The Objections to Election, No. 2 - Jude 1

JD02-02

One objection was that election is not consistent with human freedom and responsibility. We pointed out that free agency means that a person is not forced to act contrary to his will. Free agency does not mean that the will of man, which is enslaved by sin, is free, but rather that it only seems to be so to the person. We also noted that God's foreknowledge demands foreordination. Otherwise, God, at some point, was not omniscient. Foreknowledge can't simply mean that God knows beforehand because he looked down the corridors of time.

Now this is a very common notion. Projecting it to its logical outcome, what we are saying is that God stood and He looked down time, and he said, "Well, look there. There is Buddy Rouch. He believed. I would never have thought that--that he would have done that. And look there. There's so-and-so. I would have thought that he would have believed, yet he rejected." That's the position you're putting God in so that God gains information. That is not the meaning of foreknowledge. Foreknowledge indicates a deliberate definite choice as a result of foreordination. God knows because God has determined.

We also noted that free agency can exist in a climate of certainty. Even God, with His absolute freedom, is certain always to do right because of His essence. Yet, in spite of His certainty of doing right, He has absolute freedom. Also, free agency of man is obviously restricted by certain natural laws. You cannot jump off of a tall building, get halfway down, and decide to go back up.

Then free agency is compatible with the persuasion of the will by God so that the will acts without a sense of compulsion. A person has a free agency, from his human viewpoint. Yet, God is persuading his will to move in the plan of God. We also pointed out that absolute freedom with an old sin nature would be very unethical. And finally, the conclusion is that election is consistent with human responsibility.

Another objection is that election is just fatalism. However, a good and perfect God is behind election. Behind fatalism is blind chance and some general causation principle. Another objection was that election prevents a sincere offer of salvation to the non-elect. We pointed out that the decree of election is secret so that the gospel must be offered to everyone. The invitation of "whosoever will" is true even though we understand that only the elect will choose to come.

So we pick it up here with the next objection to election.

More Objections to Election

1. Only Some are Chosen

   The next objection is that election is unjust since it chooses only some. We must immediately point out that election is not a matter of justice. Election is not the reason that sinners don't reach heaven. The Bible never suggests that election is the reason that a person doesn't get to go to heaven. Election is a saving sovereign God exercising His grace in mercy to guilty sinners. It is God acting in His sovereignty. Justice is not involved in election at all. Because God's nature leads Him, on a basis known only to Himself, to be favorable to some doesn't mean that He must be favorable to all. This is the basic mistake that people make on the doctrine of election. They think that because God acts in a certain way to some as a sovereign being, He has to treat everybody in the same way. But God is not obligated to save anyone. So the only justice that man has and deserves is the lake a fire.

   Supposing a man had ten creditors, and he decided to forgive three of them their debts and cancel them out completely. Would he be unjust or unfair to the other seven because he did not cancel their debts? Would it be unjust that his unforgiven creditors still were responsible for the debt which they themselves had piled up and must now pay up? Of course, he wouldn't be. Justice is not involved. If ten people owe you money and you decide to forgive and to cancel the debt of three of them, it's not a matter of justice. It's a matter of your sovereign action.

   The president of the United States may pardon a criminal without being unjust to all the rest of the criminals in the nation that he did not pardon. So in this objection, election is unjust since it chooses only some, it is not a matter of justice. Furthermore, the offer of salvation is universal. God has paid the penalty of sin for everybody. Pardon that may be rejected by a lost person is rejected because he's a sinner. So he will not come to God for this reason. Election simply draws some unbelievers to a point where they are willing to accept the offer of free grace.

   So that raises a question. Because the divine sovereign God is not led for some reasons within Himself to save all, does that mean that He should save none? Obviously, that is not true. A sovereign God may choose some without choosing all. Yet the offer of salvation is legitimately universal.

2. All Should Have Been Elect

   Another objection is that if it takes election to come to salvation, then all should have been elected. This is the opposite side of the previous objection. If it takes election to come to salvation, then God should have elected everybody. So what's the real question? The real question is not why God has not chosen to save everyone. The real question is why God has chosen to save anybody? That's the question. Why has God chosen to save anybody? Again, people want to work from the frame of reference that God is obliged to save us, and He is not. They think that God is responsible for our condition in sin, and He is not. We are where we are, and our wills are acting the way they act in resistance to God, because of our own sins. So, the real question is why God has chosen anybody at all. Why do we have the provision of salvation which God is in no way obliged to provide and to offer?

