Thursday, September 29, 2011
God's Freedom
Adam was not given a
"choice", He could not "forbid" the existence of each tree, the
serpent, the devil, the consequence, the Eve; If Adam had a "choice" he
could have told God I want to be an elect angel instead of a human, and
I don't want there to be any such trees in existence, and like you I
don't want to even need food, nor make any such serpents, nor make an
angels that will fall, namely Satan, nor allow serpents to be possessed
by Satan, nor make Eve to confuse the situation by her attention to the
serpent's lie; None of the elect angels were placed in this providence,
but Adam was and he was not given a choice about that providence. God
made Adam upright, but He did not make him immutable, and Adam did not
have a choice about being made mutable. Just as Joseph's brother's
meant it for evil, but God for good. God had redemption and His glory
in view during the Fall, and His motive pure and Holy, whereas Adam's
motive during the Fall, was rebellious, impure, and evil. God was free
to make fruit that God could eat if He wanted to and forbid Adam if He
wanted to, God is free to set a command and "choice" for Adam, that God
himself is not required to follow. A police officer can drive 90 mph
due to his office and yet I not be given that same freedom. The officer
is granted choices, that the citizen is not given. God is a law unto
Himself, He is not under some external law whereby men vainly attempt to
judge him.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
2 Peter 3:9, tinas
A Careful Examination of 2 Peter 3:9 by Nick Migliacci.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Many people misunderstand 2 Peter 3:9 because they believe the word “any” refers to “every single person on planet earth.” A popular English translation of 2 Peter 3:9 is as follows:
“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”
The Greek word behind the word “any” is “tinas,” which is simply a pronoun. It is a particular form of the root word, “tis.” The word “tis” has ten different forms in the Greek language (based on different combinations of case, number, gender, etc.), each one being spelled slightly differently, of course. The New Testament has need for only five of those forms. In 2 Peter 3:9, this pronoun actually appears twice: 1) as the direct object in the phrase “any perish” (spelled “tinas”), and 2) as the subject in the phrase “some count” (spelled “tines”). That’s right, “some” and “any” in 2 Peter 3:9 are two different English words attempting to translate one and the same Greek pronoun, “tis” (simply spelled differently due to the former being nominative and the latter being accusative). But while the pronoun is spelled differently, it has the same definition in both cases. It means “some,” or “certain ones.” So a more careful translation that helps the English reader see at a glance that 2 Peter 3:9 repeats the same pronoun, would be:
“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that some should perish but that all should come to repentance.”
(The word “some” could be substituted by the phrase “certain ones” just as well.) There is no good reason to use differing English words to translate the same Greek word in the same immediate context. Peter deliberately used the same Greek word twice, and it behooves the translator, whenever feasible, to pass along such features of an original work into the translation. (For this very reason, it is unfortunate that many modern translations of 2 Timothy 4:2-3 fail to pass along to the English reader the fact that Paul uses the same word, “doctrine,” twice: once at the end of verse 2, and once at the beginning of verse 3. What Paul was telling Timothy to do was to feed his congregation the very thing that they would soon spit out! “Give ‘em doctrine, because soon they won’t take your doctrine!” That important relationship, however, is lost in modern translations which use differing English words to translate one and the same Greek word in those two verses.) So here, Peter deliberately used the same Greek pronoun twice in 2 Peter 3:9, and unless there is some enormous reason to do otherwise (which there is none), we ought to use the same English word in both cases.
Now if “tinas” is a pronoun in the phrase “some perish,” then what’s the noun? The noun is unwritten. In the Greek language, this legitimate literary device is called an ellipsis. It occurs when the writer purposefully omits certain words (to save papyrus, quills and candles), with the unspoken intention for the reader to naturally supply the missing words. Let me give some examples of ellipses in the New Testament.
John
14:6 – “Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life….”
Here, the reader is supposed to understand Jesus saying, “I am the way, I
am the truth, and I am the life.”
