2nd Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
Part of my website ministry as a Baptist preacher for the past 22 years, since 2002, has been to refute false teachers on the internet. As you can imagine, this has been a full-time job in my ministry. Most people are proud and stubborn, so religiously indoctrinated that no one can change their views. This is why I have often said, that the hardest part about getting somebody saved is first getting them lost. Proverbs 26:12, “Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? there is more hope of a fool than of him.”
For this blog I want to do something different than usual. I'm going to share with you an actual unedited Facebook debate that I had today with a fella, who insisted that God gives up on sinners. It all started with the following meme that I uploaded in a new post. ...
CARLOS: When God gives unsaved people who repeatedly reject Him to reprobate minds like Romans 1:21-32 proclaims that's when God permanently rejects them that they are doomed for hell with no hope of salvation ALL BEFORE PHYSICALLY DYING.
ME: Kindly, I totally disagree with that teaching. Pastor Steven Anderson is guilty of hating sinners with his unbiblical rubbish (aka, his infamous "Reprobate Doctrine"). He errantly teaches from Romans 1 that God gives up on someone ever being saved. That is not true doctrine.
Nowhere does the Bible say in Romans 1 that God gives up on a lost sinner ever being saved. The Bible says God gives them over to their uncleanliness to dishonor their bodies between themselves. 𝗥𝗼𝗺𝗮𝗻𝘀 𝟭:𝟮𝟰-𝟮𝟱, “𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗚𝗼𝗱 𝗮𝗹𝘀𝗼 𝗴𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺 𝘂𝗽 𝘁𝗼 𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝘂𝘀𝘁𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘀, 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗵𝗼𝗻𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗯𝗼𝗱𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺𝘀𝗲𝗹𝘃𝗲𝘀: 𝗪𝗵𝗼 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘁𝗵 𝗼𝗳 𝗚𝗼𝗱 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗮 𝗹𝗶𝗲, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿, 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗶𝘀 𝗯𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿. 𝗔𝗺𝗲𝗻.” 2nd Peter 3:9 plainly teaches that God is not willing for ANY man to perish. As long as a human being is breathing air and their heart is still beating, there is hope for their salvation. God desires for ALL MEN to repent (change their mind) to be saved by faith alone without works.
CARLOS: no one doesn't disagree that God wants all to be saved.... Yes, it is true....however the Bible makes it totally clear that there is such thing as unsaved people crossing the line with God...how else do you think satan got to who he is? What else are you to make of Jesus telling the pharisses who blasphemed the Holy Ghost in Matthew 12 that committing such blasphemy causes them to never have forgiveness in neither THIS LIFE or the life to come? With all due respect, only someone who's really shallow on this subject believes Pastor Steven Anderson started this doctrine....what he said is true whether he ever spoke it or not....Christians have been conditioned to believe such a lukewarm view of hell thanks to "progressive modernist ideologies that have been undermining Christianity for centuries and you know exact what I'm referring to (contemporary Christianity)...
ME: I didn't say he started this doctrine. Pastor Steven Anderson has popularized the heresy of being a "reprobate" beyond hope of ever being saved. He is teaching blatant heresy to say that homosexuals cannot be saved. He dishonestly tries to convince people that he is preaching the same truth as Dr. Jack Hyles, but as I evidence in the following eye-opening article, Pastor Jack Hyles taught something VERY different about reprobates than does Pastor Anderson. I fully agree with Dr. Hyles, but disagree with Brother Anderson.
Yes, there is a point of no return that a lost sinner can cross, but it's not because God refuses to save them; but rather, it is simply because God knows that they will never be saved, so God gives them over to their unbelief and sin. 𝗥𝗼𝗺𝗮𝗻𝘀 𝟮:𝟱-𝟲, “𝗕𝘂𝘁 𝗮𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝘆 𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝘂𝗽 𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝘆𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳 𝘄𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗵 𝗮𝗴𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝘄𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗵 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝗲𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝗷𝘂𝗱𝗴𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗚𝗼𝗱; 𝗪𝗵𝗼 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗼 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗺𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗱𝗲𝗲𝗱𝘀...” And as far as blaspheming the Holy Spirit, Jesus was simply refering to people who refuse to get saved, not to reprobates who are beyond the hope of the Gospel.
