I tend to think that we stretch the parable too far when we try to define who the 99 are. The parable is about the lost one, not the 99.

After all, the shepherd brings the one lost sheep back home on his shoulders...presumably putting him back into the sheepfold.

So we see that the parable is speaking to Christ's determination to call the lost to Himself for salvation, and it doesn't really speak any further than that in my opinion.

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Larry Bray
Elder - Reformed Presbyterian Church of Boothwyn, PCA
Boothwyn, PA - http://www.rpcb.org/
Free Online Reformed Seminary - http://www.tnars.net
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“The Christian must not be of such a complying nature as to cut the coat of his profession according to the fashion of the times…" - William Gurnall