“Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord GOD: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?” Ezekiel 18:23
The spirit drew me to this verse in Ezekiel because it gives us an insight into God’s character and personality. The context of Ezekiel chapter 18 is God speaking to the nation of Israel and maintaining his position as a fair and righteous judge.
There is a doctrine known as predestination, also known as Calvinism, after the Protestant reformer John Calvin. Predestination posits that God already decided from the time of the universe’s creation, who would be saved and who would not. It denies man’s free will to believe or not to believe the gospel. Ezekiel 18 raises some serious questions about this doctrine that Protestants and Reformed Baptists may want to think about.
“Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die. But if a man be just, and do that which is lawful and right…Hath walked in my statutes, and hath kept my judgments, to deal truly, he is just, he shall surely live, saith the Lord GOD.” Ezekiel 18:4-9
These verses in Ezekiel show us two things:
1. Sin is unacceptable and must be judged, but punishment and death are not God’s favorite aspect of his job. He would much rather we judge ourselves, repent, and get right with him than compound our transgressions and force his hand.
2. He will judge our works, but not for salvation. How can his judgement be righteous if the impetus for our actions is on God and not on ourselves?
There are many passages in the Bible that do seem to point to predestination and we’ll examine them in all fairness, but I want to begin with these points because the greatest problem with Calvinism is that it maligns the character of God.
“The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9
The question then becomes, if God does not will any to perish, then why does he not use his sovereign will to beckon us all to repentance?
Well consider this: when we get saved we receive the gift of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, which is the earnest of our inheritance in the world to come. But before we receive that we have the un-regenerated spirit of our humanity. That spirit that makes us human was first given to Adam when God breathed into his nostrils and made him a living soul (Genesis 2:7). We believe that this spirit of life includes our intellect, thought life, emotions, and personality. Even though our un-regenerated spirit is prone to sin and corruption, it is still a gift of God in the sense that Adam was a lifeless ball of clay until God bestowed that breath of life upon him – He could not have earned it.
Likewise, when we were helpless infants in our mother’s wombs we had to have been conceived by our parents and then be fashioned by God. It is not something we can do of our own prior volition.
The Apostle Paul does say, albeit in a different context that, “For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.” (Bold emphasis mine). If that spirit of humanity is a gift from God, and that spirit includes our thoughts and consciousness, then our consciousness by extension is a gift from God and therefore sacrosanct. As a gift from God it cannot and will not be withdrawn or perverted by his actions.
We are free to choose life or death.
“I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.”
Deuteronomy 30:19-20
Amen.
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