Expert: Thurman C. Petty, Jr. - 10/23/2008

Question
Hi Mr. Petty.  
I've read some of your responses to other people's questions and I had something for you to ponder and get back to me on.  
You talk a lot about our free will and it is up to us to believe and be saved.  You have said it is up to our free will to believe.  Do you really really believe it is left up to our free will to be saved?  Now I will qualify what I said to say that I believe.  But, I don't believe that God began his plan in me from the day that I began believing.  In other words, I don't believe that it was up to me to be saved.  God does the saving.  It is Him that draws us.  I have found over 100 verses in the Bible that says all will be saved.  Now, before you knee jerk and come back and tell me this isn't the case, let me give you a story.
If a man purchased a flock of sheep from another man, he signed the contract, he paid for the sheep in full, and therefore the sheep now belong to him.  But, the man he bought the sheep from says, "however, you must stand on the other side of the gate and call to the sheep.  Those sheep that come to you on their free will, well, you can have, but those sheep that do not respond to your voice and do not come through the gate, well, I'm sorry, you can't have those sheep."  Now, we know that would be just obsurd.  The man would tell the seller, "I paid in full for those sheep, and if I have to go in there and pull and drag them out one by one, then that is what I am going to do."  "I paid in full for those sheep and the sheep are mine." End of story.

Well, Jesus did buy the entire field so that he could save all didn't he? (Mat 13: 44)

I just think that the religious system out there today is much like the pharasees of the time Jesus walked the earth.  It seems like the people of God are being disqualified instead of lifted up in their most holy faith.  They are told to believe, but then they are told to jump through hoops.  "You've got to believe, and then you've got to confess, and then you've got to...etc. etc."  There's too many "got to's", if you get my drift.  There's too much to get into on this topic, but I wish people could see that His Will supercedes our will.  If His will be that we all be saved, then who are we to say otherwise?  We just step into his will and He works His life out of us.  Jesus always said it was not I but my Father's will be done.  We give too much credit to ourselves and us getting saved.  How arrogant it is of us to think we can save ourselves by believing.  We need to come to reality that God is doing the saving and not us.  Plus, I believe that we are saved, being saved, and shall be saved.  It's an ongoing process, if you will, to remove the darkness and let his light shine in those places of our lives.  We are "all" like sheep, and have gone astray, but Jesus is the one doing the pulling and the dragging of our hearts back to him, and I believe he won't stop until he has every last sheep.  Don't you???

Answer
Dear Josh,

Thank you for reading my answers to other’s questions, and for sending me one of your own. I find you proposition interesting, but it doesn’t line up with the message of the Bible. There is a heaven to win, and there is a hell from which to escape. And it’s up to us to choose which we will accept. Hear me out.

People are not sheep, and even though Christ is the Good Shepherd, and even though there are many similarities between us and sheep, Jesus does not treat us entirely like a shepherd would treat his sheep. So lets move away from the sheep model for a moment.

God/Jesus created us in the beginning to be his sons/daughters. He evidently gave us free will, because Eve, then Adam, made a wrong choice (using their free will) which has led to all the evil in our world today, including our own carnal nature. If they did not have free will, they never would have sinned in the first place.

God did not make us puppets who could not choose to do wrong. And God did not create His beautiful world to be peopled by degenerate sinners. Take a look at these texts:

Rev 22:17  And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And WHOSOEVER WILL, let him take the water of life freely.

The water of life is free for all to drink. But only those who will—choose to—drink of it will quench their spiritual thirst.

Matthew 11:28-30 (KJV) 28 Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Why would Jesus call us to come to Him if we had no choice? He never said: “I’m going to save you whether you like it or not.”

John 3:16 (KJV) 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.

Only those who believe—which involves choice—will have everlasting life. All the rest will perish.

Joh 12:32  And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all [men] unto me.

Jesus died to save everybody. That’s a Biblical fact. He didn’t want any to be left out of His kingdom. He loved Hitler just as much as he loved His mother Mary. But they made different choices: Mary chose to believe in her Son and be saved; Hitler chose to believe in himself, and will be lost. (There’s not even the slightest evidence that he repented before he committed suicide. So, according to John 3:16, et.al. he will perish.)

Just because God loves all people, doesn’t mean all people love Him. Just because Jesus died to save all people, doesn’t mean that all people want to be saved.

A thief would be miserable in the New Jerusalem, because he wouldn’t be allowed to chisel up the gold streets and store it in his flat. An adulterer would be very unhappy because he wouldn’t be allowed to chase women in heaven. A murderer would be lost in a place where he couldn’t kill people. A liar would never get along where everyone always told only the truth.

You see, God made paradise for people who want to be there, people who will be happy there, people who will fit in with the culture of heaven. If someone chooses to live a life that would not fit into the perfect harmony of heaven, why would God choose to torture them for all eternity by forcing them to live in a place where they would be miserable?

You might think that God should save everyone because God would never allow people to burn in hell for all eternity. But, of course, He will not do that, for the Bible says that the lake of fire produces the second death. And what is death?

Eccl. 9:5  For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.
Eccl. 9:6  Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any [thing] that is done under the sun.

People who are dead do not know anything. Jesus called it a sleep:

John 11:11  These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.
John 11:12  Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well.
John 11:13  Howbeit Jesus spake of his death: but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep.
John 11:14  Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead.

So when good people die, they are asleep until the resurrection. Then that also means that those who die in the lake of fire—the second death—do not know anything after they die. They sleep for all eternity.

Perhaps one of my favorite texts involves the choice we must make between choosing to serve God or siding with the evil one in his rebellion:

Joshua 24:15  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 [the Euphrates River], or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but AS FOR ME AND MY HOUSE, WE WILL SERVE THE LORD.

Thank you again for your question. I invite you to visit my website www.PettyPress.com where I’ve posted 20 books, 40 Bible study guides, and much more. The last two books in the index have sold millions of copies and are, what I would call “MUST READ” books.

Always be ready for Jesus to come.

Thurman C. Petty, Jr.
Thurman@PettyPress.com