NATURE OF MAN (HS book) pt 3

Virgil Warren, christir.org PDF

PART II: THE NATURE OF MAN

Virgil Warren, PhD

I. Three Propositions

A. God’s desire to save everyone

1. Ways of understanding “all”

a. All individuals potentially

b. All kinds of individuals

c. All the elect

d. All in God’s will of complacency (what he would let all men do—if they

could, but cannot)

e. Universalism

2. Passages for consideration

a. 2 Peter 3:9: not willing that any should perish

b. Ezekiel 18:23: no pleasure in the death of the wicked

c. Ezekiel 18:31-32a: no pleasure in the death of the wicked

d. Ezekiel 33:11: no pleasure in the death of the wicked

e. Note Matthew 18:14: “It is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.”

f. Note 1 Timothy 2:4: “ . . . God our Savior who would have al people be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.”

g. Note the concept of compassion (Ezekiel 20:44; Hosea 11:8-9; Matthew 5:43-48; Romans 2:4; 3:25; 8:32; 9:22-23; 11:32; 2 Peter 3:15; Revelation 2:21; John 3:16)

h. Christ’s death-resurrection for all (Hebrews 2:9; Acts 17:31; 1 John 4:14; 1 Timothy 2:6; 4:10; Romans 5:18; 11:26; Titus 2:11; 1 Corinthians 15:22; 2 Corinthians 5:14-15; Ephesians 3:8-9)

B. God’s decision to save some

1. The fact of judgment

a. Matthew 3:10-12; Luke 3:7-9

b. Matthew 7:13-14

c. Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

d. Matthew 12:32; 25:41, 46; Mark 9:44-48; Luke 12:4-5

e. John 17:12; Romans 2:5, 8-9; 5:9; 9:22-23; 1 Corinthians 16:22, etc.

2. Two permanent destinies

a. Revelation 14:11

b. Matthew 25:46

c. Jude 7 + 21

d. 2 Thessalonians 1:7b-9

3. Passages urged as evidence for “the larger hope” (universalism)

a. Ephesians 1:4

b. Christ-Adam parallel: Romans 5:12-21; 1 Corinthians 15:20-23, 45-49

c. Colossians 1:19-20

d. Philippians 2:9ff.

e. Ephesians 1:9ff.

f. 2 Corinthians 5:19

C. God’s self-consistency

1. Deuteronomy 7:9; Proverbs 19:21; Isaiah 14:24; 49:7; 1 Corinthians 1:9; 10:13; 2 Corinthians 1:15-19; 1 Thessalonians 5:24; 2 Thessalonians 3:3; 2 Timothy 2:13; James 1:17 (“is faithful”)

2. Revelation 16:5; Malachi 3:6 (“is righteous”)

3. Numbers 23:19; 1 Samuel 15:29; Psalm 110:4; Ezekiel 24:14; 2 Timothy

2:13; Titus 1:2; Hebrews 6:17-18 (“does not lie or repent”)

4. Isaiah 40:8; 55:11; Matthew 5:18; 24:35; Luke 16:17; 21:33 (“words will not

pass away”)

II. Inference Concerning the Nature of Man

If God desires to save all and decides to save some while himself being consistent, the distinction between the “all” and the “some” must lie outside of God. If we were unable to respond to God’s influence through the proclaimed and demonstrated gospel, God would have to enable us to respond. So, we must have the ability to respond to God or God would become the essential chooser of who is saved and lost by choosing whom he would enable to respond. The variable would be put back in God, and he would be inconsistent.

The summarizing proposition regarding our human nature is this: There is no clear biblical teaching that our ability in regard to spiritual things differed after the fall from what it was before the fall in a biologically inheritable sense.

christir.org