Is it Gods will that all people be saved? PART TWO Can God want one thing and yet specifically accomplish something else? Obviously the answer is yes. Lets look at some more verses. What God Desires What God Arranges And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled, (Luke 14:23). Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, “Today if you hear His voice, 8Do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me, As in the day of trial in the wilderness, (Heb. 3:7). And for this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they might believe what is false, (2 Thess. 2:11). And the Lord said to Moses, When you go back to Egypt see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have put in your power; but I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go, (Exodus 4:21). So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires, (Rom. 9:18). Why would God compel people to come into His house so that it can be filled and yet send a deluding influence upon the same people? Are not those people in 2 Thessalonians, at the time of the Antichrist, the same people included in the highways and hedges? Does not God compel all to enter into His house regardless of when and where they are in history? Is it not Gods desire to save all? Yes it is. Yet, God actually sends a deluding influence on people and hardens the hearts of others. He desires one thing yet sometimes does another. This is both challenging and fascinating. Why would God do such a thing? The answer lies in Scripture. God is in Control God is in control of all things and is bringing history to the prophetically determined destiny to which He has aimed it. He hardens some and softens others. He arranges things so that battles occur, people are destroyed, lives are changed, nations moved, and people saved. All of this is done in accordance with His divine plan. In fact, it is done because He has a divine plan. Please consider the following. this Man, delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death, (Acts 2:23). For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You did anoint, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, 28to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur, (Acts 4:27-28). God did not cause the people who crucified Jesus to sin. But, He sure used their sin and He predestined all of it to occur. He used the sins of Herod and Pilate along with the Gentiles to do His divine will. In fact, God anointed them to do what they did in order to carry out His purpose and His plan to bring His Son to the cross, to save sinners, and to bring glory to Himself. God simply knew what they were going to do Some may object and say that God only knew what the evil people were going to do and simply used it. But, that is not what the scripture says. Besides, God has the ability to change the hearts of people: The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord; He turns it wherever He wishes (Prov. 21:1). This means that mans will is subject to God. Then again, some may say that God must not violate peoples freedom and will let them sin. But in response, examine Gen. 20:6 where God kept Abimelech from sleeping with Abrahams wife: Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that in the integrity of your heart you have done this, and I also kept you from sinning against Me; therefore I did not let you touch her. God prevented Abimelech from sinning. It was Abimelechs desire to enter Abrahams wife, yet God prevented it. God can and does control peoples hearts and actions so that they will accomplish His purpose. He does this sovereignly and He does it without causing people to sin. In fact, God can even make someones heart hard for the purpose of carrying out His plan. But Sihon king of Heshbon was not willing for us to pass through his land; for the Lord your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, in order to deliver him into your hand, as he is today, (Deut. 2:30). The NIV, NKJV, RSV, KJV, and NASB all state that it was God who hardened Sihons heart -- not strengthened it towards its tendency. For it was of the Lord to harden their hearts, to meet Israel in battle in order that he might utterly destroy them, that they might receive no mercy, but that he might destroy them, just as the Lord had commanded Moses, (Joshua 11:20). The NIV says it was the LORD himself who hardened their hearts. The RSV says it was the Lords doing. In Deuteronomy 2, the Lord told Moses to tell Sihon King of Heshbon to let the Israelites pass. But, we see that God deliberately hardened King Sihons heart1 so that they could be delivered into Israels hands and destroyed. We see in Joshua, that it was of God to harden the Canaanites so that they might be destroyed. Why? Because God had a greater plan and purpose than showing them mercy. What is that plan? I believe God was arranging history to lead to the ultimate goal of Christs crucifixion, resurrection, and return, along with the redemption of Gods people. This is the divine plan that God has ordained. God is in control and He has a purpose that He has revealed in Scripture. Please consider Rev. 17:16-17 as further support for this. And the ten horns which you saw, and the beast, these will hate the harlot and will make her desolate and naked, and will eat her flesh and will burn her up with fire. 17For God has put it in their hearts to execute His purpose by having a common purpose, and by giving their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God should be fulfilled. In Revelation 17:16, God put it into the hearts of people to rebel so that His prophetic word could be fulfilled. God was, is, and will continue to control events in order to accomplish His divine plan. He is bringing these people to a place of being destroyed and it isnt simply because they are rebellious. It is because God has put it in their hearts to execute His purpose . . .until the words of God should be fulfilled! But, some will claim that God cannot put such things in peoples hearts -- in spite of the verses shown above. They will quote scripture where God says He does not desire the death of the wicked and, therefore, could not be purposely doing such a thing. For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies, declares the Lord God. Therefore, repent and live, (Ezekiel 18:32). Say to them, ‘As I live!’ declares the Lord God, ‘I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked . . . (Ezekiel 33:11). We clearly see that God does not take pleasure in the death of the wicked. That is, it is not His desire that even the wicked die. Yet, they do and to further complicate things, as we have seen in the scriptures above, He even hardens them (Exo. 4:24-25; Rom. 9:18), deludes them (2 Thess. 