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QUESTION 124
If I am not one of the elect how can I be saved anyway?

ANSWER:
This is an old trick of the devil. He will keep you wondering until he can get you into hell, if you let him. God does not elect people to believe. He does elect them after they believe and are saved. The idea that God has selected only a few and not others, is totally unscriptural and an affront on the mercy of God and work of Christ.

In a summary of an unbelieving Israeli and the Gentile world, God said, "For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all." Romans 11:32. God's mercy would have been offered in vain had it not been that it was for all.

Christ died for the sins of mankind. "And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. " 1 John 2:2. He made provision for the sins of the world and that includes you.

Once you become a Christian you enter into the unsearchable riches of Christ. (Ephesians 3:8). Among these riches we learn that we have been elected, not to be saved, but because we are saved, to be "placed as children" in His eternal purposes in Christ and also to be "conformed to the image of His Son." (Ephesians 1:5 and Romans 8:29).

This election was foreknown by God, so He could say, " ...as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love." Ephesians 1:4. You will note in this verse that the PURPOSE of His choice in the word THAT, and what follows, is that He wants His people before Him holy and in love.

The time of His choice was before the foundation of the world, but the PLACE was IN HIM. Since I was not in Him until I was saved, then I was not yet in the place of His choice and purposes. Don't let the devil trick you, "whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." John 3:16.

All comments and questions to: Harold Smith

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Updated July 2009, by Shelly Allen