 Is election biblical? Well, most people who read their Bible are going to say yes it's biblical. The question is what do we mean by election? What do we mean by God having chosen someone? Is it God choosing someone based upon them choosing him first? Is it God choosing someone before they even want to or have the ability to choose? Is it, as some would even say, that what God actually chooses is the method, the means by which a person can be saved? Well, I want to look at a passage that we've all covered before we looked at it. I want to show you how there's only really one way that you can take this passage because, again, we all speak a language. Right now it's English. There are rules to English, but even if we go and look at the language in which this was written, the language that was spoken at the time, Greek, which was the language of Franka, we can see because of their rules how we should take this particular passage. So that being said, let's go to Ephesians chapter one. Let's go ahead and start in verse three. That's not a problem. And then we'll make our way to verses four and possibly five. But in three says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Just as, and so what this part just as is from the Greek word kathos, which is saying even as or it's kind of given an example of what he's done. And so he says just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him. Now the question is going to be what exactly does that mean? There are some, there are some who take election to mean, and by the way, the word is literally election in the Bible. The word to choose or to elect gets there. So we cannot get past that, but it's how we define election. And there are some that I'll say, well, no, it's not that God chose us who are happened to happen to be believers, that he chose us before we would choose him. Before the world was he decided to choose us. Some will say, no, what it was was before the world, he decided to choose Jesus as the vehicle. In other words, look at it this way. We are all saved if we're in Christ. And so some would say that what is the chosen vessel isn't us. It's Jesus. In other words, he's the, he's the bus and God has chosen him to be the bus. And then if we happen to get on, well, then if we're on that bus, well, then we'll be saved. Whereas others would say, no, Jesus is not the bus. We are the ones that's chosen. And he chooses us to get on the bus. And there's a difference. So let's see which one of these passages or which one of these beliefs are correct. And maybe I think the grammar sets it makes it clear. Matter of fact, make I think irrefutable. Now I could be wrong. But before I go to the passage, I want to talk about a couple of things. In English, just the basic sentence structure, especially if there's a verb in it, we would say something like I threw the ball to John. Well, I would be the subject, but throw was obviously the verb. And then John, the ball is what we call the direct object. And then the indirect object is to John. Now I don't have to have the indirect object for the sentence to be complete. I could just say I threw the ball. And then to John, the indirect object being added gives extra clarification. Matter of fact, it helps to clarify. Well, we're going to see the same thing here. We're going to see a verb. We're going to see a direct object and we're going to see an indirect object. As a matter of fact, it's important to even look at the mood of that particular verb. So he says that he obviously God chose us. And here's the Greek word. This is guys in, if you look down at the bottom of the screen, this is in the singular eras, middle indicative, meaning that it's God who chose for himself. So since God is the one who chose for himself, it's in the middle voice, he's doing it for his benefit. Doing what? Well, he chose and who did he choose? Is it that he chose Christ or that he chose us? Well, we'll know who was chosen by looking at the direct object in Greek. This word right here, this is Hamas, which is for us. This is what's called the accusative. It is in the accusative and in Greek, the accusative is the direct object. Then we'll find and notice what we were chosen to be in or chosen for what. We'll see that this word, these two words and auto, which is in him, the auto that is in the dative. The dative is the indirect object. So it would be difficult to come back and say that God chose Jesus as the method. If that were the case, if Jesus was the one that was chosen for us to be saved in, that we have to then be in him, then the auto would be in the accusative or the him would be in the accusative. Jesus would be in the accusative, but no, it's us. He chose us and this is Paul speaking. He says, well, he chose us, chose us for what? To be in him. He chose us in him. Are you with me? Now, unless I've gotten my grammar incorrect, be it Greek or English, then this should be pretty clear in the fact that he was the one chose for his benefit. Now, some are going to want to say, well, wait a second, though, wait a second, chose us when? That's also something that we ought to look at. And so if we continue looking, that we would be holy and blameless before him. But look what he says. He chose us when? Before the foundation of the world. So ex laxitas hemas ain't out to pra katabales, this pra katabales, this pra before the foundation, Cosmo of the world. And then anay hemas, which is to be us, that is, that we would be holy and blameless. But this is what I want to focus on, this pra katabales, before the foundation of the world. So when did he choose us? Not choosing us after we chose him, but choosing us before the world existed. Should we take this pra katabales as to mean before the world existed? Well, yes, because we can go back and look at other times that this pra katabales was used. One other example would be John, chapter 17, verse 24. Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me, this is Jesus praying, be with me where I am going, so that they may see my glory, which you have given me. And look what he says, for you love me before the foundation of the world. Now look at the verbiage over here. You love me, aga peisas me pra katabales, before and also Cosmo of the world. So before the foundation of the world, he didn't love Jesus, not saying that he loved him since the world was. He loved him before there was a world. Pray with me, before the earth existed. The exact same verbiage is used there. As a matter of fact, if we go to John 17.5, we'll see something similar to it in John 17.5. He says, now Father glorify me with your own presence, with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. Now it's not pra katabales, but in this case, it's pra tutan, Cosmo, which is pra before the world existed. So this verbiage that we see with this Greek word pra should be taken as before. Before there was the world going back to Ephesians 1, before there was the world, what did God do? God chose us in him. So all of us that are in him, we were chosen in him when, before the world was. Before there was you making a decision, before God seeing that what you're going to do. No, none of these things are in play here. What's in play here is that he chose you. And then if we go to verse five, we can look and see what he says. Chose us, he predestined. Now the word pravoresus, which necessarily means to destined and advanced predetermined, does not mean, it cannot mean that you destined us after you saw what we were going to do. Then that would take away the term for destined and certainly predestined. Predestined necessarily means before you do anything, which also means before seeing you do anything. So he predestined us to be, to, uh, predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ. Now we will be adopted through Jesus Christ and how was this done? Why was this done? Well, the Bible says, according to his kind intention, according to his good will, according to his purpose. And so we might not agree with that. But again, this is us being predestined, according to his good will, according to, in this case, according to his kind intention. It's not some arbitrary way of doing so, though we don't fully understand why and how and so forth. That is many things. Similarly, when we do something for our children and our children might not understand why or how, it doesn't mean that it's not done. Our lack of understanding does not negate what God has done. Or in this case, what he's done and what he said. So to me, I think it's pretty clear that yes, he does elect, that he does choose. There are going to be some folks who are on the Calvinist side, those who are non-Calvinists. It's not a Calvinist position, though Calvinists do hold to this position. I'm not a Calvinist, but I also hold to this position as well. Why? Because the scriptures say so. Now, some are going to say, what about free will? Or what about this? Or what about that? Before we deal with that, I would ask anyone that would disagree to simply look at the text. Because if you disagree that God chooses us based on his own good pleasure, even though he might not share with us why, before the world, if you disagree with that, then I would ask that you would just simply look at this text and tell me why do I take, why is this text the way that I've taken it? Why is it wrong? Why is the grammar that I've used when looking at the subject, the verb, the direct object, and the indirect object? Where did I go wrong? Because in order for another passage to negate this, this passage also has to say the same thing unless we're going to say that we have a contradiction. I don't think that we're going to say that there's a contradiction in the scriptures. So we're going to have to say that if I'm wrong, where am I wrong in this passage? Now, I've covered other passages before dealing with election and so forth. But this passage, in and of itself, means what it means. And so if anyone disagrees, I'd be willing to hear why I was wrong, how my understanding of the Greek grammar, or even English grammar, for that matter, how it's wrong, how it's flawed. So we look forward to seeing you guys comment if you agree or disagree. Amen.