About the attitude of the Lord God towards many called and little chosen ones, and also about the fact that love dies out from the diminution of communication. Chosen by God: a look at the doctrine of predestination Who are the chosen people from God
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TwitterSee, brethren, who you are called: not many of you are wise according to the flesh, not many strong, not many noble; but God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong; and God chose the lowly things of the world, and the lowly and meaningless things, to abolish the things that are significant, so that no flesh can boast before God.
First Epistle to the Corinthians 1:26-29.
The Apostle Paul said that Jesus Christ was despised by both Jews and Gentiles. However, the apostle argued, for him this was not a stumbling block, for what for others was folly, he considered wisdom, and rejoiced that the folly of God was wiser than people and that the weakness of God is more powerful than the strength of man. But in order that none of the Corinthians should stumble when they hear that the world despises Christ, the apostle shows what is the usual way of God's action: He chooses insignificant means to achieve his goals, and because of this all glory belongs to him. As an argument, Paul uses the fact of their election and calling: "Look, brethren," he says, "who are you who are called: not many of you are wise according to the flesh, not many strong, not many noble..." But God called the poor, the illiterate, the worthless, that He might be all in all, so that no flesh could boast before Him. It is clear to anyone who studies the Scriptures or observes the facts that God did not intend to make the gospel fashionable. He did not even think of gathering the elite of mankind, He had no plans to make a new people from high-ranking officials. On the contrary, God defied human greatness, He humiliated human pride and cut through the sword of His might the armorial shield of human glory. "I will bring down, I will lay down, I will lay down," the motto of the Lord of hosts sounds, and it will sound "until He Who belongs" and the Kingdom, and power, and glory forever and ever. The doctrine of election, like no other, humbles a person. That is why the apostle Paul remembers him: he wants the Corinthian believers to be content to follow a humble, contemptible, cross-bearing Savior, for grace has chosen a humble and contemptible people who cannot be ashamed to follow One who is so like them, who was despised and belittled among men.
Turning directly to the verses we have read, we will first turn our attention to the One who made the choice; secondly, to a seemingly strange election; thirdly, on the elect, and after that we will dwell on the reasons that were behind God's election: "... that no flesh should boast before God."
I. First, let us rise on the wings of thought and think about the One Who made the choice.
Some people are saved and some are not; it is an indisputable fact that some gain eternal life, and some continue on the path of sin until they end up in hell. What caused such a difference? Why does someone reach heaven? The reason why some perish in hell is sin and only sin; they do not want to repent, they do not want to believe in Christ, they do not want to turn to God, and therefore they perish voluntarily, they bring themselves to eternal death. But why are some saved? By whose will are they different from other people? Paul answers this question three times in these verses. He does not say: "man has chosen", but repeats three times: "God has chosen, God has chosen, God has chosen". The grace that is in man, the glory and eternal life that some achieve, are gifts of God's election and are not distributed by the will of man.
This will become clear to any sane person, as soon as he turns to the facts. Whenever we encounter election in the Old Testament, we see that it clearly comes from God. You can start from the most ancient times. The angels fell, the many shining spirits that surrounded the throne of God and sang His praises were deceived by Satan and sinned. The ancient serpent dragged away a third of the heavenly stars so that they disobeyed God and were condemned to eternal fetters and eternal fire. Man also sinned: Adam and Eve broke the covenant made between them and God and ate the fruit from the forbidden tree. Did God condemn them to eternal fire? No, by great mercy He whispered a promise in Eve's ear: "The seed of the woman will crush the serpent's head." Some people are saved, but not a single demon is saved. Why? Is the cause in man? Be quiet! It is empty boasting to say that a person has determined his fate, God Himself says: "... whom I will have mercy on, I will have mercy; whom I will pity, I will pity." Being an all-powerful God, the Lord essentially says: "I determine and decide that from the human race I will save a huge number of people that no one can count, and they will be vessels of mercy. And the angels who were my servants before, and now have become traitors to their Master, will perish without any hope of deliverance and will be an example of the power of My righteousness and the greatness of My justice." And it never occurred to anyone to challenge this decision of God. I have never heard even the most extreme Pelagian defend the devil. Origen apparently did teach that the universal law of mercy extended to the devil, but hardly anyone today takes this view. Here is a prime example of election: some people are saved, but all fallen angels will perish. How can such a difference be explained if not by the will of the Lord? Remembering the grace that mankind has received, we must say: "God has chosen." We can easily recall examples of how the will of God separated some people from others. In the time of the patriarchs, almost all people were pagans. But a few chosen by God worshiped the true God. The Lord decided to create a special nation that would have a revelation from God and keep the truth. He chose Abraham as the forefather of this people. Who chose whom: God's Abraham or Abraham's God? Did Abraham from birth have something that made him fit for the service of the Almighty? Scripture makes it clear that Abraham had nothing like it. On the contrary, he was a wandering, or rather, dying Aramean, and his family was no different from the others, his family, like everyone else, worshiped idols. However, he was called from the East, became by special will God's father believers. What was it about the Jews that could induce God to bless them with prophets, to teach them the true worship of God through sacrifices and other rites, while other peoples worshiped gods made of stone and wood? We can only say one thing: God did it. His mercy was directed to the people of Israel and to no other. Think of any example of Divine grace in Old Testament times. For example, God showed mercy to David. But did David himself choose the throne, separate himself from other people and make himself the chosen messenger of God for the Israelites? Or maybe the youngest son of Jesse had a clear advantage over his brothers? No, on the contrary, from a human point of view, his brothers were better suited. Even Samuel, when he saw Eliab, said: "True, this is His anointed before the Lord!" But God does not look like a man, and He chooses the blond David to be the king of Israel. And you can give other examples, but your memory will allow me not to waste words. All the events of the Old Testament show that God acts as He pleases, both among the heavenly host and among the inhabitants of the earth. He overthrows, and He elevates, He raises the poor from the dust, raises the poor from the dust, places him next to the nobles. God chooses, not man. “Therefore, mercy does not depend on the one who wills and not on the one who struggles, but on God who has mercy.”
Let's look at this question from the other side. If we think about who God is in relation to man, then it becomes clear to us that everything must be determined by His will. God is king for man. And won't the King do as he pleases? People can create a constitutional monarchy that limits the power of kings, and they are doing right when they strive for it. But if we could find the perfect man, then absolute monarchy would then be the best form of government. Either way, God has absolute power. He never violates justice, for He is holiness and truth itself, and considers His absolute power to be one of the most beautiful pearls in His crown. "I am the Lord, and there is none else." He does not give an account of His deeds to anyone. He gives one answer to all questions: “And who are you, man, that you argue with God? Will the product say to the one who made it: why did you make me like this? Doesn’t the potter have power over clay, so that from the same mixture he can make one vessel for honorable use, and another for low?” God is an absolute monarch, therefore His voice in everything, and even more so in the matter of salvation, is decisive. Let's imagine such a situation. Several criminals are imprisoned, and each of them is condemned to death. Their guilt is the same, so when they are led to their execution in the morning, no one will say that this is unfair. If pardon is possible for some criminals, then who will make the decision, are the criminals? Will they be given the right to decide the issue of pardon? For them, the abolition of the sentence is a great indulgence. But suppose they all rejected the pardon and, having heard the offer to be saved, refused to accept the forgiveness. If in this case, the highest mercy takes over their perverted mind and will and decides to save them anyway, then who will have the final choice? If the choice were given to criminals, they would all again choose death instead of life, so it makes no sense to leave the last word after them. In addition, it would look very strange if the issue of pardon was decided by the criminals themselves. No, of course, the king will determine who will be pardoned and who will suffer the deserved punishment. The fact that God is king and men are criminals requires that salvation be dependent on the will of God. And truly, it is better for us to leave everything to the will of God, and not to our own, because God is much kinder to us than we are to ourselves, He loves a person more than a person loves himself. God is justice, God is love, justice in all its majesty and love in all its unlimited power. Mercy and truth met and honored each other. And it is very good that the power to save is given into the hands of God.
Now we will look at a few examples that the Bible uses to describe how salvation happens, and I think you will understand that the final decision about salvation is left to God's will. Part of salvation is adoption. God adopts sinners who were children of wrath and makes them members of His family. Who has the authority in the matter of adoption? Children of anger? Of course not. But after all, all people by nature are children of anger! Common sense requires that no other than the parent himself make the decision to adopt. As a father, I have the right to accept or reject a person applying for adoption. Obviously, no person has the right to require me to adopt him, and can not, without my consent, declare that he is mine. adopted son. I repeat that common sense dictates that a parent should have the right to decide whether someone is adopted or not. So God decides Himself who will be His son and who will not.