   What is the ultimate reason for election? God has given a revelation of Himself because He desired to make known His grace and His mercy to us. The Bible regularly indicates that what God has done through the act of election reveals something about Himself to us that we could never have known. So, it was necessary to permit sin so that He could reveal His loving, gracious, merciful character to us. For the angels that have fallen, for example, no salvation that we know of has been provided. So from within their experience, they don't know what the grace of God is. Angels do not know what it is to be treated in the way that you do not deserve to be treated. They don't understand grace because for those who have fallen, no salvation was provided.

   However, along with this revelation of God's grace and His mercy, God must also reveal his justice in order to bring the picture into true focus. So, unbelievers are separated from God into the lake of fire to show God's justice. When somebody starts screaming, as the liberals do, about the love of God and about sending people to a lake of fire, just remember that if you have sound doctrine, and your old sin nature under control, you will not be hoodwinked by that attack. By the very act of permitting sin and by the very act of separating some from Himself, God is demonstrating His justice. That's the only way we would know that He is a just God, because He does not excuse sin. If everyone had been saved, there would be no grasp of the just deserts of the sinner, nor of appreciation of the majesty of salvation.

   In 1 Timothy 1:15-16, the apostle Paul says, "This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. Nevertheless, for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering for a pattern to them who should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting." Paul said, "I, who was the worst of sinners, who in the Providence and plan of God was permitted to come to the point where I was the chief of sinners, have been placed in that position in order that God might show the magnificence of His mercy when he brought a person like me into His family. That is one very great reason why sin was permitted in the first place, in order to demonstrate the justice of God. So, God will have saved all that He could, consistent with His own wise and holy purpose.

3. Election Discourages Evangelism

   The next objection is that election discourages evangelism and the seeking of salvation. This would seem natural to raise the question, why worry about salvation if God decides it? This questions the value of being concerned about your own relationship to God. Why should I worry about my relationship to God when He decides it? This also raises the question of the necessity of efforts to reach the lost. Why should we send out missionaries, if God decides who is to be saved? Again, we must remind ourselves that it is sin, and not election, that keeps a person from salvation. So concern is legitimate for the lost. It is legitimate that we be concerned to bring the gospel to the unbelievers. The attitude that we don't have to send our missionaries; the attitude that we should not be concerned about our own salvation; or, that we should not seek to reach the lost, this is not an attitude which you find in the Word of God.

   For example, in Romans 9, we have previously seen that the apostle Paul presents in a major way the doctrine of election. Within this very chapter that deals with election, the apostle Paul says in Romans 9:1-3, "I say the truth in Christ. I am not lying. My conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsman, according to the flesh." Paul says, "I am so concerned for the salvation of the Jewish people that I would be willing to give up my own salvation if it were possible for all of Israel to be saved." Now that could hardly be interpreted in any other way except that this man had a great concern for reaching the lost with the gospel, while at the same time teaching, in this very context, the great doctrine of election.

   2 Timothy 2:8: "Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to my gospel, for which I suffered trouble as an evildoer, even unto bonds, but the Word of God is not bound." Paul's efforts to reach the lost have led to his imprisonment. However, the Word of God is not in prison. Then 2 Timothy 2:10: "Therefore, I endure all things for the elect's sake, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory." Paul saw in the doctrine of election an opportunity to cooperate with God in an enterprise that was certain of success. He knew that as he preached the gospel to the elect, they would be saved. He was certain of success, and the doctrine of election was a source of comfort to him. Consequently, he says that he is ready to endure all things for the elect's sake that they might realize their call--that they might respond to the call which God was going to extend to them.

   In Acts 18:9 there is another example. Luke writes, "Then spoke the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision. Be not afraid, but speak and hold not your peace, for I am with you, and no man shall set on you to hurt you. For I have many people in this city (here in Corinth), and he continued there a year and six months teaching the Word of God among them." The doctrine of election assured Paul that his labors in Corinth would not be in vain. God said to him, "Don't be afraid to speak out. Don't be afraid to preach the Word of God. I have many people in this city." Now what did God mean? Well, the Lord was saying, "I have many elect ones, and as the result of your preaching, they will be reached." In other words, Paul was to be the agent, and his ministry was certain of success. Why? Because these people were among the elect.

