Why did God allow the shooting in Conneticut?

Yesterday I was talking to a man who is descended from a long line of pastors, yet he is rejecting the faith not living the Christian life.  He asked me the question of how can an all powerful God allow for the massacre of all the innocent little children in Conneticut?

 

He is making a common human mistake. The Bible tells us that no human is innocent. We are all born with the guilt of sin, I know you know the scriptures (Rom 3:23; Ecc. 7:20; Ps. 51:5). Therefore, the only thing God owes to any human is eternity in hell! But the Bible teaches, that God so love the world, He gave His only begotten Son as the propitiation for our sins (Rom 3:25, 1 Jn. 4:10).

As for those of the age to differentiate between good and evil, the Bible is straight and clear. We are morally responsible to choose God's ways over our own and reject sin, but the Bible is also clear that in our sinful state, we cannot, and will not choose God. We choose sin over him (Rom 8:6-8).

So this begs the question, why doesn't God save everyone?  Aholy God must satisfy His justice against sinners.  He cannot and will not let evil be unpunished.

I think Paul also anticipates this question -

Romans 9:14-26 ¹⁴ What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! ¹⁵ For He says to Moses, "I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION."

¹⁶ So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. ¹⁷ For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE I RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MIGHT BE PROCLAIMED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH." ¹⁸ So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.

¹⁹ You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?" ²⁰ On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, "Why did you make me like this," will it? ²¹ Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?
²² 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? ²³ And He did so to 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.
²⁵ As He says also in Hosea, "I WILL CALL THOSE WHO WERE NOT MY PEOPLE, 'MY PEOPLE,' AND HER WHO WAS NOT BELOVED, 'BELOVED.'" ²⁶ "AND IT SHALL BE THAT IN THE PLACE WHERE IT WAS SAID TO THEM, 'YOU ARE NOT MY PEOPLE,' THERE THEY SHALL BE CALLED SONS OF THE LIVING GOD."

I think that answers our question. What do you think?

A Response to Free Will or Calvinism?

image from http://subrealism.blogspot.com/2009/09/calvin-free-market

It seems in our day there is a big controversy between the teachings known as Arminiansim (Free Will) and that of Calvinism (Doctrines of Grace).  I went to a website that I really appreciate, (www.eternal-productions.org/articles.html)and I found and read an article posted there entitled Free Will or Calvinism. Reading the paper, I saw a few faults and thought I would type up a response.  Because this has been and continues to be such a major disagreement, I thought I would share my thoughts on it here.


Under the heading of “T” in defining the doctrine of Calvinism, you said: “that man is spiritually dead in trespasses and is incapable of responding to the gospel unless God regenerates first” (p. 4). This is not a true statement. Calvinism teaches that man does have a free will, with regard to everything except salvation. You cited numerous verses that states we are dead in our sins, and that no one can rouse himself to seek God.




I think you believe God raises the dead to life (i.e. quickens), and then if they reject the gospel, He lets them fall dead again?



There are points I would like for you to consider from an Arminian, free-will standpoint:


What about the apostle Paul? Did he have a choice of free-will in his salvation? Did God not literally choose Him? What about the disciples? We know one was predestined to hell. What of the others, if God knows all things? Didn’t He choose them? And what about Abraham? Was he not chosen by God out of the land of Ur? What of the Jews? We know they are God’s “chosen” people! And certainly through no merit of their own.



God is the same “yesterday, today, and forever” (Heb. 13:8). Can he have a different method of salvation for the Jew and the Gentile? I think not.



Let’s look at some other passages:

Matthew 13:13-15 13 "Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. 14 "In their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says, 'YOU WILL KEEP ON HEARING, BUT WILL NOT UNDERSTAND; YOU WILL KEEP ON SEEING, BUT WILL NOT PERCEIVE; 15 FOR THE HEART OF THIS PEOPLE HAS BECOME DULL, WITH THEIR EARS THEY SCARCELY HEAR, AND THEY HAVE CLOSED THEIR EYES, OTHERWISE THEY WOULD SEE WITH THEIR EYES, HEAR WITH THEIR EARS, AND UNDERSTAND WITH THEIR HEART AND RETURN, AND I WOULD HEAL THEM.'



