ETERNAL SECURITY THESIS: REPROBATION, Part 1

“REPROBATION”, Part I

On the other side of the coin from election, is reprobation, or those which God, in His Sovereignty, passes over without choosing to call to salvation, and leaves them in bondage to their sin, even to the point of eternal separation from Him, and torment in Hell!

The Bible teaches that from all eternity, God has intended to leave the reprobate in their sin; if only the Elect are chosen to Eternal Life in Heaven, then, obviously, those NOT chosen, can not enter Heaven. Therefore, God foreordained Eternal Life for some, and loss of salvation for others who have no interest is salvation.

However, that is not to say that those who do not get chosen to Eternal Life by God, do not share in His blessings while on earth, because, they do! Many are blessed even more than the Elect throughout their earthly lives, but, all those blessings are only temporal, as they will not share in any spiritual blessings!

We are told in Proverbs 16:4, “The lord hath made all things for Himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.”

The fact is, since God is the Creator of ALL things, He has made all things for Himself, and not another, not because He had need of them, but to declare His greatness and communicate His Goodness, for His will and pleasure, and His praise and glory. This Scripture is brought to light with the illustration given in Romans 9:17-18. “For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, “even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that My Name might be declared throughout all the earth.” Therefore, hath He mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will, HE HARDENETH.” Can you imagine. God actually raised Pharaoh in power to drown him in the Red Sea! And in Malachi 1:2,3, God said, “I have loved you, saith the Lord. Yet you say, “Wherein hast thou loved us?” Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? Saith the Lord: Yet I loved Jacob, and I HATED ESAU, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.” And, in Romans 9:11-13, we are told God hated Esau before he was even born!

Christ is said to be, to the wicked, “a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense: for they stumble at the word, being disobedient; whereunto, also, THEY WERE APPOINTED.” (1 Peter 2:8). “For there are certain men crept in privily, even they who were of old, written of beforehand to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the GRACE of God into lasciviousness, and denying our Master and Lord Jesus Christ.” (Jude 4). “But there, as creatures without reason, born mere ANIMAL TO BE TAKEN AND DESTROYED, railing in matters whereof they are ignorant, shall in their destroying surely be destroyed.” (2 Peter 2:12).

“For God did put in their heart to do His mind, and to come to one mind, and to give their kingdom unto the beast, until the word of God should be accomplished.” (Revelations 17:17).

Concerning the beast of John’s vision, it is said, “all that dwell on the earth shall worship him, “everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the Book of Life, “of the Lamb that hath been slain.” (Rev. 13:8).

In contrast to these, Jesus told His disciples “to rejoice, because your names are written in Heaven.” (Luke 10:20). Paul says that the “vessels of wrath” which, by the Lord, were “fitted unto destruction”, were “endured with much long suffering”, in order that He might “show His wrath, and make His power known”; and with these are contrasted the “vessels of mercy, which He afore prepared unto Glory”, in order “that He might make known the riches of His Glory” upon them, (Romans 9:22,23). As for the reprobate, it is said that “God gave them up unto a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting”, (Romans 1:28); and the wicked, “after his hardness and impenitent heart treasures up for himself wrath in the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.” (Romans 2:15).

Paul talks about perishing people. He says “GOD SENDETH them a working of error, that they should believe a lie,” (2 Thess. 2:11).

John stated that people still disbelieved, even after seeing all the miracles Jesus did, and he also added, “For this cause they COULD NOT BELIEVE, for that Isaiah said again, He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their hearts; lest they should see with their eyes, and perceive with their hearts, and should turn, and I should heal them.” (John 12:39,40) In Matthew 25:41, Christ commands the wicked “Depart from Me, you that are cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the Devil and his angels.” This is the strongest degree of reprobation. Jesus once said, “For judgment came into this world, that they that see may not see: and that they that see may become blind.” (John (:39). He also said, “I thank thee, O Father, Lord of Heaven and earth, that those didst hide these things from the wise and understanding, and didst reveal them unto babes.” (Matt.11:25).

When the disciples asked Jesus why He spoke in parables, He said, “unto you (the Elect), it is GIVEN to know the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven, but unto them (the reprobates), “it is NOT GIVEN. For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have abundance; but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that which he hath. Therefore, speak I unto them in parables; because seeing, they see not, and hearing, they hear not, neither do they understand.” (Matt. 13:10-15). Jesus, regarding the reprobate, said in Matthew 7:6, “Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast your pearls before swine.”

It is the nature of the reprobate to do evil, and all God has done was to foreordain to leave that nature alone. Jesus knew the difference between the Elect and reprobate when He was on earth. That is one ability He never left behind in Heaven when He emptied Himself of all of His Glory. That is why He could address the reprobates as vipers, hypocrites, and say to them, “you WILL NOT come to me, that you may have life.” (John 5:40).

God used many reprobates for His own purpose, but never elected them to salvation. From an outward appearance, those reprobates may look like the Elect, but, we must remember only God sees into the heart. As always, the visible church is loaded with them, and Christians not firmly grounded in the word of God, should not be led astray by their mighty works. God even allows them to work some gifts of the spirit for His own Glory, but, still has not called them to salvation. He warned us about them in Matthew 7:21-23 when He said, “Not every one that SAITH unto me, “Lord, Lord” shall enter the kingdom of heaven: but he that DOETH the will of my Father which is in Heaven. MANY will say to Me in that day (Judgment day). “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy Name? And in thy Name, have cast out devils? And in thy Name, done many wonderful WORKS?” And then, will I profess unto THEM (the reprobates), I NEVER KNEW you: depart from me, you that work iniquity.” The Greek word for “iniquity” here, is “Anomia”, and this same Greek word is used in 2nd Timothy 2:19 which says “Let everyone that nameth the Name of Christ depart from “iniquity.” The word means “disregarding” the Law, or ignoring it.

The word is also used in 2nd Thess. 2:3 describing the anti-Christ as that man of sin, which means lawless. So, it appears that in the last days, there would be some “professing” Christians who called Christ “Lord”, who would be going around doing all kinds of wonderful WORKS, such as prophesying, casting out devils, etc.

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Blessings!
Marked Elect