Matthew 24:31: The Gathering of God's Elect: Part 1
Matthew 24:31 NKJV
[31] "And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other."
This is a another verse that sounds as if it is referring to the end times, but is that what it is really about?
The entire passage is typically believed to be about the end times prior to the return of Christ, and verse 31 is commonly believed to be about the gathering of his people at the rapture. However, I think the passage is a prophecy made by Jesus of God's judgement of Jerusalem in AD 70, and that verse 31 may actually be about the gathering of God's people throughout the world through evangelism, rather than the gathering of His people at His return.
When you think about it, God began gathering His elect together when Jesus came and was sent by His Father to the lost sheep of Israel. During his short time on earth, many Jews and Gentiles repented and believed and came to the Father.
After Jesus ascended to the Father in heaven and took his seat on his throne, the Holy Spirit came upon his apostles and they and Jesus's disciples continued gathering his elect in Jerusalem until persecution broke out against them.
At that time, the church fled Jerusalem and were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria, just as Jesus prophesied would happen when the Holy Spirit came. They traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the gospel only to the Jews. However, some of them who were from Cyprus and Cyrene preached the Lord Jesus to Hellenists, who were Gentiles, and many of them believed and turned to the Lord.
The apostles remained in Jerusalem gathering His elect after persecution came, but according to Christian tradition, they assigned themselves certain areas of the world to reach. Each of them eventually left Jerusalem to take the gospel to their assigned areas, making disciples and planting churches in those places, and according to tradition, most of them were martyred in those places.
Prior to the apostles being scattered from Jerusalem, God gave Peter a vision to show him that He considered Gentiles to be clean, and then sent him to a Gentile's home in Caesarea where the Holy Spirit fell upon the entire household who heard Peter's message. All of Peter's Jewish companions were astonished because the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the Gentiles as well as the Jews.
Afterwards, "the apostles and brethren who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God. [2] And when Peter came up to Jerusalem, those of the circumcision contended with him, [3] saying, “You went in to uncircumcised men and ate with them!” (Acts 11:1-3).
Peter explained to them how God had led him there to reveal that He had cleansed the Gentiles and made them holy, and that he remembered the Lord’s word, ‘John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’.
Then he said to them, "If therefore God gave them the same gift as He gave us when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God?”
"When they heard these things they became silent; and they glorified God, saying, 'Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life.'"
When Saul, a devout Jew, was on his way to persecute Christians in Damascus, Jesus spoke to him, causing him to submit to Jesus, and to become his follower. He went to Annanias, who prayed for him, and something like scales fell from his eyes so that he could see who Jesus really was and have understanding of the Scriptures, because as he said later regarding the Jews and their understanding of the Scriptures, "But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ." (2 Corinthians 3:14). Jesus said to Annanias that Saul was a chosen vessel of His to bear His name to Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel.
Saul spent time with the disciples in Damascus and immediately began teaching in the synagogues and proving to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ. When he went to Jerusalem, the disciples feared him because he had formerly persecuted them, but Barnabas brought him to the apostles who accepted him after he shared what happened to him. He boldly shared in the name of Jesus and disputed against the Hellenists who tried to kill him.
When Saul was praying in the temple, he saw Jesus telling him to depart from Jerusalem because they would not receive his testimony concerning Jesus. Therefore, He was sending him far from Jerusalem to the Gentiles.
God used Saul (Paul) to take the good news of Jesus beyond Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria. He went to Gentile nations, some traditions say possibly as far as the British Isles.
By AD 70, several of the apostles had been killed, and the rest would be killed between 70 and 74, with the exception of John who died in 98, thus ending the apostolic age.
In AD 70, Rome beseiged Jerusalem due to a revolt by the Jews caused by Roman oppression, the abolishment of the Herodian Dynasty, and religious tensions. Rome participated in idol worship, including the worship of Caesar, and revenue was made by manufacturing and selling idols and items related to idol worship. Judaism, on the other hand, was a monotheistic religion (belief in one God). This created a point of contention between Rome and the Jews.
To make matters worse for the Jews, Christians were viewed by Rome as a sect of Judaism because Christians also had a monotheistic view, and because Jesus and most Christians were Jewish. The problem was that Christians were turning people away from idolatry and pagan practices, thus impacting the Roman economy.
