Stranger In This Strange Land

In the previous post on this topic, we looked at a couple of passages that are commonly used to "prove" that God, in His Sovereign choice of election, does not provide man with free will. We also saw how those passages do no such thing. But here's the deal: the passages I quoted were some that have come up in personal discussions, but are also widely debated among Calvinists.

So I thought that today I would use a few passages referenced by some of the big name Calvinists, either in their sermons, on their websites, or in their books. Since Chandler's church came up last time, let's start there.

The article opens with a quote from John 8:

To the Jews who had believed in Him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really My disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

They answered Him, "We are Abraham's descendants, and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?"

Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed" (31-36).

What the author does is present a long discussion that expounds on the idea that, as sinners who are born sinful and deserving of wrath, all of our desires are constantly sin, that we never desire anything good, anything righteous, and that we have no choice but to sin. But he then goes on to tell us that we do have a choice, but we just choose sin - which is true. However, choosing sin, rather than righteousness, doesn't eliminate free will. We can't, in fact, choose sin without a will. And there's the rub: he claims that we have a will, but it isn't free. In other words, you sin because you want to, but you want to because not wanting to isn't even an option.

This is contradictory, and it is also a misinterpretation of what Jesus says: "Anyone who sins is a slave to sin." Jesus, literally, says that if you are a sinner, you cannot set yourself free. He does NOT say that if you are a sinner, you have no choice but to sin at all times. The author of the article tells us it is impossible for sinners to ever choose to do anything righteous, but that isn't what Jesus is saying here, and we know this because it is possible for sinners to choose to do something righteous. Ever known a non-believer who didn't want to murder? Of course you have. Otherwise, everyone would be mass-murderers.

Ever had an opportunity to steal, and you didn't take it? That's a decision to not sin.

Now, let's be fair, the author pointed out - and Jesus says this - that lusting after a woman is adultery, that hating a person is murder, etc. This makes murdering and adultery extremely difficult to avoid. But we must never mistake the fact that we do sin - which is true - with the fact that we must sin - which is not. Repeatedly throughout Scripture,we find God exhorting people not to sin . . . even non-believers. And, repeatedly, we find people choosing not to sin . . . even non-believers.

I want to look at a few of those Scriptures momentarily, but before that, I want us to think through the significance of those last two sentences. If God, Who knit us together in our mothers' wombs and also created us with the complete inability to avoid sin, then exhorts people to choose righteousness, He's lying. Right? He is, literally, setting people up for failure, and then holding them accountable for said failures. That is dishonest, unjust and . . . . you know what, never mind. Let's take this out of theology and put it into a real-world scenario.

So you have a boss. Your boss says, "I need that report on my desk in two hours, or there will be disciplinary actions taken against you. Oh, but I'm going to have to take your computer for a bit. And your paper. You know what? Give me all of the pens in your desk, too. Thanks."

Would that be fair? Reasonable? Your boss demanded something of you, but took away every single tool necessary to complete the job. And what if you were written up for not providing the report? Would you call HR before you quit, or just quit? Because no one, in his or her right mind, would stay there.

Here's what denying free will does: it says that God demands obedience, but creates us without the ability or willingness to obey, and then holds us accountable for our subsequent disobedience. That is wicked. It is iniquitous. By denying free will, theologians create a god who is unjust, something against which God often speaks! And to speak against justice, to demand justice of your creation, but to be unjust yourself, is the very definition of hypocrisy. Fortunately for all of us, this is not the god displayed in Scripture.

Let's look at some actual Bible, rather than just spout theology:

The man of God came up and told the king of Israel [Ahab], "This is what the LORD says: 'Because the Arameans think the LORD is a god of the hills and not a god of the valleys [see 20:1-27], I will deliver this vast army into your hands, and you will know that I am the LORD.'"

For seven days they camped opposite each other, and on the seventh day the battle was joined. The Israelites inflicted a hundred thousand casualties on the Aramean foot soldiers in one day. The rest of them escaped to the city of Aphek, where the wall collapsed on twenty-seven thousand of them. And Ben-Hadad [the king of Aram] fled to the city and hid in an inner room.

His officials said to him, "Look, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are merciful. Let us go to the king of Israel with sackcloth around our waists and ropes around our heads. Perhaps he will spare your life."

Wearing sackcloth around their waists and ropes around their heads, they went to the king of Israel and said, "Your servant Ben-Hadad says: 'Please let me live.'"

