Objection 32

From Sovereign Grace and the Scope of Election: A Comparative Examination of Attainment Theology and Grace Theology, with Particular Attention to the Question of Whether God's Elect Are Found Among All Nations and Religions

Psalm 87:5-6, "of Zion it shall be said, This and that man was born in her... the LORD shall count, when he writeth up the people, that this man was born there." Zion is a select register.

Gladly, and read who is in the register. The psalm's astonishment is its roll call: "I will make mention of Rahab (Egypt) and Babylon to them that know me; behold Philistia, and Tyre, with Ethiopia; this man was born there" (87:4). The Lord's Zion register records citizens born in Egypt, Babylon, Philistia, and Ethiopia, the enemy nations, the unevangelized nations. Psalm 87, read whole, proves to be one of the strongest Old Testament witnesses for the very hope this study defends: the Lord's own register of Zion records His born ones out of Egypt, Babylon, Philistia, and Ethiopia, the nations no missionary had reached.