Recently I’ve received several variations of the question in the title of this study, so I assume it’s on the minds of many more. Here’s a representative question question and my response.

Q.  In a recent answer you said Romans 8:29-30 tells us that God foreknew every person from throughout the age of man who would choose to accept Him as their Savior. He predestined all of them to have a place in His kingdom. And at the appropriate time in their life He calls each of them, and when they respond He justifies them.

It sounds like you’re saying He only calls those who in His foreknowledge He knew would respond, and doesn’t call those He knew would not.   I’ve always thought  that God calls everyone, and some respond while others don’t.  And Matthew 22:14 says many are called but few are chosen.  How do you explain this?

A.  In beginning, let’s review Romans 8:29-30 because the language is critical to our understanding. In the original version of the NIV, which is the one I usually quote from, it reads like this.

For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

This is consistent with the Greek text, which the KJV translates as follows;

For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.

The Greek word translated foreknew means to have prior knowledge, or to know beforehand, and the one translated predestined means to appoint.  The word translated call comes from a root that means to command, order, or urge. Justified means to render righteous, and to glorify means to praise, extol, magnify or celebrate, to make glorious.

In simple terms Paul was saying that God had prior knowledge of all who would choose Him and appointed us a place in His kingdom at that time.  You might say He made a reservation for us in advance.  At the appropriate time in our life He urged us to make the choice He already knew we would make, and when we did He applied the payment he had already made for our sins, wiping the slate clean and making us as righteous as He is. At the rapture / resurrection He will make us glorious forever.  So far so good.

Now let’s look at what Paul didn’t say.  He didn’t mention any loss between any of the five steps.  The ones God foreknew are the ones He predestined.  The ones He predestined are the ones He called.  The ones He called are the ones He justified, and the ones He justified are the ones He glorified. No one falls through the cracks and no one enters the process midway. He knew everyone before He began and He doesn’t lose anyone along the way.

John 6:37-40 confirms this in no uncertain terms.

“All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.  For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.  And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.  For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”

So how do we reconcile this with Matt. 7:7-8, which says,

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.”

Or John 3:16 which tells us,

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Or Romans 10:13,

“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

It’s About Time
The answer lies in our understanding of time.  As physical beings we’re governed by the laws of time.  These laws restrict us in two very important ways.  We can only look back and we can only move forward. We can see the past, but we can’t go back to change it.  We’re constantly moving into the future but we can’t see what the future holds for us.

But God has no such limitations. He can see the end from the beginning, and knew everything that would happen in His creation before any of it came to be (Isaiah 46:10). However, knowing everything that will happen is not the same as controlling everything that happens.  Within the context of time, we make our own decisions and are responsible for our own actions.

We demonstrate this in a very simple way when we watch a video of a sporting event that has already taken place.  When the video was made the players and their coaches were all trying their best to win, employing certain strategies during the game that they believed would help them do so, and changing those strategies when the situation called for it.

When we’re watching the video we’re not controlling the players’ behavior but we already know the result their behavior will produce.  So while they were doing everything they could think of to make the outcome favorable to them, we knew the outcome before we started watching the video.

Life is infinitely more complex but the principle is the same.  Like the players in the game, we make our own decisions about how to live our life, but God knows what the outcome of those decisions will be, and He knew it before our life even began.

Here’s a big difference between God and us. While we watch the video, we’re limited to being passive observers.  We can’t do anything to influence the behavior of the players.  But God is not content to be a passive observer.  He wants everyone to be saved, and continually works to influence our behavior.

The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance  (2 Peter 3:9).  God our Savior wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. 2:3-4).

He only calls those He already knows will answer, but He is determined that everyone will have every possible chance to respond.  No one will be able to say God didn’t pursue them to the very end. He put such clear evidence of His existence in the Creation that no one could fail to see it (Romans 1:20). He loves all of us so much He sent His one and only Son to die for our sins so that whoever believes will not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16).  He sent His disciples into all nations to teach us about Him (Matt. 28:18-20) and promised the end will not come until the Gospel has been preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations (Matt. 24:14).

Even though He already knows most of mankind will reject Him, He doesn’t give up on any of us until we take our last breath. It’s almost as if He’s hoping to be surprised by someone He hadn’t planned for.

This explains the “many are called but few are chosen” phrase in Matt. 22:14. The Greek word translated called in the King James version of Matt. 22:14 is not the word Paul used in Romans 8:29-30.  Matthew used a word that really means invited, like the NIV renders it, whereas Paul used a word that’s more like a command.  But you don’t have to understand the Greek language to see this. Remember, Matt 22:1-14 tells the parable of a wedding banquet,  and people are invited to a wedding. They are not commanded to attend. This is a good example of why it’s so important to consider the context in which a word or phrase appears when trying to interpret it.

