(091) – IT IS NOT THE WILL OF GOD THE FATHER TO CONDEMN

 

“And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day” (John 6:39). The apostle Paul reveals even more about the will of the Father, saying, “This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim.2:3-4).

If God the Father wants all to be saved, he does not condemn anyone, for to condemn and to kill is to take away the chances of repentance and salvation. Peter also said: “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Pet.3:9). The apostle John makes a surprising revelation: “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world; but that the world should be saved through Him” (John 3:17).

Now, if God wants all men to be saved and has sent his Son to save the ones who were condemned, to avoid condemning them, it is obvious that he has never condemned anyone, for Jesus declared in John 10:30: “I and the Father are one”. Paul says that condemnation comes from the devil (1 Tim 3:6). How could God, our Father, kill as the devil kills and destroy as the devil destroys? James says, “Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation, or shifting shadow” (James 1:17).

Condemnation comes from the Old Testament by the will of Jehovah, the god of the law. Jehovah condemned all men to death because of the sin of Adam. We read this in Rom.5:12. After 1,656 years went by, he destroyed, or killed, all humanity in the universal flood (Gen.6:7). In the New Testament, in Heb.11:7, we read that Noah condemned the people who lived before the flood, but it was Jehovah who did it, not Noah. Solomon declared that Jehovah condemns the unrighteous by saving the righteous (1 Kings 8:32). Jesus declares that he did not come to save the righteous, but sinners, to repentance (Matt.9:13). The acts and the work of Jesus are contrary to the work of Jehovah, but they are the same as those of God the Father, so, Jehovah is not the Father of Jesus, but an usurper. The Father does not condemn anyone. “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world; but that the world should be saved through Him” (John 3:17).

The law of Jehovah condemned and killed, only (John 7:51). The priests of the law had a breastplate of judgment on their breasts, and condemned the sinner (Deut.25:1; Ex.28:30). The priests of Jehovah killed the righteous Jesus Christ (Matt.27:20). The apostle Paul calls the Old Testament ministry “the ministry of condemnation” (2 Cor.3:9). Paul reveals in this text that the ministry of condemnation came in glory. This is a strange statement. The explanation comes from the very Jehovah, which hardened the heart of Pharaoh and of his army to go into the sea after Israel, and in this way killed them, to reveal his glory (Ex.14:4, 17; 15:3-6). This is incredible, but the glory of Jesus was to save from death, and the glory of Jehovah was to kill.

The truth is that God the Father wants all to be saved, as we have previously said (1 Tim.2:3-4). Jehovah, though, does not want anyone to be saved. We will prove this truth by the Bible. Jehovah did not want the salvation of the Egyptians, so much so that he hardened their hearts to distrust Moses. “And Jehovah said to Moses, ‘When you go back to Egypt see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have put in your power; BUT I WILL HARDEN HIS HEART SO THAT HE WILL NOT LET THE PEOPLE GO” (Ex.4:21).

If Pharaoh believed in Moses, he would also belong to Jehovah: he and the Egyptians with him; but Jehovah did not want the conversion of Pharaoh, neither did he want his salvation, contrary to the Father, who wants all men to be saved. Pharaoh’s heart softened many times in face of the terrible plagues, but Jehovah continued to harden it. This is a lack of love for the souls of lost men. Jehovah hardened Pharaoh’s heart seven times (Ex.10:1, 20, 27; 11:10; 14:4, 8, 17). Jehovah, in his last plague, killed every first-born of Egypt. It is obvious that there were many first-born children, but Jehovah did not have pity. Whoever kills a child, robs it the option to life, and takes from it the opportunity to salvation. Jehovah’s method was to kill the children, that is, to condemn them before they had enough understanding to seek God. “Prepare for the sons a place of slaughter because of the iniquity of their fathers” (Is.14:21). Jehovah declared that he did not have pity (Jer.13:14; Ezek.8:18).

Jehovah did not want the salvation of the Canaanites, for he hardened their hearts, killing them afterwards. “But Sihon king of Heshbon was not willing for us to pass through his land; for Jehovah your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate” (Deut.2:30). Plus, the order of Jehovah was to kill, plunder and destroy. Men, women and children were murdered (Deut.2:33-35). When Joshua was going to introduce Israel in Canaan, we read the following: “There was not a city which made peace with the sons of Israel except the Hivites living in Gibeon; they took them all in battle. For it was of Jehovah to harden their hearts, to meet Israel in battle in order that he might utterly destroy them, that they might receive no mercy, but that he might destroy them, just as Jehovah had commanded Moses” (Josh.11:19-20). The condemnation of the Egyptians and of the Canaanites did not come of their sins, but of the lack of compassion of Jehovah.

Jehovah did not want the salvation of the Chaldeans. He used Nebuchadnezzar and placed him as king over the nations, and after that he destroyed the Chaldeans through the Medes. We read about this in Jer.27:5-8. An interesting thing is that Nebuchadnezzar was a servant of Jehovah and was pleasing in his eyes. After that Jehovah completely destroyed the people of Babylon (Is.13:13-22). Children and pregnant women were slaughtered. Jehovah did not want to save anyone. He was an enemy to the Assyrians (2 Kings 11:25-27); enemy to the Moabites (Jer.48:15); enemy to the Ammonites (Jer.49:2); enemy to the Edomites (Jer. 49:10); enemy to Damascus (Jer. 49:24-27) and enemy to Elam (Jer.49:36-38). This text tells how Jehovah set his throne in Elam with the purpose of destroying. Jehovah was an enemy to the inhabitants of Tyre (Ezek.26:2-4); He was an enemy to Sidon (Ezek.28:21-23); He was an enemy to Mount Seir, where the descendants of Esau, the brother of Jacob, lived (Ezek.35:2-4).

Unbelievable as it may seem, Jehovah was an enemy to his own people. Jeremiah declares that: “Jehovah has swallowed up; He has not spared all the inhabitants of Jacob…He has profaned the kingdom and its princes” (Lam.2:2). “He has bent His bow like an enemy, He has set His right hand like an adversary and slain all that were pleasant to the eye…Jehovah has become like an enemy. He has swallowed up Israel” (Lam. 2:4-5). Jehovah swore in his wrath that they would not enter into his rest (Ps.95:8-11).

The Father, however, wants everyone to be saved (1 Tim.2:3-4). For this purpose he sent his Son, not to condemn the world, but to save the world (John 3:17). He reconciled everyone through the cross of Christ, in heaven and on the earth, proving therefore, that he does not condemn anyone (2 Cor.5:19; Col.1:20-21). The Father wants that all men may be saved, but Jehovah wants that all men may be condemned.

 

By Pastor Olavo Silveira Pereira

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