Election in Two Senses

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“After Paul’s rhapsody at the end of Romans 8, a natural question would arise. If all this is true of the elect, then why was the elect nation of Israel trying to kill Paul? And that is why Paul does on to distinguish different kinds of election, distinguishing between the historical, contingent election of Israel, and His sovereign decretal election that reveals itself in a glorious way throughout human history, culminating at the last day . . . All Israel was elect in one sense, while those who were of Israel were elect in another. And I cannot fathom how someone who stumbles over equivocal uses of the same word like this can ever hope to interpret faithfully the teaching of someone like the apostle Paul.”

The Auburn Avenue Chronicles, p. 242