The church is called the house of God. Who determines the architectural style of this building? Who decides what stones it will be built from? Do stones choose themselves? Did the stone in that corner choose its own place? Or did the one that lies closer to the foundation climb there on its own? No, the architect arranges the selected materials as he sees fit. So in the building of the Church, which is the house of God, the great Builder reserves the right to choose the stones and their location in the building.
Take an even clearer picture. The church is called the bride of Christ. Would any of you want someone to be forced on him as a bride against his will? There is not a single person among us who would give up his right to choose a life partner. So will Christ really leave the choice of His bride to the will of chance or the will of man? No, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Man of the Church, uses His rightful authority to choose His own bride.
In addition, we are members of the body of Christ. David says that "in your book are written all the days (in English translation"members". - Approx. The members of every human body were written in the book of God. So is the body of Christ an exception? Is it possible that the great Divine-human body of Jesus Christ, our Savior, will be created at the whim of free will, while other bodies, much less important, are created in accordance with what is written in the book of God?
It seems to me quite clear that the biblical images and examples teach that man's choice for salvation belongs to God. Doesn't this, dear friends, fit your experience? That is exactly what happened to me. Some people may hate the doctrine of election, many are foaming at the mouth trying to refute the sovereignty of God. But I must admit that this teaching touches a deep chord in my soul, so that it makes me cry even when nothing else can bring tears. Something inside me says, "He had to choose you, otherwise you would never have chosen Him." I have lived willfully in sin, I have continually strayed from the true path, I have delighted in iniquity, I have drunk evil as an ox drinks from a stream of water, and now I am saved by grace. How can I dare to attribute salvation to my own choice? Undoubtedly, I chose God voluntarily, but this was only due to the preliminary work that God did in my heart, changing it, for my unchanged heart was not able to choose God. Beloved, don't you notice that even now your thoughts are running away from God? If God's grace were taken away from you, what would happen to you? Are you not like a bent bow, the shape of which is held by a bowstring, but if it is cut, the bow will straighten? Isn't it the same with you? Would you not immediately return to your old sinful ways if God took away His mighty grace? Then you must understand that if even now, when you are regenerated, your corrupt nature does not want to make a choice in favor of God, then even more so you could not choose God when you did not have a new nature that would restrain and suppress the sinful nature. My Lord looks into your eyes, O people of God, and says: "You did not choose Me, but I chose you." And we feel how the answer is born in our souls: "Yes, Lord, we did not choose You in our natural sinful state, but You chose us, and let there be eternal honor and praise to Your free and sovereign choice."
II. May God give us a sense of the working of the Holy Spirit while we talk directly about election itself.
Here the Lord chooses people who will honor the cross of Christ. They will be redeemed with precious blood, and God will make them worthy, in a certain sense, of the great sacrifice of Jesus Christ. But look what a strange choice He makes. I reverently read the words: "... not many of you are wise according to the flesh, not many strong, not many noble..." If a person were given the right to choose, he would choose the wise and noble. “But God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong; and God chose the lowly of the world and the lowly and meaningless to abolish the meaningful…” If a man chose, he would pass by just such people. God made a very, very strange choice. I think that even in heaven, he will be the subject of eternal wonder. And if the apostle Paul had not revealed to us the reasons for such a choice, then we would simply be lost in conjecture why God, with divine contempt, passed by magnificent royal palaces and chose people of low origin and insignificant position in society.
This choice is strange in that it is the exact opposite of a choice a person would make. Man chooses those who are most useful to him, God chooses those for whom He can be most useful. We choose those who can thank us better than others, God often chooses those who most need His blessings. If I choose a friend, then one whose friendship would be useful to me; and this is the egoism of man. But God chooses as friends such people to whom He can render the greatest service by His friendship. God and man make choices quite differently. We choose the best because they deserve it. He chooses the worst because they are the least deserving of it, so that the election is a clear act of grace and not the result of human merit. Obviously, God chooses quite differently from man. A person chooses the most beautiful and beautiful, God, on the contrary, seeing the seal of filth on everything that is considered beautiful, does not choose this visible beauty, but stops His choice on those whom even people recognize as ugly, and makes them truly beautiful and beautiful. Strange choice! Is that what a man does, O God?
Note that this choice is also graceful in both your case and mine. This choice is gracious even in the way it excludes people. “Not a single wise man” is said, but “not many wise ones,” so that even great people are not deprived of the grace of God. The gospel is proclaimed to the nobles, in heaven we will meet those who on earth wore crowns. How blessed is the grace of gracious choice! She gives life to the weak and unreasonable. One might think that when God said to the king: "No," He did it so that no one would count on His mercy. After all, we usually say this: "We refused Mr. N, and he is much more important person than you, so I am all the more compelled to refuse you. You know, kings asked me for this service and got nothing, so do you really think that I will render this service to you?" But God thinks differently. He passes by the king in order to reach out to the beggar; He does not look at the noble in order to benefit a person of low birth; He turns away from philosophers to receive the ignorant. Oh, how strange, how amazing, how incredible! Let us praise Him for such wonderful grace!
What an encouragement this is to us! Many cannot boast of their pedigree. Many did not receive a good education. We are neither rich nor famous. But how merciful God is! He was pleased to choose precisely such ignorant, such contemptible, such worthless people as we are.
And, in order not to spend all this morning thinking about how strange the choice of God is, I will note that any Christian who thinks about his election will agree that God made the strangest choice that could be made.
III. Now we turn to the chosen ones themselves. Paul tells what they are and what they are not. Let's take a look at the second one first. Who are the chosen ones not? The apostle writes: "...there are not many of you who are wise according to the flesh..." Notice that it does not just say "not many wise", but "not many wise according to the flesh". God has chosen truly wise people, for He makes all His own wise, and He did not choose "the wise according to the flesh." The Greeks call such people philosophers. People who love wisdom, great scientists, mentors, encyclopedists, educated, insightful, infallible people... they look down on simple, illiterate people with contempt from above and call them fools, revere them as dust that can be trampled under foot, but of these wise men few are chosen by God. Strange, isn't it? But if the first twelve apostles had been philosophers or rabbis, people would have said, "No wonder the gospel has such power: the twelve wisest men of Greece were chosen to proclaim it." But instead, the Lord finds poor fishermen on the seashore (He could not meet more uneducated people) and calls them to follow Him. Fishermen become apostles, they spread the gospel, and the glory rests not on the apostles, but on the gospel. The wisdom of God passed by wise people.
Notice that the Apostle Paul writes further: "... there are not many strong ones..." The wise, it would seem, could make their way to heaven with their minds, but we seem to see them helplessly trying to find the latch on the gate that opens the way to heaven, at the same time, illiterate, simple people have already passed these gates. Blind wisdom stumbles in the darkness and, like the Magi, searches in vain for the baby in Jerusalem, while the poor shepherds immediately go to Bethlehem and find Christ.
Here is another group of great people! Strong people, fearless conquerors, monarchs, their imperial majesties, conquerors, Alexanders, Napoleons - are they not elected? After all, if a king becomes a Christian, he can force others to accept Christ with the sword. Why not choose him? "No," says Paul, "... not many strong ones..." And you can easily guess what the reason is. If the strong had been chosen, the people would have said: "It is clear why Christianity has become so widespread! The edge of the sword is a strong argument in favor of Christ, and the power of the monarch breaks not only the heart of man." We understand what explains the success of Islam in the first three centuries of its history. People like Ali and Khalifa were ready to destroy entire nations. They rode on horseback, waving scimitars over their heads, fearlessly rushing into battle. It wasn't until they ran into people like our Richard Coeur de Lion that they cooled off a bit. When the sword meets the sword, then the one who first took it in his hands dies. Christ did not choose soldiers. One of his disciples pulled out a sword, but the experiment was unsuccessful, since he could only injure the ear of a slave, and even then Christ healed by touch. After this incident, Peter did not enter the battle. So that the success of the Lord's conquests does not depend on strong people God doesn't choose them.
