BETWEEN TWO CITIES

The prophet Nahum of Elkosh wrote the book of the Bible named after him, “Nahum.” Elkosh means “comfort.” He wrote sometime after 660 B.C. and before 630 B.C., prophesying the destruction of Nineveh, made the capital of Assyria by its king, Sennacherib, around 700 B.C. Nineveh fell to a coalition of Medes and Babylonians in 612 B.C. In Nahum 1, verse 15, after 14 verses of doom to Nineveh, Nahum gives a good word of hope to Judah:

Behold, upon the mountains, the feet of him
who brings good news,
who publishes peace!
Keep your feasts, O Judah;
fulfill your vows,
for never again shall the worthless pass through you;
he is utterly cut off.

The Apostle Paul borrows from Nahum to conclude the “Roman Road” to salvation in Romans 10 (ESV) :

For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?
And how are they to hear without someone preaching?
And how are they to preach unless they are sent?
As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”
But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

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The Roman Road to salvation is summed up as:

The preacher is sent to preach the good news. People hear the Good News.  The elect believe the Good News and call upon the name of the Lord and are saved.

Regarding the “elect”, election and predestination, the Scripture provides these words, among others:

And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

Matthew 24:31 (ESV)

Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall.

2 Peter 1:10 (ESV)

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

Ephesians 1:3-6 (ESV)