Q. 1. “But is not this (the teaching
that God is never gracious to the reprobate wicked) a terrible doctrine?”
All true doctrine is terrible for the
wicked and ungodly, for God is terrible to them. It is one of the earmarks of
the falsity of the theory of common grace that it is pleasing to the ungodly. It is a great comfort to the godly,
however, to know that all things work together for good to the righteous, and
for evil to the unrighteous. And it may rightly be characterized as an
unethical, very corrupt and pernicious doctrine to teach that God favors the
workers of iniquity and smiles upon them in His grace! (Herman Hoeksema, “The Protestant Reformed Churches in America” [1947],
p. 323)
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Q.
2. “If God
hates the reprobate, does He not by definition enjoy casting the unbeliever
into hell? Is the idea of a schadenfreude
God scriptural?”
This question implies
the denial of God’s sovereignty with regard to the government of all events
that we regard as evil and, in fact, the reality of hell. Does God, in
the thinking of this questioner, punish the wicked with hell? Does He
have pleasure in doing so? If so, is He not guilty of the schadenfreude that
the questioner intends to accuse me of teaching? Did God have pleasure in
destroying Sodom and Gomorrah? If so, was He guilty of the characteristic
that I am charged with attributing to God? God does all His good
pleasure, also in punishing the wicked. He does all His good pleasure in
His counsel of double predestination. I trust that I need not quote the
numerous passages of Scripture that teach this in so many words. Such is
the wickedness of sin against Himself that God has pleasure in punishing sin in impenitent sinners. In damning
some, God carries out His good will. He has pleasure in doing so, because
His counsel is good. It glorifies Him. I fear that behind the
question put to me by your correspondent is the fatal, proud notion that what
is good, specifically, God’s good pleasure, must meet the standard of our
judgment as to what is good. This is to make our thinking the measure of
God and His counsel. I too find in myself objection to eternal
hell. The reason is that I am not the holy God. Nor do I appreciate
the worthiness of sin to be punished by hell. I am not
God.
Then also God does not
have pleasure in suffering as such. He has pleasure in the wicked’s
suffering as just punishment of
sin. He has pleasure in sin’s not going unpunished, which would mean the
denial of His own righteousness, that is, the denial of His Godhead. (Prof. David J. Engelsma, 03/09/2018)
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