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Election: Individual, Corporate, What? PDF Print E-mail
Written by Rey   
Monday, 10 April 2006

Phil (from PhilThreeTen) brought up a point regarding election that bore some investigation. I did this in the past, but since I don’t have access to my computer I had to do the research over again. Basically I started going through and finding references to “choice”, “elect”, “chosen”, “chosen one” (and variations thereof) to see if election is used for an individual and if so—in what sense. With very little commentary and with the disclaimer that this list is in no way exhaustive (since I don’t have time to recreate days of research in a few hours), here’s the list.

In regard to a group:

A Group

The Church

Israel

Levites

Angels

Mat 24:22

Col 3:12

Is 45:4

Deut 18:5

1 Tim 5:21

Mat 24:24

1 Thes 1:4

Is 49:7

Deut 21:5

 

Mat 24:31

 

1 Kin 3:8

 

 

Mk 13:27

 

1 Ki 11:13

 

 

Lk 18:7

 

Rom 11:28

 

Mk 13:20

 

Deut 7:6

 

 

Mk 13:22

 

Deut 14:2

 

 

Rom 8:33

 

 

 

 

2 Tim 2:10

 

 

 

 

 

In regard to places

City

State

Individual

 

 

Christ

1 Ki 11:32

1 Pet 1:2

2 Jn 1:1 (woman or church)

Is 42:1

 

1 Pet 5:13

2 Jn 1:13 (woman or church)

1 Pet 2:4

Land

 

Rom 16:13 (Rufus is choice)

1 Pet 2:6

Ez 48:14

distinction

1 Sam 8:18 (people chose king)

Ps 80:19

 

Ez 24:6

1 Sam 10:24 (role of king)

Lk 9:35

 

 

1 Sam 12:13 (people chose king)

Lk 23:35

 

 

1 Sam 16:9 (Role of King)

 

 

 

Ps 106:23 (Moses - role)

 

 

 

Gen 18:19 (Abraham - role)

 

 

 

Num 1:16 (leaders - role)

 

 

 

Num 16:2 (leaders - voted)

 

 

 

1 Pet 5:13 (lady or church)

 

 

The Best

 

Foods

Ez 31:16

 

Dan 11:26

Ez 24:5 (Flock)

Dan 1:16

Ez 24:4 (bones)

Dan 1:15

Ez 23:7 (men)

Dan 1:13

Ez 17:21 (men)

Dan 1:8

Jer 25:34 (vessel)

Dan 1:5

Jer 22:7 (ceders)

Is 25:6

Jer 2:21 (vine)

 

Ez 27:24 (clothes)

 

Dan 11:15 (troops)

 

Is 37:24 (cypresses)

 

Is 23:18 (attire)

 

Is 16:18 (plants)

 

2 Chr 32:23 (presents)

Ex 15:4 (captains)

 

 

In regard to Action

Rom 11:5 (Remnant Group according to God's choice)

Rom 9:11 (God's purpose according to his choice)

Acts 15:7  (God's choice that Peter would preach to Gentiles --role)

1 Ki 11:36 (God chooses Jerusalem –place)

1 Ki 12:31 (chosen soldiers)

Is 66:3 (chosen ways)

Jer 50:44 (the chosen appointed over pasture—role)

Lk 10:42 (chosen the good part)

Acts 1:24 (chosen apostle—role)

Acts 15:25 (chosen men)

Acts 22:14 (chosen group to know God's will)

Josh 24:22 (people chose to serve)

Jud 5:8 (people chose gods)

Jud 10:14 (people chose gods)

 

A state or position:

1 Pet 1:2 (according to the foreknowledge of God—prognosin singular feminine. So maybe one is elect and it is a she or it is the church. )

1 Pet 5:13 (individual lady or church chosen/elect with individual lady or church)

Ez 24:6 (distinction)


Comments (7)Add Comment
...
written by PhilThreeten, June 15, 2005
Rey - Thanks for doing my homework! :laugh:

Actually, let me retract a little. Romans 16:13 talks about Rufus who is 'chosen in the Lord.' Thus, if someone wanted an example of an individual, other than Jesus, who is spoken of as chosen, they could do so with this verse. However, there are two points to consider on this:
- I don't see us being able to hang the entire doctrine of individual election as typically stated on this one verse nor even when taken into combination with other verses on election, because...
- the entire rest of Scripture on election speaks of it corporately in Jesus - in fact this verse itself places the emphasis on being chosen 'in the Lord.' Normal hermenuetics suggests to interpret the less often used sense in light of the more often used sense. Thus, I don't believe that this one verse does any damage to the position that I suggested yesterday.

