Rom 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
Because of the censoring and removal of my posts where I established the prophecy of our Lord from Mt 22 and comparing it with the development of the history in Acts, and because it was foundational to anything further that I will say, this argument will not be as effective. I guess that may have been the point of censorship, eh?
The very first thing I would ask anyone to consider in trying to understand this passage biblically is to consider who Paul had in mind when he wrote it. For that I will go back to Romans 7:1 and read what it says there;
Rom 7:1 Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?
Answer the question; who would that be in AD 58?
Follow the logic. Paul continues to speak to those who know the law from Rom 7:1 through Rom 11:12, and then in Rom 11:13 he changes gears and the transition answers our question, who knows the law, as being Israel who has been divinely governed by that law until Jesus came and whose death ended it by fulfilling it. Look;
Rom 11:13 For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office:
14 If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them.
15 For if the casting away of them (Israel) be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead (life from the dead is a resurrection)?
Now, from verse 13 through verse 23, Paul speaks to gentiles about Israel and how their present refusal of Christ benefits the gentiles. (note; who God opened the door of faith to in AD 40 in Acts 10, ten years after he began saving the Jews in Acts 2). In those verses there is a dire warning to gentiles, which is also prophetic. You too will one day be cut off as they were if you fail too believe.
Then in Verse 24, Paul speaks to gentiles about gentiles.
Then, beginning in verse 25 and following, he speaks to the brethren, the church, you and me, the saved people who reads this, about the present blind, unbelieving people group that he has defined for the last 4 chapters as ISRAEL in the flesh = Jacob, and says he will save them and he tells us when and why and under what circumstances he will save them, not as a remnant, but in the entirety.
Foreknowledge is in this context of this Israel people group because of a previous covenant of promise relationship with them in the OT. If you do not accept that and embrace it there will be much light of understanding that will never shine on you. I would have been happy to develop this farther but whoever has been censoring my comments has convinced me that giving truth here is a very vain thing, and I am out of here.
