God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked

[Nehemiah6]

Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord GOD: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?... For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GOD: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye. (Ezekiel 18:23)

Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel? (Ezekiel 33:11)

And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. (Acts 17:30,31).

In Ezekiel God plainly declares that He has absolutely no pleasure in the death of the wicked, therefore He repeats that three times. And because He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, He exhorts the house of Israel (all of Israel without exception) to repent -- turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways.

But God does not stop with the nation of Israel. He now commands ALL MEN EVERYWHERE TO REPENT. And since repentance is an essential response to the Gospel, this means God offers salvation to all human beings who will repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 16:20,31).

Without faith in the Person of Christ and His finished work of redemption, there can be no salvation. But neither can their be salvation without repentance. Thus Peter’s command to all Jews on the day of Pentecost: Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. (Acts 2:38)

This is why the Great Commission was given to the Church. The primary responsibility of Christians is to make every effort, and take every opportunity, to bring the Gospel to those millions and billions who are without Christ. The secondary responsibility of Christians is to disciple those who are converted, and ensure that they begin their new life by obedience to Christ in believer’s baptism.

There are many who mistakenly believe that people can ignore God’s conditions for salvation and yet enter Heaven. Those are the Universalists. Then there are others who believe that God bars access to Heaven for those who are not “the elect”. Those are the Calvinists.

But the Good News (the Gospel) is what the Lord Jesus Christ Himself has said, and those are the only words which count (John 3:14-21):

14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:

15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.

21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

 

[mcubed]

This is a great post and it is exactly why it is our business because it is G-d's business to witness and bring every human we can into the kingdom. Sometimes it can be hard, scary even. But I have learned to be more afraid of G-d than man (in a good way so people don't get all stupid on me). But over 25 years I am not afraid to ask the stranger if you die today will you go to heaven or hell? A great many of times just casual conversation like waiting in line brings the opportunity to ask. I have found if I am paying for their groceries or medications at the pharmacy they become willing to talk...

But the NUMBER ONE WAY I have learned to spread the Gospel and reach millions when I just reach my 1 or 2 is the tith. My money sends people to places I cannot got and reaches people I could never reach!!!!!

 

[Johnny_B]

Let's look at the context of John 3:14-21 starting with John 3:3 because one must be born again to see or understand and enter the kingdom of God and John 3:3-21 speaks for itself. Verse 3 “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God....5 “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

Now those that are born again, can see the kingdom of God and will enter as well. Staying with the context of the storyline. Nicodemus is not born again yet. How can these things

“9 Nicodemus said to him, “be?”10 Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?11 Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony.12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?13 No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”

Nicodemus is not there yet and a read of all the Scripture that speak of Nicodemus, it never says that he was a believer in Jesus. Yes it calls him a disciple, but disciples left Christ all the time and some Christ called the devil their father.

“So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”33 They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”

34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.35 The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever.36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.37 I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you.38 I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.”

So now in the context that Nicodemus is not a believer, we go on to verse 16-17, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

Knowing that whoever understands the principles of the kingdom of God are born again. We see that God so loved the world, how does He love the world? He gave His only Son to demonstrate His love for the world, and whoever believes in His only Son will have everlasting life. Because they have been born again by the Spirit to understand/see the kingdom of God. The world does not receive everlasting life, only those that believe/see or those that have been born again to understand/see the kingdom. Paul give us a deeper understand of John 3:16 in, Romans 5:8 “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Part of John 3:16, "Whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Whosoever or whoever, does not mean anyone and everyone, let's let Scripture interpret Scripture. We can start in Acts 2:39 “For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”

The Lord call, everyone or whoever He calls to Himself, Revelation 5:9-10 “And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scrolland to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for Godfrom every tribe and language and people and nation,10 and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,and they shall reign on the earth.”

Notice He made them a kingdom of priests and they will reign on the earth, not in heaven as so many Christian believe. The Lord opens the hearts of those that He calls to Himself.

Acts 16:14 "One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul."

The Lord is the one that brings those that are called unto Himself. The Lord knows the beginning from the end, there is no other like Him. He is the one that causes all things to take place as they go together. The Lord is the one that nurture His people to the point of salvation.

 

[trofimus]

"Yet the house of Israel say, The way of the Lord is not right.
Is not my way right, O house of Israel? Is not your way wrong?
I will judge you, O house of Israel, saith the Lord, each one according to his way: be converted, and turn from all your ungodliness, and it shall not become to you the punishment of iniquity.
Cast away from yourselves all your ungodliness wherein ye have sinned against me; and make to yourselves a new heart and a new spirit: for why should ye die, O house of Israel?
For I desire not the death of him that dies, saith the Lord."

Ez 18

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OK, Nehemiah6, be converted, make to yourself a new heart and a new spirit.

Or... is there any other layer to this? Something like:

"And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you: and I will take away the heart of stone out of your flesh, and will give you a heart of flesh."
Ez 36:26

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Sometimes its good to read what is next.

 

[Issachar92]

Calvinism is very philosophical. Its built around philosophy and is unheard of until Augustine.

You can read through all the writings of the early church fathers and all were supporters and argued for free will, they were infact defending it against the heretics who denied it.
Strange how the tables have turned.

Thats why you can see the kinda people it attracts. I like to make generalized statements cause it makes people mad, so just like pentecostalism tends to attract the emotional people. Calvinism attracts the highly educated and intellectuals, because its so driven by philosophy and mental gymnastics. Its the opposite of just reading the Bible cover to cover and taking it for what it says, not just picking a couple verses and interpreting the rest in light of them and wresting the ones that dont match.

Now that everyone is salty, I wanna say that I dont mean mean emotional in a bad way about pentecostals, i know many and they got their hearts right and are living very godly lives. They are sensitive to the Lord's commandments and thats always great.
In the same way i dont mean that all calvinists are cold intellectuals and that being booksmart is a bad thing. In fact I like some calvinist preachers like Tim Conway, if you listen to him he preaches so well sometimes you wont even recognize the calvinism hidden in there. He preaches on repentance yet turns around and destroys the foundation he laid for an hour by "Welp no one can repent, best hope God grants you repentance based on the one verse in timothy!"

Now that i got into writing this novel that nobody cares about lemme say this too: someone once asked on here how come there arent any books on arminianism but there are so many for calvinism?
Its simple, you can get arminian doctrine by just reading the bible, but you cant get to a calvinist conclusion without doing some major mental gymnastics.

Good OP bro Nehemiah!