God “invites” many but He only “commands” those He knows will come. (Personally I believe everyone gets at least one bonafide invitation during his or her lifetime. Otherwise He couldn’t condemn those who don’t choose Him. )

Creation And Procreation
Some have asked, “If God Knew from the creation of the world who would choose Him and who wouldn’t, why does He allow those who won’t choose Him to even be born?”

After the creation God delegated the production of offspring to man (Genesis 1:24). We call it procreation.  In my opinion that means He no longer controls who will be born and who will not. We do.  But He does know us from the time we’re conceived (Psalm 139:13) and He insists that everyone who is conceived has both the right to be born and the opportunity to decide whether to live eternally with Him. This is consistent with His character. Being a just God, He couldn’t hold us responsible for our choices without giving us the opportunity to make them.

So although He knows in advance who will choose Him and only calls those who do, He doesn’t make the choice for us.  We do that.  Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, but God already knows everyone who will call on His name and has prepared a place in His kingdom for all of us.

Ironside’s Door
H. A. Ironside (1876-1951) was a popular pastor and teacher who authored more than 60 books on various Bible topics.  In doing so he gave us an illustration of this point that became popularly known as Ironside’s Door.

As we walk into a large building we come to a door with a sign posted just outside.  It says, “Whosoever will may enter.” We open the door and step into a banquet hall that stretches as far as the eye can see, beautifully prepared for an enormous celebration.  Walking along the rows of tables covered in fine linen and adorned with endless settings of china, silver and crystal, we’re astonished to see a reservation card with our name on it at one of the places. Looking back at the door we just walked through we see another sign posted posted on the inside.  This one says, “Fore ordained from the foundation of the world.”

Anyone can choose to enter the Kingdom of God, but when we do we discover He’s had a place reserved for us since the beginning of time.

“Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy.

“Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble” (Daniel 9:24-25).

Dispensationalists believe, with good reason, that there’s one week of years left to fulfill from the promise the angel Gabriel delivered to Daniel near the end of the Babylonian captivity.  We know the prophecy as Daniel’s 70 weeks.  Each week in the prophecy represents 7 years.  69 of these weeks (7 plus 62) had passed when the Messiah presented Himself to Israel as their King on the only day in His life that He did so.  On our calendar it became known as the first Palm Sunday.

In the prophecy 69 weeks equals 483 years (69 x 7).  This is the exact time that had passed since Artaxerxes Longimonus issued his decree giving Nehemiah permission to begin rebuilding Jerusalem (Nehemiah 2:1-10).  (The city had been destroyed when Nebuchadnezzar’s army conquered Judah and took its people captive to Babylon.)  Daniel’s prophecy was being fulfilled in specific detail, and Israel’s failure to realize this marked the beginning of the end for them (Luke 19:41-44).

After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed (Daniel 9:26).

The Hebrew word for Anointed One is Messiah.  Four days after He presented Himself to them,  they executed Him, which is what the Hebrew word translated “cut off” means.  Nothing the angel Gabriel had promised to Mary (Luke 1:32-33) had come to pass.  Three days after that He rose again, fulfilling a sign He had promised to the religious leaders to prove His authenticity, the sign of the prophet Jonah (Matt. 12:39-40). He gave them 40 days to recognize the most dramatic fulfillment of a prophetic sign in the history of mankind and accept Him as their Messiah, and when they didn’t He ascended into Heaven, fulfilling another prophecy in the process.

Then I will go back to my place until they admit their guilt.  And they will seek my face; in their misery they will earnestly seek me” (Hosea 5:15)

About 38 years after that the Roman armies destroyed the city and the sanctuary, and for all practical purposes the nation of Israel ceased to exist.  But a few years before that happened, the Jewish leadership of the Christian movement called the Church had become divided over the issue of whether Gentiles who were coming into Christianity had to put themselves under the Law first.  In other words did a Gentile have to become a Jew before becoming a Christian? The unspoken question that lurked behind it was even more troublesome to them, and that was, “If not, what’s to become of Israel?” They had been taught that the only way to God was through Israel.  Was this being changed?

The Council At Jerusalem
They all came together in Jerusalem, where James, the Lord’s half brother and head of the Church in Jerusalem set them straight. Israel is being temporarily set aside, he told them, while the Lord takes out of the Gentiles a people for Himself. After that He will restore Israel to allow the remnant of mankind one more chance to seek Him (Acts 15:13-18).  Therefore, Gentiles would not be required to convert to Judaism in the process of becoming Christians.

The Greek word translated “take” in Acts 15:14 means to carry away for one’s own purpose and the  one translated “out of” means to remove from a specified time and place.  Before restoring Israel to fellowship with Him, the Lord will take a people for Himself out of the time and place of the Gentiles.  James was describing the rapture of the Church and saying it will precede Daniel’s 70thWeek.

