Was Solomon Saved?

[ChristopherPaul]

The state of Solomon's soul was brought to question - and I never really thought about it and just assumed he was saved. Can we conclude that we know Solomon was saved? Does the sheer fact that he wrote part of the canon automatically mean he was regenerate?

I can´t think of any other author of scripture who´s salvation is suspect. Although we could perhaps consider Judas. He was appointed by Christ with His authority to cast out demons and heal the sick etc., so God has empowered the reprobate at times to accomplish the task of His appointed prophets and Apostles.

One could say the Spirit of God dwelt with Solomon, but such was also the case with Saul and scripture reveals that the Spirit of the LORD indeed departed from him.

Thoughts?

 

[VirginiaHuguenot]

Matthew Henry says:

The account we have of Solomon's apostasy from God, in the latter end of his reign (1 Kings xi. 1), is the tragical part of his story; we may suppose that he spoke his Proverbs in the prime of his time, while he kept his integrity, but delivered his Ecclesiastes when he had grown old (for of the burdens and decays of age he speaks feelingly ch. xii.), and was, by the grace of God, recovered from his backslidings.

 

[Scott Bushey]

Ecclesiastes 12:13 13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.

Could an unsaved man hold to this type of thinking?

 

[VirginiaHuguenot]

Matthew Poole says of Ecclesiastes:

Three things in general are to be noted concerning this book: 1. The author of it, who was Solomon, as is manifest both from the common consent of Jewish and Christian writers, and from the express words of the first verse. Nor can any thing be opposed to it but bold and groundless conjectures. That he wrote it in his old age is more than probable from divers passages in it, as, that he did it after his buildings, Eccles 2:4, which yet took up twenty years of his life, 1 Kings 9:10, and after some considerable enjoyment of them, and planting of gardens and orchards, and reaping the fruit of them, Eccles 2:5-6, and after long and much consideration and experience of all those methods in which men expected to find happiness, and after he had been deeply plunged in impure and inordinate loves, Eccles 7:27, etc., and from many other places, which may be observed by any diligent reader. And so this book was written by him as a public testimony of his repentance and detestation of all those vain and wicked courses to which he had addicted himself; wherein he followed the example of his father David, who after his sad fall penned Ps 51. And the truth of this opinion may be confirmed by that expression, 2 Chron 11:17, they walked in the way of David and Solomon, i.e. wherein they walked both before their falls, and after their repentance.

 

[VirginiaHuguenot]

Also it should be noted that Solomon is a type of Christ (Ps. 45; Ps. 72; Song of Solomon; etc.).

James Durham says of the Song of Solomon:

The third thing in the Title is the Penman made use of by the Spirit, in writing and recording this Song. Solomon was a Great Man, rich, wise, yea, an elect saint; yet one who had also fallen into manifold faults, whom the Lord allowed to die, without recording expressly any thing of his recovery, though we make no doubt of it. (look up reference here) We shall endeavor to make this clear from these considerations:

First, from the Lord's promises to him, 2 Sam. 7:14,15. where these three things are observable which the Lord undertakes concerning him, 1. That he will be to him a Father. 2. That he will correct him with the rods of men, if he shall sin: which says he would not eternally punish him. 3. That he would not do with him as he did with Saul, whom he rejected; he would not take away His mercy from Solomon, as he had done from him: and if no more were in these promises but what is temporal, there would be no great consolation in them to David (whose consolation is one chief part of the intention of that place.) Beside, these promises, Psalm 89:31,32,33. (which are the same as these, 2 Sam. 7.) are looked upon as special evidences of God's Love, and particular promises of His saving-covenant.

2. When he is born, the Lord gives him his name, yea, sends Nathan, 2 Sam. 12. with this warrant, to name him Jedidiah, because the Lord loved him; which cannot be a love arising from any thing in him, as if he had been well pleased with his behavior, (Solomon had not yet done anything good or evil) but it must be a love prior to his works, and so not arising from his good deeds, and therefore not cut off by his sins. This is similar to the love God had to Jacob, before he had done good or evil, Rom. 9:11. and must speak out electing-love, as it doth in that place.

3. He is made use of by the Spirit to be a Penman of Holy Writ, and a prophet of the Lord; all which are by our Lord, Luke 13:28. said, to 'sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the kingdom of heaven.' There is no reason to exclude him, seeing that universal assertion (all the prophets, &c.) would not be a truth, unless he were there. Although some wicked men have prophesied, as Balaam did, yet are they never accounted prophets of the Lord, as Solomon was, but false prophets and enchanters; neither were they Penman of Holy Writ; who were, as Peter calleth them, 2 Peter 1:21, 'Holy men of God, speaking as they were inspired by the Holy Ghost.'

4. Neither are the particular privileges and he was admitted unto to be forgotten; by him the Lord built the Temple, by him the covenant was explicitly renewed with God, I Kings 8:9. And his prayers are often particularly mentioned, to be heard; yea after his death, some testimonies are recorded of him, which cannot agree with his rejection: see 2 Chr. 11:17. There the ways of Solomon are put in, as commendable with David's, though there were defects in both; and this being immediately after Solomon's death, it would seem he left the worship of God pure, and so had returned from his idolatry, though all the monuments of it were not abolished. And especially in this, he was singularly privileged, that, in a most lively way, he was the Type of our blessed Lord Jesus, in his intercession, reign, and peaceable government: beside, that by a particular covenant, the kingdom of Christ, and his descent from him, was established to him.

