Who are God's 'chosen', who is the judge, man or God?


I was reading my lesson a few weeks back and looking up some verses in the scriptures, when something struck me in my study and left me thinking.

Everyone always tries to argue who are God's people, the 'chosen', the 'remnant', 'spiritual Israel' and declare that they are 'Gods chosen', or by following the 'letter of of the law' or by strictly restricting their behaviour they achieve the status of 'Gods chosen' and thus are 'saved', but what does God say.

Philippians 3:9
And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:


No one can declare themselves saved, we cannot save ourselves, salvation by faith is not salvation by works or by presumptous declaration or anyone could just 'say it' or give lip service of their piety, but God will be the final judge. Christ will be our advocate but God will still judge each and everyone, God will look at our case and if it says 'covered by the Christ's righteousness' we are guaranteed eternal life.

Revelation 20:12
And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.


Christ came not to judge the world but to save it, but it is still God who judges at the end.

John 12:44-48
44Then Jesus cried out, "When a man believes in me, he does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me. 45When he looks at me, he sees the one who sent me. 46I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.
47"As for the person who hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save it. 48There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day.


It is God who decides who are His people and who will be saved, those who say "I have accepted Christ" but dont really mean it or follow as He asks will be set aside, those who say I follow all the laws but do not love God or fail to see the true meaning of the law will be set aside, those who have false piety or use "cheap grace" to cover their contiuning sin will be set aside, and those who did all the 'works' of helping the poor and needy not from love but to gain favour of man, God will be set aside.....

Man cannot declare 'I am saved' or take eternal life as a prize from their own works or labors, it is a gift through Jesus Christ and it is God not man who decides whether you accepted it and are His people when He judges:

God's Sovereign Choice
1I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit— 2I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, 4the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. 5Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised![a] Amen.
6It is not as though God's word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. 7Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham's children. On the contrary, "It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned."[b] 8In other words, it is not the natural children who are God's children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham's offspring. 9For this was how the promise was stated: "At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son."[c]

10Not only that, but Rebekah's children had one and the same father, our father Isaac. 11Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—in order that God's purpose in election might stand: 12not by works but by him who calls—she was told, "The older will serve the younger."[d] 13Just as it is written: "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated."[e]

14What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! 15For he says to Moses,
"I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion."[f] 16It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy. 17For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: "I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth."[g] 18Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.

19One of you will say to me: "Then why does God still blame us? For who resists his will?" 20But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? "Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, 'Why did you make me like this?' "[h] 21Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?

22What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? 23What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory— 24even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? 25As he says in Hosea:
"I will call them 'my people' who are not my people;
and I will call her 'my loved one' who is not my loved one,"[i] 26and,
"It will happen that in the very place where it was said to them,
'You are not my people,'
they will be called 'sons of the living God.' "[j]

27Isaiah cries out concerning Israel:
"Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea,
only the remnant will be saved.
28For the Lord will carry out
his sentence on earth with speed and finality."[k]

29It is just as Isaiah said previously:
"Unless the Lord Almighty
had left us descendants,
we would have become like Sodom,
we would have been like Gomorrah."[l]

Israel's Unbelief
30What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; 31but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. 32Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the "stumbling stone." 33As it is written:
"See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble
and a rock that makes them fall,
and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame."[m]

Romans 9:1-33


Many who 'say' they are saved and declare that they are 'righteous' but dont believe that God has the final say, will stumbled over the "stumbling stone" as they depend not on God but on themselves or on man's desire or effort to gain eternal life and have no faith........

Richard to Maritime SDA OnLine!

You have begun an interesting topic, therefore, it will be interesting to see how this topic develops.

Chosen for what purpose? I hope you are not presuming that after God created the human race he lost his paternity rights. This type of nonsense Christianity can do without.

Yes, Richard, the "remnant" is defined by God and God chooses his people: yet, all are predestined to be called (Rom 8) but few agree with being chosen.

Also, while Jesus came the first time not to judge but to save from sin and death, the second time he comes to judge those who don't want saving (not forgetting the judgement day isn't the second coming, but the unbelievers are dealt with at the second coming!).

Why do we insist that there can be a remnant in the presence of the rest? That is a logical impossibility. The remnant is not a part of the whole. The remnant is the part of the whole that remains at the end. As long as the rest of the whole is present and active it is ludicrous to speak of the remnant -- unless we acknowledge that all that remains is the remnant. We should try to construct a logical teaching.

We do not insist, the scriptures make it clear.....

Revelation 12:17
And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

The Bible speaks of a remnant. Our doctrine does not present a remnant but a segment. Those are two different ideas.

I would say the SDA church is Christ's church which follows His testimony, and since there is no other church with a more fullness of truth that it has, it is the 'Remnant Church'

Those that keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ are the remnant...

I would wonder, who is the woman spoken of? The woman who was persecuted through the times and also had given birth to the child whom we identify as Jesus? Maybe John is talking about the Jewish people and their long history of pogroms? But maybe John had in mind Pauls words that the Church is grafted in to the Jewish religion in which case both groups persecution would be included? In all cases, the woman who is the mother of her seed is at all times described as in the care of God. And because of the commandment to honour our parents, would this then not suggest that we who claim to be the remnant of her seed ought to honor the church in whos lineage we came? Collectively as a group, I do not think we have done that very well.

Here is a sermon that shows that there are some baptist preachers who take the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ very seriously.
http://www.heartcrymissionary.com/component/option,com_weblinks/task,view/catid,38/id,21/