The king answered, "Is he still alive? He is my brother."

The men took this as a good sign and were quick to pick up his word. "Yes, your brother Ben-Hadad!" they said.

"Go and get him," the king said. When Ben-Hadad came out, Ahab had him come up into his chariot.

"I will return the cities my father took from your father," Ben-Hadad offered. "You may set up your own market areas in Damascus, as my father did in Samaria."

Ahab said, "On the basis of a treaty I will set you free." So he made a treaty with him, and let him go.

By the word of the LORD one of the sons of the prophets said to his companion, "Strike me with your weapon," but the man refused.

So the prophet said, "Because you have not obeyed the LORD, as soon as you leave me, a lion will kill you." And after the man went away, a lion found him and killed him.

The prophet found another man and said, "Strike me, please." So the man struck him and wounded him. The the prophet went and stood by the road waiting for the king. He disguised himself with his headband down over his eyes. As the king passed by, the prophet called out to him, "Your servant went into the thick of the battle, and someone came to me with a captive and said, 'Guard this man. If he is missing, it will be your life for his life, or you must pay a talent of silver.' While your servant was busy here and there, the man disappeared."

"That is your sentence," the king of Israel said. "You have pronounced it yourself."

Then the prophet quickly removed the headband from his eyes, and the king of Israel recognized him as one of the prophets. He said to the king, "This is what the LORD says: 'You have set free a man I had determined should die. Therefore it is your life for his life, your people for his people.'" Sullen and angry, the king of Israel went to his palace in Samaria (1 Kings 20:28-43).

Notice: God had determined that Ben-Hadad should die, and Ahab directly thwarted that. See that? God Himself, speaking through this unnamed prophet, says that. It is not my interpretation, and I am not providing exegesis on this - God literally says, "You have set free a man I had determined should die."

Did God want Ben-Hadad to be killed? Yes. Was he? No.

Now, the author of the aforementioned article argues that, because we are wicked and because sin is our default mode, sinning is expected. I want to be clear on this: we do sin. All of us sin. Ahab, however, was a particularly wicked man, and it therefore shouldn't surprise us that Ahab sins. Nor, since God is a God Who does not leave the guilty unpunished, should we be surprised at His pronouncement of judgment against Ahab. But then there's chapter 21.

Please, go read chapter 21 on your own (better yet, read 1 Kings in its entirety; if you won't do that, however, at the very least read chapter 21). In the meantime, here is a summary:

Ahab wants to plant a garden near the palace, so he tries to buy a field from a man named Naboth. Naboth, whose field is his inheritance, declines. Ahab and his wife, Jezebel, conspire to murder Naboth and, once that is accomplished, Ahab goes in and takes the field for himself. Because cucumbers and leeks are totally worth murdering someone.

Elijah - the weird and wonderful prophet - is given a message from the LORD, and this is where I will pick up the Scripture:

"I have found you," [Elijah] answered, "because you have sold yourself to do evil in the eyes of the LORD. 'I am going to bring disaster on you. I will consume your descendants and cut off from Ahab every last male in Israel - slave or free. I will make your house like that of Jeroboam son of Nabat and that of Baasha son of Ahijah, because you have provoked Me to anger and have caused Israel to sin.

"And also concerning Jezebel the LORD says: 'Dogs will devour Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel.'

"Dogs will eat those belonging to Ahab who die in the city, and the birds of the air will feed on those who die in the country."

(There was never a man like Ahab, who sold himself to do evil in the eyes of the LORD, urged on by Jezebel his wife. He behaved in the vilest manner by going after idols, like the Amorites the LORD drove out before Israel.)

When Ahab heard these words, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and fasted. He lay in sackcloth and went around meekly.

Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite: "Have you noticed how Ahab has humbled himself before Me? Because he has humbled himself, I will not bring this disaster in his day, but I will bring it on his house in the days of his son" (1 Kings 21:20-29).

Now, we know from Ahab's further disobedience and disdain for the Word of the LORD that Ahab was never saved, and yet he recognized God enough to show himself capable - as an unsaved sinner - of humbling himself before the LORD, even if momentarily. And it wasn't just a show, because God recognized it as true humility. He even rewarded Ahab for it! Again, I am not "reading between the lines" here, I'm reading what the text says. So when the author of this article tells us that sinners will always choose sin, that it is their default mode, without question, that they cannot possibly choose to do something righteous, ever . . . that goes completely against the Scriptures.

Which means that even sinners have free will.

