And this “choosing” takes place “before the foundation of the world” according to the text you cited. Your own example disproves your assertion.
So the choosing is not individualistic. Nothing in scripture says so what He has done is prior to anyone being saved God chose to elect those who are in Him.
There has been no evidence to support this.
"(1) Objection that election takes place when we are saved
because we are elected "in" Christ.
"This is stated in Eph. 1:4, which we have just quoted. But note that this same passage makes election eternal;
"before the foundation of the world".
"Why will men thus array a single passage of Scripture against itself? The statement that we were elected
"in" Christ means no more than that Christ was the ground of our election (election being on the basis of His saving work), and that we were foreknown as being in Christ in the purpose of God.
"The language here is the language of Him who, in His purpose,
"calleth things that are not, as though they were" (Rom. 4:17).
"We have another example of this in Rom. 8:29,30, where the calling, justification, and glorification of all the elect are put in the past tense. We were not actually and experientially in Christ in eternity, nor were we actually and experientially called, justified, and glorified in eternity; but we were in the purpose of God, and this is the meaning of the passage just cited.
"(2) Objection that we are elected when we are saved on the ground that the Scripture never applies the term "elect" to any except the saved.
"It is true that the term
"elect," in some places in the Scripture, has exclusive reference to saved persons. Such a use of the term may be seen in Matt. 22:24; Luke 18:7; Rom. 8:23; 1 Peter 1:2.
"These passages refer only to those in whom election has been applied and made experiential. But it is not to these only that the term
"elect" and its equivalents are applied.
"In Eph. 1:4 and 2 Thess. 2:13, as we have seen, the elect are said to have been such from eternity. Then the term
"sheep" is equivalent to the term
"elect," and in John 10:16 we have Christ's application of the term
"sheep" to the lost Gentiles that were yet to be saved. This passage reads:
"Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold (the Jewish nation):
them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice;
and there shall be one flock, one shepherd."
"But, to the further discomfiture of Arminians, we find that 2 Tim. 1:10 applies the term
"elect" in its possessive form to those who were not yet saved.
"The passage reads.
"I endure all things for the elect's sake,
that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus
with eternal glory."
(3) Objection that we are elected when we are saved
on the ground that the Scripture puts calling before election.
"It is a fact that sometimes the Scripture, in referring to both the calling and election of believers, or in alluding to the called and elected, mentions the former first. See Matt. 22:14; 2 Pet. 1:10; Rev. 17:14.
"The "called" of Matt. 22:14 (the Greek word being an adjective used substantively) are those to whom only the general, external, and, for the most part, ineffectual call, through the preaching of the gospel, is sounded. This class is composed of many. But of these only a few, comparatively speaking, belong to the chosen, elect, as evidenced by the fact that only the few believe the gospel.
"The other two passages cited mention calling and election in the order in which they are realized in the experience. One knows his election only by the calling (quickening) that he has received of the Holy Spirit.
"That the passages given above do not fix the chronological or even the logical, order of calling and election is evident from the proofs that have been given of the eternity of election, and from Rom. 8:29,30, where the order is manifestly the true logical order.
"There foreknowledge and predestination, which involve election, are placed before calling. Then Rom. 8:28 asserts that we are called (particularly, internally, and effectually)
"according to His" (God's) "purpose."
"And this purpose involves election.
"Thus election must precede calling,
just as the purpose to call must precede the actual call
since the calling is according to the divine purpose.
"Those who urge this objection against the eternity of election
need to note that the Scripture does not always name things
in either their logical or chronological order.
"For instance, 2 Tim. 1:9 puts salvation before calling.
"(4) Objection that election takes place when we are saved
on the ground that we are elected
through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.
This objection is based on the King James translation
of 2 Thess. 2:13 and 1 Pet. 1:2.
"This first passage says, in the King James version, that we were elected
"to salvation through the sanctification of the Spirit
and belief of the truth."
"The second passage says, according to the same version, that we are
"elect . . . through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience
and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ."
"The Greek preposition translated
"through" by the King James translators is "en." And it is rather disconcerting to Arminians to note that the Revised Version translates this preposition "in" instead of "through." But it is ruining to them to note that N. M. Williams says of this preposition:
"It expresses a state, not an act; not 'through,' but 'in.'
The Greek preposition seldom expresses instrumentality"
(An American [Baptist] Commentary on the New Testament).
"The Greek preposition alludes to the state the people addressed
were in at the time they were addressed, and does not signify
the means by which they became the elect of God."
from: A Systematic Study of Bible Doctrine
by Thomas Paul Simmons.
Chapter 20 The Doctrine of Election.
See New thread:
Comprehensive references to The Triune Godhead's Eternal Concern toward Their Elect children.