   In John 10:16, the Lord Jesus says, "And other sheep I have that are not of this fold. Them also I must bring. And they shall hear My voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd." "Other sheep I have that are not of this flock. Them also I must bring." Jesus had sheep which were not of his Jewish flock. They were gentiles. Yet he says that He must bring them. And the Lord was not discouraged from pursuing people for salvation because some were not of that flock. He was going to pursue everyone. Those who were of His flock among the gentiles would respond, and they would make up one sheepfold with the Jewish people.

   So again, this argument does not hold water. Election does not this discourage evangelism, nor does it discourage the seeking of personal salvation if you understand the doctrine, and if you understand, from the New Testament practice, the purpose of God in using you and me as agents, in the exercise of our spiritual gifts, to convey the gospel information to the unbelievers.

4. Election Makes Christians Proud and Careless

   The next objection is that election makes Christians proud and careless. God has provided certain agents to execute salvation. Remember that in election, God not only foreordained who was to be saved, and who among undeserving lost sinners would have his will moved to positive volition toward the gospel, but God also ordained the particular believer who was to deliver the information. Along with every unbeliever who is to come into eternal life, God has appointed a certain believer. There are some elect unbelievers in the world right now who are ordained to be won by you as a result of information that you give them concerning the gospel. It is important to understand that election includes the agent as well as the call to salvation.

   Now, it is possible that some designated agent would be negligent in the exercise of his call; in the exercise of his spiritual gift; and in his witnessing responsibility. Now what is going to happen? Well, for one thing, one of the biggest things that Satan hates is for a church pastor to preach doctrine to the congregation. And pastors play right into this because they don't study and learn much doctrine so that they can have something to share with God's people. The one thing that Satan wants is that Christians should be so ignorant of doctrine, and that this would be soft-pedaled, so that Satan can inactivate things. So, the pastor calls in an evangelist in order to run a revival for his local congregation. The evangelist, who also usually isn't very well-versed in doctrine, stands up and preaches to people's emotions. And what is one of the greatest emotional kicks they can make in order to get a congregation of carnal believers to get off dead center and to start moving out?

   Well, the revivalist comes in, and one of his favorite approaches is to ask the congregation, "How are you going to feel when you get to heaven, and you stand up there in the joy of your regeneration and your salvation and magnificent experience of being in the Lord's presence? And then you look down there in hell, and you see that friend of yours that's there because you did not share the gospel with him? Because you didn't give the gospel to him? How are you going to feel then?" Now, doesn't that make you want to charge out of here and get to your friends real quick. How are you going to feel to stand up there and look down and say, "Well, look there. There's that fellow I used to work with. He's there because I didn't tell him the gospel. I never shared the good news with him. There he is in hell. It's my fault. His blood is on my hands." That's a beautiful one. They love to quote that one. Pretty soon you see people wiping their hands, and looking around really nervously. "His blood is on your hands."

   Obviously, if the program of election includes the foreordaining of God of picking those among the lost who shall be born again, and the agent who shall deliver the information, it also includes in the decree of God, the fact that He is aware that some Christians are going to fail to exercise their spiritual gift. God knows that some Christians are going to exercise their spiritual gift for a period of their life, maybe in a beautiful way, and then come to a point where they make one of these four or five devastating moves, and they're out. They're neutralized. And by and large, they are finished from executing an effective ministry from then on. Somebody didn't warn them about the pitfalls to begin with. God knows that. God has determined in His directive will that certain Christians are to give the required information to certain unbelievers. He also knows that some of those Christians are not going to give that information to those unbelievers according to His directive will. Do you think that He's going to let that person go to hell?

   Not on your life. Because He has also, in His permissive will, permitted you to cop out on your witnessing. And He has, in His directive will, also arranged for someone else to come along and bring the information. You may be sure that the elect will not fail to hear the gospel and to be won. However, you will lose the reward for the fact that you did not bring the information, and the person who brought it will take the reward that could have been yours. Now this is the problem of the misuse and the misapplication of spiritual gifts. Many a Christian has delivered his eternal spiritual heritage of reward in heaven into the hands of other believers because he played a fool's role relative to picking up ideas, attitudes, opinions, and viewpoints from satanically-influenced Christians that he should have rejected.

