ELECTION
<e-lek’-shun> ([ἐκλογή, ekloge], “choice,” “selection”):
THE WORD IN SCRIPTURE.
The word is absent from the Old Testament, where the related Hebrew verb ([בָּחַר, bachar]) is frequent. In the New Testament it occurs 6 times (Romans 9:11; 11:5, 7, 28; 1 Thessalonians 1:4; 2 Peter 1:10). In all these places it appears to denote an act of Divine selection taking effect upon human objects so as to bring them into special and saving relations with God: a selection such as to be at once a mysterious thing, transcending human analysis of its motives (so eminently in Romans 9:11), and such as to be knowable by its objects, who are (2 Pet) exhorted to “make it sure,” certain, a fact to consciousness. It is always (with one exception, Romans 9:11; see below) related to a community, and thus has close affinity with the Old Testament teachings upon the privileged position of Israel as the chosen, selected race (see under ELECT). The objects of election in the New Testament are, in effect, the Israel of God, the new, regenerate race called to special privilege and special service. From one point of view, that of the external marks of Christianity, they may thus be described as the Christian community in its widest sense, the sense in which the sacramental position and the real are prima facie assumed to coincide. But from 2 Peter it is manifest that much more than this has to be said if the incidence of the word present to the writer’s mind is to be rightly felt. It is assumed there that the Christian, baptized and a worshipper, may yet need to make “sure” his “calling and election” as a fact to his consciousness. This implies conditions in the “election” which far transcend the tests of sacred rite and external fellowship.
INCIDENCE UPON COMMUNITY AND INDIVIDUAL.
It is observable that the same characteristic, the inscrutable, the sovereign, is attached in the Old Testament to the “election” of a favored and privileged nation. Israel is repeatedly reminded (see e.g. Deuteronomy 7) that the Divine call and choice of them to be the people of God has no relation to their virtues, or to their strength. The reason lies out of sight, in the Divine mind. So too “the Israel of God” (Galatians 6:16) in the New Testament, the Christian community, “the new, peculiar race,” holds its great privileges by quite unmerited favor (e.g. Titus 3:5). And the nature of the case here leads, as it does not in the case of the natural Israel, to the thought of a Divine election of the individual, similarly inscrutable and sovereign. For the idea of the New Israel involves the thought that in every genuine member of it the provisions of the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31 f) are being fulfilled: the sins are remembered no more, and the law is written in the heart. The bearer of the Christian name, but not of the Christian spiritual standing and character, having “not the Spirit of Christ, is none of his” (Romans 8:9). The chosen community accordingly, not as it seems ab extra, but as it is in its essence, is a fellowship of individuals each of whom is an object of unmerited Divine favor, taking effect in the new life. And this involves the exercise of electing mercy. Compare e.g. 1 Peter 1:3. And consider Romans 11:4-7 (where observe the exceptional use of “the election,” meaning “the company of the elect”).
COGNATE AND ILLUSTRATIVE BIBLICAL LANGUAGE.
It is obvious that the aspects of mystery which gather round the word “election” are not confined to it alone. An important class of words, such as “calling,” “predestination” “foreknowledge,” “purpose,” “gift,” bears this same character; asserting or connoting, in appropriate contexts, the element of the inscrutable and sovereign in the action of the Divine will upon man, and particularly upon man’s will and affection toward God. And it will be felt by careful students of the Bible in its larger and more general teachings that one deep characteristic of the Book, which with all its boundless multiplicity is yet one, is to emphasize on the side of man everything that can humble, convict, reduce to worshipping silence (see for typical passages Job 40:3, 1; Romans 3:19), and on the side of God everything which can bring home to man the transcendence and sovereign claims of his almighty Maker. Not as unrelated utterances, but as part of a vast whole of view and teaching, occur such passages as Ephesians 2:8, 9 and Romans 11:33-36, and even the stern, or rather awestruck, phrases of Romans 9:20, 21, where the potter and the clay are used in illustration.
Orr, J., M.A., D.D. (1999). The International standard Bible encyclopedia : 1915 edition (J. Orr, Ed.). Albany, OR: Ages Software.
<e-lek’-shun> ([ἐκλογή, ekloge], “choice,” “selection”):
THE WORD IN SCRIPTURE.