Did Jesus just say that he speaks to them people in parables, so that they will not be healed? But what about their free-will and free-choice? Isn’t that being infringed on by God?



The prophet says: 17 Why, O LORD, do You cause us to stray from Your ways

And harden our heart from fearing You?

Return for the sake of Your servants, the tribes of Your heritage.

Isaiah 63:17 (NASB95)



Let’s examine the passage Paul writes about the condition of Israel. Did all the Jews in their free-will choose to turn away from God?



Romans 11:8-11 8 just as it is written, "GOD GAVE THEM A SPIRIT OF STUPOR, EYES TO SEE NOT AND EARS TO HEAR NOT, DOWN TO THIS VERY DAY." 9 And David says, "LET THEIR TABLE BECOME A SNARE AND A TRAP, AND A STUMBLING BLOCK AND A RETRIBUTION TO THEM. 10 "LET THEIR EYES BE DARKENED TO SEE NOT, AND BEND THEIR BACKS FOREVER." 11 I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous.



Paul is hear quoting from Deut. 29:4 and Psalm 69:22-3, and is telling us that God gave the Jews a spirit of stupor, eyes to see not and ears to hear not, to respond to His commands of recognizing the new covenant with Messiah. And why did God do this? He did it to bring the gospel to the Gentiles! Isaiah 49:6 6 He says, "It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make You a light of the nations So that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth."



Where you err my friend is in your assumption that people who are commanded to follow God are able to do so if they choose. There are two types of people, scriptures tell us. Those controlled by the Spirit, and those controlled by the flesh. Let’s look again to what Paul says about those controlled by the flesh, (i.e. the sinful-nature).



Romans 8:6-7 6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, 7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so,



For the letter “U” you state: "Calvinism teaches that God decides on no basis whatsoever but by the mystery of His will to save the elect and to allow the rest to go to hell even though He could save them all." From here you draw this conclusion: "This is not the God of love, mercy, grace, faithfulness, and righteousness revealed in the pages of Scripture. According to Calvinism, God is capricious and unpredictable. The true God of love has revealed His nature as merciful, loving, forgiving, patient,compassionate, dependable, and just to all."



I see no conflict between what the Bible has stated concerning man’s sinful disposition, being unwilling and unable to come to Him (Rom. 3:11; 8:7-8), and that of God being loving, passionate, rich in mercy to His creation. In His letter to the Ephesians, Paul tells them that God predestined them before the foundation of the world, in love, to the praise of His glory (Eph. 1:4-6). So evidently God thinks that His free election and predestination of some sinful and rebellious humans, who were created in His image, IS praiseworthy and glorious!



And so just how did God choose to elect and save the weak and shameful and those that are not, to shame the wise and strong and those that “are” (1 Cor. 1:27-28)? Verse 6 tells us that He “freely bestowed on the beloved” this amazing grace of salvation, with no respect to persons. In His letter to Titus, the apostle tells us that we have been saved “not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy by the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5).



To call God “capricious and unpredictable” (p. 6) for choosing not to elect some to salvation, is to blaspheme His attributes of love and grace, which he does freely bestow on the beloved. The Arminian explanation assumes that God owes man something. He doesn’t owe sinful, rebellious, unregenerate man anything except justice, and that puts us ALL in hell eternally. If anything, the doctrines of Grace can better explain all scriptures and most certainly highlights and exalts Yahweh’s amazing grace, that He would choose some of us sinful, rebellious humans, to save us for Himself.

That's what I call Grace!

When Does God's Love End and His Hatred Start?

An excellent question was presented to me. When in a sinner’s life does God’s love for that sinner end and His hate begin? This is a difficult question, but I think part of understanding it is understanding the nature of man and of God.


