>>>"I'm a pardoned gentile, but I'm not one of the Chosen People. They're the apple of his eye."
How can he be so sure who "they" are, or even who he himself may be in God's eyes?
Deut 32:9-10
9 For the LORD's portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.
10 He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.
People, even pastors, don't read (and understand) the Scriptures enough to know the difference between Judah, Israel, Jacob, Joseph, etc. depending on the context.
Rom 11:25-27
25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that ***blindness in part is happened to Israel***, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
26 And so ***all Israel shall be saved***: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
27 For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.
ALL Israel shall be saved. All of Israel is the apple of God's eye. This pastor wrongly equates the descendants of Judah with "all Israel".
What Jesus said about the Pharisees still applies today:
Matt 15:14
14 Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.
There's a big ditch coming up ahead.
He may very well be correct, even if he doesn't know what he is saying (or because he doesn't know what he is saying)
Matthew 24:31 And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect* from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
1588 eklektos {ek-lek-tos'}
from 1586; TDNT - 4:181,505; adj
AV - elect 16, chosen 7; 23
1) picked out, chosen
1a) chosen by God,
1a1) to obtain salvation through Christ
1a1a) Christians are called "chosen or elect" of God
1a2) the Messiah in called "elect", as appointed by God to the
most exalted office conceivable
1a3) choice, select, i.e. the best of its kind or class,
excellence preeminent: applied to certain individual
Christians
Oops.