ABSOLUTE PREDESTINATION & GOD'S LONGSUFFERING
ABSOLUTE PREDESTINATION & GOD’S LONGSUFFERING
InJeremiah 27:18God had said that if they be prophets, and if the word of the LORD be with them, let them now make intercession to the LORD of hosts, that the vessels which are left in the house of the LORD, and in the house of the king of Judah, and at Jerusalem, go not to Babylon. Then inJeremiah 27:22God says "They shall be carried to Babylon, and there shall they be until the day that I visit them, saith the LORD; then will I bring them up, and restore them to this place."
He had said inJeremiah 27:18that they should pray that they not go into Babylon and then inJeremiah 27:22, God said that they would. I cannot imagine God telling them to pray that it not happen which was His desire and yet He had ordained that they would go into Babylon. This and other texts can be used to show that God knows all things, but does not by that knowledge cause them to happen. In this His sovereignty is unaffected. Because of His foreknowledge He has intervened when He desires to do so and in times when He does not intervene He is longsuffering.
God cannot both be longsuffering and also be pleased at what comes to pass. To be longsuffering means to allow the situation to take place and even continue even though it is against what He desires. When God is longsuffering, He is not causing what is happening, else it would not be longsuffering to Him, but would be what He desires. When God is longsuffering it is by definition a circumstance that God is allowing to happen, but not one He desires or has caused. He suffers long because His creation has disobeyed and walked in paths contrary to His desire. He neither desires this contrary walk nor causes it, but rather allows it for the time being. But he brings things to pass so that in the end His Sovereign will is fullfilled. This is seen inJeremiah 27:18-22. It was not His desire that the vessels be taken to Babylon. Nevertheless, God suffered it to be so for the time being, but brought it to pass that they would be returned at a later point in time.
Let us ponder on God’s longsuffering, and we will find that while His Sovereignty is never in question, He chooses to allow things for the short term, but always brings things to pass in the long term that fullfills His desire.
I do not believe in a "bare allowance," God overrules sin, nothing is outside of His control. But within the scope of that sovereign and total control there are events which God does not initiate neither did He predestinate those events. Those events are initiated by man. Should those events reach the limit which God has determined in His eternal counsel, then those events are restrained by God so that God’s overall control is not breached. I do not therefore believe that man’s will can be said to be completely free. Man’s will may be considered to be free only within the boundaries that God has ordained for him. The boundaries of the freedom of man’s will may not extend beyond the boundaries of God’s overall control. But within the boundaries that have been established for man, man may make his own choices and any evil or sinful consequences of those choices may not be charged to our Holy and Righteous God. They are chargeable to the man who made them. If some freedom of the will of man is not admitted, then men are but automatons and can not be charged for what they do as they can do no other than what they do. If total freedom of man’s will be true then God can no longer be said to have control of man’s destiny for His will would be subjected to man’s. Neither should it be thought that God’s will is hindered even within the boundaries of man’s will. He may in His providence graciously intervene at His divine prerogative into the events and affairs of men as He chooses.