Matthew 22:37 –
“Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your
heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’” Here, the reader
is supposed to understand Jesus saying, “You shall love the Lord your
God with all your heart, and you shall love the Lord your God with all
your soul, and You shall love the Lord your God with all your mind.’”
Romans
8:5 – “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on
the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the
things of the Spirit.” Here, the reader is supposed to supply the
missing words “set their mind” before the ending phrase, “the things of
the Spirit.”
Philippians 3:10 – “that I may know Him and
the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings,
being conformed to His death.” Here, the reader is supposed to supply
the missing words “that I may know” like this: “that I may know Him,
and that I may know the power of His resurrection, and that I may know
the fellowship of His sufferings….”
1 Thessalonians 5:9 –
“For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through
our Lord Jesus Christ.” Here, the reader is supposed to supply the
phrase “God did appoint us” like this: “For God did not appoint us to
wrath, but God did appoint us to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus
Christ.”
As you can see, the ellipsis is a very natural, fluid occurrence in the New Testament. It’s nothing to become alarmed about, until, it seems, we’re discussing 2 Peter 3:9! Here, people let their theologies overrule the grammatical force of the verse, which is quite unfortunate. So the question on the table is, What is the unwritten noun in the phrase “any [noun] perish?” What does “any” refer to? Does it refer to trees? To demons? There’s no need to guess. In fact, the reader does not have the liberty to insert just any thing he so desires. If you were paying close attention to the previous examples, you’ll see that we supplied the last phrase mentioned prior to the omitted phrase. So let’s look at 2 Peter 3:9 again to find the missing word(s) which we are supposed to supply after the word “any”:
“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”
Grammatically, we are required to supply the word “us” after the pronoun “any.” Thus, to spell it all out, 2 Peter 3:9 looks like this:
“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any [of us] should perish but that all should come to repentance.”
So the first thing we see is that “any” does not refer to every single person in the whole, wide world! In fact, the pronoun “tis,” occurring in its various forms 418 times in the New Testament, never refers to every single person in the whole, wide world. Instead of listing all 418 occurrences of this pronoun, I will list all 25 occurrences where “tinas,” that form of “tis” behind the word “any” in 2 Peter 3:9, occurs, to show that it never refers to every single person in the whole, wide world.
Now this sparks another question about 2 Peter 3:9. If the Lord is longsuffering toward us, and is not willing that any of us perish, to whom is the “us” referring? Again, the reader does not have the liberty to fabricate any answer he pleases. The “us” of 2 Peter 3:9, is sandwiched between, and refers to, the endearing word “beloved” appearing in the previous verse (v. 8) and in verse 17. It is a repeat of the word “beloved” in 2 Peter 3:1 where Peter writes, “Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle….” (See also 1 Pet. 2:11; 4:12.) The “beloved” is not a reference to every single person in the whole, wide world. No, it’s much more selective than that. The “beloved” whom Peter is addressing are, according to the opening verses of 1 Peter, the “elect of God,” and according to the opening verse of 2 Peter, “those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.” In other words, in 2 Peter 3, Peter is addressing the scorn that the “beloved” are enduring, namely, “that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation’” (2 Pet. 3:3-4). Peter’s response to this is to remind the “beloved” that the reason the Lord has not returned yet is not because He has neglected His promise, but because there are others who still need to come to repentance before He can return. These “others” are among the elect of God, and Peter refers to them as “us” since, though currently unrepentant, they are nonetheless among God’s elect. Once the last of these elect persons comes to repentance, then the Lord will return. (Perhaps a day or two after…we aren’t told exactly.)