After that, Paul says: "... not many noble ones ...", - referring to people with a famous pedigree, in the genealogical tree of which there are princes and kings, in whose veins blue blood flows. "... not many noble ones" - for the noble ones would be said to have made the Gospel prestigious: "Is it any wonder that the Gospel has spread so much, because the count such and such and the duke such and such are Christians." But you see that there were very few such people in the church in the early years. The saints who gathered in the catacombs were poor and simple people. And it is very remarkable that among all the inscriptions found in the Roman catacombs, which were made by the first Christians, there is hardly one in which there would be no spelling errors. And this is strong evidence that they were made by poor, illiterate people who at that time were the defenders of the faith and the true keepers of the grace of God.
So we've talked about who the chosen ones are usually not: not many wise, not many strong, not many noble. Now let's see who the chosen ones are. And I want you to pay close attention to the words chosen by the apostle. He does not say that God has chosen ignorant people. No, he says differently: "...God chose the unwise...", as if those chosen by the Lord by their nature did not deserve to be called people, but more like soulless objects; the world treated them with such contempt that they were not said: "Who are these people?", but simply: "What is this?" In the Gospels, Christ is called "This" several times; "This one": "But we do not know where He comes from." Opponents did not even want to call Him a man. They seemed to be saying: "The same, m.., call it an animal or a thing, we don't know..." God has chosen people whom the world considers uneducated, ignorant, stupid fools who can be led by the nose and forced to believe in anything. But God has chosen the "unwise", which is the very embodiment of stupidity.
Further, God also chose "the weak of the world." "And who," said Caesar in the throne room, if he at all honored this subject with his attention, "is this King Jesus? A miserable tramp, hung on a cross! Who is it preaching it there? Poor fishermen who cannot even scrape together a talent of gold in all their purses combined! What kind of Paul is this, who so fiercely defends Christ? A craftsman! He makes tents! And who are his followers? met him on the banks of the river! Paul is a philosopher? What are you talking about? He was ridiculed on the Hill of Mars. Undoubtedly, Caesar considered them insignificant people, not deserving of his attention. But God has chosen "the weak of the world."
Notice that Paul also refers to the elect as "the lowly things of the world." This means that they did not have noble families. Their father is nobody and their mother is nothing. Such were the ancient apostles, they were not noble in this world, but still God chose them.
And, as if that weren't enough, Paul adds that God has chosen the lowly. The chosen ones were mocked, they were persecuted, they were hunted, sometimes, not taking them seriously, they treated them with complete indifference: "Is it worth paying attention to them? Poor fools! Don't touch them, leave them alone." But God chose them. Zeros and nothingness. "Oh yes," says the man of the world, "I have heard that there is such a group of fanatics." "Yes? I haven't even heard of them," says another. "I've never had anything to do with such low-grade people." "Do they have a bishop or an infallible pope?" someone asked. "No, sir, there are no such noble people among them, they are all humble ignoramuses, therefore the world rejects them." "But," says God, "I chose them." These are the people God chooses. And note that the situation has not changed from the time of the apostle Paul to the present day, for the Bible does not change over time. And in the year 1864, as in the year 64, God still chooses the weak and the humble as He always did. God will yet show the world that those who are laughed at, who are called fanatics, lunatics and criminals, are His chosen ones, who will yet become the head of a whole army of the chosen ones and win victory for God on the last day. And we are not ashamed to boast that God chooses the weak and lowly. And we stand side by side with God's contemptible people in the hope of becoming partakers of His electing grace.
IV. In conclusion, let us turn to the reasons why God chose these people. Paul points us to two reasons - immediate and main.
The first, immediate reason is contained in the following words: "...God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong; and God chose the ignorant of the world, and the lowly and meaningless, to abolish the signifier ...".
So, the immediate reason for such a seemingly strange election is to shame the wise. When the wise put the wise to shame, that is one thing; It is also easy for a wise man to put a fool to shame; but when the foolish prevails over the wise, behold indeed the finger of God! You remember what happened to the first apostles. The philosopher listened to the apostle Paul and said: "There is nothing interesting in this! It's just some kind of stupidity! Fables - from beginning to end! We should not waste energy to answer this." Years passed, this philosopher turned gray, and the Christian "heresy" not only did not die, but, like an epidemic, spread quite widely. His daughter was converted, even his wife secretly began to leave in the evenings for meetings of Christians. The philosopher is at a loss as to what is happening. “I,” he says, “already clearly proved that Christianity is stupid, but people accept it. I refuted all their arguments, didn’t I? Sometimes this philosopher, with tears in his eyes, mutters: "I feel in my heart that it has overcome and confounded me. I invented syllogism after syllogism, I defeated pathetic Paul, but Paul defeated me. What I considered foolishness has confounded my wisdom." A few centuries after the death of Christ, the Christian faith spread throughout the civilized world, while paganism, supported by all the philosophers of the West and East, fell into decline and became the subject of ridicule. God chose the weak to shame the strong. "Oh, - exclaimed Caesar, - we will eradicate Christianity, and together with it we will destroy those who defend it!" Different rulers killed the disciples of Jesus one by one, but the more they persecuted them, the more they became. Proconsuls were given orders to destroy Christians, but the more they persecuted them, the more there were, until, finally, people themselves began to come to the persecutors with a request to die for Christ. Those in power invented sophisticated tortures, tied believers to wild horses, laid them on red-hot grates, skinned them from the living, sawed them into pieces, put them on stakes, smearing them with tar, and turned them into torches to illuminate the gardens of Nero. They were rotten in the dungeons, used for spectacles in the amphitheaters, bears strangled them to death, lions tore them to pieces, wild bulls raised them on their horns, but Christianity spread. All the swords of the legionnaires who defeated the armies of all peoples, conquered the invincible Gauls and the ferocious Britons, could not resist the weakness of Christianity, for the weakness of God is stronger than the power of man. If God had chosen strong men, they would have said, "God owes success to us"; if He chose the wise, they would say, "It's all about our wisdom." But when God chooses the unwise and the weak, what can you, a philosopher, say? Did God laugh at you? Where are you, spear and sword? Where are you strong? God's weakness has crushed you.
Paul also writes that God chose the insignificant in order to abolish the significant. To abolish is even more than to shame. "Meaningful". What was significant in the days of the apostle? Jupiter sat on an exalted throne, holding thunder in his hands. Saturn was revered as the father of the gods, Venus rewarded her followers with lustful pleasures, the beautiful Diana blew her horn. But then Paul appears and says that there is no God but the one God and Jesus Christ, sent by Him. He speaks of the "insignificant". Christian "heresy" was in such contempt that if a catalog of religions had been compiled at that time different countries, Christianity would not have got into it. But where is Jupiter now? Where is Saturn? Where is Venus and Diana? Their names exist only in thick dictionaries. Who now worships Ceres at harvest time? Who offers a prayer to Neptune during a storm? They've all disappeared! The meaningless has destroyed the meaning.
Let's consider that the truth has not changed since the time of Paul. The year one thousand eight hundred and sixty-four will see the repetition of the ancient miracles: the significant will be abolished by the insignificant. Remember the days of Wycliffe. Then wooden crosses in churches were significant. All the inhabitants of Britain worshiped Saint Winifred and Saint Thomas of Canterbury. Here is the lord archbishop walking down the street being worshipped. The Pope is worshiped by thousands, the Virgin Mary is worshiped by all without exception. And what do I see? A lone monk in Lutterworth begins to preach against the mendicant beggar monks, and while preaching against them, he unexpectedly discovers the truth and begins to proclaim Christ as the only way of salvation, claiming that everyone who believes in Him will be saved. At first, the efforts of this man looked so ridiculous that he was not even pursued. True, he had to answer to His Eminence, but the courageous man John o' Gaunt came to his aid, who put in a good word for him, and although Wycliffe was condemned, he was allowed to return to his parish in Lutterworth. ifred? Ask the Pouseites, for they are the only ones who remember them. They communicate with moles and bats, so they know where the idols were thrown, they try to bring back the superstitions of the past, but by the grace of God they will not succeed so easily. Modern system English superstitions with its teaching about the life-giving water of baptism, confirmation and the transmission of grace through bread and wine will be abolished under the influence of the insignificant. Truth revealed in Jesus; the belief that there are no priests who are higher than ordinary Christians, that all believers are priests of God, pure truth; the simple truth that water does not oblige the Holy Spirit to regenerate man, that outward forms and rites have no power in themselves without the faith of those who take part in them, all this will nullify, with the help of the Holy Spirit, that which is significant. We rely on the power of God. I wouldn't want the warriors of God to be stronger. If they were stronger, brothers, they would win glory. Let them be weak, let them be few, let them be despised by people. Their paucity, poverty, and infirmity will make louder the cries of greeting and glorification of the eternal Conqueror and inspire the song: "Not to us, Lord, not to us, but to Your name give glory, for the sake of Your mercy, for the sake of Your truth."
