Abraham, in Chesterton, Indiana, right-send Dear Pastor John, in the parable of the wedding

feast found in Matthew 22. Jesus says, many are called, but few are chosen. However, in Romans

828, the 30, it seems that the people who are called are part of an unbreakable chain that

ultimately leads to glorification. So are the called in Matthew the same called in Romans,

and what is the difference between being called and being chosen? It's remarkable to me

that Abraham would ask this question now because the book that I just finished writing

a few weeks ago on reading the Bible supernaturally and reading it naturally and how those

stood together has a section in it on precisely these two texts and their differences.

So this was easy for me to think about because it was so front burner, and the reason I had taken

it up is exactly the reason that Abraham took it up, namely that Matthew 22.14 and Romans 830

do not apparently use the word called in the same way. And if they do, they contradict each

other. So that's why he's concerned about this. And so I took it up as an illustration of how

when you want to know the meaning of a word in the Bible, you must not assume that the use of that

word by other authors besides the one you're studying will be the same as the place where you're

reading. In fact, I would stress even the same author can use the same word in two very different

ways. Now we all know this in English and I quoted this in the book. That's why it's on my

all my mind right now. In the Oxford English dictionary, the word set, SET, has listed, I mean

examples of 464 definitions. That just makes me wild with happiness about the English language.

And the word run, RUN, has 396 listed definitions. Now if you need any evidence that words

are flexible, that's it. And it's true in the Bible as well, which means that good old Mortimer

Adler in his book How to Read a Book is absolutely right to have a whole section called

Coming to Terms. And what he means is when you see a word, you don't know yet what that word means

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