"You did not choose Me, but I chose you" (John 15:16).

Jesus is talking to the eleven apostles while they are on their way to Gethsemane, shortly before He is arrested and crucified. This verse gets thrown around quite a bit as proof that we are only saved if God chooses us.

Duane Spencer, in reference to this (half) verse, writes in his book, TULIP: The Five Points of Calvinism in the Light of Scripture: "The bluntest affirmation that man does not do the choosing of God, since his depraved nature is capable of being "positive" only toward Satan, is that of Jesus" (41).

John MacArthur: "Again, the choice is always with God. Men don't choose God; God chooses men. His is the choice" (Understanding Election).

And, yes, if that is all Jesus had said, I would agree. But that's only half of His sentence, and it is only one sentence out of an entire three(ish)-year history of walking with these men.

See, if Jesus is talking strictly about salvation here, then there is no argument; I would readily admit this. However, Jesus isn't talking about salvation, because He tells them exactly what they were chosen for - why they were hand-selected by Him. Let's look at it:

"You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you to go bear fruit - fruit that will last."

See . . . Jesus chose them for a specific purpose, which we see in the book of Acts as they go on to become the leaders and pillars of the Church. Now, this isn't speculation, because we know that even at this time, as Jesus was giving them this encouragement, He had numerous (hundreds, perhaps even thousands of) disciples. We know, for example, that Cleopas considered himself to be a companion of the Twelve (see Luke 24:13-24), even though he was not "chosen" in the same manner that the Apostles were. We know that Matthias was one of the original disciples, who was later chosen to replace Judas (who was also "chosen" by Jesus, yet he wasn't saved). But Matthias was not "chosen" by Jesus at the beginning, even though he was with them from the beginning (see Acts 1:15-22).

Remember what happened when Jesus chose the Apostles? He walked along the streets, the roads, the docks, and called people to Him. He, in fact, gathered a lot of followers, but He specifically chose twelve of them to be His inner-circle. Check out Luke 6:12-16:

One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, He called His disciples to Him and chose twelve of them, whom He also designated apostles: Simon (whom He called Peter), his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called the Zealot, Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

When Jesus tells the Apostles that He "chose" them, He isn't saying He chose them for salvation, as opposed to everyone else who won't be saved. That is forcing a theology into the text, adding to the words of Christ. What Christ is actually doing is reminding them that He chose them, specifically, from among a larger group of other disciples. We don't know how many, obviously, but we know it was more than twelve. Why? Because he "chose twelve of them." Here in Luke, He specifically chooses twelve of these numerous disciples to be apostles. Later, He reminds the remaining eleven (Judas was gone already) that He chose them to bear fruit.

To use John 15 to try and assert that we do not have free will is to ignore the rest of the sentence, the rest of the book, and the other Gospels.

Jonah 1-4

The story of Jonah - which is probably familiar to just about everyone -is typically upheld as the paragon of proof that man does not have free will. Memes abound, all of which ask the question, "If Jonah had free will, then why did he end up in Nineveh anyway?"

See the source image

That's a great question, but it only works (i.e., sounds like a reasonable argument) because it overlooks the whole purpose and meaning of free will. It also ignores a large portion of the story . . . and, you know, the rest of the Bible. So let's take a look here.

The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: "Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before Me."

But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the LORD (1-3).

Okay, so let's think about this. Did God want (will) Jonah to go? Yes. Obviously.

Did Jonah want (will) to go? No. Clearly.

Was Jonah's will in opposition to God's? Yes.

Did Jonah act on his will? Yes.

Tarshish is believed to have been located in southern Spain. If that's the case, Jonah - quite literally - ran in the opposite direction. If God's will - let's think this through - if God's will cannot be thwarted, then God wanted Jonah to flee. So God, in commanding Jonah to go to Nineveh, actually wanted Jonah not to go to Nineveh, in order for God to then prove that Jonah had no choice but to go to Nineveh.

This is convoluted and dishonest. In order to prove that my daughter should not eat ice cream for breakfast, I tell her she has to eat toast instead, but I hand her ice cream, so that she can learn that she should have had toast. That's not even remotely in the realm of making sense. And if I were to then discipline her for eating the ice cream that I gave her . . . that would make me a wicked father.

God clearly wanted Jonah to go, Jonah clearly did not want to go, so he exercised his free will and ran. Now, most Calvinists will say that, if this is the case, then God isn't in control. If God had just let Jonah go, shrug His shoulders, and say, "Oh, well. Humans will be humans," I would agree. But that's not what God did.