Is this the immediate purpose of choosing the unwise, the weak, the insignificant? God wants to shame the wise and the strong. But His ultimate goal is something else: "...that no flesh should boast before God." I bring to your attention this last thought, and we will conclude. Paul doesn't say "...that no man..." No, he doesn't intend to flatter anyone, so he says "no flesh." What a word! What a word, I repeat! Solon and Socrates are wise people. God points his finger at them and says, "Flesh." Flesh is sold in meat markets, isn't it? It is torn with the teeth of dogs and eaten by worms. Flesh - and nothing more. Here stands Caesar in a royal purple robe, he stands proudly and confidently, a mighty emperor, and the soldiers of the praetorium draw their swords and shout: "Great emperor! Long live the great emperor!" "Flesh," says God, and repeats, "Flesh." Here are the warriors minting a step, hundreds in one row, the mighty legionnaires of Rome. Who can stand in their way? "Flesh," Scripture says of them, "flesh." Here are people whose fathers come from the royal family, they can trace back a long line of their noble ancestors. "Flesh," says God, "flesh, and nothing else." Food for dogs and worms. "...Let no flesh boast before God." You see that God puts on each of us the seal that you are only flesh, and He chooses the weakest flesh, the most unwise, the poorest flesh, so that any other flesh may see God's contempt for it and His will, so that no flesh can boast before Him.
Do you reject this teaching? Are you saying you can't hear about being elected? I think you want to brag a little before God. God sees things differently than you, so you need a new heart and a right spirit.
But, perhaps, on the contrary, today someone will say: "I have nothing to boast about, I will not boast before You, but I will cast myself into the dust and say:" Do to me as You please "". Sinner, do you feel that you are flesh, just sinful flesh? Have you humbled yourself before God so much that you feel that no matter what He does to you, He will be right? Do you realize that you can only trust in His mercy? If yes, then you are one with God, you are reconciled to Him. I see that you are reconciled, for when you agree with God that He should rule, then He agrees with you that you should live. Sinner, touch the scepter of His grace. The crucified Jesus now stands before you and calls you to turn to Him and gain life. That you hear the call to convert is a manifestation of grace and a manifestation of the greatest love. You can turn and you will have to praise the Lord for it forever. And may God bless you, Whose name I have sought to magnify today with my feeble words. In the name of Christ. Amen.
Now I am sitting in my chair where I pray every morning, writing you a letter and thinking about all those people who support us with prayers and finances. I just prayed for you, and now I'm thinking about a question I was asked recently; It is about this question and the answer to it that I want to talk to you today.
I was recently asked, "How does God choose the people He wants to work through?" This is an important question that you should ask yourself if you want God to choose you. If you look closely at God's chosen ones doing something significant, you will understand that God does not choose people according to their talents and abilities. And if so, there must be another reason for Him to lay His hand on man in order to engage him in a special way.
WHAT IS THE REASON?
There are several answers to this question. There are certain qualities by which God chooses people, and you need to know these qualities.FAITHFUL, RELIABLE, WORTHY OF TRUST
One of the answers to this question is given by the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 4:2. He states this here so categorically that it appears to be at the top of God's list of requirements for those who will be chosen to do His work. Here is what he wrote:I want to draw your attention to the word "faithful". The Greek word pistos, "faithful," is derived from the Greek pistis, "faith." However, in 1 Corinthians 4:2 the word pistos does not mean "faith", but "fidelity". It characterizes a person whom God considered faithful, reliable, trustworthy, unshakable.
GOD WATCHES US CAREFULLY
How does God determine whether a person is faithful, dependable, trustworthy, unshakable? Paul answers this question in the same verse: “It is required of stewards that every one should be faithful.”The Greek word eurisko, to appear, means to find, to discover. It is important to note that the meaning of the word eurisko implies a discovery made through careful observation.
The meaning of the word eurisko tells us that God is watching us closely, our actions and reactions. He watches how we treat people, how we respond to pressure, whether we have enough perseverance to stay on the right track when there are so many distractions around us, the purpose of which is to make us disobey God. Before approvingly patting us on the back and entrusting us with some new important task, He will look at how well we did on His previous assignment. Is it done the way He expected? Did we finish it completely or did some part remain unfinished? And have we fulfilled it in such a way as to glorify the name of Jesus?
CHARACTER AND ACTION - THIS IS IMPORTANT!
If you were God and were looking for a person through whom you could act in a powerful way, then would you not look first of all at his character and actions to make sure: you can entrust an important task to him? Even the employer carefully monitors employees to understand which of them deserves a promotion.BEFORE YOU TRUST MORE...
If you were an employer, before you promote a person and give him more responsibility, would you not watch him to see if he proves to be faithful? If people do this when they are looking for a person who can be entrusted with the execution, albeit important, but still temporary, from the point of view of eternal life responsibilities, the more God will do it when choosing people to whom He can entrust a mission, the fulfillment of which will affect where people will spend eternity. There is nothing more serious than fate in eternity, which is why God, before entrusting someone with important spiritual works, will watch him to see if this person will prove to be faithful.GOD WATCHES AND... FOR YOU!
God wants to know if we are faithful, trustworthy, reliable, unshakable. He is not ignorant and has no illusions about us, He watches us carefully and then decides. This means that God is watching over you too. He watches your actions and reactions. He observes how you treat people and how you behave when under pressure. He is looking to see if you have the tenacity to keep moving forward, no matter the difficulties.First Corinthians 4:2 leaves no doubt about how important to God such quality of ours as fidelity is. The word “turned out” strongly indicates that God watches over us over a long period of time to see how we behave in certain circumstances, whether we are faithful, whether we can be relied upon, whether we are trustworthy, how reliable and unshakable we are.
Today I want to ask you a question: “And how did God find you?”
GOD IS LOOKING FOR THE FAITHFUL!
Having realized from observing a person that he can be trusted, God, as a rule, soon entrusts him with a task. The Greek word used in the above verse, zeteo, to be required, means to seek, seek, look very carefully. This word was a legal term for judicial investigation, and it could also refer to scientific research. It describes an intense, thorough search. The verse can be paraphrased as: "God is conducting a thorough, all-encompassing, thorough search to find a steward who will prove faithful."VALUABLE FIND
This means that people who have the qualities that God wants to see in them in order to use them in the accomplishment of His purposes are not found at every turn. Faithful, reliable, trustworthy, unshakable people are so rare that God has to make a careful, thorough search to find them. And when, as a result of observing the believer, God comes to the conclusion that he really strives to do His will, and in the best possible way, He realizes that he has made a valuable discovery. He found a faithful person whom he can rely on and entrust him with an important task.A REAL TREASURE!
WHAT CAN GOD SAY ABOUT YOUR LOYALTY?
Looking at you, what can God say about your faithfulness? I urge you to do everything possible so that He can easily say: “This man is a real treasure. I can entrust him with the execution of an important assignment.” And don't let Him say, "Not yet," because you refused to make the necessary changes.
As God watches over us, we need to take a look at ourselves to understand what He sees when He looks at our actions, how we keep our promises, and how obedient we are to Him and His Word. Will God say that he can trust us, or would it be wise for Him to choose someone else?
THE DOOR TO YOUR VOCATION
If you want to move to a higher spiritual level - more responsible, but at the same time more interesting and exciting, and it is at this level that God can give a more important task - then do everything possible to be faithful! If God sees your faithfulness, then soon a door will open before you, entering which you will be able to fulfill what He has called you to.DO YOU HAVE A JOB RIGHT NOW?
Today I want to ask you:
What assignment did God give you? Perhaps this assignment is related to work or relationships, an assignment to solve some personal problems? Can you now name the most important commission given to you by God - the one over the fulfillment of which He watches most closely? If you don't know what God wants you to do now, ask Him to help you understand what your task is and do it in the best possible way so that He can entrust something more substantial to you. Determine and even commit yourself to do everything in your power so that God will find you faithful in doing His will - in carrying out the simple task that He has given you - so that He can then entrust you with a more important task.GOD IS ALWAYS AVAILABLE!