5. It's of weight also, that it seems more than probable, that Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes after his recovery; it being neither amongst the Proverbs, nor Songs which are mentioned, I Kings 4:32. And in it, he speaks out of experiences he had both of folly and madness, and the vanity he had found in all created things, even when he had finished his experiment of all the possible ways of attaining, either the knowledge of their perfections, or satisfaction in the enjoyment of them.

The Scriptures therefore, hath not left his recovery altogether dark; yet, as to any historical evidence thereof, the Lord hath so ordered that he passeth away under a cloud, for these good ends:

First, thereby, Solomon is chastened with the rods of men (even after death) upon his name; for his failures are set down expressly, but his recovery (as to any direct testimony thereof) is passed over.

2. By this, the Lord makes his displeasure with Solomon's failures always known; though he had favour to his person, and gave him his soul for a prey.

3. And thus the Lord would warn others from declining, and hereby teach his people, to be afraid to rest upon gifts; yea, or upon graces, seeing he hath left this matter so far in the dark, as might yield an occasion (as it were) to question the eternal condition of Solomon.

4. It may be also, that Solomon after his recovery, did never recover his former lustre, nor attain to such a profitable way of appearing in God's public matters, for which formally he had been so observable: for so it is taken notice of David, after his fall, that his following life is stained, as different from what went before; therefore it is the accommodation of Jehosaphat, 1 Chr. 17:3. that he walked in the first ways of his father David, which certainly, it is not done to condemn David's state after that time, but to leave that mark (as a chastisement) on his failings: and seeing Solomon's were greater, therefore may this silence of his recovery, be more universal as to him.

 

[Peter]

William Guthrie in The Christians Great Interest frequently uses Solomon as an example of a horrible backslider and sinner that was saved. Look how bad this guy was yet he obtained grace!

 

[Puritan Sailor]

Much like King Manasseh, who repented at the end of his life too.

 

[ChristopherPaul]

Thank you, this has been very helpful.

 

[satz]

I think Solomon and those like him are examples to us that even the elect can still ruin their lives with sin if they are not diligent with the grace God has given them. This can be both a warning to us as well as a comfort (for those who are genuinely struggling to see how even men whom the bible says were saved struggled and often gave in to their sins).

The bible gives other examples of 'carnal christians' like Lot, Solomon, Jonah and some in the church of Corinth whom the Lord judged.

 

[VanVos]

Speaking of Lot why is he referred to as righteous in 2Peter 2:7-8. To me the context is about his moral behavior, and that seems a bit of a stretch when considering some of actions i.e. giving his daughters to people of Sodom etc.

 

[Scott Bushey]

John 6:37-39 37 All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. 38 For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. 39 And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.

 

[VirginiaHuguenot]

Originally posted by VanVos
Speaking of Lot why is he referred to as righteous in 2Peter 2:7-8. To me the context is about his moral behavior, and that seems a bit of a stretch when considering some of actions i.e. giving his daughters to people of Sodom etc.

Matthew Henry says:

Here observe, 1. The character given of Lot; he is called a just man; this he was as to the generally prevailing bent of his heart and through the main of his conversation. God does not account men just or unjust from one single act, but from their general course of life. And here is a just man in the midst of a most corrupt and profligate generation universally gone off from all good. He does not follow the multitude to do evil, but in a city of injustice he walks uprightly.

 

[VanVos]

Good comments from Matthew Henry there. Based on his lifestyle (which probably learnt from Abraham Gen 18:17-19) he would have been righteous compared to the people of Sodom.

VanVos

 

[Puritanhead]

I think the toll of Solomon having 800 women shows in the book of Ecclesiastes. One woman is hard enough to manage.
:bigsmile:

 

[Brett McKinley]

Indeed, an age-old discussion. All great saints had great sins and the Bible's honesty on this issue brings great comfort and sobriety to us all.

A few Scriptures might be insightful:
II Sam. 12:24-25 "...and he named him Solomon. Now the Lord loved him and sent word through Nathan the prophet, and he named him Jedidiah (beloved of the Lord) for the Lord's sake."
I Kin. 3:3 "Now Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of his father David, except...."
I Kin. 3:12 "...Behold, I have given you a wise and discerning heart, so that there has been no one like you before you, nor shall one like you arise after you." And we know Prov. 1:7, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge...."
This man was surely regenerate, but had remaining sin and stumbled greatly, and some even view Ecclesiastes as his repentance as Ps. 51 for David.

May God cause us to take heed to ourselves and to stand by His grace alone!

 

[bowhunter1961]

1 kings 11:43 "Then Solomon rested with his fathers, ......"
is this like other ot were it says he was "gathered to his people"?

 

[Blueridge Believer]

Mat 18:21 Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?
Mat 18:22 Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.

In this our Lord told us that our forgiveness was to be never ending. If our Lord gave us this analogy brethren, how great must His forgiveness be for us erring sinners. Like a father pitieth his children.....