First, in beginning this statement, we need to understand man’s condition. Man is fallen from the sinless state in which God created him (Gen 3:6,7). We are born with a sinful nature. “The heart [of man] is wicked and deceitful above all things. Who can understand it?” (Jer. 17:9). Romans 3 tells us: 10As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one; 11there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.

Romans 5:10

For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!

Colossians 1:21

Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.

There is nothing good in mankind to seek God or want God (Rom 3:10-11). “Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God” (Rom. 8:8). Eph 2:1 says: “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins.”

18 For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, 19 whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things. Phillipians 3:18,19

So the Bible describes man as hostile, an enemy of God, spiritually dead in his sins (Gen 2:17). There is no way we can please God. Isaiah tells us that even our good deeds are like polluted garments to God (Is. 64:6). Our nature is so thoroughly pervaded with sin, there is nothing in us that can want God (Rom 3:10-11). Jesus said, “No one can come to me unless the Father draws him” Jn 6:44. We are dead in our sins, and all of us, apart from God’s grace, are running headlong straight to hell. And if not for His Amazing Grace, that’s where we all should end up. The only thing we can earn from God in our sinful nature is condemnation. We are all guilty and deserving of hell.

Of God, we know that He is love (1 Jn 4:7-10). That is His nature. God is love. God created man upon the earth, and provided a Savior to redeem him from his sins. Scripture says: For God so loved the world, that He sent his only begotten Son... (Jn 3:16).

That is a characteristic of God's being. God IS love. But yes, because He is love, He MUST punish sin and sinners go to the place of punishment God created for Satan and his fellow fallen-angels (Mt 25:41). Part of God being love, is that God is Just or Righteous. He must punish evil.

In the Bible, a person’s name was very important, and had to do with Characteristics of that person. So when God revealed His name to Moses, it was very significant. God was revealing to sinful man WHO HE IS. He said: Exodus 34:6-7 Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and bounding in lovingkindness and truth; 7 who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations."

We know that all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23). So here's the dilemma: Why doesn't God send us all to hell? For He is perfectly righteous and just and there is no sin in Him (1 Jn 5:1). Because He is Love (eternally), as a manifestation of His love, He sent the Savior at the right time to die for the sins of those whom God would redeem.

Pastor John Piper (www.desiringgod.org) gave an illustration that I find very helpful. It's like humanity is in a mass running full speed away from God. But God has mercy, and He reaches out and saves some. So I don’t think that it’s so much of an issue about when His love starts or ends. All people on earth experience the love and kindness of God.

Matthew 5:44-45 44 "But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

All people on earth experience the goodness and general grace of God. “Every good thing given, and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of heavenly lights, who does not change like the shifting shadows.” Jas. 1:17.

In Romans we read: Romans 9:13 13 Just as it is written, "JACOB I LOVED, BUT ESAU I HATED." One thing we need to keep in mind is, God does not hate as humans hate. Jesus said that if we hate our brother in our heart, we are guilty of murder. The lives of Jacob and Esau are very instructive. What is the difference between Jacob and Esau. Scripture says God hated Esau. His purpose of election was upon Jacob. But what did that look like in their lives. God fulfilled all his promises to and blessed Esau, so that at their reunion after their long estrangement, Esau needed nothing of Jacobs possessions. God had blessed Esau with riches and earthly prosperity (Gen 33:9). But Jacob had been marked with the discipline of God, for his holiness (Heb. 12:10). He walked up to his brother with a limp (Gen 32:25,31). That is the difference between those the LORD redeems and those he doesn’t; those whom He adopts as His children, he disciplines for their holiness.

Hebrews 12:5-6 and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, "MY SON, DO NOT REGARD LIGHTLY THE DISCIPLINE OF THE LORD, NOR FAINT WHEN YOU ARE REPROVED BY HIM; 6 FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES."