Testament, the other nine times it is translated as the word choose (once) or chosen (eight times).

  All of the nine other times where the word choose or chosen was used, they are all used of Israel/Jacob as his servants, or of Saul, David and Moses also his servants. The word servant can also be found in those chapters linking the word elect to his servants. Elected to serve, not to salvation.

* See 2 Samuel 21:6, 1 Chronicles 16:13, Psalm 89:3, 105:6 & 43,  106:5 & 23, Isaiah 43:20 and 65:15.

m are in the later part of the book of Isaiah the prophet, which should make you wonder why doesn't it appear all the way back in Genesis, or at least somewhere in the first five books of Moses?

   The word itself only appears twenty times all together in the scriptures, and never does it even remotely refer to anyone being elected to salvation, to service yes, but never to salvation or condemnation.

The first mention of the word Elect:

Isaiah 42:1 Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.

  Isaiah is speaking prophetically about Jesus as God’s servant, and he calls him mine elect. People who are elected are elected to be servants as you shall see.

The second mention of the word Elect:

Isaiah 45:4 For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.

   Jacob has his name changed to Israel by God, and here he is called my servant, mine elect. So both Jesus and Israel are called his elect, they are elected to be his servants, not to be saved!

The third mention of the word Elect:

Isaiah 65:9 And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains: and mine elect shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there.

   Who will inherit God's mountains? Israel is God's elect that will inherit them and they are to be his servants in the kingdom.

The final mention of the word Elect in the OT:

Isaiah 65:22 They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.

    Again it is Israel, God’s servants mentioned in verse fourteen of this same chapter, in view here, not you and I.

Isaiah 65:14 Behold, my servants shall sing for joy of heart, but ye shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall howl for vexation of spirit. 

   Did you see the connection of the word elect, with the word servant? You should have. God has elected different people at different times to be his servants in the scriptures.

   God elected the nation of Israel to be his servants, but not all of them chose to be his servants. His Son is also called his elect, and his servant. This is not just a coincidence.

   So in the first thirty-nine books of scripture there is not one mention of the word election, and only four mentions of the the word elect, and none of them have anything to do with salvation whatsoever, only that the elect are to be God's servants. Hmmmm? Calvin didn't find the doctrine of election in the Old Testament.

     We have seen the word elect, and the words, choose and chosen used in the Old Testament, for Jesus, Moses, Saul and David and most often for the children of Israel.

   So why did God choose, or elect Israel? What was so special about them that caused God to choose them to be his servants? Nothing! Absolutely nothing.

   Abram was not selected to be the Father of the Jewish nation because his family was righteous, they were idol worshippers back in Ur of the Chaldees.

Joshua 24:2 And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods. 

   The book of Deuteronomy however does tell us why God chose Israel over all others:

Deuteronomy 7:6 For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth. 7 The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people: 8 But because the LORD loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 

   Notice verse six says that the LORD thy God hath chosen thee (the children of Israel) to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth. No mention is made anywhere in scripture that God saw any good in Abram which caused him to be chosen by God.

   God then goes out of his way to explain to Israel (something they quickly forgot) that it wasn't because they were a mighty nation, but because they were the fewest of all people, just one man, and one woman.

   They would have to leave all that they ever knew, and move to a strange land to possess it, not for themselves, and their own ambitions, but for God's eternal purpose.

   Israel will one day possess all the land it was promised in Genesis, and from that land the Messiah will rule and reign for a 1,000 years as king of kings, and Lord of Lords. For that reason, and that reason alone did God choose/elect the children of Israel to be his servants.

   When the chosen nation drifted away from their calling as a nation, God would chasten them to bring them back. Today, Israel is in unbelief, but once this dispensation of grace is ended.

   Israel will be chastened for the last time before entering into their promised kingdom. The were not chosen to salvation, but to service as the nation that Christ would one day rule with in his kingdom. Sadly, because of their sinfulness, they did not recognize their Messiah when he came the first time. 