Titus, who was given the assignment by Caesar to snuff out the Jewish rebellion, believed that destroying the Jews's holy city and their temple would put an end to both Judaism and Christianity. He was right about it putting an end to Judaism, which believed that God resided in Jerusalem and was dependent upon the temple for their sacricial system. However, he did not understand that Christians did not believe that God resided in one particular city, or that they do not need a temple to worship or offer sacrifices in.
We see this when Jesus met the Samaritan woman. She said to Jesus,
"Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship”.
Jesus responded to her with a prophecy,
“Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:23-24 NKJV).
Titus and Rome thought that Judaism and Christianity were the same thing, and that if they destroyed the places where they worshiped and offered sacrifices to their God, then they would put an end to their religion, as well as to the conflict. Therefore, Titus besieged Jerusalem in AD 70, utterly destroying both the city and the temple. Unbeknownst to him at the time, God was using Rome as His instrument of judgment against Jerusalem. The destruction of Jerusalem and the temple fulfilled Jesus's prophecy that is recorded in Luke 21:6 (Matthew 24:2; Mark 13:2).
According to church father Eusebius, Christians fled from Jerusalem prior to its destruction because of Jesus's forewarning recorded in Luke 21:20-21 (Matthew 24:15-16; Mark 13:14):
Luke 21:20-21 NKJV
[20] “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near. [21] Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those who are in the midst of her depart, and let not those who are in the country enter her."
The destruction of Jerusalem no doubt thrust the Gospel beyond Judea and to the ends of the earth, where more of God's elect would be gathered together. Foxes Book of Martyrs says, "The fall of Jerusalem in AD 70 scattered the church to the winds." This is exactly what I think Matthew 24:31 means.
Since that time, God's elect have been gathered from every country in the world - from the four winds (north, south, east, and west), and from one end of heaven to the other (from horizon to horizon).
But God is not finished gathering them together yet. There are still nations within many of these countries who have not had the gospel of the Kingdom preached to them. When it is, many of them will also be gathered among His elect, and when all have heard, then the end will come.
The Bible teaches that God's elect, or chosen people, extends beyond the Jews and the geopolitical nation of Israel, and includes Gentiles who He had declared "clean", and sent His apostles and disciples to, by way of persecution and the destruction of Jerusalem. He will gather them all together as one people from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation, who are the subjects of His Kingdom - the ekklessia.
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Passages About the Gathering of God's Elect from the Four Winds, From One End of Heaven to the Other, Until the Whole World Hears 🌎
Revelation 5:9-10 NKJV
[9] And they sang a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll, And to open its seals; For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, [10] And have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth.”
Revelation 7:9-10 NKJV
[9] After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, [10] and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
Revelation 11:15 NKJV
[15] Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!”
Matthew 24:14 NKJV
[14] And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.
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Matthew 24:31: The Gathering of God's Elect: Part 2: Matthew 22:1-14
This looks at the Parable of the Wedding Feast that Jesus told the chief priests and Pharisees, which I believe supports my suggestion that Matthew 24:31 is about the evangelization of the world, and not about the end times. This is not an idea that originated with me, but it was the prevalent interpretation by the church until the 1800's when Dispensationalism was developed and became the primary view of the western church.
Jesus told a series of parables about the Kingdom of God just a few days before his arrest and crucifixion.
In the parable, Jesus predicted the destruction of Jerusalem and what was going to take place after Jerusalem was destroyed:
In the parable, Jesus used the imagery of a wedding banquet that a king was organizing for his son, to describe what the kingdom of heaven is like.
He sent his servants out to call those who were invited to the wedding to come, but they refused because they were not willing to come. Therefore, he sent out other servants to them, but they made light of it and went their own ways, and the rest of them seized his servants, treated them spitefully, and killed them.
When the king heard about it, he was furious, so he sent out his armies, destroyed the murderers, and burned up their city.
Then he said to his servants that those he invited were not worthy, and he sent them out to the highways to invite everyone they could find to the wedding. So they went and invited the good and the bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.
When the king came to see the guests, he noticed a man who was not wearing his wedding clothes, so he asked him, "Friend, how did you get in here without any wedding clothes?", and the man was speechless. So, the king instructed the servants to bind him up, and take him away, and cast him out into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Jesus concluded the parable by saying, "For many are called, but few are chosen.”