One important fact that needs to be stated is that the “promise” in 2 Peter 3 is NOT a promise to save everybody in the whole world! That is “universalism,” and it is unbiblical. God never promised to save every single human being. Often, however, people make a mental connection between two things that they imagine Peter to have said: 1), they imagine Peter said that God has promised to save every single person, and 2), they imagine Peter said that God is not willing that any single human being perish. But Peter taught neither of those notions. The “promise” of 2 Peter 3 is the promise of the Lord’s return, and the reason that He hasn’t yet returned, said Peter, is because He’s not willing that any of us perish, but that all of us should come to repentance. The first person plural “us” is the polite way of including himself among those who haven’t yet come to repentance. (See “Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics: An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament” By Daniel B. Wallace, pages 394ff, for a thorough treatment of the scope of “we” in the New Testament.)
It is interesting to note that, if the popular idea of God not-wanting-any-single-human-being-on-the-planet-to-perish were true, then according to Peter’s own teaching, the Lord would not come back to earth so long as there remained even a single person on the earth who was unrepentant. And yet the Bible tells us that not all will be saved, hence, we know the Lord will return while there remains unrepentant people on the earth. Why doesn’t God wait for them to repent before sending His Son? Because there’s no verse in the Bible that teaches that. What we can be certain of, however, is that the Lord will not come back before all the elect repent. We can be sure of that because that’s what 2 Peter 3:9 teaches.
Some people dismiss this teaching because they suppose it is common knowledge that God wants His elect to come to repentance, and they feel like a verse in the Bible would not be so elementary. But even if it is common knowledge, it is still no reason to dismiss what Peter, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, intended to communicate. Not surprisingly, this same truth is taught elsewhere in Scripture, namely, John 6:39 – “This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.” Evidently, the Spirit of God wanted to communicate the same “elementary” truth at least twice.
If you think about it, it’s not only the scoffers who deny that the Lord will return. There is another group of people who, when pressed to take their theology to its logical end, would also have to deny that the Lord will return. This latter class of people are those who believe the Lord is waiting for every single human on the earth to repent. If that is really what the Lord is waiting for, then the scoffers will be right and He’ll never come back!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
For similar treatments of 2 Peter 3:9, I recommend the following audio and video files:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Many people misunderstand 2 Peter 3:9 because they believe the word “any” refers to “every single person on planet earth.” A popular English translation of 2 Peter 3:9 is as follows:
“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”
The Greek word behind the word “any” is “tinas,” which is simply a pronoun. It is a particular form of the root word, “tis.” The word “tis” has ten different forms in the Greek language (based on different combinations of case, number, gender, etc.), each one being spelled slightly differently, of course. The New Testament has need for only five of those forms. In 2 Peter 3:9, this pronoun actually appears twice: 1) as the direct object in the phrase “any perish” (spelled “tinas”), and 2) as the subject in the phrase “some count” (spelled “tines”). That’s right, “some” and “any” in 2 Peter 3:9 are two different English words attempting to translate one and the same Greek pronoun, “tis” (simply spelled differently due to the former being nominative and the latter being accusative). But while the pronoun is spelled differently, it has the same definition in both cases. It means “some,” or “certain ones.” So a more careful translation that helps the English reader see at a glance that 2 Peter 3:9 repeats the same pronoun, would be:
“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that some should perish but that all should come to repentance.”
(The word “some” could be substituted by the phrase “certain ones” just as well.) There is no good reason to use differing English words to translate the same Greek word in the same immediate context. Peter deliberately used the same Greek word twice, and it behooves the translator, whenever feasible, to pass along such features of an original work into the translation. (For this very reason, it is unfortunate that many modern translations of 2 Timothy 4:2-3 fail to pass along to the English reader the fact that Paul uses the same word, “doctrine,” twice: once at the end of verse 2, and once at the beginning of verse 3. What Paul was telling Timothy to do was to feed his congregation the very thing that they would soon spit out! “Give ‘em doctrine, because soon they won’t take your doctrine!” That important relationship, however, is lost in modern translations which use differing English words to translate one and the same Greek word in those two verses.) So here, Peter deliberately used the same Greek pronoun twice in 2 Peter 3:9, and unless there is some enormous reason to do otherwise (which there is none), we ought to use the same English word in both cases.