CARLOS: being reprobate literally means being beyond hope of ever being saved, that's what it means to be rejected and Jeremiah 6:30 tells us what reprobate, as the Bible uses it, means. 2 Timothy 3:7-8, 13, and Jude expound on reprobation and it never implies that those whom are unsaved that become reprobate still have a chance at salvation....."EVER LEARNING BUT NEVER ABLE TO COME TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUTH" (2 Timothy 3:7)....what's that "TRUTH"? That's Jesus Christ, who said He is the Way THE TRUTH and the life in John 14:6...in otherwords reprobates are never able to come to Christ. They're never able to come to realize they are a lost sinner, they are never able to see their need to be forgiven of sin, they are never able to see their need to have Christ in their lives since Romans 1 already stated such people don't want to retain God in their knowledge.
"As as far as blaspheming the Holy Spirit, Jesus was simply refering to people who refuse to get saved, not to reprobates who are beyond the hope of the Gospel".... Ok refusing to get saved entails more than just not having an interest for Christ, it entails having complete intolerance and having complete intolerance equates having hatred for God (which Romans 1 states reprobation involves being a hater of God in verse 30) and it does lead to being permanently rejected by God, otherwise nothing Jesus said in Matthew 12:30-32 was meant to be taken serious and Romans 1, 2 Timothy 3, Jude, or even the entire book of Revelation would be nonsense.
God takes things very seriously and He doesn't play around with the matters of salvation. The "death bed" conversions of someone who lived.his entire life unsaved, going so far as to deliberately disrespect and blaspheme God all his life, to where at the last few moments of his life he's crying out to God for mercy are really not of reality or even Biblical, and the thief on the cross is not a good example because people will blindly assert he was everything Romans 1:21-32 describes and be like "see? Not every God hating reprobate was beyond hope" (thereby insinuating scripture contradicts itself).... The problem with that assertion is that if the thief on the cross was a reprobate Christ wouldn't have told him that he would be with Him in paradise.
ME: Kindly, I totally disagree with you on this matter. I don't think God ever gives up on even the worst sinner being saved. Nobody is ever beyond the hope of the Gospel. I won't argue or debate with you on this, I think you're biblically wrong. The things you said are based on assumptions, not facts.
CARLOS: respectfully, you're disagreeing with The Bible in that regard because there's several instances where it's made clear that God DOES give up on CERTAIN UNSAVED INDIVIDUALS...from King Pharoah, to Balaam, to the sodomites (gee, if they weren't without hope the why did God drop fire and brimstone on them? He said He'd spare the population if He found even at least one righteous person) to the scribes and pharisses in Matthew 12 THAT SAID JESUS WAS POSSESSED WITH A DEVIL ...Matthew 23:33 He rips on them more basically saying to them "what makes you filthy people think you're gonna avoid going to hell now?" (Obviously not verbatim but this surely means the same thing)... This is almost the calvinistic approach you're taking even though Ive read your articles ripping on Calvinism because calvinists are the ones who say that those whom He elected for salvation before birth will get saved no matter what because they're eventually gonna submit to His predestined will.
ME: You are way off base. The Bible never says that God gave up on anybody. Jesus rebuked His disciples when they wanted to pray down fire and brimstone to destroy the Samaritans. 𝗟𝘂𝗸𝗲 𝟵:𝟱𝟱-𝟱𝟲, “𝗕𝘂𝘁 𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗱, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗿𝗲𝗯𝘂𝗸𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗮𝗶𝗱, 𝗬𝗲 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝘀𝗽𝗶𝗿𝗶𝘁 𝘆𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗳. 𝗙𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗺𝗮𝗻 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗼𝘆 𝗺𝗲𝗻'𝘀 𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀, 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺. 𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝘄𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘃𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗴𝗲.”
Like the wayward New IFB, you are deceived to think that God actually wants His children to hate sinners, instead of the sin. Psalms 97:10 commands saints to "hate evil," not hate evil people. God loved the sinful world so much according to John 3:16, that He gave His only begotten Son to die for all of us. Yet, you and the wacky New IFB falsely claim that God gives up on hardened sinners and throws them under the bus. That is heresy!
I humbly think that your thinking is backwards friend. The problem has never been that God gives up on man; but rather, God in His omniscience knows that some people reach the point of no return, where they are never going to come to Christ; but this is not because God has given up on the unrepentant sinner, it is because they have given up on God.
Furthermore, God alone knows when a hardened sinner has crossed the line of no return, not you or the New IFB. For anyone to foolishly say that homosexuals have crossed the line and can never be born again is 100% blatant heresy! You are literally elevating yourself to the place of God, becoming a judge over that person, condemning them to Hell in your self righteousness. Who do you think you are, to deem any human being beside yourself as unreachable with the Gospel? You are NOT God!!!
The Bible plainly says in Jude 1:7 that God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrha as an EXAMPLE of what He would do to the ungodly in Hell, burn them! Kindly said, you are confusing God's justice, holiness and judgment with His mercy, love and grace.