Election in the NT is always connected with being 'in Christ' rather than some unconditional decision on the part of God. When we look at how the NT writers use this phrase (in Him, Christ, Jesus, Beloved) we see that all the abundance and blessings of Jesus are transferred to the believer....I'm sorry...I'm repeating from yesterday. Anyhow, given the usage of 'in Him' in the NT, those who hold to individual election must explain in what sense was Jesus Unconditionally Elected - and then does our election become a seperate action of God (Unconditional Election) or is it an action that is concurrent with our being placed in Jesus...
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written by Rey, June 15, 2005
Yeah, I agree with you Phil. That's why I even gave some extra lee-way by making the elect lady be either a woman or a corporate body. And in the cases where individuals are described as chosen it's for a task--not for salvation. And in most cases, the term "choice" or "elect" seems to lean more towards the best of a category or the distinct of a category. I'll have to do another one of these with the use of predestination.
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written by Jeremy Pierce, June 30, 2005
Several key places don't seem to be here: Gen 50, Isa 10, Acts 2, Acts 4, Eph 1
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written by Rey, June 30, 2005
The list is in-progress and it also starts off limiting the search to the terminology of choice, elect, or chosen. After that, I'll ripple out to events of choosing.
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written by Dominick, July 06, 2007
About Romans 16:13 it isn't talking about the basis upon which God chooses/elects but about someone who has already been incorporated with Christ into His body/elected class/kind or type of people.

Paul is speaking after the fact about someone who has already been incorporated in Christ, and therefore has received Christs' election, sonship, perfection, favor etc.

So while God doesn't choose individuals for salvation, but a kind or type of people in Christ (those kinds of types who identify w/respond and receieve Christ via repentance) are the elect, when an individual in time "hears the word of truth" and then are "included in CHrist like it says in Eph 1 they become part of the elect class and therefore can be stated to be chosen in the Lord. Eph 1 doesnt say He chose me, nor does it say He chose me or christians before the creation of the world, it says He chose Christians in Christ before the creation of the world..therefore this means God has eternally decided to elect (signifying Gods favor) Christians in Christ.
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written by Dominick, July 06, 2007
In other words God the Father didn't chose me as an individual before the creation of the world to be saved, rather He chose Christ and a class of people a kind or type of people who are characterized by relationship of repentance w Christ, and because I responded to Gods light, repented and received Christ as Savior and Lord, I or anyone else can say I'm chosen IN THE LORD because I have received Christs election thus Gods favor..

While God didn't chose me as an individual, God had eternally intended His favor for me as well as every individual before the creation of the world. So His election is intended for every individual, its efficacious for no individual unconditionally, rather it's only directly efficacious for a kind or type of people, and when that individual becomes part of that kind or class of people, it becomes efficacious in for them in their lives as well. I had 3 hrs of sleep..hope that made some sense..
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written by Rey, July 06, 2007
I actually didn't see Rufus' description as salvific at all; I simply noted that the word there is the same for elect but in context it was referring to him as choice, the best of the best, upright, etc. I do see election more as corporate and in most situations for a specific role--still not salvific but effective in redemptive history (ie: The Gentiles are chosen to provoke Israel to jealousy even if that's not the only reason it's still hugely important in redemptive history). That doesn't imply that every single Gentile is effective in this role or even that individual Gentiles are effective in this role but it does show the intent of the Gentile Group.

I've argued the same point with Ephesians 1, it bears reminding that it always says In Christ or In Him.
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