We live in a dark world where many people reject our Lord and His Truth. But is it truly the unregenerate (atheist/agnostic or pagan) doing the rejecting, or has God, in accordance with His pleasure and will, not chosen those whom He knows will, of their own volition, reject Him?
Our Lord and Savior makes it clear that those who believe on Him will be drawn to this belief by the Father:
Therefore the Jews were grumbling about Him, because He said, “I am the bread that came down out of heaven.” 42 They were saying, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does He now say, ‘I have come down out of heaven’?” 43 Jesus answered and said to them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. 44 “NO ONE CAN COME TO ME UNLESS THE FATHER WHO SENT ME DRAWS HIM; and I will raise him up on the last day. (John 6: 44)
“This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. 13 “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. 14 “You are My friends if you do what I command you. 15 “No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. 16 “YOU DID NOT CHOOSE ME BUT I CHOSE YOU, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. 17 “This I command you, that you love one another. (John 15)
The Apostle Paul also confirms that believers were drawn, or chosen:
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are CALLED according to His purpose. 29 For those whom He FOREKNEW, He also PREDESTINED to become CONFORMED TO THE IMAGE OF HIS SON, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; 30 and these whom He PREDESTINED, He also CALLED; and these whom He called, He also JUSTIFIED; and these whom He justified, He also GLORIFIED. (Romans 8: )
This is what the word of God has to say about those who have NOT been FOREKNOWN and PREDESTINED:
Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature (Spiritually); a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away; 7 but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory; 8 the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory…
For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. 11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, 13 which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.
14 But A NATURAL MAN (unregenerate) does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and HE CANNOT UNDERSTAND THEM, because THEY ARE SPIRITUALLY APPRAISED. 15 But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. 16 For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM? But we have the mind of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2)
And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to THOSE WHO ARE PERISHING, 4 in whose case the god (Satan) of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (2 Corinthians 4)
It would also appear from scripture that the unregenerate will choose to follow the enemy of our Lord. And thus, since our Lord can see the beginning of all things from the end (omniscience), this would explain why He didn’t choose those whom He knew would choose to follow His enemy (the seed of the serpent):
The LORD God said to THE SERPENT (Satan),
“Because you have done this,
CURSED are you more than all cattle,
And more than every beast of the field;
On your belly you will go,
And dust you will eat
All the days of your life;15 And I will put enmity (hatred)
(Genesis 3)
Between you and the woman,
AND BETWEEN YOUR SEED AND HER SEED (Christ and believers);
He shall bruise you on the head (The second advent of Christ),
And you shall bruise him on the heel (the crucifixion and death of Jesus).”
The seed of Satan is the anti-Christ, and also those who choose (through the spirit of anti-Christ) to follow and obey him:
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; 3 and EVERY SPIRIT THAT DOES NOT CONFESS JESUS IS NOT FROM GOD; THIS IS THE SPIRIT OF ANTI-CHRIST, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world. 4 You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. 5 They (the unregenerate and pagan) are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. (1 John 4)
Whereas the woman’s seed is the Christ, and those, also, who were chosen to believe on Him, OBEY Him, and seek Him: His (true) Church, His Body, His Bride:
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as A BRIDE adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, 4 and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.” (Revelation 21)
In reference to the seed of the serpent, we hear Jesus rebuking the “religious” leaders of Israel (pharisees, scribes, priests, etc) in this manner:
“Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit. 34 “You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. 35 “The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil. 36 “But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment. 37 “For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” (Matthew 12)
They answered and said to Him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you are Abraham’s children, do the deeds of Abraham. 40 “But as it is, you are seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God; this Abraham did not do. 41 “You (the seeds) are doing the deeds of your father.” They said to Him, “We were not born of fornication; we have one Father: God.” 42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on My own initiative, but He sent Me. 43 “Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word. 44 “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45 “But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me. 46 “Which one of you convicts Me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me? 47 “He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God.” (John 8: )
"For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword..." Hebrews 4: 12
{As much as the atheists/agnostics, and pagans, hate to hear this, I will say it once again: if anyone, after having the chance to hear and believe, openly rejects the Lord, and His Truth, they will, then, accept and follow the leadings and lies of the serpent, the evil one, Satan! There is no third or fourth Spiritual option!!}
The person who has heard the Truth of Christ and openly rejected it is the seed of the serpent and will, in the end, perish with the serpent. But the seed of the woman is Christ, and also those who hear His truth, and believe, and OBEY, and they shall have life eternal and abundant (see Earth’s Earliest Ages, Chapter 6: G.H. Pember).
Therefore, it is not the unregenerate person, in reality, who is doing the rejecting. It is, instead, the Father, by means of His omniscience, Who does not choose those whom He KNOWS will choose to follow, and obey, His enemy, the serpent!
For any who would question the fairness of this, or God’s justice and judgment, I would refer them to this scripture from the Apostle Paul:
What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! 15 For He says to Moses, “I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION.” 16 So then IT DOES NOT DEPEND ON the MAN who wills or the man who runs, BUT ON GOD who has mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE I RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MIGHT BE PROCLAIMED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH.” 18 So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.
19 You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?” 20 On the contrary, WHO ARE YOU, O MAN, WHO ANSWERS BACK TO GOD? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it? 21 Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? (Romans 9)
I will finish this in Part II.
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