J
justbyfaith
Guest
So, there was never a time when the elect was not of the elect?
So, I take it that your answer is that you believe that there was never a time when the elect was not of the elect.God "decided", (to put it in human terminology), who to create "before", (again to use human terminology), creating time. To put it another way, for humans' temporal thinking, "God planned creation before creating." The elect were part of that plan. He did not make his choice subsequent to creation.
But I would urge you to consider Romans 9:25-26.
Here, there is a people who were not His people, who are now His people.
What? They were not predestined from before the foundations of the world (for they were not His people);?
They were not always His people?
It just goes to show that there was a moment in time wherein they crossed over from death unto life.
While those with a Calvinistic bias would reject the plain interpretation, I would say that Romans 10:9-13 tells us plainly that there are two or three things that we must do in order to procure salvation.
As soon as we do these things, we can know most assuredly that we are of the elect.
Acts 2:38-29 also sets forth a conditional promise; that if you fulfill the condition, you will receive the promise.
The promise: remission of sins and the gift of the Holy Ghost.
The condition: repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth for the remission of sins.
Simple.
An absolute promise that you can bank on.