“And they that are with him are called, and chosen and faithful.” (Rev. 17:14)
Why has God chosen us and not them? It is easy for us to believe that we have been chosen by God. Yet is is more difficult to understand why we have been selected while others have not. Other people seem to be sincere, diligent, devout, Christian and consistent to principles. Yes, we have been chosen but why aren’t they also reckoned among God’s people?
Even though this topic may make us feel uncomfortable, it is important to consider. It guides us in how we are to respond to one another and it directs us in how we may serve our Heavenly Father. The approach that will be taken is prayerfully to reflect on those whom we know from scripture are the faithful. Then we will infer who it is today whom God calls.
Surprises from the list in Heb. 11
We can be certain that those listed in Hebrews 11 are among the faithful. (Heb. 11:39-40) Are there any surprises? Is there anyone who does not appear to belong on this list? There are at least three surprises.
In some ways, Isaac seems unsuited for the list:”by faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come.” (Heb. 11:20)
A reading of Genesis 27 suggests to many that Isaac favored Esau over Jacob and was blind to Esau’s faults. It is not easy to understand how it can be said that Isaac blessed Jacob in faith when Jacob only received the blessing by deceiving his father.
The inclusion of Samson (v.32) is puzzling to many because of Samson’s weaknesses for the daughters of the Philistines in spite of the objections of his parents.
Equally as surprising is what is said about Rahab: “By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace.” (v.13) She was a harlot, a Canaanite and a deceiver, yet was not disqualified from being numbered among the faithful.
Reflecting on these surprises, the principle seems to be that God still calls those who manifest significant weaknesses in the flesh.
Lessons from a genealogy
The New Testament opens with the words, “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham…So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations.” (Matt. 1:1,17)
There are certain peculiarities about this list. It is deliberately not complete in that a few generations are left out. It is said, for example, that Joram begat Uzziah (v.8) which leaves out Ahaziah, Joash and Amaziah. Many in the genealogy are not the firstborn son; Abraham, Judah, Jacob and David are examples. Note, too, that in the three divisions of the 14 generations, David is counted twice and alone is called a king. (v.6)
Clearly this genealogy is designed to teach us a number of lessons. One of these surely concerns the five woman who are specified: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, “the wife of Urias” and Mary. They include Gentiles, adulteresses and one who was with child before being married. Perhaps the lesson we are to receive is that God calls Gentiles, including those from nations that the Jews were to shun.
The classes of people God calls
Hebrews 11 and the genealogy in Matthew both contain a more diverse element of people than we would normally imagine. The pattern follows in the “mixed” community that left Egypt. (Ex. 12:38) It is also reflected in Revelation: “After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindred’s, and people, and tongues, stood before the Lamb.” (Rev. 7:9)
When we look at Christadelphians today, are we a great multitude? Are we from every nation and province or area within that nation? Are we so broadly representative of God’s creation that we speak many different languages and have found it necessary to have many different translations of our literature? For example, can we read Elpis Israel in Spanish or sing our hymns in Chinese? Are we a diverse group?
The challenge from scripture to Christadelphians
We credit John Thomas with discovering the Truth in these last days. In one sense, he was a modern-day Peter. Who then will be the Paul among us? The problem for Peter was that he was a Jew who spoke as a Galilean. It took a miracle on the day of Pentecost for Jews from many different countries to be able to understand Peter. It also took another miracle for Peter to fully realize that God also calls Gentiles as Gentiles.
A problem today is that our Christadelphian heritage, while not Galilean, is Anglo-Saxon in its nationality and English in its language. Nearly all Christadelphians are English speaking, yet God surely calls more than those who speak this language.
A further challenge to us, as it was for Peter, is that we Christadelphians feel more comfortable with those who are the most like us. This affects our preaching. We tend to abandon the cities, at least in North America, and take comfort in the suburbs where we locate our ecclesias. We are hesitant to follow up contacts from the cities. The overall result is our ecclesias, in the main, do not contain, in a manner of speaking, Jew and Greek but Jew only.
The unintended message we may be delivering is that we only reluctantly accept that all nations, people and tongues have an equal standing with God. If we were to cite our missionary efforts can we equally cite that we have identified the Apollos’ in our midst? (Acts 18:24-28) Apollos apparently learned about the Messiah from a missionary in Egypt and after further instruction from Priscilla and Aquila was widely used as a teacher. Can we say, for example, that the speakers at our Bible schools have been selected from the Apollos’ God has called in Egypt, Ethiopia, Athens or Rome?
Are there answers?
There are answers for the present composition of our ecclesias. First of all, we need to recognize there is a problem of our being so homogeneous. We may, at times, unintentionally discourage others from feeling at home in our midst. The single brother or sister who has left family to join us and is from a different ethnic background requires active reaching out to from all of us. In general, we need to be certain that converts are welcome within our families of second to-sixth-generation Christadelphians.
We need to be guided by the abundant examples in scripture in which symbolic actions and contrived genealogies are used to demonstrate how widely it is that God calls. We need to be careful that we don’t permanently treat brethren from areas where we send missionaries as if they will never become capable of ministering to us. We need to find the Apollos’ in our midst, invite them to share our platforms at Bible schools and special efforts. To find the Apollos’ we must be prepared also to go down into Egypt!
Most important of all we need to give prayerful consideration as to where we locate our ecclesias and how this will affect our efforts to preach in cities such as Athens or Alexandria. Should we be satisfied when our ecclesias grow from baptisms among our own children but include few from outside the ecclesial family?
“We are also his offspring”
It may have been disturbing for us to consider if we are totally representative of those whom God calls. This topic has been a necessary one because of the language of Scripture and the relatively narrow spectrum of people represented by Christadelphia. We need to beware of becoming smug in this present day when our ecclesias contain fewer converts and we are satisfied that we are adequately strengthening the things that remain. We need to be sure we are instruments of God’s calling to all the world and to every creature. We need to seek God’s guidance so that we may welcome those who may not be of our natural background but who would respond to the opportunity to join us in the family of God.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One