The Evangelical Universalist Forum

Many are cauld but few are frozen

Evangelical Universalism
#1

My native dialect has an amusing (well, I think so) parody of the phrase in Matt. 20:16 and Matt 22:14. “For many are called, but few are chosen”. It is phrased instead, “for many are ‘cauld’ (translation ‘cold’), but few are frozen”. The more I thought about it, the more I wondered if there isn’t some unintentional truism in the parody. What that truism might be, I have no idea, but one may come to me.

Seriously, what did Jesus mean by these two identical statements in Matthew? Can they be used in support of Calvinism, i.e. unconditional election? You Bible scholars will rightly point out that they both conclude a particular parable that Jesus taught and should be interpreted in their contexts.

But, how are they to be interpreted in the context of universalism?

#2

Well, since you asked about the Calvinist spin. Here’s the Got Questions response: :laughing:

What does “Many are called but few are chosen” in Matthew 22:14 mean?

#3

The universalists interpretations that occur off the top of my head are:

  1. Called to service

  2. Called to eternal life while we yet live in this world

  3. Called to the special salvation of believers (1 Tim.4:10)

  4. Called to believe the gospel

  5. Called to eonian life

#4

Hazarding a guess: Many are called to be Jesus’ followers; few are chosen to be apostles (and one of them was a devil).

#5

My native dialect has an amusing (well, I think so) parody of the phrase in Matt. 20:16 and Matt 22:14. “For many are called, but few are chosen”. It is phrased instead, “for many are ‘cauld’ (translation ‘cold’), but few are frozen”. The more I thought about it, the more I wondered if there isn’t some unintentional truism in the parody. What that truism might be, I have no idea, but one may come to me.

Simply put, Jesus choose his Apostles out of many who saw and heard him. God sometimes intervenes to execute his will but that doesn’t mean he manipulates everything.