Q.
1. “The reprobate in the nation
are spared temporarily from the judgment they deserve. Isn’t this present time of reprieve a temporal blessing for
them? After all, everything above the lip of hell is a blessing, isn’t
it?”
“Let their table be a snare” (Ps. 69:22)—the words of Christ on the cross—seem an
appropriate biblical answer to this short-sighted misconception (see also Psalm
73:18 and 92:7).
The Scriptures never argue in that way, but
consistently present the exact opposite.
If “everything above the lip of hell is a
blessing,” then what does it mean that all mankind is subject to the curse since the Fall?
Scripture tells us what God has revealed concerning
what His attitude is toward the reprobate, and the specific reasons why He has
not cast them into Hell immediately. It is that they fill up the measure of their iniquities and face greater
condemnation (Gen. 15:16; Matt. 23:32; Rom. 2:5). It would actually be more
“merciful” (so to speak) if they had not
been born—a point specifically made with reference to Judas (Matt. 26:24).
“What if God, willing
to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much
longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And that he might
make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore
prepared unto glory” (Rom. 9:22-23).
The point to note here is that God’s longsuffering
is toward the vessels of mercy, and is the way in which He “endures” the
vessels of wrath. He’s not being merciful and gracious to them as they march
rebelliously into hell; He is “enduring” them.
“… and he that believeth not the Son shall not see
life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36)—The wrath of God
presently abides on the unbeliever.
So, we don’t judge these things according to our
own feeble and limited understanding, but we look to what Scripture has clearly
revealed to us about these issues.
On a further note: If the temporal “everything”
actually serves to cause one’s eternal placement in hell to be that much
deeper, all according to God’s decree, then those “blessings” are not true
blessings, are they?
Like Judas, it would be better that the unbelieving
had never been born, for with every extra day that they live on this earth
their sentence and God’s judgment upon them only increases in severity. (Rev. Angus Stewart)
“[The] final judgment is
not the first time God passes judgment upon a man for his deeds. Consider that
every moment of a man’s life, God judges what he does. God not only judges in
heaven and keeps such judgment to Himself; He judges in a man’s conscience so
that every man knows every moment whether God approves or disapproves of what he
does.” (Herman C. Hanko, “Covenant Reformed Fellowship News,” vol. 4, no.
16)
######################
Q. 2. “But isn’t is a grace of God and a merciful
act of God to delay impending judgment upon the reprobate? Isn’t is an act of
divine kindness?”
It
would in fact be better for the unbeliever that God would come in judgment
sooner than He does. The punishment of the ungodly would be less severe.
Now he piles up guilt against the day of wrath. When the old
reprobate is sentenced on the world's last day, well might he exclaim, “Oh,
that I had died in my infancy! My guilt and punishment had then been less
severe.” The argument from deferred judgment does not reckon with the
accomplishment of God's purposes with the ungodly in history. Cain must
kill Abel. Babylon must oppress Judah. Judas must betray Christ.
The ungodly today must develop sin and fill the cup of iniquity, so that
God may be just when at last He judges. Is it indeed grace that over a
long life a reprobate ungodly fills his cup of iniquity so that he suffers
greatly eternally? Deferred judgment is greater judgment. It is not
grace. The development of sin whether in an individual or in a race
occurs, not under a grace of God, but under God's wrath. (Prof. David J. Engelsma, 09/08/2016)
It is a strange grace and mercy that enables the
wicked to continue life, filled as it is with grief, sorrow and pain. It is a
strange mercy and love that allows the wicked to live to sin more than ever
than if they had died young—only to be deeper in Dante’s divine inferno when
they die.
The real reason people want to call man’s continued
life in the world grace is because they hope that such men will still,
if given a further chance, accept Christ and be saved. That is why the common
grace theory usually includes a gracious offer of the gospel that proclaims
God’s love for all. For if God is gracious to all, He loves all and wants to
save all. Then, after all, salvation is our work, not God’s work.
I would like to see once a text that explicitly teaches
that because of God’s love, or mercy, or grace, fallen man continues to exist.