Then the LORD sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god . . . Then the sailors said to each other, "Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity." They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. . . .

The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, "What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?"

"Pick me up and throw me into the sea," he replied, "and it will become calm. I know that this is my fault that this great storm has come upon you." . . .

Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. At this the men greatly feared the LORD, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows to Him.

But the LORD provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights (1:4-5; 7; 11-12; 15-17).

In order to get Jonah to Nineveh, God intervened. Intervention - listen - intervention is only necessary if someone is doing something that you don't want them to do. Without free will, this is impossible. Without free will, we can never do what God doesn't want us to do, because we would always be doing His will!

"All events whatsoever are governed by the secret counsel of God."

-John Calvin

See, if Jonah truly did not have free will, then we would have one of two choices when interpreting this text. The first: Jonah fled because God wanted him to flee, even though God clearly wanted him to go to Nineveh. We've already seen that this is convoluted, making God out to be a liar Who uses intricate deception to prove His "holiness" (although it would not be holy to lie). The second option is that, if Jonah did not have free will, he wouldn't have wanted to flee to begin with, because God's will would have been for him to go, and he would have wanted to go. Of course, that didn't happen, either. What we see is that Jonah wanted to flee . . . and he fled. But that doesn't mean it worked out for him.

God wanted Jonah to go. He did not want any pretense or convoluted ways, He simply wanted Jonah to go. Which is why, when Jonah didn't go, God intervened. Right? Because even the meme admits that what God did was done in order to persuade Jonah to comply. You do not need to be persuaded to change your mind unless you want something that is wrong.

So God intervened, allowing Jonah to stay a few days inside of some sort of large sea creature, until Jonah's will had been broken enough that he was willing to obey God:

And the LORD commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.

Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: "Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you."

Jonah obeyed the word of the LORD and went to Nineveh (2:10 - 3:3).

I'm fairly certain that being fish upchuck would persuade any one of us to change our minds.

I will let you all read the rest of Chapter 3 yourselves, but the short version is that Jonah preached, and the people of Nineveh repented. Here's where it gets interesting:

But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry. He prayed to the LORD, "O LORD, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God Who relents from sending calamity. Now, O LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live" (4:1-3).

Jonah still didn't want to go. "Aha!" the Calvinist says. "But he went, which proves that he didn't have free will!"

No, it proves that even as he obeyed, his will was still his own to control. His actions were compelled by God's intervention, but his will was still his own. He went (because, you know . . . vomit), but that doesn't mean he had changed his desire. And God's response?

But the LORD replied, "Have you any right to be angry? . . . Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about this great city?" (4:4;11).

God said, "I care for all of these people, Jonah, and you do not have the right to be angry." That means that Jonah's anger was not God's desire for Jonah; it was not God's will. Did God intervene and try to change this? Yes . . . that's the point of His speech and His vine (see 4:5-10). You see, if Jonah were enacting God's will here, Jonah wouldn't even be arguing - he would be agreeing. But he is arguing, because he doesn't want what God wants.

So either Jonah has free will - but God is still in control - or God wants Jonah to want Nineveh to be saved, by wanting Jonah to not want Nineveh to be saved. Again, if this is how God actually operates, then it is virtually impossible for us to tell what God actually wants. Does He want us to obey, or not? If we disobey, and if "all events are governed whatsoever by the secret counsel of God," then it is our disobedience that is God's secret plan for our lives. Which means our disobedience is actually obedience . . . and so disciplining us for it would be wicked and unjust.

By claiming that man has no free will, by claiming that Jonah did what God wanted because Jonah had no free will, is to create a god who is wicked and unjust. He is a god who commands obedience, but desires, wills, and counsels disobedience. God, in other words, does not mean what He says (as Piper is fond of arguing).

Thank God He's not like that. Thank God we are not asked to serve a god who has a deep, secret counsel, a counsel that we can neither learn, nor fathom, nor have any hope of obeying. Thank God that his counsel does not simultaneously command obedience while requiring our disobedience. And, thank God, He isn't a God Who punishes us for the sins He Himself has counseled us to commit. No, any punishment for sin that we receive is punishment we receive because we chose to commit that sin, apart from and in direct opposition to His counsel. And, thank God, He is not a God who is undone by such blatant treason.

