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Problem Passages Dealing with Predestination

When dealing with the 9^th chapter of Romans, it seems that most theologians take it for granted that the passage is dealing with salvation. However, I believe we can show that the predetermination presented there has nothing to do with salvation. It only concerns service.

Romans 9:10,11 And not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one man, even by our father Isaac (for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls)

1. God has always chosen His own ways to bring redemption.

A. He used Jacob, because He chose to. He did not use Esau, because He chose not to. He has the right to choose individual people for service to bring the promise.

B. God can have mercy on whomever He pleases. He requires faith in every dispensation but different methods in different dispensations.

C. God made justification possible by sending Jesus Christ to die and make God’s righteousness available by Christ’s faithfulness.

Rom 3:21-26 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22 even the righteousness of God, through faithfulness of Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God set forth as a propitiation through His faithfulness, by His blood, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, 26 to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

D. However, Israel didn’t attain to righteousness because they sought it by the works of the law instead of faith. In fact, they stumbled over true righteousness.

Rom 9:30-32;10:1-4 What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith; 31 but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. 32 Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. 10:1 Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. 2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 3 For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

E. How could God have abandoned Israel? The answer to the question, “How could God have abandoned Israel?” is clear. God can do as He pleases. He chose Israel. Now He has decided to choose a group from Israel and the Gentiles based on the righteousness of faith. If Israel misses out, it’s her fault.

F. God’s freedom to require faith is illustrated frequently in this chapter. Ishmael was rejected. He was the child of the flesh. He was the child of the flesh because Abraham and Sarah took it into their own hands to produce the promised seed apart from God. Abraham went in to Hagar, and she conceived. This does not mean Ishmael couldn’t become a believer. He could have been saved, but he was not a man of faith. He persecuted Isaac.

Gal 3:28,29 “Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise. 29 But, as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, even so it is now.” We see then that Ishmael was the personification of a child of the flesh.

Romans 9:12 it was said to her, “The older shall serve the younger.”

2. God chose the nation of Israel.

A. How was this prophecy true? We must look at the context, Gen 25:23. “And the LORD said to her: ‘Two nations are in your womb, two peoples shall be separated from your body; one people shall be stronger than the other, and the older shall serve the younger’”. Notice, it explicitly says, “Two nations are in your womb.”

B. God was not dealing with the individuals here. He was dealing with two nations. Israel was His chosen people. Edom (Esau) was not. In the future, Edom will be the servant of Israel.

Romans 9:13 As it is written, “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.”

3. Did God hate Esau before he was born?

A. This verse is like the previous one with one great exception. This reference is from the last book of the Old Testament. This was about a thousand years after Jacob and Esau were born. When we look at the context of Mal 1, we see that He is again talking about the two nations. It doesn’t mean He loved everyone in Israel or hated everyone in Edom, for we find repeatedly how wrathful He got with Israel and destroyed some among them. Therefore, this love and hate was not against the individual men Jacob and Esau, but towards the nations. It was recorded after the nations had been in existence for a long time.

B. We must consider another point, hate is not necessarily absolute. In Lk 14:26, the hate is certainly relative. “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.” I think the hate in Malachi and Rom 9:13 could also be relative. It may relate to God’s sovereign choice among the nations.

Romans 9:14,15 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! 15 For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.”

4. Why does God have compassion on one, but not on another?

A. There is no unrighteousness with God. He always conducts Himself in a just way. He shows us how He conducts Himself. He shows us that the Jews can’t restrict Him to the only option they think He must take. He doesn’t have to always treat Israel as the top nation. God shows that He makes His decisions based on His clearly defined principles.

B. He can display His mercy to anyone He desires. The fifteenth verse shows that. Israel cannot put restraints on Him. In this passage, you can’t escape the issue of selection. God has mercy on whomever He pleases. The point here is, was God unrighteous to choose Jacob as the one to receive favored status as a nation? The Jew would naturally answer, “No!” But, putting ethnic advantage aside, why? Because God has the right to show mercy to whomever He pleases. If He wants to choose one for service but not the other, He can do that. He chose Jacob but not Esau. The Jews liked that decision. Esau could have “willed” or “run” as much as he pleased. He could have been saved or have been the most godly man who ever lived. And Jacob could have been very evil, but God’s choice would still stand.