2:11), and puts it into their hearts to rebel (Deut. 2:30; Rev. 17:16-17). And if that werent enough, take a look at the following: And it shall come about that as the Lord delighted over you to prosper you, and multiply you, so the Lord will delight over you to make you perish and destroy you. . . (Deut. 28:63). The word delight here is the word soos in Hebrew and it means to exult, rejoice, display joy. If one man sins against another, God will mediate for him; but if a man sins against the Lord, who can intercede for him? But they would not listen to the voice of their father, for the Lord desired to put them to death, (1 Sam. 2:25). The words desired here is the same Hebrew word, chaphets, used in Ezekiel 18:32 and 33:11 (pleasure) above. It means to delight in, take pleasure in, desire, be pleased with. It was the sons of Eli who would not listen to their father. Why? Because the Lord desired to put them to death. In other words, they would not listen because God desired to put them to death. Likewise, the word chaphets occurs in Isaiah 53:10 where it says, But the Lord was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief. In the above verses you can see that God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked yet he delighted in destroying the wicked people. Is this a contradiction? No. Because God has a purpose and a plan and He has the sovereign right to accomplish His will. On one hand, He doesnt want people to suffer and die, yet on the other hand, He is delighted to carry out His divine plan which necessarily includes the death of the wicked because it is in accordance with the Law which He Himself has given us. His divine plan will be accomplished. This is further proof that God can desire one thing and bring another to pass. What does it all mean? So what do we make of this difficult issue that God can desire one thing and yet arrange circumstances, influence hearts, and govern people to the contrary? I believe it is because there is something greater than Gods desire that all should be saved; namely that Gods divine plan and will be carried out for His glory and the salvation of the elect. Love and kindness are not the only aspects of Gods glorious being. He is also holy and righteous and has brought history through its course in order to reflect His great wisdom and justice as well as His love and mercy. Though God hates sin, He permits it for his greater glory. In this, He desires all to be saved, but has not ordained that it be so because, according to the Law, He must punish sinners. The Law is a reflection of Gods character. Jesus said that out of the heart, the mouth speaks (Matt. 12:34). God spoke and the Law came forth. It is pure and perfect because it reflects Gods character. God has said that the soul that sins will die (Ezekiel 18:4), that sin causes a separation between God and man (Isaiah 59:2), that He must punish the sinner (Exodus 32:34; Hosea 9:9), and that His eyes are too pure to look upon evil (Hab. 1:13). If someone sins, they must be punished because it is in accordance with Gods Law. That is why God can desire all to be saved, yet not ordain that all be saved because His Law cannot be broken. What He is doing is remaining true to His character in both His justice and grace. He is true to His justice because He rightfully judges people according to His Law. He is true to His grace because He gives people the salvation they do not deserve. In both, He is being consistent with His own character. To that end, God has ordained all of history to flow to the predetermined end to which He has sent it. He has His plan and He will carry it out. He will bring glory to Himself. He will judge the wicked. He will save the believers. This is why He is enduring with such patience the wicked people. What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? 23And He did so in order that He might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, 24 even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles (Rom. 9:22-24). God has worked all things after the counsel of His will (Eph. 1:5,11) and has engineered history to bring not only the cross as the means of redemption, but also the culmination of all things for the declaration of His own glory, righteousness, holiness, and character. Sin will be shown to be utterly sinful and horrible. The cross demonstrates His righteousness and grace and His sovereign will is carried out. God is not simplistic. He has a divine plan that we must truly seek to fathom if we are to rightly understand His word. ________________ 1. The word hardened is the Hebrew qashah. According to the Strongs concordance, it means to be hard, be severe, be fierce, be harsh, be difficult, make hard, make stubborn. . .The NIV says God had made his spirit stubborn and his heart obstinate. The NKJV says, the Lord your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate. The RSV says, for the Lord your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate. https://facebook/groups/1455897377989176/
Posted on: Fri, 22 Aug 2014 14:19:35 +0000
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