The Cross proves that God can take our sin and turn it to good, that He can foresee our disobedience, and use it to compel us to love and follow Him, and that if we refuse, His wrath awaits. His anger does not await because He chooses to pour it out on some and not others - that would be partiality - but He pours it out on all who would commit treason and refuse to love and trust Him. But the opportunity to love and trust Him is there - and possible - for all people to choose.

* * *

Okay, so as an afterthought, I feel like I should clarify a couple of things. First, I am not accusing Calvinists of believing that God is dishonest. I have never heard a Calvinist claim this. Not once. My argument is that, if we follow the theology to its conclusion, this is the conclusion at which we must arrive: for man to live without free will would, by necessity, require God to be dishonest.

Secondly, in order to maintain this theology, we must reinterpret the Scriptures, adding to (and taking away from) what they say. This is dangerous, but the majority of Calvinists I know are not knowingly engaging in this - it's what they've been taught, and the "proof texts" are always presented out of context. Always. Most proponents of this are far more interested in listening to what "Biblical teachers" tell them a text means, rather than look at what a text says, but this is - I believe - completely unintentional for most of them.

The bottom line is this: most Calvinists I know are actually very sincere people, with a very sincere love for Jesus. They do believe Jesus is Lord, they do believe God raised Him from the dead (which are the requirements for salvation, according to Paul and Jesus), and, really, I believe the majority of people who embrace Calvinist views are really just misled. But this does not make the belief any less dangerous, because the belief undermines the very character of God. We know that God is not a liar, but a god who presents us with the appearance of choice, yet does not actually give us choice, is a god who is lying. So, for those who follow this theology, I would ask you to wake up!

Take a theologian fast. Spend the next year reading through your Bible two or three times (most of us don't realize it, but it's entirely possible to read through the entire Bible in three months). If you come to a difficult passage, don't fret - keep reading. Spend the year reading through the Bible at least twice, and I promise that you will retain more of it - in context - than you ever have before.

I hope I've given you some food for thought. Now, I ask one thing in return: you give me some, too. Listen, I'm pretty passionate about this, and I'm pretty set that mankind was created with free will, and that free will is not in opposition to God's control. However. . . .

. . . I am far more interested in the Truth than in being right. And if you, through the Scriptures, can demonstrate that we do not have free will, that our wills are irrevocably directed by forces completely outside of our control, then I will reconsider. I have changed my mind on a great number of things as I have studied the Scriptures, and I am not adverse to doing so again. But, as I hope has been demonstrated through the Scriptures, we do have free will, we do make choices - both good and bad - and God Himself calls us to choose Him, not because He has already chosen us to choose Him, but because He legitimately wants all people everywhere to be saved, and He legitimately calls all people everywhere to salvation - even those who, ultimately, choose not to trust Him.

Some other passages to consider:

I Samuel 26:19 - "Now let my lord the king listen to his servant's words. If the LORD has incited you against me, then may He accept an offering. If, however, men have done it, may they be cursed before the LORD!"

Re-written from a Calvinist perspective: "Now let my lord the king listen to his servant's words. If the LORD has incited you against me, then may He accept an offering. If, however, God has incited men to incite you against me indirectly, then may their actions in favor of His will and governed by His secret counsel be cursed before the LORD!"

I Kings 21:25 - There was never a man like Ahab, who sold himself to do evil in the eyes of the LORD, urged on by Jezebel his wife.

Re-written: There was never a man like Ahab, who was sold by God to do evil in the eyes of the LORD, urged on by God's secret counsel through Jezebel his wife.

II Chronicles 36:15-17 - The LORD, the God of their fathers, sent word to them through His messengers again and again, because He had pity on His people and on His dwelling place. But they mocked God's messengers, despised His words and scoffed at His prophets until the wrath of the LORD was aroused against His people and there was no remedy. He brought up against them the king of the Babylonians, who killed their young men with the sword in the sanctuary, and spared neither young man nor young woman, old man or aged. God handed all of them over to Nebuchadnezzar.

Re-written: The LORD, the God of their fathers, sent word to them through His messengers again and again, because He had pity on His people and on His dwelling place, having already determined that they would not listen. Because He had decreed and counseled their disobedience in order to show Himself holy, they mocked God's messengers, despised His words and scoffed at His prophets until the wrath of the LORD, which had been aroused against His people since before they were created, was poured out, and there was no remedy, because a remedy was not His good and Sovereign Will. He brought up against them the king of the Babylonians, who killed their young men with the sword in the sanctuary, and spared neither young man nor young woman, old man or aged. God handed all of them over to Nebuchadnezzar, because He had so purposed to do, desiring their captivity, and His messengers were just a pretext to make it appear as if He wanted His people to turn. Since the people did not turn, however, God clearly did not want them to, because He is Sovereign, and His will can never be thwarted.

