JEFF TURNER

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a topic of much debate. This writing is the conclusion of the author, but the Bible is the ultimate authority.

When God told the Apostle Paul to stay in Corinth because he had many people in that city, the natural question is how there could already be God’s people in a place where the gospel had not yet been preached. The answer is not that God saves people apart from the gospel; scripture is clear on that point in multiple places. Faith comes through hearing, and hearing requires someone to bring the message. No one is saved without first receiving and believing the gospel.

What the verse does point to is the reality of God’s sovereign election. Before the world was made, God determined who he would save and those names were written in the book of life. He knows his people before his people know him. When he told Paul that he had people in Corinth, he was saying that there were individuals there who would believe when they heard the message, because they had already been chosen. This is not a reason to skip evangelism; it is the very reason evangelism works. The preaching of the gospel is the means God uses to call the people he has already chosen.

just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons and daughters through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,

Ephesians 1:4-5