The answer to this question is both simple, and also quite challenging. Quite simply, elect as a noun means chosen, selected, preferred or spared. The challenge is to perceive accurately how this term is applied, and is to be understood across the ages and pages of The Bible. This book was written over a span of several millennia, an untold number of cultures, and against the backdrop of God’s grand, eternal, redemption strategy for humanity. Across this span, there are several nuanced meanings of this very broad term, elect, not just one.
Perhaps the best meaning of elect may well be:
A people in a particular age of God’s plans whom He selected, or will select, who selected, or will select Him.
In His Sovereignty, God, in the person of Jesus, The Lord, foreknew (a) those who would and would not embrace Him by faith, and (b) those who would only believe or come to know Him, not by faith, but after their encounter with Him. The latter group includes those who meet Him at the point of their judgment, whether judgment destroys or spares them as part of His ‘judgment remnant’. For example, The Book of Ezekiel cites many nations and peoples who would be severely judged, some to the point of death, and others who would be spared in a remnant group. In these cases, God insists (48 times!) both groups will, ‘Know I Am The Lord.’ Indeed, in the end, all people will come to this knowledge, but for many, in death it will be too late.
In every age of humanity, I believe some people will come to know God by faith, and will, therefore, factor in His ‘elect group’ for that age. 1 They will all ‘be saved’ from eternal damnation. However, there is one unique group of people to which I perceive the term, ‘elect’ applies, but who will only believe after their stark encounter with The Lord while they are alive. Please read that again and stay tuned~
A fuller understanding of this group requires a review of the likely composition of the nation, Israel, during the Millennial Reign. In Exodus 19:6, The Lord tells Moses Israel shall be ‘a kingdom of priests unto Me and a holy nation’. This vision will be fulfilled during the coming Millennial Reign of Christ, and possibly beyond. Here’s how I believe this may unfold.
Just prior to the start of the Millennial Reign, there will be many people the world over who will survive the great tribulation, including un-saved Jews, both those in Israel, and those strewn across the tribulation-torn world. Many newly converted Christians and Jews will have been killed during the global reign of the final anti-Christ, especially those who will have come to faith in Jesus as The Messiah based on the ministry of a unique, specially-anointed, 144,000 Jewish witnesses.
In fulfillment of Exodus 19:6, ALL unsaved, mortal, Jewish, tribulation survivors and their subsequent offspring (born during the Millennial Reign) will comprise two of four groups in the nation of Israel during the Millennial Reign. Tribulation survivors will likely be branded with the 'mark of the beast', and they will quickly die off, in accordance with our current-day life span. Their offspring, however, will enjoy much longer a life span, possibly a thousand years and more. (See the Salvation in the Millennium series.) This particular group will be the crowd spoken of in Zechariah 12:10:
And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they [tribulation Jewish survivors, the remnants or descendants of ancient Jews, including those who were alive when Jesus was crucified] will look on Me [Jesus, The Messiah] whom they pierced [crucified]. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.
...and as confirmed in John 19:37: They will look on Him Whom they have pierced.
The nation will also comprise two groups of resurrected, immortal Jewish saints:
(1) those who will have been saved, by faith, and raptured prior to the tribulation (i.e., saints from Adam-to-just before the tribulation), and
(2) those who will be saved, by faith, during the tribulation by the testimonies of the 144,000 Jewish witnesses.
Together, all four groups will comprise the nation to which I believe Exodus 19:6 refers, serving Christ for 1,000 years as ‘a kingdom of priests and a holy nation’, with each group having designated roles and functions. Additionally, I understand some immortal Jewish saints will also be appointed as vassal kings/sub-kings in charge of cities across the greatly e-x-p-a-n-d-e-d nation of Israel, just as many Gentile immortal saints will be designated as vassal kings across the entire surviving gentile world. For example, David will likely be appointed as vassal king over Jerusalem, reporting to Jesus, global King. But since there will be many more immortal saints than there will be cities in Israel and the world, I believe the majority immortal saints may be, not vassal kings, per se, but fonctionnaires in the designated vassal king’s city governments. This is equivalent to my experience as a diplomat serving in U.S. embassies during my career. In the millennium, each designated vassal king will require a ‘court’ or ’house’ (e.g., like ‘The House of Saud’ in Saudi Arabia). I believe we will each receive our millennial assignments during our time in Heaven as the great tribulation unfolds on Earth.
The term, priestly nation, does not infer every inhabitant in Israel at that time will be a priest, as it may sound. For example, in ancient times, Levites and other Jews throughout the land carried-out unique functions in support of (fonctionnaires [French] to) the broader priesthood functions. They did this in both the temple and in the king’s nationwide court, but they were not priests. Also, the majority of the population in ancient Israel were neither priests, Levites or in the king’s expansive court! They were just regular citizens.
Neither does the term, holy nation, infer all Israel will be glorified saints in their immortal bodies, like Jesus. Again, at that time, Israel will obviously comprise both mortal Jewish tribulation survivors, and two groups of immortal Jewish saints who will have returned from Heaven-to-Earth with Christ, along with immortal Gentile saints, per Zechariah 14, 1 Thessalonians 3:13, 2 Thessalonians 4:14, and Revelation 19:11-14. 2 Keep in mind a key meaning of the word, holy, is SEPARATED, not necessarily ‘altogether righteous before God’. I suspect this is a point many folks either may not know, or overlook it if they do know.
This scenario of a blended Israel is affirmed by the fact that, during the Millennial Reign, there will be sacrifices for sins of all mortals, worldwide, including for Jewish mortals living in Israel. Some Christians today misconstrue references to this to infer we resurrected saints will engage in such. This is the result of failing to perceive the various population groups in the Millennial Reign both in Israel and across the entire world! Similarly, their failure to perceive the 7 ages of humanity and the saints The Lord is harvesting at the end of each age leads them to misinterpret the word, saints, to mean we who comprise the Church age. This is why a strategic (rather than a religious) reading of The Bible is critical.
Once again, I believe the nation of Israel during the Millennial Reign period will comprise:
A. Immortal, Jewish saints, from Adam-to-just before the tribulation, who embraced God, by faith
B. Immortal, tribulation, Jewish saints who embraced God, by faith (folks who will have been hunted and slain by the anti-Christ
C. Mortal (unsaved), Jewish survivors of the tribulation and the Armageddon War, Jews who will look upon, and mourn for Jesus whom they [their ancestors] crucified, plus their subsequent, long-living offspring born during the Millennial Reign
Finally, clarifying the meaning of elect in Christian circles may ultimately settle on two key questions, about which there are many opinions:
(1) Who are the people referred to as ‘Earth’s harvest’ in Revelation 14:14-16 whom Jesus will ‘spiritually reap’ from Heaven?
(2) Who are ‘the elect’ in Matthew 24:31 whom angels will ‘physically gather from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other’?
(See Part 2 here)
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1 The Bible reveals seven ‘ages’ of and for humanity: (1) pre-flood, (2) post-flood/pre-cross, (3) post-cross (Church Age), (4) tribulation period, (5) Millennial Reign, (6) post-Millennial Reign, and (7) eternity. With such a GRAND, multi-millennial strategic plan, The Lord harvests ‘saints fruits’ from each of the first six ages for our seventh age. Ponder that…
2 See: The 4th DoA (Poem, Part 6) and If You Were King (Poem) for my thoughts on potential roles and functions of Gentile immortal saints during the Millennial Reign. Exciting!
