SATAN GOT PEOPLE TO NOT BELIEVE GOD ABOUT “WHOSOEVER”
Let’s look at the words of the Lord Jesus Christ about “whosoever”, meaning who can be saved or how a person is saved:
John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
Revelation 22:17b – “And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”
Matthew 10:32 – “Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.“
John 4:14 – “Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”
Acts 2:21 – “And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
1 Timothy 2:3b-4 – “…God our Savior who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.”
God is saying here that whosoever will may come, whosoever will can be saved. These are promises that the Lord Jesus Christ made. We have seen that the Bible says that God desires all to come to Him for salvation and that He wants no one to perish. God has said that salvation and not perishing is all up to man’s choice to repent and believe or not. Titus 2:11 “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,”
2 Peter 3:9 – “The Lord is…not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
Luke 13:3 – “I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.”
God does not want anyone to be lost and separated from Him for eternity. God did not make Hell for man. God said that Hell was prepared for the devil and his fallen angels, not for man. God warned all men about the horrors of Hell so that all men repent and believe and not go to Hell. Matthew 25:41 “Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:”
Luke 16:23a – “And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments…”
Mark 9:43b-44a – “…hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: Where their worm dieth not…”
2 Thessalonians 1:8 – “In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:”
We know what all these verses are saying on the surface. They are saying that the Lord Jesus Christ, who is God, so loved every person in the world and that He wants every person in the world (or the whosoever’s) to be saved. God’s will, His desire and want, is that no one perish into eternal hell, fire and damnation. That’s why the Lord Jesus Christ is warning everyone about hell and that it is a place of fire and torment and non-stop suffering. He says that ultimately each person alone is responsible for going to hell. How? By their refusal to repent as He said, “Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish.” (Luke 13:3b, 5b)
The Lord Jesus Christ is pleading and begging everyone to come to Him and be saved. Just look at His plea in Matthew 23:37, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered…ye would not. He is implying that the only reason people do not come to Him is because each person wills not to.
We all have a choice like Joshua and Israel
Joshua told Israel that they had a choice to choose the LORD and serve Him. They chose the LORD.
Joshua 24:22 – “And Joshua said unto the people, Ye are witnesses against yourselves that ye have chosen you the LORD, to serve him. And they said, We are witnesses.”
Everyone has a choice as well…to believe God and “whosoever will”…or to believe a fatalistic lie about God
GOD DIED FOR EVERY PERSON ON EARTH
The Lord Jesus Christ is telling everyone that the choice is 100% up to them. What do they have to do? All they have to do is come to Him for Life, all they have to do is receive Him for Life, all they have to do is believe in Him for Life. It is 100% up to everyone to determine their own ultimate destiny of Heaven or Hell and all they have to do is call on His name.
The issue is not that God has to be fair to let everyone into Heaven. Why? Because all have sinned and all deserve Hell and no one deserves Heaven! The real issue is that in these verses He has said that:
He wants everyone to be saved and enter Heaven.
He has commanded everyone to be saved.
He wants no one to perish.
He has done everything possible for every person to be saved and come to Heaven.
There is only one reason that any person is not saved, and does not come to Heaven. What is it? It is because that person has willfully chosen on his own to refuse. People will be sent to Hell because they refused on their own accord not to obey His command to be saved.
And if that is the accurate picture then we admire Him, and we love Him with all our heart, and soul, and mind, and we trust Him because:
He is not misleading.
He is the truth teller (and we know God is not a man that should like – Numbers 23:19).
He has been 100 percent transparent and there are no other truths or reasons for a person to not be saved and enter heaven, other than what He said plainly, in that it is a matter of each person’s choice to obey or disobey the gospel.
Because we have seen Him and we understand with our minds that He is telling the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about who can be saved and go to Heaven, we are then drawn in to admire Him, love Him, and trust Him. And that admiration and love and trust is the wall that keeps us in our crisis of obedience to Him.
WHAT IF GOD MISLED AND LIED?
Consider this, what about if what God has said is not really accurate? What about if He has misled? What about if God said that the door was wide open for anyone to come to be saved, but that was misleading and not really true because He knew that the only ones who could come through the door of salvation are those who are on a “secret list” called the “Unconditionally Elected.”
What if God misled or lied about the door being open to anyone? Would this understanding with your mind cause your love and admiration for Him to be eroded? Would your trust, love and admiration for the Lord Jesus Christ continue if you found Him to be a liar?
What about even though He said that there was no limit as to who could be saved and receive the atonement…that that was misleading and not really true. What about if He knew all along as He was saying atonement was unlimited that the reality is that there is “Limited Atonement” only for those on that “secret list” of the “Unconditionally Elected?” What if God misled or lied about the atonement being unlimited? Would your love and admiration for Him be eroded?
What if God said that the list of who gets into Heaven is determined only by each person’s decision to obey the Gospel, but that that was misleading and not really true because in reality God alone just put a “secret list” together of the “Unconditionally Elected” to receive the “Limited Atonement” with no consideration of whether or not a person decided to come to Him or not?