God is interested in how you perform the tasks assigned to you. He stands by your side to help you, encourage you, and strengthen you where you are weak, so that you can be faithful and able to complete His next assignment with full dedication.GOD CALLS US TO RISE HIGHER
Do you think God finds you faithful in doing His will, from the simple tasks assigned to you to the important task of fulfilling your calling? I hope this letter was interesting and useful for you. This letter encouraged me to be even more obedient to God and serve Him even better. It became a test for me too, because I always try to do everything that the Lord tells me. Right now He is calling me to rise higher. I know it. What is God calling you to? I am convinced that you will be faithful and take up the fulfillment of God-given tasks with renewed vigor and perform them to the best of your ability.
THANK YOU!
Thank you for your prayerful and financial support for the ministry of our church. Not a day goes by that Denise and I don't thank God for all of you and pray that He will take you higher and give you the very best. It is a great honor for us to pray for you and watch with you how God's will is carried out in your life.
INTERNET CHURCH
In our Internet church, on the website () you have the opportunity to watch broadcasts of worship services in real time, "Home Groups Online" on Mondays. The Internet Church is a great opportunity to reach out to as many precious hearts as possible. Invite your friends and acquaintances and, if possible, join us yourself.
The issue of predestination and free will has long been discussed in the body of Christ. Many believe that God has already chosen those who will be saved, and that no one will be saved except for these people. According to this view, the essence of salvation no longer lies in the fact that a person by faith accepts the gospel proclaimed to him. Of course, he must hear and believe, but he can do this only because God "predestined" or "chosen" him to be saved. Without such "election" or "predestination" from above - in the sense of preferring one person to another, not chosen - this person could not be saved. Therefore, God alone decides ultimately who will be saved and whom He, according to this teaching, "predestined", i.e. chosen for salvation. Those whom God has chosen will be saved, but those whom He has not chosen (in other words, those whom He has denied salvation) will not be saved. Such an explanation is, of course, very convenient, since it places all responsibility in the process of salvation on God, who, according to this doctrine, "already preselected those who must be saved." And if you're reluctant to preach His Word to others... that's okay! God knows this, and if a person is destined to be saved anyway, He does not have to bring him to you. In the end, all who need to be saved will be saved... by God's will. Personally, I think that, despite all its seeming convenience, it is also a very wrong and dangerous teaching. I also think that the fact that many believers are passive about the gospel is, at least in part, to blame for it. Christians simply lose the sense of responsibility for spreading the gospel, because, according to the doctrine of predestination, in the end, all who are destined to be saved will be saved. I strongly disagree with this view of things. I believe that the Bible teaches us that God gave His Son for ALL people, which means that He decided to give salvation to everyone. Therefore, the view that God preferred some over others in the matter of salvation cannot be correct.
Salvation: God's Plan for Everyone
To understand what God wants when it comes to salvation, let's start with 1 Timothy 2:4. This verse says:
1 Timothy 2:4
“... to our Savior God, who wants, for all people to be saved and have come to know the truth."
Whose salvation does God want? What is His will regarding salvation? What does he want, what does he want? As the passage says, He wants, wants all people to be saved! “All people” means EVERYTHING. He did not prefer some people over others, giving His Son only for the elect. But He gave His Son for all people, for everyone living on Earth, and He wants everyone on Earth to be saved! This is His will, desire and election. In the same epistle, in verses 5 and 6 we read:
1 Timothy 2:5-6
“For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who betrayed himself FOR THE REDemption of ALL. [Such was] the testimony in its time.”
How many people did Jesus Christ give Himself up to redeem? Not for the redemption of some, but for the redemption of ALL, brothers and sisters. Jesus Christ paid for everyone, and that was precisely His purpose - that everyone could taste salvation. And if so, then wouldn't it be a contradiction to say that God chose only some of these all for whom He gave His Son, and did not choose (and therefore rejected) the rest? Imagine that you went to a prison, each prisoner of which is very dear to you personally. Imagine that, out of love for these prisoners, you paid the highest price you could—for God, that price was His Son—for their release. How many of them would you like to see free after that? I think EVERYONE. Now imagine that some of those who were released decided to stay in prison. How would you feel if you heard about it? Perhaps you would be very sad? After all, you paid the highest price! You want their freedom! Personally, I would be very upset to learn that they chose prison over freedom, and I think God feels the same way. He gave His Son, the most precious thing for Him as a ransom for all of us, and, imagine, He really wants everyone to take advantage of this right to freedom. He wants to free everyone "...from the power of darkness" and bring us all "into the kingdom of his beloved Son" (Colossians 1:13).
The oft-quoted famous passage of John 3:16 says:
John 3:16-18
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, so that EVERYONE who believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world, to judge the world, but that the WORLD might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged, but the unbeliever is already condemned, because he did not believe in the name of the Only Begotten Son of God.
God loved the WHOLE WORLD (in our analogy with the prisoners, this would mean: He loved ALL the prisoners, not just some) and for the whole world, for EVERYONE, He gave His Son. For what? "THAT THE WORLD WILL BE SAVE THROUGH HIM." In giving His Son to die, God did not intend to do it just for a few, He did it for all mankind! He wanted to release not a group of individual prisoners, but absolutely ALL. God desires the salvation of all people because His ransom was paid for all. There is not a single person on Earth whom God would have determined to perish in eternity.
What do the verses about the elect mean in the Bible?
To be chosen means to become the object of someone's choice, i.e. when someone chooses you. As we have read in the above passages, God expresses His will that all people be saved, and for this purpose He paid for us with the life of His Son. So, if God wants everyone to be saved, then His choice includes all of us in His saving will. And if this is His choice, His will, then what are we all in relation to His salvation? SELECTED. In other words, when we read in the Bible that we are elected, we should not perceive this as being elected to the detriment of others who are supposedly not elected. ALL are chosen to be saved, as this is God's choice, decision, for each person (although obviously not everyone will accept His offer). When the Bible speaks of us as the elect, it means being elected unto salvation. Salvation is God's choice, His will for everyone, and therefore, in relation to salvation, everyone is chosen by Him. However, not everyone will agree to accept His choice, and those who refuse will eventually perish. The reason for their death is not that God did not choose them for salvation, but that they rejected God's election. Just as the reason for our salvation is not that God chose us over others not chosen by Him for salvation, but in the fact that we agreed to accept God's election offered to us and to the whole world. Salvation is a matter of faith. The question is not whether God chooses people, but whether people choose God. As for God, there is no doubt: He chose ALL people to be saved, and for this he gave His Son. Let's go back to Scripture:
Acts 10:43
"...everyone who believes in Him will receive the remission of sins in His name."
Romans 9:33, 10:11
"... everyone who believes in Him will not be put to shame."
1 John 5:1
"Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God."
John 11:26
"And everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die."
John 3:16
"... so that everyone who believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life."
John 12:46-48
“... so that everyone who believes in Me does not remain in darkness. And if anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him, for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. He who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge for himself: the word that I spoke, it will judge him on the last day.
Note the repetition of the word "everyone" in all these passages. EVERYONE - that means anyone, whoever he is - will be saved or not saved, depending on whether he believed or not. He who believes will be saved, because this is God's election, God's will for him. He who does not believe will not be saved, and the reason for this will not be God's election, but his own choice. Everything is very simple.
To summarize, there are two kinds of election. One kind is the preference of one person over another, in other words: "I choose you, not him." In this sense, and according to this doctrine of election, God has chosen us and rejected others. He predestined us Christians to be saved, but not everyone else. According to this understanding, all the rest are not elected. Can such a doctrine be true? No, because, based on the above passages of Scripture, we can argue that God's choice and will for salvation apply to everyone, because it was for this purpose - to save everyone - that He gave His Son. Therefore, under the election and predestination, which is spoken of in Ephesians 1: 4-5: "... because He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him in love, having predestined us to be sons to Himself through Jesus Christ ...", is not meant to be chosen by God to the detriment of others, the unchosen, but our election to be saved. This very election—to salvation—God made in relation to everyone, giving His Son for us. As in our prisoner example, the choice was for everyone to go free. Would it be fair to say to the freed prisoners who accepted my ransom: “You were chosen to be free”, “I predetermined your fate”, “My choice fell on you”? Yes, definitely. However, given that my decision to pay a ransom extends to those who chose to remain in prison, by telling a prisoner “you are chosen,” I by no means mean that I preferred him to another who rejected my ransom. The one, the other, is chosen by me for liberation in the same way. God did choose us, but His election is not PREFER one over the other. God does not select the most privileged from the general mass in order to save only them. If it were, He would be partial, but He is NOT:
Acts 10:34
"God is not partial."
