Marquette:
If you go back to the Old Testament, the Jews were God’s CHOSEN people, HOWEVER, there were also GERIM–God fearers, Gentiles who became part of the Jewish nation by adopting the Torah, the practices, and the culture.
Ruth and Rahab come to mind.
And in Gen 12:3 God promise through Abraham that all of the nations would be blessed; Paul said that God preached the Gospel to Abraham at that time (Gal 3:8; cf Jn 8:56ff).
Marquette:
The vessels of wrath were the Gentiles and the vessels of mercy, the Jews, but even the dishonorable vessels could become vessels for honor in both the Old Testament and New Testament by being cleansed.
Cleansed by whom? Of the vessels of mercy in Rom 9:23 it is said, “
He [God] prepared [them] beforehand for glory” that is a passive, IOW, the vessels had no part in the preparation, but passively received the preparation beforehand (cf Eph 1:4, 5; Rom 8:29, 30).
Marquette:
The favorite Baptist verse was always John 3:16 with …“whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Well, turn the page to verse 36, “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who DOES NOT OBEY the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
Does not obey is translated from the Gk
apeitheō, literally
reject belief or refuse to believe, thus the translation, “does not obey.” The disobedience is that they continuously refuse to believe
(it is a participle) cf Jn 3:18.
Marquette:
Re OSAS, it is possible to have your name erased from the Book of Life–Exodus 32:32,33 and Rev.3:5 God will not be mocked, and He has the power to remove it.
There are different types of “books” in the OT and NT; the two that you have mentioned are the books of
the living, and
life. Ex 32:33, 34 refers to the book of the living (cf Ps 69:28
sēper, hayyim]); among the ancients that was a register that recorded the names of the people, and their names were “blotted out,” or “crossed out” upon their (untimely) death (cf Ex 17:14; Dt 9:14; 29:20; 2 Kgs 14:27—note the phrase, “blot out from under heaven”). Moses is saying to God, “if you kill them, kill me too.” Moses was among the elect, God would never blot out his name from the book of life. (For more on the various books see,
The ISBE Revised, Eerdman’s Publishing, 1979, vol. I, p 534).
It is impossible for one’s name to be erased from
The Book of Life (cf Rev 3:5). In that passage, you assume that because Jesus will not blot out the name of the overcomers [elect], that the converse is true, but that is not the case as only the overcomers will be saved (cf Mt 10:22; 24:13; Mk 13:13), and that not of their own power, but God’s (1 Pet 1:5; cf Jn 10:28; Php 4:7).
The statement in Rev 3:5, “I will not erase…,” is better translated, “I will not, no never erase…,” it is a double-negative in the Gk,
ou mā, the strength of that construction is meant to comfort, not threaten; however, there are those whose names are not written in that book (13:8; 17:8; 20:15).
Anyway, in an earlier post I asked you if you would give me a logical and rational reasoning of how, and why one must eat the flesh and blood of Jesus to have life in themselves; have you thought about an answer for that?