What if God misled or lied over the only one responsible for the going to Hell or Heaven was the individual sinner? Would your love and admiration for Him be as strong?
What about if God said, “whosoever will”, but that was misleading and not really true because He knew that who is saved is not ultimately determined by what He said, but is determined by a special group of the “whosoever” which are the “whosoever is on the secret list” of the “Unconditionally Elected?” What if that is the case? What if God misled or lied over salvation being available to whosoever wills? Would your love and admiration for Him be eroded?
What about if the Lord Jesus Christ was pleading and weeping over all Jerusalem because they rejected His salvation, but He was misleading and not being truthful because His tears were
disingenuous because He really knew that they could not come to Him unless they were on the secret list of the “Unconditionally Elected.”
What if God misled or lied over His sadness about the decision of each lost person who ends in Hell? Why would He weep over the decision of the lost to disobey, when the lost could not decide to obey unless they are on the secret list? Would your love and admiration for Him be as strong?
What about if God has a limited secret injection called “Irresistible Grace?” What about if He said that going to Heaven was all up to the individual, and that all a person had to do was to repent and obey the Gospel, but that was misleading and not really true because He knew that everyone is so “Totally Depraved” that the only way anyone can come to the Lord Jesus to be saved is if they get that limited secret injection of “Irresistible Grace.”
What if a person was a puppet controlled by God with the puppet string of “Irresistible Grace?” What if a saved person did not have any free will at all, but was a puppet? What if God misled or lied over the sinner’s independent ability to repent and be saved? Would your love and admiration for Him be as strong?
What about if God said that man alone is responsible for going to Heaven or Hell, but that was misleading and not really true because He knew all along that only God controls who gets that limited amount of the secret injection called “Irresistible Grace.” What if God misled or lied over who is responsible for a destiny of Heaven or Hell? Would your love and admiration for Him be as strong?
What about if God only gives that limited injection to those who are on His “secret list”? What about if the Lord Jesus Christ said, “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish,” but He misled and did not really tell the truth because He really knew that unless they get that limited secret injection of “Irresistible Grace” that they will all perish? What if God misled or lied about how getting into Heaven was all about a person’s individual repentance? Would your love and admiration for Him be as strong?
What if God misled and lied about all those things? Would your love and admiration for Him be as strong?
What if your mother, father, and family members were in Hell now and in torment? What if, similar to how Abraham talked to a rich man in Hell, you could talk with them? What if they said to you that from the words of the Lord Jesus Christ they understood that they were personally and ultimately responsible for being in hell because they could have been saved by receiving Him, but they chose to reject him?
What if you told your parents and family that for the eternity of their sufferings that they should remember that they were misled and lied to because in reality they could not accept the invitation? Because they were “Totally Depraved,” and they could not have been saved because their name was not on the “secret list” of the “Unconditionally Elected.”
Furthermore, there was never any atonement available to them, because there was a “Limited Atonement,” and ultimately they were excluded from the start and because their name was not on the “secret list,” and they were not injected with the limited supply of the “Irresistible Grace” that they needed to be enabled to be saved. If you had to tell your family in Hell that they had been misled and lied to about being able to be saved and be in Heaven, would your love and admiration for the Lord Jesus Christ be as strong?
If all that was true (which it is not), could you admire, love, and trust a person like that? A person who misleads, and lies, and invites people to be saved when He knows that they can’t be saved? When you give the deep thought for your understanding to grasp those misleading ideas and lies, can you really love a person like that with all your mind?
That is the great deception that is sweeping through the church today and it is eroding in the people of God their admiration, love, and trust of God.
Whether you call it Fatalism (which it is) or Calvinism, it is to be repudiated. Why? Because it defames the character of our God by calling Him a misleader and a liar. If we believe that God misleads and lies over the issue of who can be saved, and how they are saved, then our admiration, love, and trust in God has been eroded. Defamation of God has always been the work of Satan, and trying to get people to believe that God is a misleader and a liar.
Once the Devil has succeeded to get us to believe this lie about God (as he did with Eve) then He has succeeded in breaking down our wall of love and trust of God. Next he’ll set us up to fail in our personal crisis of obedience.
There was a time when the disciples of the Lord were so excited to show the Lord the great buildings of the Temple. They had taken decades to construct them, and they were so beautiful. The disciples wanted to show the Lord the buildings so they could admire them together.
Matthew 24:1-4 “And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.”
The Lord rained on the disciple’s parade by telling them that all the buildings would be totally destroyed and not one stone would be left on another. In shock, the disciples understood that He was talking to them about the end, so they came to Him privately with two questions. When would these things happen, and how can they know the sign when He is coming? The Lord seemed to give them a frustrating answer that left them saying, “Why can’t He ever give us a straight answer?” But, He did answer it when He said, “Take heed that no man deceive you.” He warned them that Satan with all his deceivableness of unrighteousness would in the last days come with such a strong deception that it will threaten you.
Satan’s deception will come to you like a great light that goes on inside you, and you will be so happy to have discovered this “new truth” in the Scriptures, but it will be a deception. This false truth will deceive man, and will sweep through the church. It will be a deception that will erode the love for God, because it will defame His character and make people turn away from God.