Now if “tinas” is a pronoun in the phrase “some perish,” then what’s the noun? The noun is unwritten. In the Greek language, this legitimate literary device is called an ellipsis. It occurs when the writer purposefully omits certain words (to save papyrus, quills and candles), with the unspoken intention for the reader to naturally supply the missing words. Let me give some examples of ellipses in the New Testament.
As you can see, the ellipsis is a very natural, fluid occurrence in the New Testament. It’s nothing to become alarmed about, until, it seems, we’re discussing 2 Peter 3:9! Here, people let their theologies overrule the grammatical force of the verse, which is quite unfortunate. So the question on the table is, What is the unwritten noun in the phrase “any [noun] perish?” What does “any” refer to? Does it refer to trees? To demons? There’s no need to guess. In fact, the reader does not have the liberty to insert just any thing he so desires. If you were paying close attention to the previous examples, you’ll see that we supplied the last phrase mentioned prior to the omitted phrase. So let’s look at 2 Peter 3:9 again to find the missing word(s) which we are supposed to supply after the word “any”:
“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”
Grammatically, we are required to supply the word “us” after the pronoun “any.” Thus, to spell it all out, 2 Peter 3:9 looks like this:
“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any [of us] should perish but that all should come to repentance.”
So the first thing we see is that “any” does not refer to every single person in the whole, wide world! In fact, the pronoun “tis,” occurring in its various forms 418 times in the New Testament, never refers to every single person in the whole, wide world. Instead of listing all 418 occurrences of this pronoun, I will list all 25 occurrences where “tinas,” that form of “tis” behind the word “any” in 2 Peter 3:9, occurs, to show that it never refers to every single person in the whole, wide world.
- Mk. 7:2 – Now when they saw some of His disciples eat bread with defiled, that is, with unwashed hands, they found fault.
- Mk. 12:13 – Then they sent to Him some of the Pharisees and the Herodians, to catch Him in His words.
- Lk. 7:19 – And John, calling some, that is, two of his disciples to him, sent them to Jesus, saying, "Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?"
- Lk. 18:9 – Also He spoke this parable to certain ones who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:
- Acts 9:2 – and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.
- Acts 9:19 – So when he had received food, he was strengthened. Then Saul spent some days with the disciples at Damascus.
- Acts 10:48 – And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then they asked him to stay for some days.
- Acts 12:1 – Now about that time Herod the king stretched out his hand to harass some from the church.
- Acts 15:2 – Therefore, when Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and dispute with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain others of them should go up to Jerusalem, to the apostles and elders, about this question.
- Acts 15:36 – Then after some days Paul said to Barnabas, "Let us now go back and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord, and see how they are doing."
- Acts 16:12 – and from there to Philippi, which is the foremost city of that part of Macedonia, a colony. And we were staying in that city for some days.
- Acts 17:5 – But the Jews who were not persuaded, becoming envious, took some of the evil men from the marketplace, and gathering a mob, set all the city in an uproar and attacked the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people.
- Acts 17:6 – But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, "These who have turned the world upside down have come here too.
- Acts 19:1 – And it happened, while Apollos was at Corinth, that Paul, having passed through the upper regions, came to Ephesus. And finding some disciples
- Acts 23:23 – And he called for some, that is, two centurions, saying, "Prepare two hundred soldiers, seventy horsemen, and two hundred spearmen to go to Caesarea at the third hour of the night;
- Acts 24:24 – And after some days, when Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was Jewish, he sent for Paul and heard him concerning the faith in Christ.
- Acts 27:1 – And when it was decided that we should sail to Italy, they delivered Paul and some other prisoners to one named Julius, a centurion of the Augustan Regiment.
- Rom. 11:14 – if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them.
- 1 Cor. 9:22 – to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.
- 2 Cor. 10:2 – But I beg you that when I am present I may not be bold with that confidence by which I intend to be bold against certain ones, who think of us as if we walked according to the flesh.
