Free Will in the Bible
Mt 23:37
37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!
Mt 23:37
37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!
Gathered for salvation, what else? Since Israel was already the chosen nation of God, according to Reformed Theology, every Israelite should have become one of the elect and been irresistibly saved. Instead, Israel (by and large) freely "elected" to reject Christ. So much for unconditional election.
First of all Jesus is not addressing Israel He is addressing Jerusalem and more directly the Pharisees that is what Metthew 23 is about Jesus rebuking the scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. Who were all ways trying to test Jesus by asking trick question so they thought, I love when Jesus would answer one of their dual sided questions with a simple, yes.
What was one of the rebukes of Jesus towards those scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites? In verse 15 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.”
If the scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites could make a proselyte twice the son of hell that they were, how much more would they make their children citizens of hell and that is how Jesus is finishing his rebuke of the scribe, Pharisees, hypocrites, “How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!”
Jesus is rebuking these scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites by letting then know that the teaching that they teach are hindering their children from being gathered, I know some of you are saying how do you know that, read verse 38, “See! Your house is left to you desolate;”
Jesus is not wanting to gather all of Israel as some think, He is finishing His rebuke of the scribes, Pharisees, hyporties after all of His, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!"
The only one exercising their free will in this chapter is Jesus in His rebuke of these religious people, He is not saying anyone has any free will to exercise in salvation. Again I am going to say, that all those that attend Churches that teach the Bible verse by verse through the Bible are very blessed because they are taught to read the Bible in context, to develop thier doctrine from the context of the Bible. Not of this would of come up if all saints were taught verse by verse through the Bible and read the Bible in it's context, because a simple read of the context answered the question of verse 37 by reading verse 38.
The biggest blessing and curse are those verse brakes, blessing because you can locate a protion of Scripture, curse because lots of people think that verses stand alone. Lots of that came from the KJV which printed the Bible with each verse seperated from each other, which has been the start of more cults and false doctrine then any other thing I know of and I do not know everything.
God Bless