If some do or don’t speak in tongues, or if some do or don’t roll on the floor and laugh hysterically, that practice does not in any way defame the character of God. If some do and some don’t believe you should worship on Saturday or Sunday, that does not in any way defame the character of God. But, to believe the fatalistic doctrines behind the “secret list” of the “Unconditionally Elected” and the “secret injection” of “Irresistible Grace,” “Limited Atonement,” and the “Total Depravity” of Man, in the face of all that the Lord Jesus Christ has said, that is to believe that He has misled and lied. That is why those fatalistic doctrines must be thrown down in order to maintain our admiration and love to the one who is described as:
Isaiah 53:9b – “…neither was any deceit in his mouth.”
John 8:45a – “tell you the truth…”
John 16:7 – “tell you the truth…”
We may not understand every verse in the Bible about election and predestination, but we are sharp enough to understand that when any new doctrine erodes our admiration, love and trust in God that it has to be rejected. All throughout the Bible we are commanded to love God with all of our heart, soul, and mind, and to put our trust in Him. In order for us to trust a person we must never see that person misleading or lying to anyone. If we see a person that we love misleading or lying to another, we may still love him (though not as much), but we will not trust him because we will naturally be suspicious that he might mislead or lie to us.
GOD HAS PROMISED THAT HE WILL
NEVER MISLEAD OR LIE
Numbers 23:19a – “God is not a man, that he should lie;”
Isaiah 53:9a – “Neither was any deceit in his mouth”
John 8:45a – “I tell you the truth…”
As we have seen, the Lord Jesus Christ as God stated the following:
- If anyone repents, they will not perish.
- If anyone believeson Him, he will have eternal life and not perish.
- If anyone calls on the name of the Lord, he will be saved.
- If anyone obeys the gospel, he will have eternal life.
If these promises have a hidden clause of “provided that the person is on the secret list of the “Unconditional Elect” and that the person then gets the secret injection of “Irresistible Grace,” then these promises cannot be trusted by anyone who wants to be saved.
But, these promises of God can be trusted because they have no hidden clauses and the Bible says that if anyone trusts the Lord Jesus Christ, they will be saved and blessed.
Psalm 2:12 – “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.”
We need to see the Lord Jesus Christ as God, a Savior who would never mislead or lie to anyone, and we need to see Him clearly offering salvation freely to everyone, and that eternal judgment is based on a person refusing that salvation. Therefore, because they would make God’s statements not trustworthy, we reject these false doctrines of: Total Depravity of Man, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, and Irresistible Grace.
WHAT ABOUT JUDAS?
Consider the decision that Judas made to betray the Lord. Let’s say that Fatalistic Calvinism is correct and that Judas was predestined and foreordained before the foundation of the world to make his decision to betray the Lord. Because of fatalism let’s say that Judas had no free will to make his decision, but that he was predestined to betray the Lord.
This makes no sense as we can see that the Lord Jesus Christ called Judas, his friend.
Matthew 26:49-50 – “And forthwith he came to Jesus, and said, Hail, master; and kissed him. And Jesus said unto him, Friend, wherefore art thou come? Then came they, and laid hands on Jesus, and took him.”
But, the same night in which He called Judas his friend, the Lord said that because of the judgment of the eternal suffering that Judas would have in Hell, that it would have been better for Judas to not have been born.
Matthew 26:24 – “The Son of man goeth as it is written of him: but woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! it had been good for that man if he had not been born.”
Speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ the Bible explains in John 1:1, 3:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made.”
Question: Who controlled that Judas was born?
Answer: The Lord Jesus Christ.
Question: Who made the ultimate decision to commit the crime that had such a horrible judgment that it would have been better for Judas (whom the Lord called his friend) not to have been born?
Fatalism Answer: The Lord made the ultimate decision for Judas to commit the crime that had such a horrible judgment that it would have been better for Judas not to have been born.
Free Will Answer: Judas made the ultimate decision to commit the crime and he bore all the responsibility for his decision because he did not have to make that decision. Therefore, Judas was ultimately responsible for what he received, and the horrible judgment that was so bad that it would have been better for Judas not to have been born.
If the fatalism answer is correct, then the Lord is to be blamed and defamed since He caused Judas to be born, called him his friend, and made the ultimate decision for his friend to commit the crime that caused him to receive the judgment of such eternal suffering that it would have better for him to not have been born.
How can Jesus be a friend to Judas if He caused Judas to be born and then forced Judas to do a crime with the penalty so bad that it would have been better for Judas to not have been born?
This fatalistic picture portrays God as a very bad person who causes his friends to be both born and make decisions that cause them to receive such horrible eternal judgments that make it better to not have been born.
What kind of a righteous God is that?
What kind of a friend is that?
God is not the Person that is painted by Fatalistic Calvinism who defames His free will, saving Gospel message.
If Fatalistic Calvinism had this message why don’t they have a Calvinist Road or Fatalist Road tract? Could you honestly give the a fatalism gospel tract invitation to a lost person?