Deputy Dog said:
Matthew 23:37 does not say that God wanted to save the Pharisees. It does say that Jesus wanted to gather together her children. Why do you want to portray Jesus as a frustrated God? He can and does save whom ever and when ever He wants, regardless of the will of the Pharisees. If you are going to bind Gods' will you need to have a better scripture than this!
I would not base such an important belief on ONE Verse. I simply posted ONE Verse supporting my statement. I will post more here for you.
True, in that Verse, Jesus was also talking about the Jews in general, not only the Pharisees. Even so, Jesus clearly said that He WANTED to save THE JEWS, including the Pharisees, but that THEY WOULD NOT HAVE IT!
Notice in Matthew Chapter 23, Jesus was definitely MAINLY addressing the Pharisees -- just look at the context! Matthew 23:31-39: "Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers' guilt. Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of Gehenna? Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the L ord !'"
Weren't the Pharisees the ones who were murderers of the prophets and children of those who murdered prophets? Jesus said that He WANTED to save the children of the ones who murdered the prophets, but they were not willing.
First Jesus told them "How can you escape Gehenna?", but then He tells them that He is sending prophets to them. Why would Jesus send prophets to the Pharisees unless they had the choice to repent and be saved?
Did Jesus then force all of the Jews to be saved because He WANTED them to be saved? Obviously not, because the Scriptures say that the majority of the Jews rejected Jesus.
So, are you, Deputy Dog, telling me that Jesus did not actually mean what He said?
1st Timothy 2:1-7: T herefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For 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. For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time, for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle--I am speaking the truth in Christ and not lying--a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.
1st John 2:1-2: M y little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.
1st John 4:14: And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son [to be] the Savior of the world.
John 1:29: The next day John sees Jesus coming to him, and says, "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world."
John 4:42: And said to the woman, "Now we believe, not because of your saying: for we have heard [Him] ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.
John 3: 15-18: that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. "He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Titus 2:11: For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men
Matthew 28:19: Go therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit
Mark 16:15: And He said to them, "Go into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature."
2nd Peter 3:9: The Lord is not slow concerning His promise, as some men count slowness; but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
John 6:26-58: Jesus answered them and said, "Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him." (Notice that Jesus WANTED to give them everlasting life, and He told them that He WOULD give them everlasting life IF they put their faith in Him.) Then they said to Him, "What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?" Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent." Therefore they said to Him, "What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do? Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'" Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." Then they said to Him, "Lord, give us this bread always." And Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. 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. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day." The Jews then complained about Him, because He said, "I am the bread which came down from heaven." And they said, "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that He says, 'I have come down from heaven' ?" Jesus therefore answered and said to them, "Do not murmur among yourselves. No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, 'And they shall all be taught by God.' Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me. Not that anyone has seen the Father, except He who is from God; He has seen the Father. Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world." The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, "How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?" Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is *food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. This is the bread which came down from heaven--not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever."
John 8: 23-24: And He said to them, "You are from beneath; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I AM, you will die in your sins."
So, even the Pharisees could believe in Jesus -- they were not kept by God from believing.
Romans 10: 9-14: That if you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved. For with the heart man believes to righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made to salvation. For the Scripture says, "Whoever believes on Him shall not be ashamed." For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For "whoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved." How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?
1 Kings 17:12-18: for they served idols, of which the Lord had said to them, "You shall not do this thing." Yet the Lord testified against Israel and against Judah, by all of His prophets, every seer, saying, "Turn from your evil ways, and keep My commandments and My statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by My servants the prophets." Nevertheless they would not hear, but stiffened their necks, like the necks of their fathers, who did not believe in the Lord their God. And they rejected His statutes and His covenant that He had made with their fathers, and His testimonies which He had testified against them; they followed idols, became idolaters, and went after the nations who were all around them, concerning whom the Lord had charged them that they should not do like them. So they left all the commandments of the Lord their God, made for themselves a molded image and two calves, made a wooden image and worshiped all the host of heaven, and served Baal. And they caused their sons and daughters to pass through the fire, practiced witchcraft and soothsaying, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger. Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them from His sight; there was none left but the tribe of Judah alone.
Revelation 2:5: Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place--unless you repent.
Revelation 2:15-16: Thus you also have those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. Repent, or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth.
Revelation 2:20-22: Nevertheless I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent. Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds.
Isaiah 45:22: "Look to Me, and be saved, All you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other."
Ezekiel 18:23: "Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?" says the LORD G od , "and not that he should turn from his ways and live?"
Ezekiel 33:11: Say to them: 'As I live,' says the LORD God, 'I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?'
Genesis 4:6-7: So the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it."
Those Scriptures make it obviously clear that God The Father and Jesus Christ WANT all people to repent and be saved, but that God does not force anyone to be saved.
