JOwen
Puritan Board Junior
From KERUGMA
"...not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. " 2 Peter 3:9
Admittedly, this is a most difficult passage to interpret if one does not understand Calvin's disposition of God's to two kinds of love toward man (General, nonsalvific benevolence, and electing, saving love). Rev. Hanko, in his debate with Rev. Silversides says the following, "When we are speaking of common grace, we are also speaking of common mercy, common love, common goodness, common long-suffering. They all go together. They can't be separated. I'm not going to argue against just a common grace this evening, but against a common love, common mercy, common benevolence, common goodness, common long-suffering" (Intro to Lecture #2). I think in doing so, he has argued himself right off the pages of Scripture. Agree or disagree, Hanko has out calvined Calvin. He's not taken Calvin in all his context, and realized the dichotomization of his teaching on this subject.
How then do we reconcile the clear Biblical teaching that God hates the sinner, with a passage such as this? We can do one of two things. We can wrest the passage from its true context, or as Calvin does, we can go back to the two ways in which the Bible speaks of God's love. When the Scriptures tell us that God hates the reprobate with an eternal hatred, it speaks of the reprobate in terns of the "hidden purpose of God", to quote Calvin. In this way, there is an eternal and abiding hatred. And when the Word indicates that God is long-suffering to man in the calls to repentance, it is from the general, non-saving love "made known to us in the gospel" (Calvin) that terminates on the creature. This love is not saving, but creaturely, "œthat the good seed, which God has implanted in some natures, shall be loved by Him" (Calvin). If you disagree with these two loves, argue with Calvin.
KERUGMA
[Edited on 9-12-2006 by JOwen]
"...not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. " 2 Peter 3:9
"But the Lord is not slack, or, delays not. He checks extreme and unreasonable haste by another reason, that is, that the Lord defers his coming that he might invite all mankind to repentance. For our minds are always prurient, and a doubt often creeps in, why he does not come sooner. But when we hear that the Lord, in delaying, shews a concern for our salvation, and that he defers the time because he has a care for us, there is no reason why we should any longer complain of tardiness. He is tardy who allows an occasion to pass by through slothfulness: there is nothing like this in God, who in the best manner regulates time to promote our salvation. And as to the duration of the whole world, we must think exactly the same as of the life of every individual; for God by prolonging time to each, sustains him that he may repent. In the like manner he does not hasten the end of the world, in order to give to all time to repent."
"This is a very necessary admonition, so that we may learn to employ timea right, as we shall otherwise suffer a just punishment for our idleness. "Not willing that any should perish". So wonderful is his love towards mankind, that he would have them all to be saved, and is of his own self prepared to bestow salvation on the lost. But the order is to be noticed, that God is ready to receive all to repentance, so that none may perish; for in these words the way and manner of obtaining salvation is pointed out. Every one of us, therefore, who is desirous of salvation, must learn to enter in by this way."
"But it may be asked, If God wishes none to perish, why is it that so many do perish? To this my answer is, that no mention is here made of the hidden purpose of God, according to which the reprobate are doomed to their own ruin, but only of his will as made known to us in the gospel. For God there stretches forth his hand without a difference to all, but lays hold only of those, to lead them to himself, whom he has chosen before the foundation of the world. But as the verb chōreō is often taken passively by the Greeks, no less suitable to this passage is the verb which I have put in the margin, that God would have all, who had been before wandering and scattered, to be gathered or come together to repentance."
Admittedly, this is a most difficult passage to interpret if one does not understand Calvin's disposition of God's to two kinds of love toward man (General, nonsalvific benevolence, and electing, saving love). Rev. Hanko, in his debate with Rev. Silversides says the following, "When we are speaking of common grace, we are also speaking of common mercy, common love, common goodness, common long-suffering. They all go together. They can't be separated. I'm not going to argue against just a common grace this evening, but against a common love, common mercy, common benevolence, common goodness, common long-suffering" (Intro to Lecture #2). I think in doing so, he has argued himself right off the pages of Scripture. Agree or disagree, Hanko has out calvined Calvin. He's not taken Calvin in all his context, and realized the dichotomization of his teaching on this subject.
How then do we reconcile the clear Biblical teaching that God hates the sinner, with a passage such as this? We can do one of two things. We can wrest the passage from its true context, or as Calvin does, we can go back to the two ways in which the Bible speaks of God's love. When the Scriptures tell us that God hates the reprobate with an eternal hatred, it speaks of the reprobate in terns of the "hidden purpose of God", to quote Calvin. In this way, there is an eternal and abiding hatred. And when the Word indicates that God is long-suffering to man in the calls to repentance, it is from the general, non-saving love "made known to us in the gospel" (Calvin) that terminates on the creature. This love is not saving, but creaturely, "œthat the good seed, which God has implanted in some natures, shall be loved by Him" (Calvin). If you disagree with these two loves, argue with Calvin.
KERUGMA
[Edited on 9-12-2006 by JOwen]