The New Covenant has begun and of course what happens at Pentecost is directly tied back to what Jesus did on the cross and his resurrection. In the Old Testament, prior to the New Covenant, the notion of being elect and being a believer in Yahweh, a follower of Yahweh are actually two separable classes. Now Israel was elect, but that was no guarantee that an Israelite would be saved, or would be a believer, or would be a follower in Yahweh. Is election and salvation synonyms? No, they’re not, they are related concepts, but they are not synonyms. Israel was elect, we see that very plainly in the Old Testament.
We have a lot of elect people who are called Israelites and a significant number of them, apostatize. They worship other gods, and that’s the reason there was an exile. Either you’re going to say that you have Baal worshippers in heaven, you could worship Baal and still be a believer, the story of the exile would suggest dramatically otherwise. Or you have to see election as something that is not synonymous with salvation. What’s going to happen here in the New Covenant is that no longer are you going to have elect and believer in Yahweh be two separable classes.
In the Old Testament, the people of God by definition, the children of Abraham, Israelites, they were elect. A follower, you had to join yourself to the nation of Israel, in effect become a Israelite. You had to be circumcised as a male. You had to go through various rituals, various acts to join the nation of Israel, because that’s how things were defined. The New Covenant people of God is a circumcision neutral body. The body of Christ, it doesn’t matter if you’re Jew or Gentile, all believers are people of God, and by definition, all believers are elect. The New Covenant period, you have an overlapping, the concept of election, someone who’s elect, and someone who is actually a believer in Yahweh. In the Old Testament, you didn’t have that.
We have a lot of elect people who are called Israelites and a significant number of them, apostatize. They worship other gods, and that’s the reason there was an exile. Either you’re going to say that you have Baal worshippers in heaven, you could worship Baal and still be a believer, the story of the exile would suggest dramatically otherwise. Or you have to see election as something that is not synonymous with salvation. What’s going to happen here in the New Covenant is that no longer are you going to have elect and believer in Yahweh be two separable classes.
The New Covenant people of God is a circumcision neutral body. The body of Christ, it doesn’t matter if you’re Jew or Gentile, all believers are people of God, and by definition, all believers are elect. The New Covenant period, you have an overlapping, the concept of election, someone who’s elect, and someone who is actually a believer in Yahweh. In the Old Testament, you didn’t have that. So Gentiles, if they believe in the Messiah, if they believe in Jesus, they inherit the Abrahamic covenant. So by definition, they are a believer and they are also elect.
We have a lot of elect people who are called Israelites and a significant number of them, apostatize. They worship other gods, and that’s the reason there was an exile. Either you’re going to say that you have Baal worshippers in heaven, you could worship Baal and still be a believer, the story of the exile would suggest dramatically otherwise. Or you have to see election as something that is not synonymous with salvation. What’s going to happen here in the New Covenant is that no longer are you going to have elect and believer in Yahweh be two separable classes.
In the Old Testament, the people of God by definition, the children of Abraham, Israelites, they were elect. A follower, you had to join yourself to the nation of Israel, in effect become a Israelite. You had to be circumcised as a male. You had to go through various rituals, various acts to join the nation of Israel, because that’s how things were defined. The New Covenant people of God is a circumcision neutral body. The body of Christ, it doesn’t matter if you’re Jew or Gentile, all believers are people of God, and by definition, all believers are elect. The New Covenant period, you have an overlapping, the concept of election, someone who’s elect, and someone who is actually a believer in Yahweh. In the Old Testament, you didn’t have that.
We have a lot of elect people who are called Israelites and a significant number of them, apostatize. They worship other gods, and that’s the reason there was an exile. Either you’re going to say that you have Baal worshippers in heaven, you could worship Baal and still be a believer, the story of the exile would suggest dramatically otherwise. Or you have to see election as something that is not synonymous with salvation. What’s going to happen here in the New Covenant is that no longer are you going to have elect and believer in Yahweh be two separable classes.
The New Covenant people of God is a circumcision neutral body. The body of Christ, it doesn’t matter if you’re Jew or Gentile, all believers are people of God, and by definition, all believers are elect. The New Covenant period, you have an overlapping, the concept of election, someone who’s elect, and someone who is actually a believer in Yahweh. In the Old Testament, you didn’t have that. So Gentiles, if they believe in the Messiah, if they believe in Jesus, they inherit the Abrahamic covenant. So by definition, they are a believer and they are also elect.