C. Paul’s point here is God can choose whom He wills. God chose Israel as a favored nation above all others, not because of her worthiness or goodness above others, but simply because He has the right to select one and not the other. God has the complete freedom to do as He desires.

D. God’s principle for salvation is summed up when Paul completes this section on Israel’s place in Rom 11:32, “For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all.”

E. God’s desire is to save everyone according to His principles, not just Israel. When we consult Ex 33:19, “Then He said, I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion,” we see from the context that this quote was a response to Moses because Moses had “found grace in My sight, and I know you by name.” Moses had pleased God by his obedience and intercessory behavior. I think the passage should be translated, “I will have mercy on whomever I want to have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I want to have compassion.” Again, we see from Rom 11:32 that for salvation, He wants to have mercy on everyone.

Romans 9:16 So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.

5. What is not of the willing or running one? What is of the mercy showing God?

Have you ever considered that it could be His stated purpose. It could be the provision of salvation. It could be the act of election for a purpose. It could be the concept that He wants all to be saved. But it is not talking about being saved. The principles of salvation for the covenant people were laid down by God in Gen 17 and later in the law. The principles of salvation for this dispensation are laid out in Paul’s epistles and the later part of Acts. The circumcision epistles do not apply to us in the area of salvation. Both sets of principles are of God who shows mercy. But, although the methods of salvation are different for the different dispensations, the means of God’s grace is the same. It is the death of His dear Son. 1 Jo 1:7 “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.”

Romans 9:17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.”

6. Did God raise up Pharaoh to be king over Egypt just so He could knock him down?

First we must read the context of this statement from Ex 9:16. We see that the magicians could not stand before Moses. They may have died in this plague while God protected Pharaoh and raised him up for God’s stated purpose. Therefore, I don’t think God raised Pharaoh up to become the king of Egypt just to knock him down. He seems to have raised him from the infection of boils and also strengthened his resolve in the face of these awful plagues so He could continue to show in him His power and punish him for his unrepentant heart. Other expositors agree with this idea.[1]

Romans 9:18 Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.

7. Does God harden the non-elect?

A. Some believe that God elects some to be saved but reprobates the rest – actually actively consigns them to hell. For instance, Calvin, in his Institutes of the Christian Religion wrote:

The predestination by which God adopts some to the hope of life, and adjudges others to eternal death, no man who would be thought pious ventures simply to deny; but it is greatly cavilled at, especially by those who make prescience its cause. We, indeed, ascribe both prescience and predestination to God; but we say that it is absurd to make the latter subordinate to the former. When we attribute prescience to God, we mean that all things always were and ever continue under his eye; that to his knowledge there is no past or future, but all things are present, and indeed so present, that it is not merely the idea of them that is before him (as those objects are which we retain in our memory), but that he truly sees and contemplates them as actually under his immediate inspection. This prescience extends to the whole circuit of the world, and to all creatures. By predestination we mean the eternal decrees of God, by which he determined with himself whatever he wished to happen with regard to every man. All are not created on equal terms, but some are preordained to eternal life, others to eternal damnation; and, accordingly, as each has been created for one or other of these ends, we say that he has been predestinated to life or to death.[2]

Now is that what this verse is teaching?

B. An illustration. Let’s put a lump of moist clay and a lump of hard wax on the window sill of the south side of the building in the hot sun. Now, the sun graciously shines down with its sunlight on a nice sunny Colorado afternoon. If we come back a couple of hours later while the sun is still well up in the sky, we’ll find a hard rock like lump and a puddle of wax. It was the same sunlight that hardened the clay and melted the wax.