On the contrary, God is open to everyone who seeks Him, and even Himself seeks those who strive for Him in order to reveal Himself to them:
Psalm 14:2
“The Lord has looked down from heaven on the sons of men, to see if there is anyone who understands and seeks God.”
And Deuteronomy 4:29
“But when you seek the Lord your God there, you will find [Him] if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.”
If a person seeks God and sincerely asks Him to reveal himself to him with all his heart, God will surely answer his prayer. He will draw that person to him. In the same way, He will answer the prayer of anyone who calls on Him. God is looking for those who seek Him, and those who seek Him with all their hearts will find Him. This does not happen occasionally to randomly selected people, it is a PRINCIPLE established God's Word. If a person cries out to God with his heart, God will surely answer him and draw him to Himself. It is in the light of this principle that we must understand what is written in the Gospel of John:
John 6:44
"No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him."
Many people interpret this passage as follows: “You see, everything is in the hands of God. If God wants, he will draw a person to himself. And if He does not need him, then He will not attract him. But this interpretation of this passage of the Bible makes God partial and misses the fact that Jesus died for EVERYONE so that EVERYONE would be saved. God does not select someone in particular to draw to Himself, but reveals Himself to everyone who seeks Him. This is a spiritual law, established by Himself. In the next section, we will take a closer look at this issue.
Salvation: What Depends on God and What Depends on Us
Undoubtedly, in our salvation the main role is assigned to God, but God provides responsibility and a certain role on our part. 2 Corinthians 5:18-21 clearly states what our responsibility is in the process of reconciliation between man and God:
2 Corinthians 5:18-21
“All this is from God, who through Jesus Christ reconciled us to Himself and who gave us the ministry of reconciliation because God in Christ reconciled the world to Himself, not imputing [people] their transgressions, and gave us the word of reconciliation. So WE are messengers for Christ and as if God Himself admonishes through us; in the name of Christ we ask: be reconciled to God. For he made him who knew no sin for us [offering for] sin, that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
By giving His Son for us, God reconciled mankind to Himself. In other words, from now on the path to God is open. Going back to the prisoner example, we can say that the prison doors are no longer locked! But the prisoners are blind and do not see this. They are blinded by "the god of this world" (2 Corinthians 4:4), the devil, and do not see the way of salvation open to them. They need a messenger who will say: “The way to God is open! Reconcile yourself with God, for He made Him who knew no sin a sin offering for us, so that in Him we might become righteous before God!” In this proclamation of the saving message to people, in calling them to the Lord, lies the ministry of reconciliation. And who is entrusted with this ministry? The answer is simple: US. We are responsible for their hearing, we are the messengers of Christ. If you address a foreign power, you do it through the embassy, through the plenipotentiaries of this power in your country - ambassadors (i.e. envoys). And we are the messengers of God. God opened the prison doors and opened the way for us to Himself. He reconciled the world to Himself by giving His Son. And now we, the once blind prisoners, having been freed, must proclaim to those who are still blind and imprisoned: "Come to God, the way is free!"
1 Corinthians 3:5-6 goes into more detail about our responsibilities:
1 Corinthians 3:5-6
“Who is Pavel? who is Apollos? They are only ministers through whom you believed, and moreover, as the Lord has given to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.”
Pay attention to the distribution of responsibilities. God the most important role is to nurture. However, someone has to plant the seed first and someone has to water. And this “someone” is no longer God, but we! This is the duty of ministers, but not of church clergy, but of us who carry out the ministry of reconciliation. This passage does not say, "God planted, God watered, God gave increase." Part of the ministry was done by people whom God called to do so. People who proclaimed to others: “Here is God, be reconciled to Him!”. And if those who heard the call answered it, God in turn drew near to them and drew them closer to Himself. Some people, like Apollos, watered the seed sown in people's hearts, explaining to them the Word of God and instructing them in biblical truths. Notice also the emphasis I have made on "through whom" ("through whom you believed"). These words speak of the role of Paul and Apollos assigned to them by God in the ministry of reconciliation, of the role of mediators, peacemakers, messengers of Christ, of the role of those who sow and water. It was through them that other people came to faith. But imagine what would happen if we said to a person: “God will reveal himself to you,” and God would not do this. Could this person enter into a union of faith with God? No, as much as he wanted it, it would be impossible. However, God really reveals Himself to the seekers, goes towards them and draws them to Himself. Therefore, the words from the Gospel of John: "... no one can come to the Father unless the Father draws him to Himself" are absolutely true, i.e., without actions on the part of God, without His cultivation, we can plant and water as much as we like - and everything will be in vain. But God really reveals Himself to the seeker, He draws him to Himself and nurtures him. The only question is, will we fulfill the ministry of reconciliation entrusted to us, planting and watering, will we be faithful to the commandment to “go into ALL the world and preach the gospel to EVERY creature” (Mark 16:15)? The responsibility for these actions does not lie with God - all this He commanded us to do.
Conclusion
So, dear brothers and sisters, to sum up: the doctrine that God allegedly chooses some to save them, and does not choose others, is very convenient, and yet false. God's election, His will, is that all be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. If this election concerns everyone, then who are these “everyone”? Favorites! Ultimately, whether a person is saved or not depends on whether he believes or not. If he believes, he will be saved; if he rejects God, he will not be saved. Does God have any influence in this situation? Naturally, and most directly: when a person turns to God with his heart and wants to find Him, God will open himself to him and draw Him to Himself. This is what Jesus means when he says that only those who are drawn by the Father can come to Him. Those who have experienced it personal experience, know what I'm talking about. This revelation about God is not just an accident, it is His regular actions, what He promised in His Word. Whoever seeks Him with all their heart will find Him, so it is written in the Word. To the one who sincerely seeks Him, God will be revealed without any doubt.
As for us, God has entrusted US with the ministry of reconciliation, the ministry of sowing the Word and watering. He, for his part, provides cultivation (draws a person to Himself), but to sow and water, to bring people to the Lord, is the ministry of reconciliation entrusted to us. The doctrine that God chose only some to be saved, and accordingly chose others to perish in hell, is a very false doctrine that puts people to sleep, because they believe that God will still save everyone he wants to save. This is wrong. Brothers and sisters, we have a responsibility to preach the Word and look for opportunities to evangelize. Preach the Word, tell the prisoners they can be free. Whether they listen to you or not is their business, our business is to tell them and testify about the Father. The Father, on His part, hopes with all his heart that they will come to Him! He gave the same ransom for them as for us, and he is ready to receive them with open arms, just as he once received us.
Father Oleg Molenko
ABOUT THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE LORD GOD TO THE MANY CALLED AND LITTLE ELECTED, AND ALSO THAT LOVE FADES OUT FROM DECREASING COMMUNICATION
I have always been concerned about the small number of those who are saved. I just can't understand why people choose not just the worst, but eternal death and permanent isolation with endless and unspeakably terrible torment. Of course, this is their choice, with which the Lord God Himself is considered, but I, who have chosen God, light, truth and grace, cannot understand the reason for this choice.
From the Holy Scriptures and observations in my life, I discovered a terrible truth - that the number of people who are saved is much less than the number of those who die, and the number of those who die incomparably exceeds the number of those who are saved. It would seem that upon coming to the Church of Christ, I finally found a place in which 99% of its members should be saved. But, alas, even here the number of saved members of the Church is less than the number of its perishing members. We are talking only about those members who remained in the Church until death, not counting those who fell away from it during their lifetime.
In His earthly sermon, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ spoke terrible truths for us:
- that many are called, but few are chosen;
- that few walk the narrow and narrow path that leads to eternal life;
- that he has a small flock;
- that not everyone who says "Lord, Lord ..." will be saved;
- that He does not pray for the whole world, but only for those whom His Heavenly Father has given Him.
So before us - members true church Christ's - there is a real problem, which we can designate as the problem of many called and a small number of the elect. The main thing in this problem is to understand the attitude of the Lord God towards many who are called and towards a small number of the elect. Its main practical aspect for each of us is to find out in which of these categories each of us is.
Let's try to establish who or what categories of people who turned to Christ make up the number of many called. Those called include:
- a small number of the elect;
- people who accidentally came to the Church;
- people who are like grain that has fallen by the side of the road, in whom Satan immediately takes away the word of truth and the taste for truth from their hearts;
- people who are like a seed sown on a rock and have no roots;
- people like a sprout crushed by thorns, i.e. worries about earthly goods and vanity;
- people who could not stand the test of sorrow, deprivation or persecution for their faith.
