If we were to consider how many people were born and died from the time of the ark of Noah landing on Mount Ararat until the day of Pentecost, how many people do you suppose that would be, in the millions I would guess. How about those from the time of the giving of the law by Moses until that same future date.
I would like you to consider something that has to do with this age of grace that we live in today, but that started back in the time of Noah, and that would be how many of those millions upon millions had the faith that was the same as Abrahams, the faith that believed and was counted to him as righteousness. (Romans 4:3) I do not think that the majority of these people over all those two thousand or more years had that faith, I believe most of them went to the same place that the rich man occupied in the account that Christ gave in His telling of Lazarus, (Luke 16:19-31) I believe that most of them went to hell.
The sons of Isaac, through which the promise came, (Gen. 17:21) were and still are God’s chosen people, they belong to Him as no others ever will, the oracles of God (Romans 3:2) were entrusted to them. The way that this relates to all of those billions that have come and gone since Pentecost to this very day are no different. In this regard, not everyone is called, not everyone has heard the message, not all will be going to heaven, most are going to go to hell, and will eventually spend eternity in the Lake of Fire. What happens to the soul that has never heard of the name of Jesus, who knows not one thing about the Scriptures, where do they go?
Here is the verse that leaves doubt in the minds of those who do not care to contemplate these statements, “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.” (Romans 1:20) And the one that, in a sense, answers the questions posed here in this letter to you, “For many are called, but few are chosen.” (Matt. 22:14) My friends, not everyone is called, yet because of those invisible things, none have an excuse. It is an impossible task to comprehend, for we cannot think as the Lord thinks, we may as well try to contain the truths of His love in that He desires that all would come to Him, (2 Peter 3:9) with Romans 9:22 “What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction.”
Here is why your pastor, more than likely, has never brought up the doctrine of election, this is why he does not spend much time on predestination, or on the reality of man’s free will and that of the omniscience of God, because no matter how well we attempt to describe it, it sounds as if the Lord knew before the foundation of the world where every soul He created would spend eternity, some in heaven, most in hell. Much greater minds than I could ever hope to attain to have contemplated these statements, and many like myself have an envelope or a notebook somewhere in their house with page after page of Scripture verses, thoughts, and contemplations on the subject.
There are, at best as the human mind can comprehend, two truths at work here, and both make perfect sense. One may as well though ask if Judas Iscariot had a choice, or search the meaning of when God said unto Pharoah, “Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.” (Romans 9:17) “A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.” (Prov. 16:9)
Out of this short letter I would not have you to traverse this path, I have been off and on it for over three decades now and have not once found a place upon it to rest, the notebook gets fuller, and then gets put away again. I would ask you only to take this from it, if you have been not only called, but chosen, rejoice, rejoice exceedingly, for you are indeed in the minority. When there is room for debate in such matters as this subject, when both sides can make compelling arguments in these matters, that just means that we do not know, and we never will, until the Lord tells us.
