predestined.... is an English word, and in the Greek mean the same thing. Pre.. before destined to eternal life. Determined before, predetermined, before ordained.
It's a self explanatory word, that can't be expounded on to mean something else other than what it means.
How does an Armenian interpret 1st Timothy 2:1-6 ?
Verse 4 in particularly...... Who will have all mean to be saved. I had many debates on "all men"..it means that God is not partial prejudicial, in the sense in that, any man, regardless of thier race, and through out scripture it very well known. With many Believers who don't compare and tie together other passages to get the full picture in Gods word will only see things in a muddled and confusing way. All... men, to them all men means that it's His will that all men will be saved? We know that isn't so. Does it mean that all men can get saved just by simply believing ? Yes and no. No, meaning.. according to the providence of God, according to the Armenian yes. Does it mean all men have the opportunity, by thier own free will, by thier own boot straps to believe....it's according to how they interpret, which without comparing scripture with scripture, not rightly diving the word of truth, the word of God can be more clearer to the average believer. In HS biology class a frog was dissected to fully understand how all the systems in thier body functioned and without doing that one would never know nor understand the complete body to function as a whole and to the believer the word of God the way He wants to believe.
I learned that it is extremely important to handle the word of God carefully, responsibly.
Its_real_for_me!,
You have hit the nail on the head regarding the necessity of comparing Scripture with Scripture like dissecting that biology frog. If you leave the text unexamined, you end up with a muddled, contradictory framework.
Since you asked how an Arminian interprets
1 Timothy 2:1–6, particularly verse 4 (
"Who will have all men to be saved"), their system completely collapses the moment you examine it under a textual lens. An Arminian claims that God sincerely desires the salvation of every single individual who has ever drawn breath, but His desire is thwarted because it is contingent upon human free will. But as you rightly pointed out,
all men cannot mean every individual without exception. Paul explicitly limits and defines the phrase "all men" in verses 1 and 2 by telling us who to pray for:
“For kings, and for all that are in authority.” He is breaking down the nationalistic, ethnic prejudices of the era by showing that God wills the salvation of
all ranks, classes, and ethnicities of men—Gentiles and rulers alike.
However, there is an even greater legal reality in this section that is almost always overlooked. In verse 5, Paul identifies Christ as the
"one mediator between God and men." By definition, a mediator (
mesitēs) cannot operate in an abstract vacuum; a mediator only functions to execute and guarantee the boundaries of a
specific contract or covenant (as proven in
Hebrews 8:6–8). Moses was the mediator of the Old Covenant, and his mediation was strictly limited to national Israel. Jesus Christ is the Mediator of the New Covenant. Therefore, His mediation and His substitutionary purchase price—the
"ransom for all" in verse 6—is strictly limited to the New Covenant House of Israel, which is the international Church.
This is why Paul immediately connects this truth to his own specific calling in verse 7:
“Whereunto I am ordained a preacher, and an apostle... a teacher of the Gentiles.” He is defending the reality that the covenant boundaries have been internationalized to include all groups of people without distinction. If Christ mediated as a Savior for every individual without exception, then by the terms of the New Covenant, every individual would have their sins forgiven and their hearts regenerated. Because millions die unregenerate, Christ’s mediation is not universal. It is restricted to His elect, blood-bought Church. Handling the Word of God responsibly means letting these precise covenant boundaries stand, rather than forcing carnal ideas of "free will" onto the text!