To this number one could add "tares", but they, as planted in the Church by Satan, cannot even be included in the number of those called. The fact that the “tares” perish through their craftiness can still be understood. This is their original evil choice. But why people who gladly accepted the word of God then reject Christ and their salvation is impossible to understand. This is not about visible reasons, but about their deep choice. This choice remains unclear to us.
However, let us leave the discussion about people and turn to God's attitude towards the called and the chosen ones. The Providence of God for us cannot be fully comprehended, which is why we can only touch what we are allowed to touch by the Lord God Himself.
Why does it happen in life that there are always more called than chosen ones? We know that by creation, man was endowed with free will, which is manifested by the freedom of his choice. As a being created by God, a person makes his first choice in relation to his appeared being, or rather, in relation to his being that appeared out of nothing. What can a person choose in this respect? One of the two is to agree with one's createdness and one's created being, or disagree with it. A person's disagreement with his created being reveals his pride and makes a person an adversary to God and a self-destructor striving for non-existence. Since, according to God’s conditions, the dissolution of rational beings is not provided for, this choice of a person and this his desire can only be formalized in the form of an eternal stay in a place specially isolated from God and His creations that are in agreement with their existence, a place called hell (i.e. a place deprived of light), with the eternal bearing of that measure of inexpressible torment, which is determined for each god-opponent according to the truth of God. This measure of torment is for each person who has not chosen God and has his own non-existence. This is the inevitable consequence of this person's choice of striving for non-existence. As much as a person strives for non-existence, so much he resists God. As much as he resists God, so much he does not love God and hates Him and His creations. As much as he hated God and His creations, so much did he create for himself his eternal torment. Thus, the eternal torment of man is his constant attempt to accomplish the impossible - to tear apart his inseparable being, contrary to the will of the Almighty God, and to stop his unceasing existence.
Resistance to God (whether conscious or unconscious) is opposition to Life, Truth, Light and Love, and the Source of life, light, love and truth. That is why this resistance is a source of unceasing torment for every God-resister, which can be called his eternal death.
Who chooses whom: God me, or I God? Of course, God chooses first. He first chooses me to be and creates me from nothing! He creates perfect, equipped with everything necessary, capable of communion with God and love, reasonable, verbal and reasonable.
As soon as I realized myself and my being - I am, I exist - as well as my createdness and dependence on God, then I immediately have a choice. I was asked to agree with the choice of God, to humbly accept my being, my existence, my creation and my dependence on my Creator and Lord God. I have also been given the right to disagree with my creation and existence, and even to oppose my Creator, the Lord God.
It is this right and opportunity to choose not God that shows everyone that those who have chosen God have done it freely and voluntarily! This first choice of God is their first service to Him. However, there are people who took advantage of the freedom of choice in such a way that they did not agree with their creation, existence and being. They didn't agree that God chose them to be! They did not accept their creatureliness and dependence on God, but fell into pride and became God-resisting. Such people become not interesting to God, not needed, and He no longer chooses them, but leaves them to their evil choice. They make up the number of beings rejected by God and are forced to unite with their fallen angels who were rejected earlier, who have become spirits of malice and resistance to God. Such people are not among those called. God left them to a bad choice and no longer calls to Himself.
The first good choice of a person - agreement with his being, with his creatureliness and dependence on God - is valuable in the eyes of God. However, it is not sufficient for the further development of a relationship with God. For the further development of relationships, God offers a person a voluntary acceptance of obedience to Him. This obedience is offered to man in the form of God's command or commandments. This is the second call of the God of people to Himself. Man again faces a choice: agree with God and humbly accept obedience to Him, performed by the exact fulfillment of God's commandment or commandments, or disagree with God, reject obedience to Him by violating the commandment. Those who reject obedience to God reject God Himself and join the ranks of the rejected people and spirits. They become strangers to God, not interesting and not needed. He leaves them to his willfulness and their bad choice.
Acceptance of obedience and fulfillment of the commandment(s) of God gives a person the opportunity to love his Lord God and Creator and to show this love actively. From obedience begins the creation of a good union of man with God, based on love. Obedience is also a means of communion with God and a way of knowing God. That is why Christ God told us that those who love Him will fulfill His commandments.
On this segment of the creation of relations between God and the man created by Him (historically it was Adam), the fall of man and all of his nature took place. The fall of Adam and Eve was their bad choice, but it was due to some extenuating circumstances. The first circumstance was the creation by God of a wife for Adam, to whom he became very attached and very fond of. If there had been no wife, then Adam could have passed the test of obedience, the test of God's commandment. The second circumstance was the existence of outcast spirits and their first-born and leader - the fallen dennitsa, called Satan (i.e., the enemy of God) and the devil (i.e., slanderer). Satan is also a lie and the father of lies.
God did not list the sinners of Adam and Eve as outcasts just because they sinned not by their conscious choice, but by the deception of Satan, who used the serpent and lies. Fallen people were expelled from paradise to earth and deprived of the possibility of securing their fallen state in eternity. They fell under the power of Satan and his demons, who deceived them, were cursed by God and were punished by death. Their whole nature was severely damaged and distorted. However, God, due to the use of cunning and deceit against them, left them among those called. He left them hope in the form of a good promise to deliver them from death, fall and the power of demons in the Person of the coming Savior. God has not stopped calling man to Himself. Only now, in order to accept this call, a person needed faith - faith in a good God. The very call of God (the third one) was to repentance, i.e. a radical change of oneself from a fallen, sin-loving, corruptible person into a new person created in the image and likeness of God. Now, in order to restore friendly relations between man and God and develop these relations, God offered people His Covenant, i.e. contract with a whole program of prerequisites. All these conditions and commandments are necessary for the person himself for his healing and restoration. Here again, a person faced a choice: to enter into a Covenant with God and humbly accept all His conditions, or not to enter into a Covenant with God and reject all His conditions and repentance offered by God. Those who have rejected the Covenant with God and repentance before Him unite with rejected people and spirits. They are left to their fall and destruction, but the call of God does not stop to them throughout their entire earthly life. Until his last breath, every person can, through repentance, enter into a Covenant with God and receive hope for mercy and salvation.
In His Dispensation, the Lord God foresaw the way of saving people and human nature through the incarnation and incarnation of the Second Hypostasis - the Son of God. Upon incarnation, the task of the Son of God, who incomprehensibly became a perfect Man, included: to preach to people the truth and righteousness of God; to call them to repentance, and through repentance to Himself and to His eternal Kingdom of Heaven; to redeem them from their fall, sin, the power of Satan and his demons, from hell and death; to create a new union of God and man, impossible before the incarnation of God, in the form of the Church of Christ for the salvation and deification of people. Now people were called to the Church of Christ! There were many such called, but not all of them were chosen by the Lord.
Here we need to understand the difference between the redemption of human nature in general and the salvation of individual human persons redeemed by Christ. Jesus Christ the Son of God redeemed all human nature by His suffering feat. In this sense, through human nature, He redeemed every person He called to be. After all, every person is endowed with human nature, and this nature is manifested only in people and the God-man. In the person of Adam, the nature of people fell, and in the Person of Christ She was redeemed and restored, and elevated to an even better condition than that which Adam and Eve had before their fall. Through the involvement of a common human nature every person was redeemed and included among those called to salvation. However, if human nature could be redeemed by the deed of the Son of God, then it can be saved only in the form of individual persons! All people are redeemed, but only those who agree with the redemption and God's dispensation are saved! That is why, although all people are redeemed, but few are saved, for there are few who responded to the call of Christ, took up their Cross and followed Him along the narrow and narrow path of salvation offered by Him. Redemption we, all people, have in fact, but it will not mean anything to me as an individual, if I myself do not deny myself in my fallen state, I do not reject this world lying in evil, and I do not follow Christ on His terms. Salvation I personally need to achieve and assimilate for myself. He who has assimilated the salvation of God thereby testifies to himself that he is God's chosen one! There are the elect among the elect - these are God's saints, called saints. There are chosen from the saints - this is Holy Mother of God Virgin and Saint John the Theologian.
So, in addition to the general redemption, I need a personal Savior in the Person of Christ the Son of God, which means the restoration of friendly relations with Him, and through Him with the Holy Spirit and the Heavenly Father.
That is why we, called by Christ to salvation and into His eternal Kingdom through His Church, are justly called Christians, and the saying is true for us: “For a Christian, Christ is everything”!
