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My intention is to answer the questions:
- Does God ordain wicked actions that are against His laws in order to accomplish His purpose?
- Does God elect and predestine some to salvation but not others even though Scripture states that it is His will for all to be saved? If so, why?
When reading Scripture, it is hard to nail down God’s will at times. In one passage He will harden someone in order to destroy them or not allow men to understand His teachings, and in another part of Scripture He shows mercy and wishes for all men to be saved. Sometimes God allows, and even wills, sinful acts to happen (we’ll see that later in the crucifixion) and sometimes He intervenes before sin can be committed (Abimelech and Sarah in Genesis 20:4-6).
Let’s be honest, God seems a little bipolar.
What I want to do is look at Scripture and try to answer the questions: Does God have two wills? Also, I want to examine how or why God saves some but not others, even though He wishes none to perish.
As a former Arminian, I know how hard it is to accept or even entertain the idea of predestined election of salvation. However, my intention is to show that God does in fact have a commanding will that is used in not saving all men into the following of His moral will. I also realize that this will probably not make a dent in any Arminian’s belief against it. Regardless, whether you agree or disagree, I implore you to open your heart and read on.
The Arminian Rebuttal
It is deeply engrained in Arminian theology that God reduces His own sovereign power in order to allow men the free will to choose/reject Him. Election, therefore, is God going into the future and seeing our choices of faith. Then, He travels back into time and predestines the salvation and life for men based on what they decide. It is said that the word “foreknowledge” means that God knew before time because He saw from the future, but this is a blatant twist of the definition. The definition is much more simple and clear in the Dictionary: “Foreknowledge: knowledge or awareness of something before (NOT after, then before) its existence or occurrence.”
My one massive problem with this idea: You are limiting God’s work to be inside of the very time that He created. God does not have to work inside of time, as our finite minds may perceive.
Arminians have essentially three main passages that form their argument for the possible salvation of all (although there are others, these are the most common): Ezekial 18:23, 1 Timothy 2:3-4, and 2 Peter 3:9.
In Ezekial, you see God’s compassion towards the wicked saying, “‘Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked?’ declares the Sovereign LORD. ‘Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?’” Also, Paul tells Timothy to pray for authorities because He “wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” Peter, likewise, states that God is patient in bringing about the Last Days because He is “not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”
It is rather easy to go back to original Greek text and interpret that in Timothy, the text is not literally speaking of all men but parts of all kinds of men (i.e. not prejudice to specific genders, races, nationalities, etc.). Also, I believe it is very clear by his introduction that Peter is speaking solely to the elect.
This argument aside, we will still see that God is active in not saving all men.
God’s Two Wills Examined: Law and Purpose.
To get an idea of how this is possible, we must examine how the Scriptures show God’s two wills. First, we see that the will of God is synonymous with following His moral code of laws and refraining from sin. Second, we see that the will of God is related to His determinant purpose. You will see that there are times when God wills (purposely acts) against His will (following His laws).
We are to follow the will of God by following His laws, but He also wills that not all can follow this. This is an idea seen in passages such as Matthew 7:21, where men try to follow His laws but aren’t able to know Him and 1 John 2:16-17, where the world is passing away and but not all follow His desires. God commands that men do His will by following His moral commands. However, it doesn’t mean that He wills for everyone to follow them.
Let us look at instances in which God allows events that are against His moral law in order to accomplish His purpose.
What stands out to me the most is the crucifixion of Christ. In Acts 2:23, Luke states that “This man (Jesus) was handed over to you by God’s set (predestined) purpose and foreknowledge” and the Messianic prophecy of Isaiah 53 says that ”it was the Lord’s will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer.” At the same time, Luke 22:3 states that it was Satan who carried out Judas’ betrayal, leading to the sinful murder of Jesus. Also, see Acts 4:25-28 to see where God’s will was for Pilate and the Jews to murder Jesus. So, God planned the death of Christ but it took the allowance of sinful acts contrary to His laws to accomplish it.
The wars against Jesus in Revelation were done by the will of God through sinful actions of men. Revelation 17:17 is clear that “God has put it into their hearts to accomplish His purpose by agreeing to give the beast their power to rule.” Obviously, it is against the will of God to attack Jesus, yet He wills the Antichrist and his minions to do so.
There are instances in which God does not allow men to hear the Word or understand it. This one blew me away the first time I stumbled across it. There are two major times that you see God essentially acting against evangelism.
In Mark 4:10-12, Jesus uses the words of Isaiah to explain that He uses parables so that the perishing “may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding.” Why? “Otherwise they might turn and be forgiven.” Wow! Jesus Himself even affirms that He does not intend for all to receive Him.
Another interesting passage is Acts 16:6-8. It states that Paul and his missionary team were not allowed to preach the Gospel in Bithynia because “the Spirit of Jesus (Holy Spirit) would not allow them to.” Again, Jesus withheld His words from certain people.
So although God may wish for none to perish, it is obvious that He wills some not to be saved.
