Sovereignty and Offers
QUESTION
I'd really be interested in how you reconcile a text like Proverbs 16:9 or the Parable of the Feast with your belief that the gospel is not a well meant offer of salvation to all of humanity. You stated plainly Jesus did not call any but those already elected for salvation. Yet in the parable of the Feast, the king DOES invite those who choose not to come. So was he just "pretending" to invite them and burning with anger towards their decline of the invitation? Also texts like Proverbs 16:9 or Genesis 50:20 do not make complete logical sense in the human mind. How can two truths, that seem to oppose, be reconciled? Does God monergisticly take our steps or are we still responsible for the desires within our hearts? If you can "logically" explain a text like Proverbs 16:9, you must have a mind that can grasp something no other man can.
ANSWER
Thanks for reaching out. I’m glad to provide my thoughts.
I'd really be interested in how you reconcile a text like Proverbs 16:9.
Let’s look at that verse: “A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.” (Proverbs 16:9) This verse teaches that “Men tend to plan their way in life, but God’s instruction on the way to go is superior to man’s ideas and His plan for the future often overturns the plans of men.”
The parable of the Feast, the king DOES invite those who choose not to come.
There is a distinction between the indiscriminate publication of gospel truth and those who have the ears to hear or hearts to obey the implications of this declaration. We declare the gospel to all who are willing to listen, but it is addressed to those with ears to hear. Those are two different groups. We do no know who is regenerate, therefore we publish to any who will listen, but the Lord repeatedly said, “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.” (Matthew 11:15) In so doing he is speaking of those with the spiritual capacity of hearing, the faith required to receive the righteousness of God declared in the gospel - “For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith TO FAITH” (Romans 1:17a).
So was he just "pretending" to invite them and burning with anger towards their decline of the invitation?
The parable of the feasts does not represent an invitation to eternal salvation. It is speaking of the invitation to sit under the instruction of the Lord Jesus Christ during his earthly ministry. Many of God’s people were distracted by the affairs of this world such they would not attend to Christ’s ministry as they ought. These people all had the ears to hear, and an opportunity to become disciples of Christ, but their spiritual interests were choked out by the cares of this world and they did not profit from the admonition as they ought. Rather than feast at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ, they chose to follow the distractions of this carnal world instead. This goes on in our time as well. Many of God’s regenerate sheep choose to persist in pursuing the world and never join the church or enter into discipleship as they ought, to the detriment of their temporal existence.
Also texts like Proverbs 16:9 or Genesis 50:20 do not make complete logical sense in the human mind. Look at the Genesis passage: “But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.” (Genesis 50:20)
There’s nothing illogical or impossible to grasp in this declaration. Joseph is merely affirming that man has a limited aperture on the over-arching plan of God and that something that seems “evil” (only bad) under limited consideration may be an instrument of bringing about “good” when seen in the fullness of God’s plan. A man who is sick with a fever may conclude, “I feel terrible, this is bad.” But with a broader understanding of biology, he comes to see that what seemed “bad” through the limited perspective of ignorance, is the mechanism for combatting illness and ministering a greater “good” to the body in the form of recovery and acquired immunity. There’s no contradiction or lingering mystery in Joseph’s statement, only the juxtaposition of ignorance and knowledge. The bottom line is that both of these verses make logical sense provided one removes the erroneous presuppositions so often projected onto them.
How can two truths, that seem to oppose, be reconciled?
“Seem to oppose” is the key to answering this query. There are things that “seem to oppose” in the bible. Right division is the process of logically reconciling them through contextual qualification. Stated another way, if you have a bald logical contradiction in your theology, you have an error in your understanding. Further study is required to clarify the matter in a way that avoids contradiction (II Timothy 2:15).
Does God monergisticly take our steps or are we still responsible for the desires within our hearts?
God does not monergistically take our steps. He knows our every step and has dominion over them, at times overturning them through circumstance and providence. Nevertheless our will is involved in the steps we take and thus those steps are synergistic, not monergistic, in nature.
If you can "logically" explain a text like Proverbs 16:9, you must have a mind that can grasp something no other man can.
This matter is reconciled through a combination of God’s dominion (supreme authority over all things that come to pass), God’s omniscience (perfect understanding of what will be), compared to man’s lack of either of those attributes.
- Elder Daniel Samons