Does I Timothy 2:4 teach an unfulfilled desire in the Almighty, unchangeable and ever-blessed God to save everybody head for head? No way! James R. White: The first appearance of the phrase all men comes at the end of verse 1 [of I Timothy 2], and its meaning is unambiguous. Paul is not instructing Timothy to initiate never-ending prayer meetings where the Ephesian phone book would be opened and every single person listed therein would become the object of prayer. The very next phrase of the sentence explains Pauls meaning for kings and all who are in authority. Why would Paul have to give such instructions? We must remember that the early Christians were a persecuted people, and normally the persecution came from those in positions of power and authority. It is easy to understand why there would have to be apostolic commandments given to pray for the very ones who were using their power and authority to persecute these Christians ... If we are consistent with the preceding context we will see all men here in the same manner as all men of the preceding verses: all kinds of men, whether rulers or kings (yes, God even saves people who used to persecute Christians, a fact Paul knew all too well) ... Charles Spurgeon ... did not take the Reformed view of the passage ... [but] Augustine held the same view as we have presented above ... Spurgeons argumentation is uncharacteristically shallow (The Potters Freedom [Amityville, NY: Calvary Press, 2000], pp. 140, 141, 143; italics Whites).
Posted on: Sat, 13 Dec 2014 14:44:33 +0000
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