Esther 4:12-14 - When Esther's words were reported to Mordecai, he sent back this answer: "Do not think that because you are in the king's house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to a royal position for such a time as this?"

Re-written: When Esther's words were reported to Mordecai, he sent back this answer: "Do not think that because you are in the king's house you alone of all the Jews will escape. But God is in control, and you will not remain silent at this time, or else relief and deliverance for the Jews would have to arise from another place, and you and your father's family would perish. Then God wouldn't be Sovereign. But we need not fear the future, because God's Will is clearly that you have come to a royal position for such a time as this, and no one can thwart God's Will."

Isaiah 5:1-7 - "I will sing for the One I love a song about His vineyard:
                         My Loved One had a vineyard on a fertile hillside.
   He dug it up and cleared it of stones
   and planted it with the choicest vines.
   He built a watchtower in it and cut
   out a winepress as well.
   Then He looked for a cup of good grapes, but it yielded
only bad fruit.

Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and men of Judah,
    judge between Me and My vineyard.
What more could have been done for My vineyard
    than I have done for it?
When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad?
Now I will tell you what I am going to do to My vineyard:
I will take away its hedge, and it will be destroyed;
I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled.
I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor
   cultivated, and briars and thorns will grow there.
I will command the clouds not to rain on it."

The vineyard of the LORD Almighty is the house of
   Israel,
   and the men of Judah are the garden of His delight.
               And He looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for
   righteousness, but heard cries of distress.

Re-written: "I will sing for the One I love a song about His vineyard:
                         My Loved One had a vineyard on a fertile hillside.
   He dug it up and cleared it of stones
   and planted it with the choicest vines.
   He built a watchtower in it and cut
   out a winepress as well.
   Then He looked for a cup of good grapes, but it yielded
only bad fruit, according to His Will.

Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and men of Judah,
    judge between Me and My vineyard.
When He called, it was a general call, not an effectual call,
                          but because He is just, He can judge according to His
                           pleasure.
When He looked for good grapes, it yielded only bad, as
                           He desired.
Now I will tell you what I am going to do to My vineyard:
I will take away its hedge, and it will be destroyed;
I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled.
I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor
   cultivated, and briars and thorns will grow there.
I will command the clouds not to rain on it, because
                           I desire that some should perish."

The vineyard of the LORD Almighty is the house of
   Israel,
   and the men of Judah are the garden of His wrath.
               And He looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for
   righteousness, but heard cries of distress, and He
                           was pleased, for this was governed by His own
                           good counsel.

Jeremiah 17:4 - Through your own fault you will lose the inheritance I gave you.

Re-written: Through My purpose and counsel, I will tell you it is your fault that you will lose the inheritance I gave you.

Matthew 6:5-6 - He could not do any miracles there, except lay His hands on a few sick people and heal them. And He was amazed at their lack of faith.

Re-written: He chose not to do any miracles there, by His Sovereign purposes, except lay His hands on a few sick people and heal them. And He was not amazed at their lack of faith, for even faith must come from Him - and He did not realize that He had not given them the faith they needed to believe.

Luke 7:30 - But the Pharisees and experts in the law rejected God's purpose for themselves, because they had not been baptized by John.

Re-written: But the Pharisees and experts in the law had not rejected God's purpose for themselves, because God's will is Sovereign, and His purposes can never be rejected, and this was proven because God had not granted them the grace to believe and be baptized by John.

I Thessalonians 4:3-4: It is God's will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God.

Re-written: It is God's will that some of you should be sanctified: that some of you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn (but may or may not be able) to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God. For sexual immorality occurs among believers, and such things cannot thwart the Will of God, who governs all things by His secret counsel. For God does not make mistakes.

Stranger In This Strange Land

Pages

Saturday, April 20, 2019

Happy Easter

Sunday, March 31, 2019

Music Launch!

Tuesday, March 5, 2019

An Update

Thursday, January 31, 2019

An Open Letter to The United States of America

Friday, January 4, 2019

Freewill vs. God's Sovereignty, Pt. 3

Sunday, December 23, 2018

Merry Christmas

Wednesday, November 14, 2018

The Creation of the World