What about Election in the New Testament?

   The word elect appears sixteen times in the New Testament, seven times in the gospels alone and they are all referring to Israel enduring the time of the tribulation period, as those who are to be God’s servants during that time to reach the world. 

Mark 13:20 And except that the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh should be saved: but for the elect's sake, whom he hath chosen, he hath shortened the days.

   The elect are those whom God hath chosen, pure and simple. Chosen for what? Elect for what? This verse is speaking about the elect of Israel, that will believe the gospel of the kingdom during the time of Jacob’s trouble, A.K.A. the tribulation period.

   The whole nation of Israel was elected, but only a remnant believed and God has elected those whom he had chosen (believing Israel) to rule with him in the kingdom, as a nation of priests.

Exodus 19:5 Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: 6 And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel. 

   The children of Israel that believed the gospel of the kingdom in Jesus' day, and the days of the twelve apostles to Israel, are chosen to serve as priests in that future kingdom, so will those that believe the gospel of the kingdom during the tribulation period.

Matthew 24:13  But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. 14  And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. 15 When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) 16 Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: 

   The kingdom will begin immediately following the time of Jacob’s trouble:

Jeremiah 30:7 Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it. 8 For it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD of hosts, that I will break his yoke from off thy neck, and will burst thy bonds, and strangers shall no more serve themselves of him: 9 But they shall serve the LORD their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up unto them. 10 Therefore fear thou not, O my servant Jacob, saith the LORD; neither be dismayed, O Israel: for, lo, I will save thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and shall be in rest, and be quiet, and none shall make him afraid. 11 For I am with thee, saith the LORD, to save thee: though I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee: but I will correct thee in measure, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished. 

   Because of the terrible circumstances happening at the end of the tribulation period God intervenes and shortens those days so that there are some elect of Israel that are still alive to go into the kingdom.

   The other elect children of Israel who have died will soon be resurrected into that kingdom and Israel will be born again as a nation in a day. Notice that the words serve and servant are used in regard to Israel his elect.

The Word Election:

   The word election appears six times in scripture, and none of them are in the Old Testament.  The word appears the first four times in Paul’s epistle to the Romans, and in a very unique place.

   They all appear in Romans nine through eleven, the three parenthetical chapters that deal with the nation of Israel’s fall, and subsequent blindness. What a coincidence.

   This fact should have given Calvin a clue as to whom those first four foundational verses were speaking about, because none of them were to him or to us in the body of Christ!

Romans 9:11 (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;)

   God elected believing Israel to be his servants. He did not call the elder Esau, but the younger Jacob to be his servants. Esau’s descendants will serve Jacob’s descendants in the kingdom.

Romans 11:5 Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.

  Paul is clearly talking about believing Jews here, but Calvinist make themselves “spiritual Jews” so Abracadabra, this verse is now talking about them.

Romans 11:7 What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded.

   This verse speaks of the Jews that believed Paul's gospel of grace, it cannot be the little flock of Luke 12:32 who believed Jesus was the Christ, also known as the remnant, they were not saved by grace through faith.

Romans 11:28 As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sakes.

  Unbelieving Israel are enemies of the gospel, while the elect (those Jews that believed Paul’s gospel of grace) are beloved for the father’s sake.

2 Peter 1:10 Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:

   You don’t hear this verse quoted as often as Romans 9:11, and I can see why, it refutes John Calvin and his follower’s teachings. Election is not synonymous with predestination.

   Paul only mentions the word elect five times in his thirteen epistles and the one in 2^nd Timothy is the only one that mentions salvation in the context of the elect.

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 elect in this verse or those in Israel that are elect to be God’s servants. Israel as a nation is elected to serve God. All of Israel was not saved at the time Paul wrote verse ten, and they are not all saved today.

   The elect in the Bible refer to Christ as God’s elect, Israel as God’s elect nation, the elect angels, and in second John it refers to the elect lady and the elect sister who are one and the same.

   In none of those references are the elect elected for salvation, they are however elected for service as God’s servants.