God has defined love as the foundation of our personal relationship with Him. That is why the two highest and most important commandments for us, to which all the rest are reduced, are the commandments about love for God (primarily in the Person of Christ) and for one's neighbor. According to the fulfillment of these commandments, we have a relationship with our God and with our neighbors.
Why didn't the Lord Jesus Christ say "love every man" or "love all people" but rather "love your neighbor"? Because love involves the union of persons, knowing friend friend and communicate with each other. God can love all people and every person, because He has access to each of us and knows every person He created. We do not have access to all people and to every person, but we have access and the opportunity to communicate only with our neighbors, i.e. those people with whom God's providence brings us together in life. We can only love people we know, with whom we have communion. We cannot love people unknown to us and unknown to us, who are inaccessible to us and with whom we cannot have any communion. Whoever says that he loves all mankind and all people is lying and is a demagogue. In the Church of Christ, we have the opportunity to meet, love and have fellowship with those of the holy people with whom we have never met in life and could not meet. The main means of communication with them is prayer to them. On their part, we have intercession for us to God, help us, visiting us and protecting us. What saint we love, we pray from the heart, and to whom we pray from the heart, we love him.
From this truth that we have assimilated, that love can only be towards known people with whom we have communion (this is why the words of Christ to crafty sinners “I don’t know you” sound so terrible), we can move on to another, that the basis of our love for another person (God or man) can only be communication with this person. With regard to the love of husband and wife, Scripture directly says that let a man cleave to his wife and the two become one flesh! This is the pinnacle of carnal communion between wife and husband. Without such communication there can be no marriage union and love between spouses. The Holy Apostle Paul rightly transfers the image of the marriage union and communion to Christ and His Church.
And in the Church of Christ, each of us - chosen by God - is some kind of member and part. But this is not a soulless part, like a brick or a board, but a living god-like personality. That is why the image of the marriage union can be applied not only to the great union of Christ and the Church, but also to the small union of Christ and each member of the Church chosen by Him! On this marvelous personal union of Christ and a given person, and on the commandment that requires you to love the Lord God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your thoughts and with all your strength, the union of the love of Christ God and man is built. On the part of a person, this love for Christ should be manifested in unceasing communion with Him, which can be characterized as a kind of marriage union with clinging to Christ so that two persons become one Spirit!
We know and confess that Jesus Christ ascended into Heaven and sat at the right hand of His Father in His glory. He will return to us only in His second and last coming in glory to judge the living and the dead. How then can we have fellowship with Him personally? For this, He founded His Church for us, in which He established two means given by Him to His chosen ones for communion with Him - the communion of His Most Pure Body and His Most Holy Blood and the invocation of His Divine and Most Holy Name. The holy king and prophet David, moved by the Holy Spirit, noted these means in his psalter: “I will take the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord”. For a Christian who loves Christ, it is so natural and so desirable to incessantly call on the name of the Beloved and cling to Him as often as possible through partaking of His Most Pure Body and His Most Holy Blood! Thus, here we can note the signs of God's chosen man:
- He loves Christ God with all his soul and strength, and testifies to this love of his by his obedience to Him, by his humility before Him, and by his wholehearted fulfillment of His commandments, commands, and advice.
- He loves Christ from all his thoughts and therefore strives as often as possible to call on His blessed and longed-for name for him, reaching in this deed to the incessant invocation of him. He is spiritually united with the name of Christ, and because of the inseparability of His name from Himself, He incomprehensibly unites with Christ God Himself, living with Him and in Him! For this, in due time, Christ God comes to him with His Father, and They move into this person, create an abode in him for themselves and live in him! God-bearing is an exceptional quality of God's chosen one!
- He loves Christ God with all his heart and therefore seeks to unite with Him in the closest and most mysterious way - through the tasting of His Most Pure Body and Most Holy Blood, becoming one spirit, one soul and one body with Christ! A sign of God's chosen one in striving for the Cup of Life, in union with the Life of Christ by partaking of His Body and Blood, in thirst for this partaking and in worthy communion of the Holy Mysteries!
So, if you easily indulge your passions, you do not love Christ and are not His chosen one. If you do not fulfill at least one of His commandments, or you fulfill it, but formally or feignedly, you do not love Christ and testify of yourself that you are not chosen by Him.
If you do not have a thirst for communion of the Holy Mysteries, if you do not strive to live like this and do everything in your power to partake worthily of the Holy Body and Blood of the Beloved Christ as often as possible, then you do not love Him with all your heart, and therefore, you were not chosen by Him, but only were called.
If you do not strive as often as possible to call on the name of the Beloved Christ so as to live, be saturated with it and breathe it, then you do not love Christ with all your heart, all your soul and all your thoughts, which means that you are called, but not chosen.
If you do not reject yourself in your fallen form, do not reject this world that lies in evil and transient, do not diligently take up your cross and do not follow Christ to your Golgotha along the narrow and narrow path, in order to be crucified with the Beloved Christ there, then you do not love Him with all your strength and are only called, but not chosen.
If you are chosen by God, then you do not fall under what the holy father said from God - St. Simeon the New Theologian (“Creations”, Volume 2, p. 560): “Whoever does not deign, with all love and a strong desire, through humility to achieve unity with the last of the saints (i.e., union in life with the living, accessible bearer of the Holy Spirit), but has acquired some small distrust towards him, he will in no way ever unite and stand with him on a par with the former and previous saints, even though he imagined that he had all faith and all love for God and for all the saints th. He will be rejected by them, because he failed to take, with the help of humility of wisdom, the place that was determined by God before the ages.
If you are only called, then you directly fall under what the monk wrote and fall into the number of those rejected by God and His saints.
Let's try with God's help, as far as we can, to look at the process of choosing people by God from His side.
We know and confess that God is Omnipotent and Omniscient. He knows any person and everything that will happen to him, his choices in life, his deeds, words and thoughts even before the creation of this person. This knowledge of God does not in the least affect a person's choice, his deeds, words and thoughts. God knows in advance exactly what a person will choose and how he will act, but His knowledge depends on the choice and action of the person himself. Nevertheless, without influencing a person with His knowledge about him in advance, God cannot ignore this knowledge about him. If God, for example, sees that this person If he is rejected, He will not elect him, but will only call him on a general basis, so that he will be unanswerable at His judgment. But God will show His non-election only after the real historical rejection of God by this person in his earthly life. A person himself can be deceived by the title and falsely believe that he is God's chosen one.
So, the basis of the election of a person by God is the response of this particular person to God by love for His love, known in advance by God. God knew that I would humble myself before Him and love Him, that it is joyful, desirable and desirable for me to be exactly with Him, on His terms - and therefore He chose me (I say from weakness, that from my mother’s womb) for one more (for me one, only) unique, intimate and inimitable love union with Him, in which there is no place for anyone else and there will be no place. At the same time, I am in another common union with God through the union of Christ and His Church. In this blessed union I have my place, my function, my task, my obedience, and my reward. This union does not interfere with my personal union with God. God loves me personally, but He loves me in the Church as part of it.
I also love Him Personally, but I also love Him as the Head of the Church, King, High Priest and Perfect Man! I love Him in front of everyone, as God and the Source of all my good! I love Him alone from all creations, as a personality Personality, as a spirit - Spirit, as endlessly striving for Divine perfection - Divine Perfection Itself, as called to be God by grace - God by nature! I am marvelously marveling at my God! I am amazingly amazed at Him! I admire Him to no end! I adore Him endlessly! I praise His Perfection and His qualities! I rejoice that He is with me, and I am with Him! I reverently worship His Omnipotence! I sing of His Wisdom! I rejoice and rejoice in His mercy and goodwill towards people! I rejoice at His amazing creativity! I thank Him for the gift of life, light, truth, salvation, grace, Kingdom, Church, purity, holiness, deification and blessedness! I am blissful from His attention to me, from His touches, from our union in spirit! I bless His Blessed One! I thank Him for everything and everything! I insatiably praise and sing of my Beloved God for His Divine and perfect love! I caress Him like a loving child caresses a beloved mother! I ask to be in His arms, like a small, loving son to the beloved Father, with Whom it is so good, so protective, so reliable and so blissful! I am delighted ... I melt ... and fall silent with my mouth and mind ...
Be with me God! Do what you wish!
I hope that this word of mine will bring you, your souls and hearts great benefit, will be of help and guidance!
Be chosen by God! Love God, for He first loved you! Amen!
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