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unmindful of THE PURPOSE for which the Father did draw us and
put us in His Church NOW -- ahead of time -- before the other
three billion, six hundred million will be called?
The Day of Pentecost is called in God's Word the Feast of
Firstfruits. We are merely the first little preliminary harvest
of God's children. Unless we fulfill God's SPECIAL PURPOSE for
our calling now, we might never go into His Kingdom. THIS FACT
MUST NOT BE TAKEN CARELESSLY!
How many of us become unmindful of God's purpose and assume
we were called and put into God's Church only to GET our personal
salvation -- and to ENJOY the fellowship and social life of our
local church? WHY does God deny the other 3,600,000,000 people
that blessing NOW? For, except the Father draw them, none could
come to Christ! He said so!
Most people in the "Christian world" suppose Christ came to
"save the world," to start a "soul-winning" crusade. They assume
the apostles and their successors started the program of trying to
convert the whole world. They believe this is the "day of
salvation" -- and the ONLY time or age in which humanity may be
"saved."
They misconstrue the following: "For he saith, I have heard
thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I
succored thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is
the day of salvation" (II Cor. 6:2). Many insist it says now "is
THE day of salvation" -- and they construe it to mean the ONLY
time when God is trying to convert and "save" the world.
But that verse is quoted from Isaiah 49:8, where it says
"A DAY" -- not "the day."
Most Are Blinded
The eleventh chapter of Romans makes the truth plain. Some
had been saying God had cast away His people Israel. The Apostle
Paul denies this. He reminds them of how Elijah had thought he
alone remained faithful to God and all others had been cast away.
God had reminded Elijah that He had reserved seven thousand that
had not knelt before Baal. Even so, says Paul, there was in the
mid-first century a comparatively small remnant that had received
God's grace -- a very small minority compared to many MILLIONS.
And all the rest (verse 7) were blinded! God blinded them so that
they could not see or comprehend God's truth.
Then Paul compares Israel to the olive tree. The people of
Israel are the branches of the tree -- broken off because of
disbelief. That is, they did not believe what God had revealed to
them, but instead they disobeyed -- and sinned. The Gentiles who
had received God's grace were pictured as branches of wild olive
trees, now grafted into the natural olive tree -- ISRAEL. And
the Israelites, broken off, upon repentance, belief, and
conversion, were grafted back in again.