@Njamutoh Bertrand a Facebook friend has asked me to answer a statement made by another Facebook friend. The statement being answered is as follows: John 6:40 For my Fathers will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. God chooses certain people for specific assignments, as in Moses, Noah, Elijah, Jacob, Samson. Thats according to His will. The fact that He chooses specific people to do specific assignments does not mean that He wont save others. I still dont believe that God chooses only SOME to be saved. Christ could not have gone through ALL that torture and suffering to save ONLY a few. Thats completely impossible. Please read Jn 6:40 My Response: I will try to go through this line by line: Your friend wrote: God chooses certain people for specific assignments, as in Moses, Noah, Elijah, Jacob, Samson. Thats according to His will. The fact that He chooses specific people to do specific assignments does not mean that He wont save others. My response: This is a straw man argument that neither proves or disproves your friend’s argument. He is creating a false dichotomy between election to service and election to salvation. Your friend wrote: I still dont believe that God chooses only SOME to be saved. Christ could not have gone through ALL that torture and suffering to save ONLY a few. Thats completely impossible. Please read Jn 6:40 John 6:40 For my Fathers will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. My response: John 6:40 is in a context which militantly destroys the notion of universalism. Jesus is telling a group of more than 5000 who end up rejecting and hating him, the reason they will reject and hate him. The reason is that they are not given to him the by the Father. For all who are given to Jesus by the Father will be raised up in the last day, for none of them can be lost. (John 6:44) Secondly the point of Jesus is that the will of the father is to save everyone, WHO BELIEVES. Since the very same context limits those who WILL BELIEVE as the ones chosen by the father to be given to the son, we are left with only two choices. The first choice is to believe that the Father will give every person to the Son. If that is true then every person must be saved because Jesus says that ALL the Father gives Him will not only come to Him, but He will raise them up in the last day. However the context destroys this view because the entire group of more than 5000 rejects Jesus after hearing his message. The second and only valid option is that Jesus will perfectly save all who are appointed by the Father to believe. Acts 13:48 And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were APPOINTED to eternal life believed. The problem that your friend has, is that he is starting from a wrong foundation. He wrote: I still dont believe that God chooses only SOME to be saved. Christ could not have gone through ALL that torture and suffering to save ONLY a few. My response: First, the number of the elect according to the word of God is more numerable than stars of the heavens or grains of sand on the sea shore. So I would hardly agree with your friend that Jesus will only save a few. Second, the Bible is clear that the road is narrow and few there are who find it that leads to life, while broad and wide is the road to destruction and many there are who travel it. So even though the number of the elect will be massive, the number in any given age should be expected to be far fewer than those on the broad road. Third, your friend seems to be saying that Jesus died to make it possible for all to be saved, but guaranteed the salvation of none. That is not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches (and most clearly in John 6) that Jesus will perfectly save all those given to Him by the Father and that not even one of them shall be lost. The problem is that your friend does not understand two essential truths of the Christian faith. First, all men are born into this world under the curse of sin and death. As Paul tells us in Romans 5 That through one man sin entered the world, and through the one man’s sins death, and death spread to all men because all sinned. Did all men sin when Adam sinned? Not personally, but Adam who represented all mankind sinned in place of all mankind and brought the curse of sin and death upon all his children after him. And second essential truth, is that we must be born-again by the power of God before we are able to savingly believe the gospel. The Bible tells us in Ephesians 2:1-3 And you (He made alive – born-again), who were dead in trespasses and sins, 2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, 3 among whom also we ALL once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just like the rest of MANKIND. Notice that Paul says that we (who have been born-again) were by nature children of wrath, Just like the rest of mankind. The point is that we were dead sinners but God made us alive. Your friend seems to want to believe that we make ourselves alive by believing and then God joins in to help us the rest of the way. But Paul will explain in this same passage that we were saved by grace through faith and that is not our own doing, it is the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast. You see, the dead can do nothing to earn or deserve God’s favor, not even believe. That is why Jesus says we must be born-again before we can understand or enter the kingdom of God. (John 3:3-7) The Bible says that ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, that NONE are righteous no NOT ONE, NO ONE seeks after God NO ONE desires God. If Jesus died to make it possible for all to be saved, by their own free choice, then NO ONE will be saved! This is why we must be born-again before we will ever come to Jesus, or ever savingly believe in Jesus. To deny these truths of the Christian faith, is to reject the Christian faith. If you do not believe these two essential truths or you reject them, you are not by definition a Christian. Your friend might ask, but I listen to so many preachers who teach contrary to those two truths, are you saying they are not by definition Christian? The answer is YES, they are not Christians, they have invented a false religion, a false gospel, and a false God. Thanks for the question May God use it to open many eyes to the truth of the gospel and lead many to repentance. Justin
Posted on: Wed, 26 Nov 2014 21:42:15 +0000