The word is absent from the Old Testament, where the related Hebrew verb ([בָּחַר, bachar]) is frequent. In the New Testament it occurs 6 times (Romans 9:11; 11:5, 7, 28; 1 Thessalonians 1:4; 2 Peter 1:10). In all these places it appears to denote an act of Divine selection taking effect upon human objects so as to bring them into special and saving relations with God: a selection such as to be at once a mysterious thing, transcending human analysis of its motives (so eminently in Romans 9:11), and such as to be knowable by its objects, who are (2 Pet) exhorted to “make it sure,” certain, a fact to consciousness. It is always (with one exception, Romans 9:11; see below) related to a community, and thus has close affinity with the Old Testament teachings upon the privileged position of Israel as the chosen, selected race (see under ELECT). The objects of election in the New Testament are, in effect, the Israel of God, the new, regenerate race called to special privilege and special service. From one point of view, that of the external marks of Christianity, they may thus be described as the Christian community in its widest sense, the sense in which the sacramental position and the real are prima facie assumed to coincide. But from 2 Peter it is manifest that much more than this has to be said if the incidence of the word present to the writer’s mind is to be rightly felt. It is assumed there that the Christian, baptized and a worshipper, may yet need to make “sure” his “calling and election” as a fact to his consciousness. This implies conditions in the “election” which far transcend the tests of sacred rite and external fellowship.
INCIDENCE UPON COMMUNITY AND INDIVIDUAL.
It is observable that the same characteristic, the inscrutable, the sovereign, is attached in the Old Testament to the “election” of a favored and privileged nation. Israel is repeatedly reminded (see e.g. Deuteronomy 7) that the Divine call and choice of them to be the people of God has no relation to their virtues, or to their strength. The reason lies out of sight, in the Divine mind. So too “the Israel of God” (Galatians 6:16) in the New Testament, the Christian community, “the new, peculiar race,” holds its great privileges by quite unmerited favor (e.g. Titus 3:5). And the nature of the case here leads, as it does not in the case of the natural Israel, to the thought of a Divine election of the individual, similarly inscrutable and sovereign. For the idea of the New Israel involves the thought that in every genuine member of it the provisions of the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31 f) are being fulfilled: the sins are remembered no more, and the law is written in the heart. The bearer of the Christian name, but not of the Christian spiritual standing and character, having “not the Spirit of Christ, is none of his” (Romans 8:9). The chosen community accordingly, not as it seems ab extra, but as it is in its essence, is a fellowship of individuals each of whom is an object of unmerited Divine favor, taking effect in the new life. And this involves the exercise of electing mercy. Compare e.g. 1 Peter 1:3. And consider Romans 11:4-7 (where observe the exceptional use of “the election,” meaning “the company of the elect”).
COGNATE AND ILLUSTRATIVE BIBLICAL LANGUAGE.
It is obvious that the aspects of mystery which gather round the word “election” are not confined to it alone. An important class of words, such as “calling,” “predestination” “foreknowledge,” “purpose,” “gift,” bears this same character; asserting or connoting, in appropriate contexts, the element of the inscrutable and sovereign in the action of the Divine will upon man, and particularly upon man’s will and affection toward God. And it will be felt by careful students of the Bible in its larger and more general teachings that one deep characteristic of the Book, which with all its boundless multiplicity is yet one, is to emphasize on the side of man everything that can humble, convict, reduce to worshipping silence (see for typical passages Job 40:3, 1; Romans 3:19), and on the side of God everything which can bring home to man the transcendence and sovereign claims of his almighty Maker. Not as unrelated utterances, but as part of a vast whole of view and teaching, occur such passages as Ephesians 2:8, 9 and Romans 11:33-36, and even the stern, or rather awestruck, phrases of Romans 9:20, 21, where the potter and the clay are used in illustration.
Orr, J., M.A., D.D. (1999). The International standard Bible encyclopedia : 1915 edition (J. Orr, Ed.). Albany, OR: Ages Software.
I must have the gift of prophecy. I knew this would be your answer. Five pages of trying to get you to make a theological stand on the scripture that you're claiming doesn't say what it says. And you still run.