The Lord is in
his holy temple, the Lord’s throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids
try the children of men. The Lord trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his
soul hateth. Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone,
and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup (Ps. 11:4-6).
COMMON GRACE
ARGUMENT:
Psalm 11:5 says
that God hates the wicked and him
that loveth violence. Common grace proponents have argued from this text that
since the elect were ‘wicked’ prior to their conversion, God, therefore, must
have “hated” them during that time (while simultaneously “loving” them with an
everlasting love).
This assumption
is then used to attack the notion that God cannot both hate *and* love the same
person at the same time—a notion, which, if true, demolishes the theory of
common grace altogether. For that theory posits that God both hates the reprobate
eternally, but, simultaneously, loves them during their lifetime (and expresses
that love for them in the good things of providence (health, friendship,
sunshine, fruitful seasons, etc.).
This text poses
a problem for the common grace theory, however, in that it reveals God’s
disposition toward the reprobate to be nothing but “hatred.”
(I)
Rev. Kenneth Koole
[Source: Reflections
on the Free Offer and the Charge of Hyper-Calvinism, pp. 25-26]
The
WMO men argue that since the elect can also be guilty of iniquity, therefore
they too are hated by God. Really? One must then ask what God meant when He
through His Spirit has wicked Balaam say concerning His true Israel, “He hath
not beheld iniquity in Israel”? (It is this, of course, that explains God’s
longsuffering love for a sinful, damn-worthy people).
While
it is true that the elect can live wickedly for a time in unbelief, and even
have to be converted from amongst the wicked, this is not the perspective of
this Psalm and others that use similar language. The Psalms have a practice of
drawing up absolute contrasts between the righteous and the wicked, those who
are God’s own in Christ the righteous one, and those who are not and never will
be …
Psalm
11 … speaks of “the wicked and him that loveth violence,” whom God’s soul
hateth (v. 5). It then goes on to say, “Upon the wicked he shall rain snares,
fire and brimstone ... this shall be the portion of their cup” (v. 6). This is
what the Spirit of Christ in the psalmist wills for the elect? For those whom
He sees as righteous in Christ according to His “foreknowing” love? Not so. But
this is what happens when, as a professing Calvinist and interpreter of
Scripture, you lose sight of the truth of God’s being the God of a
predestinating will and people, which truth is revealed to us for the sake of
reading Scripture aright—as Paul found to be true when he wrote the Book of
Romans, for instance—whether one knows who the elect are or not. We do not have
to. God does, in Christ. And that is enough to know to interpret such passages.
-----------------------------------------------------
(II)
(II)
Rev. Angus Stewart
[Source:
The
Psalms Versus Common Grace]
Psalm 11 speaks of the reprobate wicked, for those
whom God hates (v. 5) He will punish in hell (v. 6). The elect, prior to their
conversion, live in sin. But it is not true to say that God hates them, even
when they were in unbelief. God eternally loved His people in Christ (Rom.
9:13). Therefore, He brings them all to repentance (Jer. 31:3). We are under
His wrath prior to our conversion (Eph. 2:3), but He never hated us, for His
hatred is His resolute determination to thrust away from Himself and punish
everlastingly.
-----------------------------------------------------
(III)
Herman Hoeksema (1886-1965)
Notice the contrast in the text: “the righteous” is
contrasted with “the wicked.” Over against “his soul hateth” stands “trieth.”
The idea is that Jehovah may send afflictions to the righteous, but he does so
in his grace, to prove, to try, to sanctify them. Even apparently evil things
are a manifestation of his grace to the righteous.
It is different with the wicked. God’s constant
attitude toward them is hatred. His soul hates them. He is filled with enmity
against them. Whatever they may have in this life, the fact remains that
Jehovah’s soul hates them. How the idea that grace in any sense can be forced into
this text is a mystery to me.
-----------------------------------------------------
(IV)
More to come! (DV)
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