The wicked know better than “common grace Christians.” They, says Scripture,
are like the restless sea and have no peace. In the night they say, “Would God
it were morning;” and in the day they say, “Would God it were night” (cf. Deut.
28:67).
Proverbs 3:33 says that the “curse” of the Lord is
in the house of the wicked. Let anyone show me where Scripture says that the
curse is there, “but love, too”; the curse is their daily experience, “but
mercy, too”; the curse is in their eating and drinking and working and
sleeping, “but so is grace.” What kind of a god is that? It is not the God I
serve and worship. Let us be led in our doctrine of God by Scripture and
not by what we wish He was. (Prof.
Herman C. Hanko, 21/11/2016)
[The]
wicked chaff in the church must serve the cause of God, not only because in the
vessels of wrath the righteousness of God is revealed, but also because the
chaff must serve the wheat, for it is not possible to have wheat without chaff.
Therefore, God forbears the chaff as long as it serves the wheat, and when the
chaff is no longer necessary, it is destroyed. This was the case with Israel.
Wicked Israel, according to God’s purpose, had to serve to erect the cross of
Jesus Christ—not Rome, not the Hottentots of Africa, but Israel. They had to
serve in the shedding of the blood of the atonement. They had to serve to
reconcile the church with God through the blood of the Lamb and to fulfill
according to God’s counsel.
So
it always is. God forbears the wicked for his name’s sake. When they have fully
served his purpose, and when all that he intends to be done by them and through
them has been accomplished, then his wrath is fully poured out, and then God’s
praise is magnified and exalted in the new things.
As
God’s people in the world, we must remember this truth. When we look at the
history of the church, it is very easy to become weary and discouraged because
of the constant battle against the carnal element. We must remember that God is
in charge, even when the wicked prosper or seem to prosper. Not only is God in
charge, but also he is always accomplishing his own purpose and his own
almighty will for his name’s sake. Thus we must not become weary, but be
willing to walk in God’s way to the very end, when he shall perfect his church
and destroy all the wicked. (Homer C.
Hoeksema, “Redeemed With Judgment: Sermons on Isaiah” [RFPA, 2008], pp.
235-236)
######################
Q.
3. “Isn’t God’s hand of
providence guarding the reprobate from the torments of hell at this very
moment?”
Strictly speaking that
is not the case. God eternally guards from eternal destruction or He does not
guard from it at all. He that believes in the Son has everlasting life, and he
that does not believe in the Son is in death, will not see life, the wrath of
God is upon him and remains upon him and “follows him to the grave”
(versification of Psalm 37, Dutch Psalter, verse
1). In our dispute we are not speaking of people as we see them, but we are
speaking of the elect and the reprobate. The
former God saves from eternal perdition, the latter God does not guard from
perdition, not for a minute. (Herman
Hoeksema, “A Power of God Unto Salvation”)
######################
Q.
4. “But aren’t the reprobate who are still alive better off compared to
the reprobate who are in hell?”
“All christless and unregenerate men are no better than dead
men, being condemned already.” (John Flavel, “Method of Grace,” sermon
33)
######################
Q.
5. “But why hasn’t God destroyed the world yet? Surely it is because He loves
everybody, is unwilling for anyone to perish, is graciously inclined to all,
desires everybody to be saved, and is trying desperately to give everyone as
much chances as possible to accept his gracious gospel offer?”
“God will not destroy the
world as long as His people are still to be found in it. This is clear from
Abraham’s intercessory prayer and from God’s response: ‘If I find … fifty [or
forty, or twenty, or ten] righteous within the city, then I will spare all the
place for their sakes’ [Gen. 18:22-32]. Indeed, before the world is destroyed,
God will deliver His own at that point in history when the last elect should be
born and brought to conversion (cf. also II Pet. 3:9) … [The] wicked world is
spared only because in it are to be found righteous people …
… How important this is
for us to understand. We are sometimes amazed at the terrible wickedness which
is present in the world. We cannot understand why a holy God does not break
forth in fury to destroy it all. The only answer is that there are still some
people of God either living in the world who must still be brought to
repentance, or there are elect who are still unborn, but who must be born and
saved before the world is destroyed.
