Cheryl Schatz

Mark you said:

Also he did make clear in Matt 25:31ff that the goats would go to hell but the sheep to eternal glory which was prepared “for you since the creation of the world” (34).

But don’t you see what you are missing? God prepared eternal glory for us “from the creation of the world” because that is His desire for the ones who bear His image. But do you see anyplace that says that those who go to hell are going to a place “prepared for them from the foundation of the world”? Why doesn’t God say this? It is because hell was not prepared for those who are God’s image bearers. It was prepared for the devil and his angels. If you would have not just been looking for a proof text for the elect, you should have seen this. Look again:

Matthew 25:41 (NASB)
41 “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels;

If God has predestined most to unconditionally go to hell, then why is there not even one Scripture that says that hell was also prepared for them?

Jesus did use limited language – many, sheep and goats, sinners and righteous, healthy and sick.

This is not limited language as if Jesus is limiting those who can be His sheep because He only died for them. This is the language of those who will submit to God and receive eternal life and those who refuse to submit.

Romans 10:3 (NASB)
3 For not knowing about God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God.

Don’t you see the difference yet? The goats are goats not because God predestined them to go to hell, but because they refuse to submit themselves to the righteousness of God.

Jesus whole ministry was exclusive and limited. He came for his sheep and for their salvation.

Jesus did come for the sheep, but the problem with Calvinism is that it says that Jesus came only for His sheep. But the Bible never adds the term “only”. In fact in Jesus’ own examples He said that the ones that the kingdom was prepared for would be cast out and those who had not been invited first were to be compelled to come in.

Luke 14:23–24 (NASB)
23 “And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled.
24 ‘For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste of my dinner.’ ”

The ones for whom the kingdom had been prepared would be cast out into outer darkness.

Matthew 8:12 (NASB)
12 but the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Matthew 21:43 (NASB)
43 “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people, producing the fruit of it.

If the kingdom of God had been prepared for people who rejected it and ended up in hell, then how can we say that God unconditionally predestined them to go to hell? How on earth can we reconcile that hell was not prepared for them but heaven was, yet they went to hell? It doesn’t sound like God has prepared hell to receive a people who are made in His image but whom He has rejected unconditionally so that His image was always meant to be found in hell? There are more and more inconsistencies to this Calvinist position then I could even reconcile in a million years.

More to come….