   The Apostle Paul had this problem. When he went to the Corinthians, the Corinthian church was the most carnal church in the New Testament. That's why they had so much trouble with the abuse of tongues, and why we have 1 Corinthians 12-14. One of the things that the Apostle Paul had was the abuse of that congregation toward him personally. This was a constant thing that he suffered under--the belittling and degrading remarks. On one occasion, he points out the contradiction of the fact that these were people who once were in spiritual ignorance and darkness, and now they have learned so much about divine insight and spiritual point of view that they have come to the point where they could spit on their spiritual father, so to speak.

   Paul is very sarcastic in that passage. He just pulls the hide off of them as he sarcastically reminisces about how qualified they are to be making the remarks and the attacks that they're directing against him, and how qualified they are to know how well to conduct the Lord's work because they who once knew nothing have now risen to such a great point of insight. Of course, they were all hovering together. Once carnal believers move on this bend, you will notice they have a tendency to move as a pack. They move from mutual comfort and protection and mutual reassurance because down in the edges of their hearts, they have the gnawing suspicions that they are wrong, and that they are no longer privy to tremendous, direct, personal insights from that spiritual leader that once was theirs. Consequently, they're floating in the outer orbit trying to struggle to get oriented, and getting smashed to bits in the course of it relative to their spiritual usefulness.

   Now, God knows that there are Christians who are going to do that. However, He is not going to be frustrated in His choice and in His election. So a secondary witness reaps the rewards because he is faithful to God's call. He leads that elected one to salvation. So, God's promise of will allows us to be careless in our duty, but He does not lose His elect. It is we who are the losers.

   I don't think it makes you proud to realize that you're one of the elect. I rather think that it is more of a humbling experience. I think that election humbles a spiritually-oriented believer. There is no stronger motivation for doing right, for morality, than being grateful. When a person is grateful, it has a fantastic ennobling influence upon him. It is the ingrate who begins to snipe; who begins to cut; who begins to attack; and, who begins to undermine and outmaneuver. It is the ingrate that has a problem with doing what is right. The person who is grateful is not the person who will take election and abuse it. The idea is that if we can give people rules and laws and regulations, then they'll know what to do. That's the greatest control. Yet we have societies today who have the finest system of laws and the most lawless people, and we're one of them. The strongest motivation for right conduct is love and gratitude. The Christian who understands what divine election has done for him is a deeply grateful and humbled person. This gratitude for election leads him to love God, and that's the greatest motivation for doing right.

   In practice, election does not make you proud or careless. History reveals that men who have done most for humanity are those whose moral fiber was nourished by these doctrines of sovereign mercy, free grace, and election. You just read the history books of the men that have made the impact upon society, particularly in the English-speaking world, and you will be amazed how often they were believers, and how often they were believers who were nourished on this sovereign, mercy, free-grace election of God. They were men who were humble and who had a sense of destiny and of calling because of that.

   Obviously, when you sit there and you realize that out of all the mass of humanity God has called you, now that is not without purpose. God has brought you into His family. It was not without purpose. That's why it's so tragic to miss the purpose. That's why it's even more tragic to have been in on that purpose, and then come to a stage of your life where you begin phasing out of it. There's no reason and there's no necessity for that. Yet this is exactly what Satan is trying to do to you. He's trying to move you just like he tried to move the Lord out of God's service, into something that your old sin nature creates. So, it is pride that raises the doubt that one belongs to the elect, and that God cannot reach us with certainty. Those who are elect are not really generally proud or careless.

5. Election Implies Reprobation

   Another object is that election implies reprobation. The word reprobation means that some people are condemned to the lake of fire. This is a true statement. Election does imply reprobation. However, we must distinguish between the ideas of the decree to elect and the decree to reprobate. The decree to elect is a positive concept. The decree to reprobate is negative. The decree to elect is the doctrine of election. The decree to reprobate means to pass over. The Bible never says that God has predestined anybody to hell. The Bible never says that God has decreed that somebody is to be reprobated. Election is not a decree to destroy, but only one to save. The Bible speaks of predestination as being conformed to the image of His Son. It never speaks of predestination as being destined to be lost. Election is not a decree to destroy, but only one to save.