- Gal. 2:12 – for before certain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision.
- 1 Thess. 4:2 – for you know certain commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus.
- 2 Thess. 3:11 – For we hear that there are some who walk among you in a disorderly manner, not working at all, but are busybodies.
- Heb. 4:6 – Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience,
- 2 Pet. 3:9 – The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that some should perish but that all should come to repentance.
Now this sparks another question about 2 Peter 3:9. If the Lord is longsuffering toward us, and is not willing that any of us perish, to whom is the “us” referring? Again, the reader does not have the liberty to fabricate any answer he pleases. The “us” of 2 Peter 3:9, is sandwiched between, and refers to, the endearing word “beloved” appearing in the previous verse (v. 8) and in verse 17. It is a repeat of the word “beloved” in 2 Peter 3:1 where Peter writes, “Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle….” (See also 1 Pet. 2:11; 4:12.) The “beloved” is not a reference to every single person in the whole, wide world. No, it’s much more selective than that. The “beloved” whom Peter is addressing are, according to the opening verses of 1 Peter, the “elect of God,” and according to the opening verse of 2 Peter, “those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.” In other words, in 2 Peter 3, Peter is addressing the scorn that the “beloved” are enduring, namely, “that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation’” (2 Pet. 3:3-4). Peter’s response to this is to remind the “beloved” that the reason the Lord has not returned yet is not because He has neglected His promise, but because there are others who still need to come to repentance before He can return. These “others” are among the elect of God, and Peter refers to them as “us” since, though currently unrepentant, they are nonetheless among God’s elect. Once the last of these elect persons comes to repentance, then the Lord will return. (Perhaps a day or two after…we aren’t told exactly.)
One important fact that needs to be stated is that the “promise” in 2 Peter 3 is NOT a promise to save everybody in the whole world! That is “universalism,” and it is unbiblical. God never promised to save every single human being. Often, however, people make a mental connection between two things that they imagine Peter to have said: 1), they imagine Peter said that God has promised to save every single person, and 2), they imagine Peter said that God is not willing that any single human being perish. But Peter taught neither of those notions. The “promise” of 2 Peter 3 is the promise of the Lord’s return, and the reason that He hasn’t yet returned, said Peter, is because He’s not willing that any of us perish, but that all of us should come to repentance. The first person plural “us” is the polite way of including himself among those who haven’t yet come to repentance. (See “Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics: An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament” By Daniel B. Wallace, pages 394ff, for a thorough treatment of the scope of “we” in the New Testament.)
It is interesting to note that, if the popular idea of God not-wanting-any-single-human-being-on-the-planet-to-perish were true, then according to Peter’s own teaching, the Lord would not come back to earth so long as there remained even a single person on the earth who was unrepentant. And yet the Bible tells us that not all will be saved, hence, we know the Lord will return while there remains unrepentant people on the earth. Why doesn’t God wait for them to repent before sending His Son? Because there’s no verse in the Bible that teaches that. What we can be certain of, however, is that the Lord will not come back before all the elect repent. We can be sure of that because that’s what 2 Peter 3:9 teaches.
Some people dismiss this teaching because they suppose it is common knowledge that God wants His elect to come to repentance, and they feel like a verse in the Bible would not be so elementary. But even if it is common knowledge, it is still no reason to dismiss what Peter, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, intended to communicate. Not surprisingly, this same truth is taught elsewhere in Scripture, namely, John 6:39 – “This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.” Evidently, the Spirit of God wanted to communicate the same “elementary” truth at least twice.
If you think about it, it’s not only the scoffers who deny that the Lord will return. There is another group of people who, when pressed to take their theology to its logical end, would also have to deny that the Lord will return. This latter class of people are those who believe the Lord is waiting for every single human on the earth to repent. If that is really what the Lord is waiting for, then the scoffers will be right and He’ll never come back!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
For similar treatments of 2 Peter 3:9, I recommend the following audio and video files:
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