God hardens hearts in order to bless His children. Throughout the Old Testament, God puts it into the hearts of men to reject Him or His people so that those wicked men will be destroyed. Argue all you want, but the text does not say that God “knew their free will choices of rejection in the future.” Rather, it shows that God flat out goes in and doesn’t give them the choice.
The most common example is Pharoah in Egypt. Now, you do see Pharoah harden his own heart, but that doesn’t change the fact that God hardened him. It was not because of his constant rejection of God; Romans 9:17-18 plainly says that God gave Pharoah his position of authority in order to flex His muscles when He hardens him. Furthermore, it says that He ”hardens whom He wants to harden,” which means that He does what He wants, not what He thinks or knows that you will do.
Also, Moses and Joshua both have battles in which God hardens the hearts of leaders so that His chosen people can destroy them. In Deuteronomy 2:26-31, Moses sends a peace offering to Sihon but “the Lord your God had made his spirit stubborn and his heart obstinate in order to give him into your hands.” God wouldn’t allow Sihon to surrender.
The kings of Canaan experienced a similar fate at the hands of God through Joshua. Joshua 18-20 shows that the kings did not make treaties with the Israelites because God wanted to “exterminate them without mercy.” Here we see, again, God working against His will of wanting all men to be saved.
*For further study, see the stories of Eli’s sons, Joseph and his brothers, and Jacob and Esau.
Free Will or Predestined Purpose?
We have seen numerous examples in which God works against the statements in 1 Timothy and 2 Peter that He wants none to perish. We can only conclude one of two things:
- God is a schizophrenic liar. (Hint: wrong answer)
- There is a will in God that supersedes His will for all men to be saved.
Of course, we must come to the conclusion that God chooses not to save all. If God’s only will was for His commands to be followed by everyone, certainly He would make it so.
Arminians will believe that God’s purposeful will restrains Him from saving all by allowing free choice. Calvinists will believe that God predestines some to be saved without giving us an explanation of how He chooses.
To follow the Arminian point, you must rely on the man-made philosophical assumption that God gives us free will to choose although He apparently works against that free will in Scripture.
To follow the Calvinist point, you can read Scripture for what it is and accept the hard truth that we do not need an answer for God’s actions (Romans 9:11-23).
There are three things that are of great importance to me as a minister:
- Scripture – The Bible is the absolute most important piece/collection of literature ever written. 2 Timothy 3:16 states that all Scripture is God-breathed and is used for something that nothing else ever written can be: teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness. Why? Because it’s God’s Word. God’s laws and standards are unchanging, while everything changes. Therefore, you cannot know God or know the reality of the created world we live in without it.
- Prayer – This should be a “duh” moment for you. When I say that prayer is vital, it shouldn’t be a surprise or a reminder. Prayer is the one and only way we can talk directly to God. Sadly, we do not look at it this way. We forget to pray, think that some things aren’t worth talking to God about, you name it. I’ll tell you that in college chapel services, many students are looking around or whispering during prayers. I’ve been guilty myself. We should not hold prayer so low, either corporately or individually. When someone is praying they are speaking to God, and we should be speaking with them. It is much less about asking for things than it is about maintaining your relationship with the Father.
- The Gospel – Oh, how this is so easily forgotten. How many times do we hear a sermon that doesn’t mention Christ? Whether you’re teaching from the Old Testament, the New testament, or teaching on life’s daily issues… The cross of Christ and His Good News should be central to the message. Jesus even speaks about the fact that the Old Testament is about Him. There is absolutely no reason why the Gospel isn’t made central to teaching, praying, evangelizing, or any aspect of the daily human life. The Gospel isn’t just an idea, it’s the reconciler of all creation.
I think a lot about my Godless past and where I am now. I came from a non-Christian upbringing (my father has since been saved) and I always wonder where my life would be now if God hadn’t rescued me.
I don’t even want to begin to think about it.
It’s interesting because I know throughout my life God was pulling at me, yet I seemed to never really pay attention to it. I had begun to seek Him in my early teens and He allowed me to wallow in a lot of sin for a long season before He suddenly began tugging at my heart harder than ever before. I remember that time after time things would go great for me and I wouldn’t give God any credit. I know, somewhere outside of this realm in Heaven, God was saying, “Hello!!! It was me!” Over and over I was bailed out of every situation that I was in and forgot about Him.
Then, I got into a terrible relationship. Bad situation. Don’t get me wrong, it seemed perfect, but I was making all the wrong decisions. Once that ended, I was at a really low point in my life before I finally began to start progressing back towards Him.
If you’ve ever seen The Simpsons Movie, there is a part where the whole town is about to die and everyone in the bar runs to the church and everyone in the church runs to the bar. Comical, and so true.
That was me, running to God only when I needed Him. The amazing thing is, He still took me in. It’s not often that you will find a love that is so forgiving, but then again, we don’t understand the extent of God’s love no matter how much we think we do.