Interpretation of the Parable
The king in the parable is God. The king's son is Jesus. The wedding that the king is organizing is between Jesus and His people Israel; it is the covenant that God made with His people. The guests who are invited but are not willing to come are the Jews. The servants the king sent to them were the prophets whom they seized, treated spitefully, and killed.
The armies that the furious king sent to destroy the murderers, and burn their city is Rome. The murderers are Israel who killed the prophets, and the city that the king is going to burn is Jerusalem. Jesus is describing a prediction of God's judgement of Jerusalem which later took place in AD 70.
Afterwards, the king sent his servants out everywhere to invite everyone they could find, both the good and the bad, because those he invited were not worthy. The wedding hall was full of guests who accepted the king's invitation and were willing to come.
Those who are not worthy are the Jews who rejected Jesus and God's invitation to enter into a covenant of faith with Him. His servants who he sent out are those who have faith in Jesus - aka Christians, the church, the bride of Christ, the body of Christ, Israel, the ekklessia. The guests who accepted the king's invitation and were willing to come to the wedding are the Gentiles. This is, I believe, the same as what Jesus described in Matthew 24:31, the gathering of God's elect from the four winds and from one end of heaven to another.
The man who came to the wedding without wedding clothes, wanted to come on his own terms. He wanted to attend the wedding, but he did not want to do what is required of him to attend. Therefore, God had His servants bind him and remove him from the wedding banquet. He had them throw him into outer darkness. He will experience regret, pain, sorrow, and immense suffering.
The Gentiles were invited into a covenant with God, because Israel, who were previously invited, declined God's invitation, and therefore God saw that they were not worthy to be in His covenant. Even so, just because they are invited to attend, does not mean that Gentiles can enter into God's covenant on their own terms. They must submit to His will and His ways. If they do not, they will be thrown into the lake of fire at the judgement on the Last Day, when Jesus returns and separates the sheep from the goats.
Many are called to be in God's covenant and to inherit His promises, but few are chosen, not because of Him, but because they want God on their own terms. They either reject Jesus altogether like Israel did, or they choose not to submit to Jesus and his authority.
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Part 1
[31] "And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other."
This is a another verse that sounds as if it is referring to the end times, and many have been taught and believe that it is, but is it? The entire passage is typically believed to be about the end times prior to the return of Christ, and therefore verse 31 is also commonly believed to be about the return of Christ, specifically, the gathering of his people at the rapture. However, I think the passage is a prophecy made by Jesus of God's judgement of Jerusalem in AD 70, and that verse 31 may actually be about the gathering of God's people throughout the world by evangelism, rather than the gathering of His people at His return.
When you think about it, God began gathering His elect together when Jesus came and was sent by His Father to the lost sheep of Israel. During his short time on earth, many Jews and Gentiles repented and believed and came to the Father.
After Jesus ascended to the Father in heaven and took his seat on his throne, the Holy Spirit came upon his apostles and they and Jesus's disciples continued gathering his elect in Jerusalem until persecution broke out against them.
At that time, the church fled Jerusalem and were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria, just as Jesus prophesied would happen when the Holy Spirit came. They traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the gospel only to the Jews. However, some of them who were from Cyprus and Cyrene preached the Lord Jesus to Hellenists, who were Gentiles, and many of them believed and turned to the Lord.
The apostles remained in Jerusalem gathering His elect after persecution came, but according to Christian tradition, they assigned themselves certain areas of the world to reach. Each of them eventually left Jerusalem to take the gospel to their assigned areas, making disciples and planting churches in those places, and according to tradition, most of them were martyred in those places.
Prior to the apostles being scattered from Jerusalem, God gave Peter a vision to show him that He considered Gentiles to be clean, and then sent him to a Gentile's home in Caesarea where the Holy Spirit fell upon the entire household who heard Peter's message. All of Peter's Jewish companions were astonished because the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the Gentiles as well as the Jews.
After this happened, "the apostles and brethren who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God. [2] And when Peter came up to Jerusalem, those of the circumcision contended with him, [3] saying, “You went in to uncircumcised men and ate with them!” (Acts 11:1-3).
Peter explained to them how God had led him there to reveal that He had cleansed the Gentiles and made them holy, and that he remembered the Lord’s word, ‘John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’.
Then he said to them, "If therefore God gave them the same gift as He gave us when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God?”