C. God’s illustration is the rain of Heb 6:7-8, “For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God; 8 but if it bears thorns and briars, it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned.”

D. The purpose of these two illustrations. Did the sun harden the clay in the sense that it made the clay be the kind of substance that would harden, or was the sun the cause for the clay to harden? Similarly, was the rain the reason one portion of ground brought up briars and the other useful herbs? Do you see the difference? Was the sun the thing that made the clay hard? Was the sun the thing that made the wax melt or soften? Or was it the sun that made the clay do what clay innately does when heat warms it up? Did the wax do what wax does innately when it gets warm? Likewise with the ground. If it is cared for, it will bring up useful herbs. If it is not cared for, it will bring up briars.

E. Biblical objections. What does the Bible mean in Ex 3:19 and 4:21 when it reports God speaking to Moses, “But I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not even by a mighty hand” (3:19). And the LORD said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you do all those wonders before Pharaoh which I have put in your hand. But I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go” (4:21).

F. Pharaoh is an example of how God shows mercy. God didn’t let the pestilence kill him. Verse 18 could be a conclusion: God has mercy on whomever He wills (Jacob and Pharaoh) and hardens whomever He wills (Pharaoh). But this is not a hardening against salvation. Individual salvation is not an issue here. But let’s get back to Ex 3:19 and 4:21. Here God is speaking to Moses before Pharaoh ever had a chance to harden his own heart. What did God tell Moses? He said, “I am sure (he) will not let you go.” What does that mean? “The king of Egypt has a heart like a lump of clay. I know that is what his heart is like. I know this guy’s heart. It’s not the waxy type. It’s like a lump of clay.” Many expositors agree with this interpretation.[3] In other

words, when we see the event with Pharaoh, and God says, “I am going to harden Pharaoh’s heart,” we look at it as the occasion. Pharaoh’s heart is hardened. God is going to harden it. What does He mean when He says I’m going to harden that heart? He means, “I’m going to be the cause of Pharaoh’s heart being hardened, like the clay. We must always consider 1 Ti 2:4 when we look at this account. God even wanted Pharaoh to be saved. In addition, we must always remember that God does not cause anyone to sin (Jam 1:13-15). God’s actions are reflected in Psa 18:25,26, “With the merciful You will show Yourself merciful; With a blameless man You will show Yourself blameless; 26 With the pure You will show Yourself pure; And with the devious You will show Yourself shrewd.”

Romans 9:19 You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?”

8. Who can resist His will?

This question is similar to the previous questions from self righteous Jews who were hassling the believers in Rome. If we look at this question more closely, we must ask, “Can anyone resist His will?” If you mean His counsel (boulhv) then the answer is, no one can. But if you mean who can resist His will (qevlhma)? Everyone does. Unbelievers resist and all are not saved. Believers resist and all are not sanctified (1 Th 4:3), even though that is His will. However, no one can prevent His counsel (boulhv) from happening. He is going to bring His counsel, (boulhv), to pass. That’s the word found in this passage. According to 2 Pe 3:9, “The Lord is not slow concerning His promise, as some count slowness but is longsuffering toward us, not counseling (boulovmeno") any to perish but all to have room for repentance” (My translation.). No one has resisted His counsel. He has determined that the plan of salvation would be accomplished, and it was. Paul doesn’t seem to answer the question directly, but I think the illustration in 9:20,21 really does.

Romans 9:20 But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?

9. Does God arbitrarily make one lump of clay a vessel of honor and another for dishonor?

Paul was alluding to Isa 64:8, “But now, O LORD, You are our Father; We are the clay, and You our potter; And all we are the work of Your hand.” He also directly quoted from Isa 29:16, “Surely you have things turned around! Shall the potter be esteemed as the clay; For shall the thing made say of him who made it, ‘He did not make me’? Or shall the thing formed say of him who formed it, ‘He has no understanding’?” But in addition to these passages, I believe he was looking more to the context of Jer 18:1-11.

