Dave's great addition of new members is already dropping and they haven't even joined yet!
Many Old Testament passages foretell a remnant of physical Israel returning from captivity. In the Zechariah 11 prophecy, God is going to break His staff called “Grace.” How interesting that the apostle Paul was inspired to describe the New Testament “remnant” (of Romans 11:1-5) as a “remnant according to the election of GRACE.” In addition, verse 4 points to the Old Testament account in I Kings 19, involving Elijah the prophet. The serious reader may wish to read all of I Kings 19 for parallels in search of why God inspired Paul to use THIS ACCOUNT as a reference regarding how we do or do not listen to God, among other purposes. Recall and reread I Corinthians 10:11 and Romans 15:4 from last week. Is Paul also telling us that 7,000 baptized members will be faithful, and added to His Church? If so, what about children in the count? Are these just the number who are “holdovers, the surviving portion” (the meaning of “remnant” in Haggai), from the Worldwide Church of God, with others converted later in the splinters on top of this? How do the thousands already in The Restored Church of God fit into this number—if it is to be taken as a literal number at all? I do not know the answers. Again, I have ideas, but we will all wait to see the answers.