https://www.facebook.com/sing.f.lau/videos/830585835440039
Good morning, bro
Sing.
I have another
question.
2 Thessalonians 2:13
[13]But we are bound
to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God
hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the
Spirit and belief of the truth:
Apostle Paul
mentioned "to salvation."
Is the salvation
mentioned by the Apostle Paul in that verse the eternal salvation, bro?
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Dear Brother,
Thanks for the
question.
Let us make a few
observations to help us to answer your good question.
i. The salvation to
which God has, from the beginning, chosen the Thessalonians saints is described
as through both the sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.
- The salvation
spoken of is through the instrumentality of the sanctification of the Spirit
AND the belief of the truth of the gospel presented.
- Paul’s ministry
among them was blessed by the Spirit to their sanctification, i.e. their
separation from darkness, ignorance, superstition, falsehood, etc. and belief
of the truth, i.e. conversion to the truth of their salvation in Jesus Christ.
- The Apostle Paul
said in 1Th 1:5
"For our gospel
came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and
in much assurance; as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your
sake."
ii. How do we
understand the words “from the beginning” then?
- What’s the
context? From the beginning of what?
- The Thessalonians
were among the early converts of Apostle Paul’s ministry, i.e. from the
beginning of his ministry.
- The elect were
chosen unto eternal salvation from BEFORE the foundation of the world, Eph 1:4
- The Thessalonian
saints were among those chosen by God to experience the temporal salvation that
comes through the gospel ministry, from the beginning of Apostle Paul’s gospel
ministry.
The next verse reads thus, “Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of
our Lord Jesus Christ.”
“whereunto” – unto
to said salvation in the previous verse, God called you by our gospel. The
salvation is through the instrumentality of the gospel ministry administered by
the Apostle Paul.
The obtainment of
the said glory of our Lord Jesus Christ is through the instrumentality of the
gospel ministry. So this glory is not related to eternal salvation but to a
saving knowledge of Christ through the
gospel ministry.
I conclude that the
salvation spoken of is NOT eternal salvation.
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p/s Dr John Gill, in
his commentary, says that it is eternal salvation.
It's impudent to disagree with a giant like Dr Gill.
But I beg to differ for the reasons stated above.