   A school class can get together and decide to elect one of their members as class president. So they have the election and the vote is centered on one person. He becomes class president. Do they have to have an election and vote that everybody else in the class is non-president? No. By the very fact that they have elected one president settles what the others are going to be. The sinner is left to himself, and that's what God does. He has perfect right and sovereign justice to do that. God leaves some sinners to themselves, and sinners left to themselves, like water runs downhill, so a sinner will run down to his own self-imposed destruction. We do not say that God has decreed upon some reprobation. The doctrine of election says that God has decreed that some are going to be conformed to the image of His Son, and that's all it says.

   However, there are certain consequences of divine passing over. If God passes you over, there are some consequences. It results in a hardening and a destruction of the sinner. In Romans 1, we have that description of the gradual descent of people who once had information and knowledge of God into the most hideous idolatry and into the most immoral sexual practices. You will find repeated in this chapter the remarks to the effect that God gave them up to these hideous things. Romans 1:24: "Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lust of their own hearts to dishonor their own bodies between themselves." Romans 1:26: "For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections, for even their women did exchange the natural use for that which is against nature." Romans 1:28: "And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not seemly."

   There is a consequence of God's forsaking. When God forsakes you, when God gives you up, by virtue of your sin, certain things take place. A sinner who persists in negative volition toward the grace of God sets in motion a spiritual law that results in a judicial hardening in his soul which he justly deserves. This is why I am constantly trying to warn Christians against this business of resisting the Word of God and resisting the implications of the Word of God. We don't have many people around here who resist doctrine or resist the Word of God as such. However, we do have our share of those who resist the implications of that doctrine. At that point, they think they can challenge. At that point, they think they can be negative. But the Word of God warns you that if you continue in that direction of resisting a true implication of the Word, you set in motion a law that brings judicial blindness upon you--a hardening of the soul, or a callousing of the facets of the soul. The Bible never says that God delights in the death of the wicked.

   There are many passages that says He does not delight in the death of the wicked. Ezekiel 18:23, 31-32, 33:11, 1 Timothy 2:4, and 2 Peter 3:9 all declare that God does not take delight in the death of the wicked. However, if a person is left to himself, he will go downhill to his own destruction as the result of the fact that he has been negative to God, and the law takes place that eventually brings the hardening of God upon him, and he has set himself in a pattern from which he does not turn.

Unbelievers

Secondly, he cannot accept the fact that God is not unrighteous if He saves only some. This will be leveled at you. They will say that God cannot be righteous if he saves only some. Now, of course, these problems, again, as we have indicated, result from a mentality which is distorted from divine viewpoint because of the old sin nature. That's why we ask these questions. As you have thought through this doctrine of election now with a little information, if you as a Christian find these questions still bothering you and still plaguing you as legitimate objections, it's because the old sin nature is feeding up false mental viewpoints to you.

Now, the question of speaking about the doctrines to the unsaved, in view of the difficulties that it creates for them, should be answered by what we find in the Scripture. The view is held by many that we should not speak about this to the unsaved. However, while experience does show us that the natural unsaved man reacts violently to the idea that God elects some to salvation, when we look at the Word of God we discover that this is exactly what even the Lord Jesus Christ Himself did. He talked to unbelievers about this doctrine.

In John 18:37, here is the Lord speaking to the Roman governor Pilate. Notice what he says. Pilate is an unbeliever. The Lord is witnessing to him. John 18:37: "Pilate therefore said unto him, 'Are you a king then?' Jesus answered, 'You say that I am a king. To this end was I born and for this cause I came into the world that I should bear witness unto the truth. Everyone that is of the truth hears my voice.'" Jesus was saying, "Everyone who is of the truth will absolutely without a doubt listen to Me." Jesus told the unbeliever Pilate that all who were of the truth would listen to Him. "Of the truth" means that they belonged to God. This is another expression for election. They are of the truth because their disposition has been put in harmony with the doctrine of God. So they are receptive to the truth of God.

