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NASB | 1 Peter 2:8 and, "A STONE OF STUMBLING AND A ROCK OF OFFENSE"; for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this doom they were also appointed. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | 1 Peter 2:8 and, "A STONE OF STUMBLING AND A ROCK OF OFFENSE"; for they stumble because they disobey the word [of God], and to this they [who reject Him as Savior] were also appointed. [Is 8:14] |
Bible Question: My sister asked me if I knew why God would want to create people who He knows will end up in Hell. In fact, the majority of people will end up there. I know God is perfectly just, and would be perfectly just to send the whole planet to hell, but she is not to accepting of that either. She doesn't see how God can fault people who were born with a fallen nature that is unable to not sin, and then send them to Hell forever because of it. Tough questions. I know God created Adam and Eve perfectly and without sin, and that we are suffering the consequences of their sin since they perfectly represented all of us. We can choose men to represent us in politics but they won't represent all of our wishes perfectly, but God can and did pick someone to represent us perfectly when He picked Adam and Eve. And I realize that God uses evil, suffering, and Hell to demonstrate His own glory, grace, love, mercy, justice, etc. But it is still tough to accept that we may have suffered forever, and that people we care about will suffer forever. My sister is just marveling over her new baby girl (number four child for her!) and the idea that any of our children would not be saved is just too painful to think about. Anybody have any comments or verses that I could share with her to help her (and me) to be able to see the glory in all this and to be able to praise God for it? |
Bible Answer: 'The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance' (2 Pet 3:9) While I agree with the literal implication of 1 Pet 2:8, it doesn't necessarily have to be a cause for fear or anguish with respect to family members. The reason is that, despite the fact that we live in a universe which is under the control of Almighty God (see my notes on Rom 9:18 with respect to predestination vs free will), there is abundant Scripture that would suggest, paradoxically, that God's heart can be turned by the intercessional prayers of man. My favourite examples in this regard are found in the Torah. For example, in Numbers 14:11-20, the intercessional prayer of one humble man - Moses - caused God to change His mind about destroying Israel. That is, the prayer of one man saved 2,000,000-plus lives from instant death at the hands of an angry God. Two other examples where intercessional prayer turned the heart of God away from destroying all His people are found in Numbers 16:20-24, and Exodus 32:9-14 (the golden calf incident). The point is this: prayer is capable of causing God to look upon the lives of each of your sister's children with mercy, and to save them from eternal death, which is what the Israelites faced if Moses hadn't intervened on their behalf as a kind of pre-Christ high priest. It is not productive to worry about whether or not each of those children is predestined for destruction. Rather, it is our job to pray for the lost - particularly those who we love - knowing that if we ask we shall receive (Lk 11:9-13), and that there is strong Biblical precedent pointing to the capacity of man to change God's mind through intercessional prayer. |