I don't like to unfriend people, I really don't; but unfortunately, it is the only way I can silence the heretics, since Facebook doesn't allow me to turn off your commenting ability. So, Carlos, I have already unfriended you. I refuse to allow anyone to spread lies, heresy and false teaching on my ministry webpage, whether it be my blogs, websites, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, et cetera.
The Bible says in 𝗔𝗺𝗼𝘀 𝟯:𝟯, “𝗖𝗮𝗻 𝘁𝘄𝗼 𝘄𝗮𝗹𝗸 𝘁𝗼𝗴𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿, 𝗲𝘅𝗰𝗲𝗽𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗯𝗲 𝗮𝗴𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗱?” There's no reason for me to keep so-called "friends" who wrongly accuse me of going against the inspired Word of God, which is very harsh language. Clearly, you think that I am going against the Holy Bible, by my preaching that God never gives up on any sinner being reached with the Gospel.
Obviously we all have an appointed time to die (Hebrews 9:27), and at that moment one's opportunity to get saved will have forever ended.
God's mercy, love and grace have their limits for the disobedient sinner who refuses to rest in the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ to be saved; but I biblically contend that until each living sinner breathes their last breath, God desires for that individual to repent (change their mind) to come to Christ by faith as a needy sinner to be saved (2nd Peter 3:9).
END OF DEBATE
Dear reader, I run into religious fools like this all the time. Carlos is not a fool because he is ignorant, he remains ignorant because he is a fool. He mentioned Sodom's destruction in Genesis as an example of God giving up on people.
God sent His angels to deliver the righteous from Sodom before destroying that city with fire and brimstone. Previously, God had made an agreement with Abraham, that if he could find just 10 righteous (saved) people, the Lord would spare Sodom of being decimated. Abraham desperately tried no doubt, but utterly failed to find even 10 righteous people. Abraham's nephew Lot was the only bonafide righteous man that he could find (2nd Peter 2:7). We don't know if Mrs. Lot was saved or not, the Bible doesn't say. We do know that she looked back at Sodom, likely because her heart never left the city, and she was turned instantly into a pillar of salt.
God delivered Lot's entire family, who were willing to flee the city him and the angels, but no one else. This is NOT because God gave up on the sinners in Sodom; but rather, because God knew that they had permenently given up on Him. I find no evidence in the inspired Word of God, where God ever gave up on anybody if there was even a ray of remaining hope for their salvation. The Apostle Peter writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, said in 2nd Peter 3:9 that GOD IS NOT WILLING FOR ANY TO PERISH!!! So, for anyone to claim to the contrary, saying that God gives up of Sodomites—so we shouldn't bother sharing the Gospel with them because they are beyond hope—is totally unscriptural.
The most important truth I want you to see here, that Carlos totally ignored, is that God HADN'T given up on Sodom's sinners, even though the Lord was about to destroy the place. Abraham went to Sodom preaching the Gospel, desperately searching for 10 righteous people. Do you think that Abraham spoke softly and only told a few people what was about to happen? This was literally a matter of life and death. If Abraham could only find 10 righteous people, God would change His mind and spare Sodom from being annhilated. You had better believe that Abraham told everybody he could, running through the city, diligently warning the people of the imminent coming judgment.
So, God hadn't given up on them, the good Lord gave everyone in Sodom a chance to repent. It should be clear to you now, that it was the sinful people of Sodom who gave up on God, and not God who gave up on them. God knew (as only God knows) that no one in Sodom would have ever repented, otherwise I don't believe the good Lord would have destroyed the city.
The same situation existed before the flood of Noah's day, when for 120 years Noah preached the Gospel, but not even one person got saved. Jesus foretold in Matthew 24:37-39 that in the end times, conditions in society will once again return as it was in the days of Noah. As we draw nearer to the End Times, fewer people will heed the truth. With all the false bibles, counterfeit plans of salvation, false prophets and ecumenical apostasy in the churches today, we already clearly see the conditions of Noah's time now developing.
I love you dear reader with Christ's uncondiitonal love, whoever you may be. I enjoy answering emails, so whatever may be burdening your heart, or any hankering Bible question(s) you may have, or perhaps you just need a Christian big brother while going through a tough time, I am your humble servant in Christ. Everything you share with me is kept confidential. I am here by God's grace to help others, which has always been my heart's sincere desire since I surrendered to serve God for the rest of my life at age 15. I got saved at age 13. I just want to be a blessing. Thank you for reading my ministry blog.