Now this was a bait. You can go fishing, which I don't know too much about, but I do know that you use different bait, frequently none of which avail anything. However, it's nice just sitting there. But you do use different bait. And what the Lord Jesus was doing was acting as a fisher of men, and He was using a particular bait. The bait that he offered Pilate was the bait of election. That's exactly what He meant. He looked him in the eye and he said, "I have come. I am a king. This is my mission, and I stand before you and I tell you that I have delivered that which is the mind of God and that which is divine viewpoint. And everybody who is of God, everybody who is called of God, will recognize that I deliver the truth, and they will respond to me positively." What he was telling Pilate was, "If you go negative toward Me and toward what you have heard Me teach, it is because you are non-elect."

Now that is strong language. Maybe you have never, in all of your experience, dealt with an unsaved person and explained to him that if he says "No" to the Word of God, he is declaring thereby that he is non-elect, and he may want to seriously reconsider whether he is ready to reject, with all the consequences, what the Bible declares for the non-elect.

In John 8:47, we have another example: "He that is of God hears God's words. You don't hear them because you are not of God." The Lord Jesus is speaking to a group of religious Jews. They are unbelievers. Again he uses the doctrine of election. He tells them, "You are not of God. He that is of God hears God's Word. He who is elect responds positively to God's Word. You don't listen to them, and I can tell you something about yourself." The Lord says, "Because you don't listen to them, you are not elect." These words mean that the non-elect are prevented from coming because of their sin. It is their sin that keeps them from coming. Their wills have not been persuaded by God. So, the basic question in witnessing is ultimately whether a person is of God. When you speak to a person, that's the ultimate question. If a person is of God, He will respond. He may not respond immediately to the witness you give him, but you have planted a seed that will germinate, and in time, someone else will reap as a result of what you have planted.

In Mark 4:3-8, Jesus Christ speaks about four kinds of soil. He speaks about seed, the Word of God, being planted on wayside soil. The birds eat it up and there is no fruit. A second soil is on the rock. It sprouts. It withers--no roots, no fruit. A third soil is among-the-thorns soil. It sprouts up. It's choked out, and again there is no fruit. Now those three soils are representative of non-election. Then He comes to soil number four, and He calls it good soil, and it bears 30-, 60-, even 100-fold return. This is elect soil. So the real question as we deal with unbelievers is what kind of soil they are. If they are not good soil, if they are not elect soil, they will not respond.

This is why it is so hazardous to get people that you are eager to see respond to the gospel to make some substitutions. They want to give them some public move that they can make--something they can do publicly; something they can promise; or, something they can come forward and say or do in order to get them. The person who will not respond to the truth is not responding because he is not non-elect. However, he might be quite willing to perform your little religious rituals that you invite him to perform because he simply accepts it as an entrance into a religious experience, and the non-elect very frequently has religion. This he can enter into. Jesus thus was teaching that there is some soil that is good for the gospel and some soil that is not.

If you are disturbed over this doctrine, if I were in your place, I would simply hasten by faith in Jesus Christ to accept salvation and to put yourself at ease concerning your position relative to election. "Whosoever will may come" is Bible doctrine, and if you will come, it is because you are elect. You may settle your position by simply coming. However, if you refuse to come in faith, then you should not object to the doctrine of election. You should not complain about the fact that God has chosen some out of the mass of humanity (all of whom deserve condemnation) to eternal life. You should also understand that the reason you refuse to accept the Savior is because you are non-elect. Your failure to gain eternal life is not because you are non-elect but because of your sins. It is your sin that is keeping you from being able to make the move and say, "I believe."

You may you have doubt about this doctrine and how you stand, and you'd be surprised how many people do. Regularly, I have people who are just concerned as to where they stand, whether they are in with the Word of God, and whether they are really really ready to reach out, where they have really accepted the Lord, and it is pathetic. It is sad because someone has not fully explained to them how it is all of God and none of us. However, if you want to know that you are elect, you may know it simply by believing in this Savior. I hope you will receive Him if you've never done that. If you refuse to do so, it is because you are not of the truth. And no matter what we say to you; no matter what you hear; and, no matter what you do, you will not enter the family of God. "Whosoever will" is the offer that God makes. He takes no delight in the death of the wicked. He only takes delight in conforming people to the image of His Son. That's what He's ready to do for you. The question is whether you're ready and willing to accept it.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1973

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