And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve;
whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the
flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and
my house, we will serve the LORD … If ye forsake the LORD, and serve strange
gods, then he will turn and do you hurt, and consume you, after that he hath
done you good (Josh. 24:15, 22).
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ARGUMENT:
This text is often interpreted to be a
general offer of salvation to all that outwardly hear the gospel—the key words being,
“choose you this day,” which are said to be an offer of life or death, and that
the hearer’s eternal destiny depends upon their making a choice.
Arminians also appeal to this text in
support of their “free will” doctrine—the idea that man is able, either of himself or by the help of
a “prevenient grace,” to choose for God or accept Christ.
(I)
Rev. Ronald Hanko
Do men have a choice in
their salvation?
So it is often presented.
Christ is preached, but the hearers must choose. Do they want to accept Christ,
or do they refuse? The choice is theirs. In fact, God cannot save a man unless
he first chooses for God.
The text quoted above
[Josh. 24:15] is often used as proof that men have a choice. After all, does
not the text say: “Choose you this day whom ye will serve … But as for
me and my house, we will serve the Lord”?
A common practice has
again been followed: A text has been taken from the Bible and badly mistreated
for purposes of supporting some idea or doctrine which is not found in the
Bible at all.
If one would only read
the text as it stands in Scripture, one could see that it does not support any
such notion of man’s free choice in salvation.
Joshua, just before he
died, called all Israel together to Shechem. In a rather lengthy and beautiful
speech, he reminded them of all the blessings God has given to them in leading
them from Egypt to Canaan. But because among the Israelites were to be found
idols, especially idols which their fathers had served when they still lived in
Ur of the Chaldees and in Egypt, Joshua admonishes them to put these idols
away. The danger of idolatry was a great one, for in Canaan, too, Israel was
surrounded by people who served idols.
Joshua has reference to
this fact when he speaks of a choice which Israel has. The choice which he
presents to them is not a choice between Jehovah the true God and idols. It is
a choice between the idols Israel’s fathers served, or the idols of the people
of the land: “If it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day
whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the
other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell.”
Joshua wants to impress
upon Israel that if they want to serve God, then they may choose between
different idols. But it makes no difference to him what idols they choose, for
all are evil and vanity.
Over against that
idolatry, Joshua makes his ringing promise: “But as for me and my house, we
will serve the Lord.”
Salvation does not depend
on man’s choice to serve God or permit Christ to enter his heart.
Man’s choice is always
for sin—apart from God’s work of grace. He can do nothing else but choose sin.
Luther wrote his greatest book, The Bondage of the Will, to prove that
man’s will is a slave to sin.
That is the horror of
sin: Man cannot do any good at all—that is bad enough; But man cannot even want
to do good. That is the great slavery of sin. He is so tightly tied in the
chains of sin that his will is bound completely and can only choose sin.
What a hopeless sinner
man is. Salvation is only of God.
Yet Scripture teaches
that we choose. In Hebrews 11:24-26, Moses is said to have made a choice: “By
faith, Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of
Pharaoh’s daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of
God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of
Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the
recompense of the reward.”
But Moses’ choice for the
people of God was a choice which he made “by faith.” When God gives his people
the gift of faith, by that power of faith they are able to choose to cast their
lot with the people of God by forsaking the world with its treasures and
pleasures. They are able to do this even when joining with the people of God
means suffering affliction with the people of God and enduring the reproach of
Christ.
Do you have that faith
which only God can give (Eph. 2:8)? Then you are able to choose for God’s
people over against the world with its pleasures and attractions.
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(II)
Arthur W. Pink
But
someone will reply, Did not Joshua say to Israel, “Choose you this day whom ye
will serve”? Yes he did; but why not complete his sentence?—“whether the gods that your fathers served which were on the
other side of the flood, or
the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell” (Josh. 24:15)! But why
attempt to pit scripture against
scripture? The Word of God never contradicts itself, and the Word expressly
declares, “There is none that seeketh after God” (Rom. 3:11).
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(III)
Ronald Hanko & Ronald Cammenga
This
is another passage that might seem to teach that people not only have the opportunity to choose either the service
of God or idolatry, but are actually able
by themselves to choose the service of God. If it is true that men can choose
to serve God by the power of their own wills (choosing being the activity of
the will), then they are able to do some good and cannot be said to be totally
depraved.
The
solution to this must be found in the context, especially in verse 19, where
Joshua tells the people that they cannot
serve the Lord. The text does not mean, however, that God’s people, those who
are saved by God’s grace, cannot choose to serve God. They do, and they not
only choose to serve Him but actually
do serve Him, though never without
sin. They can do good, but only
because God Himself has worked in them both to will and to do His good pleasure
(Phil. 2:13). Apart from God’s grace, Joshua’s words remain always true: “Ye cannot serve the Lord.”
------------------------------------------------------
(IV)
Homer C. Hoeksema (1923-1989)
[Source:
Unfolding Covenant History: An Exposition of the
Old Testament,
vol. 4 (RFPA, 2002), p. 380]
[While]
the text indeed speaks of the calling and necessity of an antithetical choice
for the service of Jehovah, this is not inferred from the familiar but often
misquoted words, “Choose you this day whom ye will serve.” These words, when
read in their context, simply constitute the negative side of this admonition.
If it seems evil unto them to serve Jehovah, then let them choose whom they
will serve; the object of that choice is either the gods that their fathers
served already before they came to the land of Canaan, or the gods of the
Amorites, in whose land they now dwell. They are to choose, in other words, from
among all the idols; and among those idols, it really makes no difference what
their choice may be, because those idols are all the same. The choice, then, is
not between Jehovah and idols, but the choice is from among the various idols
of the nations …
…
This does not mean that it is in any sense up to the natural man, or up to any man, to choose his god or to choose
the living God. To suggest this is blasphemy. That this is true is revealed in
the text itself. If it seem evil in any man’s eyes to serve Jehovah, this is
because he is evil: his eye is evil, and the light that is in him is darkness.
Therefore, God, the highest good, seems an evil to him. Then he cannot even will to fear and serve Jehovah, though
he must and he will choose other gods. The opposite of this is true as well. If
it seem good in a man’s eyes to serve Jehovah, it is because he is good. Then he cannot will to do
anything else than to fear and serve Jehovah, and he will choose Jehovah. That very choice is due to a sovereign, divine
distinction. This does not change the fact, however, that a choice is made and
is made necessarily. To choose is an act of the mind and the will. The mind
forms a judgment; the will expresses a preference; and then the man follows the
object of his choice. If he loves the darkness, he will prefer to walk in the
darkness. But even so, he chooses. If
he loves the light, he will fear the Lord and choose to serve him.
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(V)
More to come! (DV)
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