The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying: 2 Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause you to hear My words. 3 Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something at the wheel. 4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make. 5 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying: 6 O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter? says the LORD. Look, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel! 7 The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it, 8 if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will repent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it. 9 And the instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it, 10 if it does evil in My sight so that it does not obey My voice, then I will repent concerning the good with which I said I would benefit it. 11 Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus says the LORD: Behold, I am fashioning a disaster and devising a plan against you. Return now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.

When the potter (God) tried to make the clay (Israel) into a vessel of honor, it marred in his hand. Would that be the potter’s (God’s) fault or the clay’s (Israel’s). Was the clay (Israel) resisting? When it was made into another vessel, one which didn’t have the honor that the first vessel would have had, was that the potter’s (God’s) fault? Absolutely not! Further, we see that repentance is the vital issue from God’s view. This is illustrated in 2 Ti 2:20,21,

But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honor and some for dishonor. 21 Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work.”

Romans 9:22 What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction.

10. Did God prepare some vessels for destruction?

A. God judges them after they dispose themselves. When God desired “to make known what is possible with Him” (Weymouth), we find that He endures with the vessels of wrath which fitted themselves to destruction. The participle, fitted (kathrtismevna) can be either a middle or a passive. I have translated it as a middle considering the middle concept in the material of Acts 13:46,48,

Then Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said, It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first; but since you reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles. 48 Now when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed disposed themselves (h\san tetagmevnoi) to eternal life believed.

B. Acts 13:48 shows us how they dispose themselves. “And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.” It is hard to read Acts 13:48 as a verse for predestination in the context of the thirteenth chapter. Luke is describing the dramatic events at Antioch which center around the rejection of the gospel by the Jews (45) and the acceptance of it by the Gentiles (46-48), The point of the passage is to castigate the Jews for rejecting Christ and praise Gentiles for accepting Him. For Luke to slip a predestinarian commentary in on this scene would work against the mood he is trying to create. “Oh, that’s why the Jews rejected the gospel and the Gentiles accepted it. They were predestined to do so. It really wasn’t their fault.” That’s the kind of conclusion we could make from this kind of interpretation. But Luke is trying to fault the Jews. This would work against his purpose for writing about this event. We read in Acts 13:48, “And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.” The phrase, “had been appointed,” is the Greek periphrastic pluperfect (h\san tetagmevnoi). This can be either middle or passive in meaning since perfect participles only have one form to express the passive and the middle (reflexive) meaning. I think it has a middle meaning here. When we see the word used in the aorist, which has different forms for the middle and passive, its normal use seems to be in the middle. Acts 28:23 looks as though it would be active when you read the New King James translation, but when we look at the Greek, it’s a middle. Also, in 1 Co 16:15, the word is active in the Greek, but the meaning of the thought is definitely middle. If we took the meaning of the clause in 1 Co 16:15 and used it in Acts 13:48, we would have, “As many as had devoted themselves unto eternal life, believed.” This verb, tavssw, can have a number of meanings. Bauer’s second American edition and Moulton and Milligan give the following meanings: to classify, place or station something in a fixed spot, appoint to or establish in an office, to put someone in charge, assign, be classed among those possessing, devote, order, fix, determine, allot, pay, tell, arrange, or agree. I think dispose fits just fine in the ideas related by all these words. What word fits in the context of Acts thirteen without forcing anything? We find from Acts 13:46 that the Jews judged themselves unworthy of eternal life. This is a reflexive middle idea. The statement we’re dealing with is the corresponding statement about the believers. They had devoted themselves, disposed themselves, arranged themselves, or classified themselves unto eternal life. Certainly, ordained, of the King James Version, is too strong. There is no reason to consider this a passive with the context of the previous middle (reflexive) concept of verse 46. Therefore, this portion should be translated, “As many as had disposed themselves to eternal life, believed.”

Romans 9:23 and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory.

11. Did God prepare individuals beforehand for glory?

A. The best commentary on this verse is Rom 8:28-30,

And we know that He works with those who love God, with those who are the called according to His purpose all things for good [My translation]. 29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.