How can the church go to
heaven unless every elect for whom Christ died is first saved? That would be
impossible. But just as soon as every elect is born and saved, God will indeed
destroy all wickedness. But He will not do this until the elect are also
delivered from the world, for they shall not have to endure the terrible
judgments which God sends upon the world at the end of time.
We might add that we have
a clear statement of this in Revelation 11 where we read that the witnesses are
raised and brought to heaven in the sight of their enemies, that is, before
judgment finally comes upon the wicked (cf. vv. 11-13).” (Herman C. Hanko,
“Covenant Reformed Fellowship News,” vol. 4, no. 2)
######################
Q.
6. “What are God’s ‘longsuffering’ and ‘forbearance’?”
Both [longsuffering and forbearance] are aspects of
God’s perfection of patience. God’s attribute of patience is, as it were, the
life of providence whereby God stretches out time and unfolds His will in and as
the history of creation. But God’s goodness as manifest in patience and
unfolded in providence is directed toward the realizing of two great ends,
according to the decree of eternal predestination. Longsuffering is the
positive aspect of God’s providence. It is His power to hold back the immediate
and ultimate blessing of His elect in Christ. Forbearance on the other hand is
God’s perfection of patience whereby He holds back or forebears immediately to
punish the ungodly reprobate for their sins.
God is longsuffering toward His elect because He
earnestly desires their repentance and salvation, “not willing that any should
perish but that all should come to repentance” (II Pet. 3:9). He therefore
leads them by His Word outwardly and by His Spirit inwardly and irresistibly to
repentance (I Tim. 1:16). When God forebears to punish the reprobate wicked He
delays their final judgment and certain destruction, for the sake of His elect.
In this stretching out of providence, as God sees fit, many are confronted by
Christ and salvation through the gospel and called to faith and repentance. But
this confrontation with the truth, except God’s saving grace intervene, is
itself the cause of further rebellion and hatred of the God who exposes their
sin. [Note: This is the teaching of Calvin in the first five chapters of his
Institutes, especially 5:6-7.] This is God’s will and serves His purpose to the
praise of His glorious justice. Though the reprobate lives in the sphere of
God’s goodness, and may have an outward acquaintance with God’s grace, this
cannot be construed to mean that God has an attitude of favour toward them. (Christopher J. Connors, “The Biblical
Offer of the Gospel”)
The
important aspect of God’s forbearance is that its root is in God’s wrath, in
his aversion or hatred. Its objects are the ungodly reprobate, whom God has
designed for destruction, and it consists in God’s deferring—for the
moment—their final punishment. A simple example will make this idea clear. I
need a house built by the local building contractor. Let’s assume that he is
the only contractor in the community. He is a very wicked and ungodly man, and
I do not like him. But I need him for the purpose of building my house. Thus,
as long as I need him for my purpose, I do not destroy him or ruin his
business. Instead, I allow him to do his work. So it is with God’s forbearance.
Longsuffering,
however, has its root and motive in God’s love. Its objects are God’s elect.
Longsuffering must be understood from a human viewpoint, because according to
his counsel God does not defer anything, but does everything as fast as he
possibly can. Longsuffering consists in God’s deferring the final deliverance
and salvation of his people. Longsuffering is taught in many passages of
Scripture, including the parable of the unjust judge (Luke 18:1-8), as well as
James 5:7, II Peter 3:9, and Romans 2:4, where forbearance and longsuffering
are mentioned together.
The
difference between these terms, then, is that forbearance is the deferring of
final punishment, while longsuffering is the deferring of the final deliverance
and help of God’s people. (Homer C.
Hoeksema, “Redeemed With Judgment: Sermons on Isaiah,” vol. 2, pp. 229-230)
For more, see the
following:
“God’s Longsuffering”
(Herman Hoeksema)
“God’s Longsuffering
and Forbearance” (Herman Hoeksema)
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