Agape is a word that gets lost in the Greek to English translation. It means “God’s love”; divine, unchanging, self-sacrificing, forgiving, perfect. I spoke in another post about God’s love being described in 1 John 4, but today I was drawn to this popular verse:
1 Peter 5:6-10 – Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.
And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.
Satan may very well have used that relationship to hurt me, but God used it for His glory and brought me back to Him.
I guess the point of the story is that God never gives up on us. He loves us, He seeks us, and eventually He will catch us. Thankfully, God is a grace-abounding Shepherd. We deserve to be let loose to the wolves by Him for the way we act, but He is patient with His wandering sheep.
It struck me deep today how much grace God has poured on me over the years, and I’m comforted and excited to know that this is only the beginning…
No sweeter name than the name of Jesus.
Driscoll answers the question: Can you lose your salvation?
When you read the New Testament, you see Jesus in the Gospels who is more of a servant – healing and loving people – and the Jesus in Revelation who is much more of a warrior than a servant. In the Gospels, Jesus definitely isn’t a sissy. He says a lot of challenging things to very powerful people and even turns over tables in the Temple, but His overall attitude is a lot more calm.
Luke 6:27-36 – [Jesus said]“But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you.
“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even ’sinners’ love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even ’sinners’ do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even ’sinners’ lend to ’sinners,’ expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
In Luke, Christ talks about forgiveness and being humble. He talks about loving your enemies and even giving to them without expecting anything in return.
Christ’s personality: humble, generous, kind, loving, merciful
Revelation 19:11-16 – I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.” He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.
In Revelation, Christ is portrayed as a warrior who is coming to reign as King and to fight Satan and evildoers. He has gone from a servant to a powerful king.
Christ’s personality: judge, strong, warrior, tough, rules with the wrath and authority of God
Mark Driscoll once said, “Jesus will never take a beating again. That was a one shot deal for salvation; that is not an ongoing job.”
Christ came to Earth to show us how we are expected to live: humble, loving, generous, etc. and to provide a way to save us from our sins. Once He resurrected and went back to Heaven, He reassumed the the role of King and it is His job, not ours, to judge.
Sometimes Jesus is portrayed as kind of this passive, easy going guy; but we have a powerful Savior who is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and we need to remember this.
While reading John Stott’s Your Mind Matters, I came across an interesting quote:
“Knowledge should not puff up with conceit but in falling on our faces before God in sheer wonder.”
I sometimes disappoint myself in the fact that I seek so much head-knowledge of God and His Word while not applying it to my heart. This is my biggest struggle as an aspiring theology professor. I fear so much that I will fill my head (and my student’s heads) with facts and impart to them (because of my lack of heart application) a faith built on knowledge without an all-out abandon for God’s own heart. This knowledge of God is a gift from God that we cannot, and do not, attain by ourselves. It is all given to us to glorify Him, yet we pervert it.
May our knowledge be a direct glorification of our Father, the author of all things.
I was riding in the car on the way home from Oklahoma some time ago, and I got to thinking about creation. Isn’t it just amazing how beautiful the earth really is? It always seems to me that this is God’s way of saying, “Hello.” You see in Genesis how He creates all things “good,” and I saw the world for what it was supposed to be along that Texas highway.
I got a feeling of awe watching birds fly, trees waving in the wind, I even saw some camels and was amazed.
Then, I thought of all the destruction of Hurricane Ike in South Texas or the devastating tsunamis is Asia and the people affected by it and I had to ask, “God, why?”
I see all these beautiful things along the Texas countryside and all of God’s creations, and then turn on the television and see the exact opposite. A guy like me gets pretty frustrated at this.
There is a reason… right? Or is it just God letting the earth play itself out? The Book of Genesis makes it clear that God allows the trees and all living things to produce by themselves. Even animals seem to have a sort of free will. So maybe weather is the same way. Maybe the entire universe, in a way that I cannot comprehend, is free to do as it pleases while still being completely in the hands of God’s will.
Here is the verse that I keep coming back to when I start to wrestle with this idea:
Isaiah 45:7 – I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the LORD, do all these things.
It appears to me, according to this verse, that God directly does all these things. I hope this doesn’t surprise you.
I will never figure God out. No one will. I can only look at the Scripture and hope to understand it in a very small and humble way.
Look at this very well known verse:
Proverbs 19:21 – Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.
My conclusion? It is in God’s hands. I have faith that God is just, true, righteous, and most of all: perfect. Would my plan be for no one to be hurt or affected by such disasters? Of course. However, it isn’t my choice; it is God’s. So whether or not I can wrap my mind around why these things happen, I do know that even disaster is beautiful when it is part of God’s perfect plan.
I can have peace in knowing this.
Church is not your weekly good deed or a social event. Church is people on their faces submitting before God Almighty. Make sure your priorities are in line!
An interesting debate on adultery between Pastor Ed Young and AshleyMadison.com founder Noel Biderman.