B. The corporate body of Christ was fitted for glory. As we believe and become part of His body, we then become glorified. God not only works with Israel but with us too. He did not foreknow individuals. He foreknew and elected Christ, Israel, and the body of Christ. When we trust in Christ, the Holy Spirit identifies us with Christ. We then become part of His predestined purpose. Once we are saved we are predestined to be conformed to Christ’s image. It does not say we are predestined to be saved. This verse is excellent to show our security. It is predestined. Our salvation is not. Eph 1:4-14 is similar to this passage.

2 Thessalonians 2:13 But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.

12. Is this the best Calvinistic verse in the Bible?

A. One dispensational scholar wrote “Probably the central passage on election to salvation is 2 Thessalonians 2:13 . . . . Here it will be seen that election was from the beginning; that it was to salvation, and that it was through or by means of two things: sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.”[4] Is this the meaning of the passage? I believe strongly that this is not the meaning.

B. Context answers the alleged problem. When we read the context of this passage, starting with the fourth verse of the first chapter through the twelfth verse of this chapter, we see that this was written in relation to the rapture and the tribulation. God inspired Paul to write this for comfort. God did not choose the members of the body of Christ to go through the tribulation, but to be saved from it. When it says, “because God from the beginning chose you for salvation,” it is referring to the rescue of the body of Christ in the rapture before the man of sin is revealed at the beginning of the tribulation (2 Th 2:3). We have access into the body of Christ “through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.” Once we are in the body, we know we will be saved from the tribulation. Other parallel passages say they are “to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come” (1 Th 1:10), and “God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Th 5:9). The wrath to come is the wrath of Lk 21:23, “But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! For there will be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people.” The people are Israel. It is their trouble, “Alas! For that day is great, so that none is like it; and it is the time of Jacob’s trouble, but he shall be saved out of it” (Jer 30:7). Therefore, 2 Th 2:13 has nothing to do with our salvation from sin. It is referring to the rapture.

Jude 3b,4 I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. 4 For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.

13. Is it certain that God damned some to hell before He created anything?

If there are any appointed to condemnation, then it cannot be His will that these same men should be saved. But, is this true? Who were these men in Jude 4, “who long ago were marked out for this condemnation”? Did God reprobate[5] them before the foundation of the world? When we first look at Jude 4, the evidence seems clear that some were marked out “long ago for this condemnation.” But we must look at some of the words in this verse more closely.[6]

Were these men marked out before the foundation of the world? The phrase “long ago” is one word in the original. It can mean long ago, but it can also mean the relatively short time prior to a man’s forgiveness of his sins. Further, it can also be as short a time as the same day.[7] In our text we can see that the time was somewhat short because Jude is referring to the men who Peter wrote about in 2 Peter.[8] We can see they addressed their letters to a similar group of believers.[9]

What is “this condemnation” to which Jude is referring? Peter used the words, “swift destruction.” Since I believe Jude was writing to the same group Peter had written, they knew the verdict Peter gave. Jude was referring to Peter’s verdict. However, Lenski believed Jude explained what it was.[10] It doesn’t matter whether Jude explained or Peter had written it. They still stood condemned for their actions. Their verdict [krivma] was marked down by Peter. Peter predicted that there would be false teachers of this sort. Anyone who committed this sin against God would suffer the same verdict. Therefore, I conclude that these men were not ordained to this punishment, but those who fit Peter’s prophecy know they are written down for “swift destruction.”

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[1] Rotherham translated this passage in his The Emphasized Bible as follows: “For now might I have put forth my hand, and smitten thee and thy people with pestilence, and thou shouldst have secretly disappeared from the earth; but indeed for this very purpose have I let thee remain, for the purpose of showing thee my might, and that my name may be celebrated in all the earth.” Adam Clarke translated this, “But truly, on this very account, I have caused thee to subsist, that I may . . .” Forster and Marston said in God’s Strategy in Human History, “The context of Paul’s reference is, after all, that of God’s general dealings (‘raising up’ or ‘making to stand’), not of any specific act of God.

