Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Does God Want EVERYONE To Come To Repentance?

We read in 2 Peter 3:9 that God wants “that ALL should reach repentance.”

But the verse does NOT say, He PLANS that all should reach repentance. It is not His Sovereign Will to enable everyone to repent by giving them His Holy Spirit. He has given His Spirit to those who obey Him.

Will He forgive anyone who truly ask for His forgiveness, or who repents? Of course, He will. For He Himself is the One who enables those who come to Him to ask for forgiveness.

Then, why doesn’t He give His Spirit to all? By doing so, everyone would be able to repent.

The English Standard Version translates 2 Peter 3:19, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but he is patient toward you, not WISHING that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance."

God does NOT rejoice when someone will disobey and suffer in hell for eternity. He wishes that all of us should repent.

But He has a plan. He will give His Spirit to those “God calls to himself” (Acts 2:39). He will give His Spirit to ALL persons – to all He “CALLS TO HIMSELF” (Acts 2:39) – those He had chosen (Eph. 1:4). “For he says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion’” (Rom. 9:15).

Have you experienced genuine repentance?

Well, it's not because of your own desire or effort. It's because of God's mercy. In His kindness, He leads you to it.

3 comments:

Fort said...

We read in 2 Peter 3:9 that God wants “that ALL should reach repentance.”

But the verse does NOT say, He PLANS that all should reach repentance. It is not His Sovereign Will to enable everyone to repent by giving them His Holy Spirit. He has given His Spirit to those who obey Him.
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Are you saying that God has set people to go to hell regardless of what he or she does? That he has decided people will not have eternal life because it is His will that they die that death? Is it in line with the mind of a merciful God? Yes He said He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy. That means that NO ONE can tell God not to have mercy towards the most horrible criminal on earth. If He will have mercy on all, then all will have mercy. No human can stop Him. Unfortunately, some understood this verse as if God has made a decision long ago who will live and who will die. Among those He listed in advance (assuming He had done it already) do you say that they cannot refuse God? Do you mean they cannot disobey God?

Are you saying that man was never given free choice? That we are all robots playing a script made long ago?

Is it an encouraging knowledge or a very discouraging one?

To me it is encouraging to know that God is able to forgive anyone who comes to Him. It is discouraging to hear that a person came to God and was refused because the person is not among the persons listed.

Rethink.

Al Combs said...

God is the giver and taker of life. Would you not agree with that? Scripture tells us that it is "appointed" unto man once to die...that literally means we have a pre-appointed time to meet with our death. Who else but God could set that time? Of course He has made that decision long ago. He's eternal. He made all decisions in eternity past. He didn't just decide that because Adam disobeyed in the garden that He had to come up with a new game plan. That's insulting and preposterous. I wouldn't say that people cannot refuse God...we do it all the time. What people CANNOT do, apart from divine intervention, a thing called grace, is CHOOSE God. We only make that choice once we've been given the gift of faith to do that. That's as Biblical as it gets. Furthermore, I would absolutely say that we don't have a free will. What arrogance is that for we mortals to think we are in command...we are the masters of our fate. Your will is always and constantly determined by outside stimuli. Nobody's holding a gun to your head but there's always something causing you to make one choice over another. Chocolate over vanilla, drive or walk, pepsi or coke...if your will were truly free then there would be nothing determining your choice except for you will and your will alone. Reality just doesn't flesh that out, does it?
And finally, you say, "It is discouraging to hear that a person came to God and was refused because the person is not among the persons listed."
You misunderstand. That person wouldn't even come to God in the first place unless they were on that "list". That's precisely WHY they come, because He, and He alone has determined that they will be saved. Scripture is saturated with passages that support this. You just might have to dig a little deeper than John 3:16, though that also, when understood correctly, supports my position.
I trust that this made as much sense as was possible in such a limited space. It took me, once i really started searching, twelve years to get the whole free will/my choice thing out of my thinking. I pray that you might dig deep into the word to find these truths. It is liberating to say the least, to know that God is absolutely in control of all things at all times and He will work all things for my good and ultimately His glory! SDG!

grant said...

This is turning into a calvinist vs. arminiamism debate

Salvation is the work of God demonstrating the glory of God

When God calls his elect into salvation, they cannot resist. God offers to all people the gospel message. This is called the external call. But to the elect, God extends an internal call and it cannot be resisted. This call is by the Holy Spirit who works in the hearts and minds of the elect to bring them to repentance and regeneration whereby they willingly and freely come to God. Some of the verses used in support of this teaching are Romans 9:16 where it says that "it is not of him who wills nor of him who runs, but of God who has mercy"; Philippians 2:12-13 where God is said to be the one working salvation in the individual; John 6:28-29 where faith is declared to be the work of God; Acts 13:48 where God appoints people to believe; and John 1:12-13 where being born again is not by man’s will, but by God’s

They cannot disobey God after regeneration "rebirth"

This turns into a argument that God isnt that unfair or unjust to refuse anyone who seeks for him.

• John 6:44
o "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.

No man, not noone goes searching for God because the intents of his heart is evil from youth.

On the argument of free will i belive man does have free will, but it is limited. If it wasnt limited we would all end up in hell because bible teaches we all turn to do evil, we are haters and enemies of God. Salvation is the work of God, it goes deeper to say "27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws."

God calls everyone to repentence but nowhere in the bible does it say everyone will reach repetence as Fort pointed out.

Repetence is not only saying im sorry im sorry or forgive me forgive me, repetence is the actual turning from sin and turning to God. No man can turn to God, put two and two together, God chose you and instilled His spirit in His elect to be regenerated as ezekiel point out
"I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh."

And, lastly God didnt die for everyone He died for His elect. Dont point out John 3:16 without reading other verses which say God gave his life for "many" or "some"