Theologicalmeditations

2. Characteristics of the External Call a. The external call is addressed universally to all men. This is suggested by Mt. 22:14, “Many are called, but few are chosen.” Here we see that the external call is broader than election. The fact that the Gospel is offered universally is found in those passages which speak in broad universal terms. For example, John 3:16 says, “whosoev...

(2d) The subjects of this redemption are those persons whom God has from all eternity elected of his sovereign good pleasure, out of the mass of fallen humanity, to everlasting life. This number is never said to be small, either absolutely or relatively. The promise to Abraham was that “his seed” (believers) should be multiplied “as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which...