[2] Book Three, Ch XXI, sec. 5 p 491

[3] Rotherham translated this, “I will let his heart wax bold, and he will not suffer the people to go.” Further, he wrote, “That Hebrew grammars distinctly avow occasion or permission to be sometimes the sense of verbs which ordinarily signify cause can be verified by a reference to the Hebrew Grammar of Gesenius, . . . After stating that the verbal form . . . called piel denotes intensity and repetition, this grammar adds: ‘It often takes the modifications expressed by permit, . . . . Of this, a good example is found in the verb shalach, ‘to send.’ Notice its modification with reference to the raven and the dove in Gen. VIII. 7,8. Noah sent them ‘forth’; that is he simply ‘let them go.’ So with regard to hayah, ‘to live’; in piel, ‘to cause to live.’ Moses said that the midwives (literally) ‘caused the male children to live’ (Ex. 1.17) – plainly, ‘permitted them,’ ‘refrained from putting them to death.’” There are other examples of this usage. Cf. The Emphasized Bible, p. 919. The reference most similar to our text is Psalm 81:11,12. “But My people would not heed My voice, and Israel would have none of Me. 12 So I gave them over to their own stubborn heart, to walk in their own counsels.” Here, we see that the result of letting them have their own stubborn heart was to walk in their own counsels. Rotherham quotes Kalisch: “As the external, often accidental, occasion of an event is mostly more obvious, even to the reflecting mind, than its primary cause or its true (often hidden) originator, it has become a linguistic peculiarity in most ancient, especially the Semitic, languages, to use indiscriminately (the occasion) rather than (the cause) so that the phrase, ‘I shall harden the heart of Pharaoh’ means: ‘I know that I shall be the cause of Pharaoh’s obstinacy; my commands and wonders will be an occasion, an inducement to an increasing obduration of his heart.” Also consult Forster and Marston, God's Strategy in Human History, pp. 160-175.

[4] Charles F. Baker, A Dispensational Theology, p. 394.

[5] Berkhoff, Systematic Theology, pp. 116, defines reprobation, as “. . . that eternal decree of God whereby He has determined to pass some men by with the operations of His special grace, and to punish them for their sins, to the manifestation of His justice. . . . As such it embodies a twofold purpose: (a) to pass by some in the bestowal of regenerating and saving grace; and (b) to assign them to dishonor and to the wrath of God for their sins. . . . The positive side of reprobation is so clearly taught in Scripture as the opposite of election that we cannot regard it as something purely negative, Rom. 9:21,22; Jude 4.”

[6] I’m indebted to R.C.H. Lenski, The Interpretation of the Epistles of St. Peter, St. John and St. Jude, pp. 597-615, for many of the thoughts on this passage.

[7] pavlai, Pilate, referring to Christ in Mark 15:44, “he asked him [the centurion] if He had been dead for some time, pavlai.” In 2 Pet 1:9, pavlai means old, “has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.”

[8] 2 Pet 2:1 “there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in [pareisavxousin, future] destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction.” 2 Pet 3 :3 “knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts.” Peter uses three futures to describe these men. Jude uses an aorist [pareisevdusan past tense].

[9] 2 Pet 1:1 Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.

[10] Lenski, loc. cit. “Jude’s words are, however, quite plain: Peter wrote down the verdict of these men in advance, and Jude says what it is, namely this: ‘godless, changing the grace of our God into excess and denying our absolute Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.’ The supposition that a verdict names only the penalty is unwarranted. In modern courts the judge names the penalty, but the jury brings in the verdict of guilt. When there is only a judge he does both. Here the verdict states the guilt. Peter wrote down in advance both the guilt and the penalty, the latter as ‘perdition’ in 2:1,3 and as ‘the blackness of the darkness’ in 2:17.”