“Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?”
-Romans 9:21
In Paul’s comparison of God to a potter and humans as his clay, the verse looks as if God picks and chooses who is good/receives salvation and who is bad/goes to hell. Isnt this ironic, considering we have free will and we all are able to receive God’s grace? Please correct me if I misinterpreted the passage. Any response is appreciated 😊
Romans 9:21 is saying that God is the One who chooses to make some people who will honor Him and other who will dishonor Him.
An argument has arisen and there are two camps of thought about this verse.
A. One group believes that God looked into the future and saw those who would honor and dishonor Him and He called them the elect and the reprobate.
B. The other group believes that God created the elect with the ability to believe and thereby be saved, while the reprobate were created with no ability to believe so they are lost with no chance of salvation.
I'm in the B group, because we take God at His Word when He said that He is sovereign over all things and nothing can happen unless it is His will. So we believe that everything that has ever happened and will ever happen is all Gods will, we believe God is almighty so He would never allow a situation where something is done outside of His will.
The Group A. people believe that God created everything and just sat back and let it all unravel randomly, with no control over His creation. We believe the opposite, we believe He has full control of everything including who He chooses to save and who he will leave in their sin.
The A. group are called "Arminians" and the B. group are called "Calvinists" the B. group accept the scriptures 100% as they are. The others rely on their own interpretation, which ends up being something different to what the Bible says