Some thoughts from Francis Chan #2

Since I didn’t decide to write these posts until I was pretty far into the book, I’m going to start with what I highlighted on the first read through and then go back and pick up the earlier chapters later. One reason why I am doing this is the later chapters deal with passages beyond the scope of hell and these are what so often generate controversy.

P. 130 Chan comments on Romans 9
“What if God, desiring to show His wrath and to make known His power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of His glory for vessels of mercy, which He has prepared beforehand for glory? Rom. 9-22-23
Chan Writes.
“What if? What if God decided to do this? What if God, as the sovereign creator of the universe, decided to create “vessels of wrath prepared for destruction”? And what if He did so in order to “show His wrath” and “make known His power”? And what if it’s His way of showing those He saves just how great His glory and mercy is? What would you do if He chose to do this? Refuse to believe in Him? Refuse to be a “vessel of mercy’? Does that make any sense? Would you refuse to follow Him? Really? Is that wise?
“What if is a probing question that forces us to face our inflated view of our own logic? It’s another way of asking just how high is my view of God.”

“In other words, God may want to display His wrath and power by punishing sinners, or He may have some other purpose in mind. Either way, we must come to a place where we can let God be God. We need to surrender our perceived right to determine what is just and humbly recognize that God alone gets to decide how He is going to deal with people.”