Only if you cling on to +Paul, as interpreted by Protestants. Truly, you need to move on and diversify your biblical references.
"If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?" (1 Pet 4:18)
Only if you cling on to +Paul, as interpreted by Protestants. Truly, you need to move on and diversify your biblical references.
I am always willing to look at any scripture, it just so happens that Paul takes up a huge chunk of the NT. :) Several verses make clear that the concept of the elect is a "pre-" concept. God has already chosen them, before Judgment day. For example:
Mark 13:20-22 : 20 If the Lord had not cut short those days, no one would survive. But for the sake of the elect, whom he has chosen, he has shortened them. 21 At that time if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or, 'Look, there he is!' do not believe it. 22 For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and miracles to deceive the elect — if that were possible.
But I can't ignore what Paul says either: :)
2 Tim 2:10 : Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory. (i.e. the elect are the elect before they are saved)
Rom 9:10-13 : 10 Not only that, but Rebekah's children had one and the same father, our father Isaac. 11 Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad — in order that God's purpose in election might stand: 12 not by works but by him who calls — she was told, "The older will serve the younger." 13 Just as it is written: "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated."
The order in all of these is clear.
"If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?" (1 Pet 4:18)
Yes, by any human imagination of it, it took a TON of God's work for any man to be saved. There HAD to be an Incarnation, there HAD to be a crucifixion, there HAD to be a resurrection, there HAD to be the overcoming of men's hardened hearts, etc. We agree this is no small potatoes. My view is that Peter is saying that since God did this only for the elect, what chance do the ungodly have of becoming saved on their own, or by any other way? Zero.