Subject: How did sin originate |
Bible Note: Hi Hank, you wrote to me: "...It has been my observation that the Reformed/Calvinist camp is fond of using brackets after passages in Scripture that say _all_ or _whosoever will_ and other synonymous terms, in order to promulgate their view that what the passage really means is not _all_ at all but the elect." But isn't it called 'exegesis'? My starting point is an axiom that the Bible alone is the word of God written and therefore inerrant (the 'therefore' is of course a conclusion, not an axiom). I further deduce that because Scripture is inerrant it contains no contradictions (for in contradiction at least one part of it is false). Because Scripture teaches that 1) God does whatsoever He wills (agreed?) and 2) that not all men will be saved (agreed?), it follows *necessarily* that God does not will that every single individual will be saved or to be more formal as per the argument God wills that not every single individual will be saved. You may not like the logic of this argument and this is fine (as far as this discussion goes of course, otherwise it's not fine at all) but you have to reconcile one scripture with another scripture if you are willing to take an approach like the one you seem to be taking. For instance, when Christ said that he is the bread of life you of course do not take it to mean he is made of dough, you use your intellect and other scriptures to deduce what Christ meant by calling himself 'bread' or 'the door' or 'the way' and so on. So it is with the passage we are looking at. The overwhelming scriptural teaching is that God alone is sovereign and He alone decides or rather decrees who is going to be saved or damned and therefore 2 Pet 3:9 and a few other passages do not teach that God wills to save all men but decrees to damn some (or most) contrary to His own will. Further, if you are willing to say that 'all' always means 'every single individual' every time we read 'all' referring to people, then look at how much nonsense this no-exegesis can create: Mat 2:3: When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. would you say then that every one in Jerusalem was troubled? Mark 13:13: And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake.. does it mean that all men will hate Christians? John 8:2: And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him... does it mean all people in the universe who ever lived? all people of Jerusalem? all people of the neighbourhood? who are these 'all'? I'm simply trying to show you that there's no reason whatever to assume that 'all' in 2Pet 3:9 means 'all people without exception' and BTW I have briefly said why I don't think the passage doesn't teach that God wills all people to be saved based on the passage itself and maybe you should give your reasons why you don't accept my exegesis. I mean I know you don't believe what I believe concerning this passage but I gave you my reason why I believe what I believe, you didn't give me yours (which is OK if you don't want to). And lastly, I'm well aware how John 3:16 is often misapplied today to make people believe what the passage does not teach, namely that God loves every person without exception and wills everyone to come to saving faith but I don't think people who teach that looked closely just two verses below, on v18, that is where we read that "...he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." The full teaching then is 'God loves everyone without exception and wills everyone without exception to come to saving faith but He already condemned some for their disbelief'. I don't think this teaches the God of scripture. The God of scripture already elected His church before foundation of the world, appointed His Son to redeem this church from their sin and damned the rest for their unbelief. And why they did not believe? Free will?. Well, Christ told us why - "Jonh 10:26: But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you.." People do not believe because they are not Christ's sheep and the sheep was obviously chosen before the world begun, there's simply no room in the Bible for free will theology. He chose to save some and not others and this very doctrine every believer *should* find the greatest comfort knowing that nothing will separate him, the believer, from the love of God because Christ already fully appeased God's wrath on the cross and the sin is paid off in full, it is as Christ said finished. |