"When they heard these things they became silent; and they glorified God, saying, 'Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life.'"
When Saul, a devout Jew, was on his way to persecute Christians in Damascus, Jesus spoke to him, causing him to submit to Jesus. Something like scales fell from his eyes so that he could clearly see who Jesus was and have understanding of the Scriptures. Jesus said to Annanias that Saul was a chosen vessel of His to bear His name to Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel.
Saul spent time with the disciples in Damascus and immediately began teaching in the synagogues and proving to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ. When he went to Jerusalem, the disciples feared him because he had formerly persecuted them, but Barnabas brought him to the apostles who accepted him after he shared what happened to him. He boldly shared in the name of Jesus and disputed against the Hellenists who tried to kill him.
When Saul was praying in the temple, he saw Jesus telling him to depart from Jerusalem because they would not receive his testimony concerning Jesus. Therefore, He was sending him far from Jerusalem to the Gentiles.
God used Saul (Paul) to take the good news of Jesus beyond Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria. He went to Gentile nations, some traditions say possibly as far as the British Isles.
By AD 70, several of the apostles had been killed, and the rest would be killed between 70 and 74, with the exception of John who died in 98, thus ending the apostolic age.
In AD 70, Rome beseiged Jerusalem due to a revolt by the Jews caused by Roman oppression, the abolishment of the Herodian Dynasty, and religious tensions. Rome participated in idol worship, including the worship of Caesar, and revenue was made by manufacturing and selling idols and items related to idol worship. Judaism, on the other hand, was a monotheistic religion (belief in one God). This created a point of contention between Rome and the Jews.
To make matters worse for the Jews, Christians were viewed by Rome as a sect of Judaism because Christians also had a monotheistic view, and because Jesus and most Christians were Jewish. The problem was that Christians were turning people away from idolatry and pagan practices, thus impacting the Roman economy.
Titus, who was given the assignment by Caesar to snuff out the Jewish rebellion, believed that destroying the Jews's holy city and their temple would put an end to both Judaism and Christianity. He was right about it putting an end to Judaism, which believed that God resided in Jerusalem and was dependent upon the temple for their sacricial system. However, he did not understand that Christians did not believe that God resided in one particular city, or that they do not need a temple to worship or offer sacrifices in.
We see this when Jesus met the Samaritan woman. She said to Jesus,
"Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship”.
Jesus responded to her with a prophecy,
“Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:23-24 NKJV).
Titus and Rome thought that Judaism and Christianity were the same thing, and that if they destroyed the places where they worshiped and offered sacrifices to their God, then they would put an end to their religion, as well as to the conflict. Therefore, Titus besieged Jerusalem in AD 70, utterly destroying both the city and the temple. Unbeknownst to him at the time, God was using Rome as His instrument of judgment against Jerusalem. The destruction of Jerusalem and the temple fulfilled Jesus's prophecy that is recorded in Luke 21:6 (Matthew 24:2; Mark 13:2).
According to church father Eusebius, Christians fled from Jerusalem prior to its destruction because of Jesus's forewarning recorded in Luke 21:20-21 (Matthew 24:15-16; Mark 13:14):
Luke 21:20-21 NKJV
[20] “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near. [21] Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those who are in the midst of her depart, and let not those who are in the country enter her."
The destruction of Jerusalem no doubt thrust the Gospel beyond Judea and to the ends of the earth, where more of God's elect would be gathered together. Foxes Book of Martyrs says, "The fall of Jerusalem in AD 70 scattered the church to the winds." This is exactly what I think Matthew 24:31 means.
Since that time, God's elect have been gathered from every country in the world - from the four winds (north, south, east, and west), and from one end of heaven to the other (from horizon to horizon).
But God is not finished gathering them together yet. There are still nations within many of these countries who have not had the gospel of the Kingdom preached to them. When it is, many of them will also be gathered among His elect, and when all have heard, then the end will come.
This is the gathering of His people from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation, who are the subjects of His Kingdom - the ekklessia.
Passages About the Gathering of God's Elect from the Four Winds, From One End of Heaven to the Other, Until the Whole World Hears 🌎
Revelation 5:9-10 NKJV
[9] And they sang a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll, And to open its seals; For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, [10] And have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth.”
Revelation 7:9-10 NKJV
[9] After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, [10] and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
Revelation 11:15 NKJV
[15] Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!”
