On the topic of election...

There was one verse that I brought up in Bible study last week when we were dealing with the topic of election, and I still can't say that I've found an interpretation that fits into Calvin's model of thinking on the topic.

Anyways, here are the words of Christ as quoted from Luke 13:34 (WEB):


Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that kills the prophets, and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, like a hen gathers her own brood under her wings, and you refused!

Comments

Israel was God's people. However, that does not mean that they were all saved. He still required that they live in service to Him. They refused. He extended His hand to them, and they turned away. This doesn't mean that he didn't intend them to be saved and they just decided otherwise. He planned everything the way it happened.

But if God is reaching out to them in such a way, then how can this fit in line with the I in TULIP - "Irresistible Grace"?

Just because God reached out to them, it does not mean that he gave his Irresistible Grace to them.

God calls everyone to serve Him, and reaches out in one way or another to all. He only saves those whom it pleases Him to save (those He gives His Grace to).

... and reaches out in one way or another to all.

... or does he? If God is capable of reaching out to a people to the extent necessary, but being omniscient does not reach out to the extent that He knows is necessary, then can it actually be said that He really reached out to them at all?

I'm still unconvinced that the whole fore-knowledge argument is wrong (ie. what prevents God from choosing the followers of Christ as a group?). I've spent some time staring at Ephesians 1:5 and just wondering how to interprete that. Depending on what emphasis is to be placed on "through Jesus Christ," it seems like it could go either way.

The same line of thinking came up in my group. The folly here is thinking that all of Israel was saved just because they were God's chosen people. It would be more correct to say that the covenant of the Old Testament was for Israel alone. There is the exception of Rahab who was not an Israelite, which goes to show that it is God who decides who will be saved, and there is where irresistable grace comes in.