*The book of Ephesians starts off with a greeting "to God's holy people", supposedly by Paul. A footnote says that the phrase "in Ephesus" is not in the oldest manuscripts.
*The first paragraph tries to establish that christians are indeed chosen to be God's holy people and that they were chosen before the creation of the world, or "predestined" to be his children through Jesus. Before we talk about predestination, I want to point out that this is totally contrary to the Jews' belief and scriptures, which teach that their people are the ones chosen to be God's children. The author also takes this chosenness back to before creation, earlier than the Abrahamic promise, another strike against Jewish chosenness. This cannot be anything but deliberate.
*The author goes on to say that, through Jesus's blood, Christians are given redemption and forgiveness of sins, things that were previously supplied by the Jewish system of sacrifices. He also states that they are given knowledge of the mystery of God's will. This appears to be another oblique stab at the Jews, implying that they were not supplied with some hidden knowledge that christians now possess.
*Paragraph two (1:11-14) continues with the predestination theme. This and the previous passages are fundamental to the Calvinist christian belief system. In Calvinism, predestination is basically the idea that God has chosen ahead of time who will or will not be unconditionally saved through Jesus. "God has unchangeably ordained whatever comes to pass." This leaves little room for the idea of free will choice and a lot of room for fatalism.
*In other christian faiths it is the plan of salvation that is predestined, not individuals' salvation. In this way, it is that all who accept salvation through jesus are predestined to be saved. Even though God supposedly knows what the outcome will be, he is not the one who chooses which individuals will be saved. They are responsible for that themselves. If you ask me, it is a very fine difference, considering that if God knows what will happen, can the outcome be changed?
*According to verses 13 and fourteen, those who have heard the message of salvation through christ, and believed it, are the ones included in this plan. They are given the holy spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing future redemption. There is one problem...no one is quite sure exactly what the holy spirit is and how you can tell if someone has it. There are probably as many ideas of the holy spirit as there are believers. Many of them prefer to avoid the subject altogether, maybe because there is no demonstrable reason to believe it exists and does anything that can't be explained by natural means.
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