Matthew 24:14 NKJV
[14] And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.
-------------------------
Part 2
Matthew 24:31 NKJV
[31] "And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other."
Part 1 was about how I believe that Matthew 24:31 is not about Jesus gathering his elect out of the earth during the end times at the rapture, but rather about Jesus gathering his elect from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation (the four winds, from one horizon to the other), by the preaching of the gospel of the Kingdom.
In Part 2, we are going to look at the Parable of the Wedding Feast that Jesus told the chief priests and Pharisees, which supports my suggestion that Matthew 24:31 is about the evangelization of the world, and not about the end times.
Jesus told a series of parables about the Kingdom of God just a few days before his arrest and crucifixion.
In the parable, Jesus predicted what was going to take place after Jerusalem was destroyed.
Matthew 22:1-14 NKJV
[1] And Jesus answered and spoke to them again by parables and said: [2] “The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son, [3] and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding; and they were not willing to come.
[4] Again, he sent out other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and fatted cattle are killed, and all things are ready. Come to the wedding.” ’ [5] But they made light of it and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his business. [6] And the rest seized his servants, treated them spitefully, and killed them.
[7] But when the king heard about it, he was furious. And he sent out his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. [8] Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. [9] Therefore go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding.’
[10] So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests.
[11] “But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. [12] So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. [13] Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
[14] “For many are called, but few are chosen.”
In the parable, Jesus used the imagery of a wedding banquet that a king was organizing for his son, to describe what the kingdom of heaven is like.
He sent his servants out to call those who were invited to the wedding to come, but they refused because they were not willing to come. Therefore, he sent out other servants to them, but they made light of it and went their own ways, and the rest of them seized his servants, treated them spitefully, and killed them.
When the king heard about it, he was furious, so he sent out his armies, destroyed the murderers, and burned up their city.
Then he said to his servants that those he invited were not worthy, and he sent them out to the highways to invite everyone they could find to the wedding. So they went and invited the good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.
When the king came to see the guests, he noticed a man who was not wearing his wedding clothes, so he asked him, "Friend, how did you get in here without any wedding clothes?", and the man was speechless. So, the king instructed the servants to bind him up, and take him away, and cast him out into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Jesus concluded the parable by saying, "For many are called, but few are chosen.”
The king in the parable is God. The king's son is Jesus. The wedding that the king is organizing is between Jesus and His people Israel; it is the covenant that God made with His people. The guests who are invited but are not willing to come are the Jews. The servants the king sent to them were the prophets whom they seized, treated spitefully, and killed.
The armies that the furious king sent to destroy the murderers, and burn their city is Rome. The murderers are Israel who killed the prophets, and the city that the king is going to burn is Jerusalem. Jesus is predicting the destruction of Jerusalem which took place in AD 70.
Afterwards, the king sent his servants out everywhere to invite everyone they could find, both the good and the bad, because those he invited were not worthy. The wedding hall was full of guests who accepted the king's invitation and were willing to come.
Those who are not worthy are the Jews who rejected Jesus and God's invitation to enter into a covenant with Him. His servants who he sent out are those who have faith in Jesus - aka Christians, the church, the bride of Christ, the body of Christ, Israel, the ekklessia. The guests who accepted the king's invitation and were willing to come to the wedding are the Gentiles. This is, I believe, the same as what Jesus described in Matthew 24:31, the gathering of God's elect from the four winds and from one end of heaven to another.
The man who came to the wedding without wedding clothes, wanted to come on his own terms. He wanted to attend the wedding, but he did not want to do what is required of him to attend. Therefore, God had His servants bind him and remove him from the wedding banquet. He had them throw him into outer darkness. He will experience regret, pain, sorrow, and immense suffering.
The Gentiles were invited into a covenant with God, because Israel, who were previously invited, declined God's invitation, and therefore God saw that they were not worthy to be in His covenant. Even so, just because they are invited to attend, does not mean that Gentiles can enter into God's covenant on their own terms. They must submit to His will and His ways. If they do not, they will be thrown out at the judgement on the Last Day, when Jesus returns and separates the sheep from the goats.
Many are called to be in God's covenant and to inherit His promises, but few are chosen, not because of Him, but because they want God on their own terms. They either reject Jesus altogether like Israel did, or they choose not to submit to Jesus and his authority.
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