Almost all discussion on salvation revolves around the concept of "free will". I'm not going to get into that whatsoever because that line of thinking has been done to death.
There is a much more pressing question: WHY do human beings and (and angels) choose sin? This has to be the excruciatingly stupid decision that any supposedly intelligent entity could ever make and yet at one point every last one of this made such a choice. For the sake of this discussion let's focus on those who choose sin to the very end of their lives. It is a completely toxic poison that not only destroys others but also the one who harbors it. Even Satan, the second most advanced being in existence, has made the most stupid of all decisions to an unlimited degree. If the most luminous of the archangels could make such an absurd decision then it has to be incredibly easy for humans to fall into the trap of sin. Let's just make the question a bit easier to work with and focus on humans.
First, not only does sin damage the one who commits it but it also leads to everlasting anguish in Hell. Could a sufficiently knowledgeable being ever voluntarily chose to enter such a place? It does not seem possible to me that anyone would chose infinite immeasurable agony over the relatively minor embarrassment of ending up in a heaven they don't deserve. It is ultimately a choice between unlimited happiness or precisely ZERO happiness...forever.
So what is happening here?! How can there be two seemingly equal intelligent humans and one of them chooses wisdom and the other total madness? What is different about each of them that leads to these wildly different outcomes?!
There are a few nearly incomprehensible but possible explanations:
1. Every soul comes with a built in "random number generator" that God chooses to not touch or tinker with most of the time or all of the time. Some will choose good and some will choose evil for absolutely no reason. This is very problematic from any theological perspective because God is described as being intimately involved with everything in existence.
2. There is a plan to create all possible variations of humans. The alternative is that these beings would otherwise not exist. So if their very identify is connected to their rebellion and love of evil then they will never stray from it for any reason. So out of an unlimited number of variations there are only two possible states: be miserable in life and existence in Hell or not ever exist at all. This is only problematic from a mathematical perspective because it requires an infinite multiverse to create these many variations. The Bible does not describe anything resembling mirror universes so this is all up to our speculation. Unless the total number of possible variations is much much smaller for reasons we don't yet understand.
3. God deliberately makes certain beings inherently stupid/mentally haywire in order to make an ultimate point about his own nature. This is the most disturbing explanation but it does have some Bible verses that sort of hint at it.
His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
-Matthew 3:12
I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.
16 It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. 17 For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18 Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.
19 One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?” 20 But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this? 21 Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?
22 What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? 23 What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory
-Romans 14-23
It is very possible that this extreme terminology is not literal and that these "chaff" and very undesirable "clay pots" can be born again into something entirely different. However, there is nothing within them that can make this transformation so it is a moot point. Only God can change them.*
So beings who remain in rebellion are pretty much worthless chaff or really ugly clay pots that are only made for a demonstration of destruction. In doing so, God provides a terrible exposition of the consequences of sin and rebellion. His love for them seems to extend only insofar as allowing them to exist at all.
So even though we are supposed to share the gospel there will be an enormous percentage of the population that is inherently incapable of comprehending the value and purpose of holiness. We have the option of praying for those common pots to be turned into something else but we know that most will remain hopeless.
This is an extremely difficult question....
*Some may have a "road to Damascus experience" just like Paul but it does beg the question of how much of this receptiveness to the presence of God is wired into that particular person's mind and soul. There were at least a few who witnessed the miraculous first hand and still outright rejected Christ.
There is a much more pressing question: WHY do human beings and (and angels) choose sin? This has to be the excruciatingly stupid decision that any supposedly intelligent entity could ever make and yet at one point every last one of this made such a choice. For the sake of this discussion let's focus on those who choose sin to the very end of their lives. It is a completely toxic poison that not only destroys others but also the one who harbors it. Even Satan, the second most advanced being in existence, has made the most stupid of all decisions to an unlimited degree. If the most luminous of the archangels could make such an absurd decision then it has to be incredibly easy for humans to fall into the trap of sin. Let's just make the question a bit easier to work with and focus on humans.
First, not only does sin damage the one who commits it but it also leads to everlasting anguish in Hell. Could a sufficiently knowledgeable being ever voluntarily chose to enter such a place? It does not seem possible to me that anyone would chose infinite immeasurable agony over the relatively minor embarrassment of ending up in a heaven they don't deserve. It is ultimately a choice between unlimited happiness or precisely ZERO happiness...forever.
So what is happening here?! How can there be two seemingly equal intelligent humans and one of them chooses wisdom and the other total madness? What is different about each of them that leads to these wildly different outcomes?!
There are a few nearly incomprehensible but possible explanations:
1. Every soul comes with a built in "random number generator" that God chooses to not touch or tinker with most of the time or all of the time. Some will choose good and some will choose evil for absolutely no reason. This is very problematic from any theological perspective because God is described as being intimately involved with everything in existence.
2. There is a plan to create all possible variations of humans. The alternative is that these beings would otherwise not exist. So if their very identify is connected to their rebellion and love of evil then they will never stray from it for any reason. So out of an unlimited number of variations there are only two possible states: be miserable in life and existence in Hell or not ever exist at all. This is only problematic from a mathematical perspective because it requires an infinite multiverse to create these many variations. The Bible does not describe anything resembling mirror universes so this is all up to our speculation. Unless the total number of possible variations is much much smaller for reasons we don't yet understand.
3. God deliberately makes certain beings inherently stupid/mentally haywire in order to make an ultimate point about his own nature. This is the most disturbing explanation but it does have some Bible verses that sort of hint at it.
His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
-Matthew 3:12
I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.
16 It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. 17 For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18 Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.
19 One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?” 20 But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this? 21 Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?
22 What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? 23 What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory
-Romans 14-23
It is very possible that this extreme terminology is not literal and that these "chaff" and very undesirable "clay pots" can be born again into something entirely different. However, there is nothing within them that can make this transformation so it is a moot point. Only God can change them.*
So beings who remain in rebellion are pretty much worthless chaff or really ugly clay pots that are only made for a demonstration of destruction. In doing so, God provides a terrible exposition of the consequences of sin and rebellion. His love for them seems to extend only insofar as allowing them to exist at all.
So even though we are supposed to share the gospel there will be an enormous percentage of the population that is inherently incapable of comprehending the value and purpose of holiness. We have the option of praying for those common pots to be turned into something else but we know that most will remain hopeless.
This is an extremely difficult question....
*Some may have a "road to Damascus experience" just like Paul but it does beg the question of how much of this receptiveness to the presence of God is wired into that particular person's mind and soul. There were at least a few who witnessed the miraculous first hand and still outright rejected Christ.
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