Continued from previous post #20
We could stop here . . . but we won't.
We could stop here . . . but we won't.
- There are a couple more concepts that must be addressed in this matter to help round out our understanding of after-life punishment that would be heaped out upon those who rejected Jesus and His apostles (in that day in age)
- There are two basic Greek words for the will of God - THELEMA and BOULEMA.
- Thelma is essentially defined as "God's gracious design and it is indicative of his desires. His desired will. In this word, we see connections to the Greek word These or God.
- The second word, Boulemea, is His deliberate design or His purposed will.
- Again, Thelema his desired will.
- Boulema his purposed will - what will not be altered.
- If we look at 1 Timothy 2:3-4 we will read
- The English word "Will" here is taken from Greek thelo (as in Thelma) He desires that all men to be saved.
- Now, if eternal punishment is a reality, God will not have His desires accomplished and all men will not be saved - in fact, only a few. This is the standard rationale of most (Arminian) Christians - " God is love and He desires all to be saved, but His Desires (due to the free will of man) will not be met."
- Does this response differ from your earlier view that God will have all his desires accomplished?
- Let's get a little more emphatic here.
- God to 2 Peter 3:9. There we read:
- Where it says that God is NOT WILLING that ANY should perish, are we talking Thelema again, "That he does not desire any should perish?"
- No. The greek word is Boulema - His purposes and expressed will shall be done!
- In other words, God will NOT allow any to perish ever!
- From these two passages, we see that it is both God's desire and His purpose that none should perish, but all should come to repentance and be saved.
- From these passages (and passages like these) we are confronted with a serious breach if intellectual, biblical, and spiritual integrity is not maintained.
- What is the breach?
- The teaching that a sovereign God, who knew and knows all things from the beginning to the end would fail to see His loving and good desires and purposes fulfilled through His foreknowledge of our freewill choices given to us by Him!
- This is an impossible contradiction.
- Calvinist (see Calvinism : For more - the-christian-anarchist-crookbook) meet it by saying this Sovereign God's desires and purposes are accomplished in that He has predestined some to burn in hell forever, ignoring the fact that He is love and mercy. But the Bible suggest otherwise.
- In and through this beautiful approach, God maintains LOVE, SOVEREIGNTY, A RESPECT for FREE WILL, and JUSTICE while having his pleasures and desires completely and fully met that none would perish.