Called to Assemble

An ecclesia represented many different types of assemblies, but one, in particular, applies to the church: in Athens, a call would be sent out to assemble the legislative body, the ecclesia, in order to deliberate. In like manner, God has called His people through the gospel. By divine foreknowledge, God identified those who would, by their own free will, respond by faith to the gospel; they are the called, the ecclesia, the church which He has predestined to receive salvation.