Explain who God chooses as per Ephesians.
You do not believe God makes a choice which is even more sinful.
Manfred, when you and your fellow Calvinists say you believe Ephesians, you do not mean you believe Ephesians, you mean you believe the Calvinist perversion of Ephesians from chapter 1, verse 4, which is explained in the remainder of the epistle and is evidenced by historical fact and recorded in the Acts of the apostles and upon which the revelation of the "mystery of Christ" is built.
If I were guessing, I would venture the guess that you have never been interested in what this mystery is, though it is plainly stated in Ephesians 3:6 and gives us the mind of God and his type of thinking in words he has chosen to make humble Christians with a knee that is bowed to him understand. Humility and submission does not describe Calvinists of any stripe.
This plan and purpose
FOR THIS AGE WHILE HE IS FORMING HIS CHURCH WITH JEWS FIRST AND THEN GENTILES is what this epistle is all about. Of course the Jews are mentioned first in this body, Eph 1:3-12, because they are first in this body, beginning in Jerusalem in AD 30 when the Holy Spirit was sent down from heaven to indwell individual members of a body of believers in Christ and to baptize (immerse) the individual member into the mystical body as a functioning and integral member of that body that God has chosen. God has not chosen who is in the body but he has chosen the body because the body is Christ.
Here is the beginning clearly stated by Peter, a Jew who had been saved for 10 years when he said this and had never seen a gentile saved until this time. Here it.
Acts 10:45 And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles
ALSO was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. (
Read the word also in Ephesians 1:13 for the transition to include gentiles in something that God had already started through the Jews)
46 For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God. Then answered Peter,
47 Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?
13 And he shewed us how he had seen an angel in his house, which stood and said unto him, Send men to Joppa, and call for Simon, whose surname is Peter;
14 Who shall tell thee words, whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved.
15 And as I began to speak,
the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning.
16 Then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that he said, John indeed baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost.
17 Forasmuch then as God gave them (Gentiles) t
he like gift (it was not faith BTW) as he did unto us,
who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ; what was I, that I could withstand God?
This is the beginning for gentiles as the scriptures clearly say. Acts 2 was the beginning for the Jews. I can easily prove in one post that this is a brand new age, separate and distinct from the previous age, and God has a certain purpose he is working out in it. There are passages that tell us when that purpose of his will be accomplished and what will bring this age to an end and what will happen then. The mysteries are revealed through the apostles and the mystery of the church of Jesus Christ is known through the scriptures of the apostle Paul, who was chosen of God to reveal it to Christians with a heart for God and his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
Here is the beginning for gentiles, ckearly stated and connected to the giving of the Holy Ghost to indwell their mortal bodies.
2 Thess 2:13 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:
14 Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Calvinists have a different means of being chosen, which is a lie.
John 4:22
Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.
Acts 3:24 Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days.
25 Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed.
26
Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.
God has chosen all who the Spirit of God baptizes into the body of Christ, Jew or gentile.
The Spirit indwells every person who hears the gospel of Jesus Christ and believes. This would preclude anyone previous to this age who did not live in this age. It will exclude anyone who is still here when this age ends and the next one begins. The purpoe of God in this age is to form a bride for Christ from his wounded side and, when complete, to present her to him as his help meet. We will rule and reign with him for eternity.
11 Wherefore remember, that ye being
in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;
12 That
at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:
13
But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
This is a partial explanation of Ephesians and the NT scriptures. The theology you try to convince people of is embarrassing.