Thursday, May 20, 2021

On Romans 8: 28

"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." (Rom. 8: 28)

This verse has been a subject of intense debate among the "Primitive Baptists" since their division over the extent of predestination at the beginning of the 20th century. All the first Pbs, like most other Baptists, interpreted "all things" to be "all things," while those rejecting "the absolute predestination of all things" began to contend that "all things" really meant "all things mentioned in the context," or only "some things." But, even with today's Conditionalist faction of Hardshells (who reject the idea that "all things" really means all things) there are those who still secretly hold to the old view. 

I told a Hardshell friend of mine, who was inquiring about this verse and the two views, that the following verse from Proverbs was saying essentially the same thing. It reads:

"There shall no evil happen to the just: but the wicked shall be filled with mischief." (Prov. 12: 21)

Do you see how these verses are saying the same thing essentially? Nothing bad will happen to the just and righteous? If nothing bad happens to them, then it must be so because it all works together for good. 

Who cannot see this? And why not? What think ye?

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