Hi Dennis,
Did the apostles know - in their day that they were of the elect? It seems hard to believe that they were in doubt of their future when they even had contact with The Messiah Himself and you would think that the topic would have come up to assure them that they were OK, as part of the first resurrection. Where as for me I do not know.
As for the end times- I have been looking at this issue for some 50 years - but I think we are getting closer - that is all I can say and as far as I will go without making a total fool of my self!!!
Hi Johnny,
None of us can know with certainty if we are one of God's elect, and for me that is a blessing☺
When I think of Paul, and his experience on the road to Damascus, his miraculous transformation is a testimont to how God wills all in our lives, as to what our purpose will be in his plans. When he wills something for us it will not be from our own doing, but we can see and feel him working in us as Paul surely did. Maybe these scriptures will help.
Paul wrote this letter to the church at Philippi, while he was in prison.
Philippians 3 New International Version (NIV)
3 Further, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. 2 Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh. 3 For it is we who are the circumcision,we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh— 4 though I myself have reasons for such confidence.
If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more:5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee;6 as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.
7 But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in[a]Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. 10 I want to knowChrist—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
It sure looks like Paul understood because it was God's will for him.
15 All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. 16 Only let us live up to what we have already attained.
Acts 20:22-24
22 “And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. 23 I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. 24 However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.