who are the chosen ones?

What is the purpose of this present age if it is not the conversion of the world?

In seeking a consensus on the interpretation of prophecy, we move on in this article to the third statement in J.C. Ryle’s Prophetic Creed. “I BELIEVE that the grand purpose of the present dispensation is to gather out of the world an elect people, and not to convert all mankind. It does not surprise me at all to hear that the heathen are not all converted when missionaries preach, and that believers are a little flock in any congregation in my own land. It is precisely the state of things, which I expect to find. The gospel is to be preached ‘as a witness’ and then the end will come. This is a dispensation of election, and not of universal conversion. (Acts 15:14; Matthew 24:14).”