How does Ezekiel 18:21 challenge the concept of predestination? Ezekiel 18:21 “But if the wicked man turns from all the sins he has committed, keeps all My statutes, and does what is just and right, he will surely live; he will not die.” Immediate Challenge To Absolutist Predestination 1. Contingent Outcome: Life or death hinges on the person’s choice to turn. 2. Universal Offer: No qualifier of ethnic lineage, prior decree, or secret will appears; any wicked person may respond. 3. Divine Pathos: God states, “I take no pleasure in anyone’s death… so repent and live!” (Ezekiel 18:32). Such yearning ill fits a paradigm in which eternal outcomes are irrevocably fixed apart from creaturely response. PARALLEL Old Testament WITNESSES • Deuteronomy 30:15–19—Moses sets “life and death… choose life.” • 2 Chron 7:14—Conditional national healing “if My people… turn.” • Jonah 3:9–10—Nineveh’s turning causes God to “relent,” disproving fatalism. • Isaiah 55:6–7—Invitation to the wicked to “forsake his way… that He may abundantly pardon.” New Testament HARMONY • Luke 13:3—“Unless you repent, you too will perish.” • Acts 17:30—God “commands all people everywhere to repent.” • 2 Peter 3:9—The Lord is “not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance.” These echo Ezekiel’s conditional motif; grace enables repentance, yet humans genuinely respond. Canonical Coherence The Dead Sea Scrolls (4QEzek) confirm the wording of Ezekiel 18, underscoring textual reliability across millennia. New Testament citations of Ezekiel’s themes (Romans 2:6–8; Revelation 2:21–23) show apostolic continuity. Manuscript evidence, from the Masoretic Text to the Septuagint, exhibits no variant that would weaken the verse’s conditional force. Theological Implications 1. God’s Character: His justice demands accountability; His mercy offers escape. 2. Evangelism: Genuine invitations to salvation rest on the premise that hearers can respond. 3. Sanctification: Ongoing compliance with God’s statutes (Ezekiel 18:21b) evidences authentic faith. Philosophical Considerations Libertarian freedom and compatibilist sovereignty need not be mutually exclusive. Divine foreknowledge does not equal divine causation of sin; rather, God knows contingent choices infallibly, similar to knowing the outcome of a chess game one could win by superior intellect without coercing the opponent’s moves. Potential Objections Answered • Objection: “The verse addresses temporal judgment, not eternal destiny.” —Response: Ezekiel’s contrast of “life” and “death” parallels Deuteronomy’s covenant language, which includes both present blessing and eschatological hope (cf. Isaiah 26:19). • Objection: “If repentance is granted by God, contingency is illusory.” —Response: Scripture depicts grace as prevenient yet not irresistible (Acts 7:51; Hebrews 3:15). God grants enablement; individuals exercise it. Pastoral Application Ezekiel 18:21 empowers preaching that is bold yet compassionate: no sinner is beyond redemption, and no complacent religious person is exempt from turning. It motivates counseling, prison outreach, and public policy grounded in the possibility of true moral reform. Conclusion Ezekiel 18:21 does not nullify divine election; it protects the doctrine from sliding into determinism that voids repentance, moral responsibility, and the evangelistic mandate. By affirming that any wicked person who turns “will surely live,” the verse anchors the biblical tension: God is sovereign, yet humans must—and genuinely can—respond to His grace. |
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