Alan Gross
Well-Known Member
The teaching of Double Predestination, is a gross misrepesentation of the Gospel, and insult to the life and death of the Lord Jesus Christ for lost sinners, and alien to the teachings of the Holy Bible. However, the Bible is very clear what God actually says of the lost sinners for whom Christ died. "The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance" (2 Peter 3:9). Verse 3 tells us who the YOU and ALL includes, "knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires". This same God tells us in Ezekiel 18:23, "Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord GOD, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?". The word "pleasure" is from the Hebrew, "châphêts", which is, "to will, to desire"; which is against the heart of God, and the Gospel. It is very clear that God desires that the wicked person , turn from their evil ways (repent), and trust in Jesus as their Saviour, have have the free gift of eternal life!
The Words God Wrote in, 2 Peter 3:9 that might be important to it's understanding.
"toward you"
Everything that is said, is directed at Saved Individuals, to whom "toward you", is said in the Passage.
"The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any of you* should perish, but that all of you* should reach repentance" (2 Peter 3:9).
of you* added for clarity.
"Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord GOD, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?".
""The word "pleasure" is from the Hebrew, "châphêts", which is, "to will, to desire"; which is against the heart of God,""
You missed it, when you jumped from "to will, to desire" and gave that to mean "the heart of God".
The desire and will to punish the sinner is just Universal Justice and does extend to the Heart of God's Affection.
"But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and doth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doth, shall he live?
"all his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned;
"in his trespass that he hath trespassed,
"and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die". - Ezekiel 18:24.
This scripture is placed at the front of those which are said "expressly to assert the possibility, that true believers, true penitents, men truly just and righteous, may fall from their righteousness, and die in their iniquity."
1. The man here spoken of, is not one truly just and righteous; seeing he is denominated righteous from his own righteousness in which he trusted, and from which he is supposed to turn.
The man here designed, is one that is outwardly righteous before men; who imagines himself to be so; trusteth to his own righteousness (Ezek. 33:13); concludes, that what he suffered was owing to his father’s sin, and not any iniquity of his own; and therefore complains of injustice in God; whose folly, vain opinion of himself, and unrighteous notions of God’s providence, are fully and justly exposed in this chapter.
2. The death threatened to the righteous man that turns from his righteousness, is not an eternal death, or the death of the soul and body in hell; since this death was then upon them, what they were complaining of, imagining it came upon them for the sins of their parents; and besides, they might have been recovered from it by repentance and reformation. Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? (Ezek. 18:23, 32) saith the Lord God; and not that he should return from his ways and live? For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth; wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye; all which cannot be said of an eternal death; dying in his iniquity, is the same with dying for his iniquity, as it is rendered in ver. 26, and designs some severe temporal calamity or affliction; which is often in Scripture called a death Exod. 10:17, 2 Cor. 1:10; 11:23; such as captivity, in which the Jews then were, of which they were complaining, what was owing to their sins, and from which they were capable of being recovered. "This answer, it is said, 63 contradicts the express words of the prophet about twenty times;" though not one single instance of it is given.
3. Admitting that the truly just and righteous man is here intended; it is no proof of a possibility of his turning away from his righteousness and sinning, so as to be finally lost and perish; only so as to be afflicted, or suffer in a general calamity; besides, the words are delivered in a conditional form, being to be read thus: If the righteous man turneth away from his righteousness. Now suppositio nil ponet in esse, a supposition puts nothing in being, is no proof or instance of matter of fact. But this is said 64 to be "flying for refuge to a mere mistake; the words in the original being not if, but beshub, evn h- a'n h`me,ra evpistreyh, in the day that he turns away from his righteousness."
https://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/sdg/gill/The_Cause_of_God_and_Truth_-_John_Gill.pdf