   Just what is it that Israel is elected to do as a nation? Many things! She was elected to be the nation by whom the Messiah would come, she was elected as the channel of blessing for the Gentile nations as salvation was through the Jews.

   She was elected to receive the oracles of God (the word of God), and lastly she is elected to be God’s servant nation in the kingdom as a royal priesthood, an holy nation.

   She will be a nation of priests in that future kingdom sent out to minister to the Gentiles, as promised in Exodus 19:5 & 6.

Exodus 19:5 Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: 6 And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.

   John Calvin in his "Institutes," Book III, chapter 23, says

"....Not all men are created with similar destiny but eternal life is foreordained for some, and eternal damnation for others. Every man, therefore, being created for one or the other of these ends, we say, he is predestined either to life or to death."

   So Calvinism teaches that it is God's own choice that some people are to be damned forever. They teach God never intended to save them, but foreordained them to go to hell.

   And when God offers salvation in scripture, they teach that God does not offer it to those who were foreordained to be damned. It is offered only to those who were foreordained to be saved.

   There is the scriptural doctrines of foreknowledge, predestination and election. Most knowledgeable Christians agree that God has his controlling hand on the affairs of men.

   They agree that according to scripture, God selects individuals like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David as instruments to do certain things that he has planned.

   Most Christians agree that God choose a nation, Israel, through which He gave the law, the prophets, and eventually through whom the Saviour himself would come, and that there is scriptural proof that God foreknows all things.

   God in his foreknowledge knows who will trust Christ as Saviour, and he has predestined to see that they are justified and glorified.

  God will keep all those who trust him, and see that they are glorified, but the doctrine that God elected some men to hell, that they were born to be damned by God's own choice, is a radical heresy not taught anywhere in scripture.

Don’t the words elect, and chosen mean the same thing?

    The word chosen is used 30 times and interestingly enough, it is only used in the “new testament”. Of those 30 times the Greek word Eklektos is used only seven times out of the thirty times so that tells you the words are synonymous, but they do not always have the exact same meaning, we must see the context to determine the meaning each time.

Ephesians 1:4, "He hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world" and if you stop there you only have a 1 by 2 instead of a 2 by 4 to build your house John Calvin. The entire verse reads: "According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love."

   The verse says nothing about being chosen for heaven or hell. It says we are chosen that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. Guess what? The entire verse reads

John 15:16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.

   The verse says nothing about being chosen for heaven or hell. It says they are chosen to go and bring forth fruit, which simply means that every believer is chosen to be a soul winner. The fruit of a believer is other believers.

Proverbs 11:30 says, "The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise."

   Nowhere does scripture teach that God wills for some to go to heaven, and wills others to go to hell. Scripture teaches that God would have all men to be saved.

Second Peter 3:9 He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

First Timothy 2:4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

John 3:36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

   The man who goes to heaven goes because he comes to Jesus Christ and trusts him as Saviour. And the man who goes to hell does so because he refuses to come to Jesus Christ and will not trust him as Saviour.

   Lastly, believing Israel is the Israel of God, not the church today. Israel alone is elect to be God’s servants on the earth in the kingdom, not you and I, we have a heavenly destiny that is brought out over and over again in our apostle’s epistles to the body of Christ.

   John Calvin was following instructions for Israel and their new testament and at the same time he was trying to mesh those instructions with the ones found in our epistles and they do not mesh because they are not meant to.

   Notice what Peter says to the Jews that were scattered among Gentile nations concerning “Their future”:

1 Peter 2:4 To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, 5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. 6 Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. 7 Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, 8 And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed. 9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:

   Peter is speaking to who he addresses his epistle to, and it is not you today in the body of Christ! Read the opening two verses.

   It is addressed to the children of Israel who were scattered among the nations. The very same people he made the same promise to in Exodus 19:5 & 6.

   You are not that nation, Israel was. You are not that royal priesthood, believing Israel was. You are the body of Christ!

1 Corinthians 1:21 For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.