Paul, who was at the meeting, confirmed this by saying Israel has been blinded in part until the full number of Gentiles has come in. After that Israel will be saved (Romans 11:25).  As I’ve indicated in previous studies this is another testimony that the rapture of the church will precede Israel’s restoration and redemption.  From these two prophecies we understand that Israel’s rejection of the Messiah did not end the Old Covenant.  It merely interrupted its 490 year post exilic duration 7 years short of its allotted time.  After the Church is gone this seven years has to be completed.

“He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’ In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing of the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him” (Daniel 9:27).

The final seven years  will begin with a covenant to be signed by the “ruler who will come”, mentioned in Daniel 9:26.  Gabriel said this leader will come from the people who would destroy the city and the sanctuary after the Messiah’s execution.  In the middle of this last seven years He will put an end to sacrifices and offerings by setting up the Abomination of Desolation which kicks off the 3 ½ year Great Tribulation (Matt. 24:15-21).

Put this all together and you can begin to see why I believe the Rapture of the Church will precede the beginning of Daniel’s missing 70th week.  According to these prophecies the church has to be gone before Israel returns to their covenant relationship with the Lord.

And That’s Not All
But my main purpose in reviewing all this with you is to find the answer to one very important question, and here it is.  What event will suddenly cause Israel, currently a predominantly secular  nation, to officially restore their Old Covenant relationship with God? The study of human nature tells us that while people typically fall away from their beliefs gradually, they don’t come back to them the same way.  Usually, some external change or event, often catastrophic in nature, has to take place to snap them back.  And so it will be for Israel.

And remember, it has to be a return to the Old Covenant because they’re seven years short of completing the time God allotted to them, and the only reason they will need a Temple is for the purpose of Old Covenant worship.  If it was the rapture of the Church that gets their attention they’d be motivated to enter a New Covenant relationship rather than return to the Old Covenant. Something else has to happen . And it will.

An unexpected event that will threaten Israel’s very existence is set to take place soon and God will use it to bring them running as a nation to Him, ending a 2000 year estrangement. This event won’t be a protracted one that causes them to slowly conclude that they’re doomed and drive them to their knees in a desperate plea for help.  Rather it will be one orchestrated and executed  by God Himself for the specific purpose of opening spiritual eyes that have been blinded since that first Palm sunday.   It will happen so fast that they won’t realize what has transpired until it’s all over.

God will cause a coalition of enemy forces to strike with out warning in such numbers that it will seem like a cloud has covered the land, and when they do, He will decimate them with torrents of rain, hailstones and burning sulphur. Then He’ll sew such confusion in the ranks that they’ll turn on each other.  When it’s over there will be so many dead bodies that it will take Israel seven months just to bury them all.

Of course the event I’m referring to is the Battle of Ezekiel 38-39. Four times during Ezekiel’s prophecy of this battle God’s objective was made clear.  Ezekiel 38:23, 39:7, 39:22, 39:28 all tell us His goal is to  show His greatness and holiness to Israel and the nations so Israel will know He’s the Lord their God. This is the event that will cause Israel’s national reconciliation with God and kick off the remaining seven years of the Old Covenant.

Today there appears to be a  growing desire among some in Israel for a Temple. But if you read between the lines you’ll see it’s a nationalistic movement, not a spiritual one.  Advocates are hoping a Temple will underscore their right to the land by demonstrating their historical presence there.  But this movement is by no means reflective of the national mind set. Most people realize the danger in such a thing.

But after the Battle of Ezekiel 38, the demand for a Temple will be a spiritual movement that will represent the great majority of people in Israel. They’ll want to worship the God they’ve rediscovered and Old Covenant worship requires a Temple. It won’t be just a monument to their past but a necessity for their future.  And with the great victory God will have just handed them, who will dare to deny them? Even the coming world leader will appear to be championing their cause, enforcing a covenant that will allow them to build their Temple.  To Israel it will seem like peace has finally come.

One More Time
Sad to say, the Battle of Ezekiel 38 won’t result in a permanent peace for Israel. They’ll discover they’ve been deceived by the very one who they thought to be their champion, bringing about the worst period of persecution the Jewish people have ever known.  And this time when foreign nations are mobilized against them, it won’t be just a regional coalition.  Zechariah 12:3 says all the nations of the world will line up against Israel. This time Israel will know in advance what their fate will likely be and  will come crawling to God for help (Hosea 6:1-2).

This time God won’t just use His signature weapons of rain, hail, earthquakes and fire that He can deliver from afar.  Nor will He sow confusion into the enemy’s mind to have them defeat themselves.  This time He’ll fill the sky with the armies of heaven, with His own Son at their head. The Son will slay them all with just the Word of His mouth.  This time they won’t spend multiple months burying the dead.  This time the birds will devour the carcasses (Rev. 19:11-21).

This time will be different because this time it won’t be only the Father they will have recognized.  This time it will be the Son as well (Zech 12:10).  The reconciliation will finally be complete and the Kingdom Age will begin.