Added to the Church?

Good question. Note also Acts 2:39 "For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call."

 

It means what it says it does. It doesn't serve as a prooftext to either the Calvinists or the Arminians. Both believe that without the Lord, there would be no chance for anyone to be saved. Through the grace of God, he has allowed us to become partners with Him through the church. We shouldn't read more into it that it says.

 

But many are called, and few are chosen, so how should we interpret this? If "many" is in the same vein as the "So in Adam, many die" (or whatever the verse is - I don't have the time to look it up now!), then the promise can be for all people. What was the promise? That the Messiah would come from the descendant of David, and so on. (Or maybe it is the promise that those who repent and believe will receive the HOly Spirit - it is difficult to find "promise's" antecedent).

Either way, this is still no prooftext for Calvinism.