Matthew 25:41
Matthew 25:41 (see also Hebrews 10:31)
“Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels.’”
You were not created for Hell. No one was. At least, no human. Hell was made for the devil and demons, and it is a place “prepared,” which means that it reflects design and effort as an anti-Heaven. Conversely, Heaven is also a place “prepared.” Jesus states: “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.” (John 14:1-3)
Adrian Rogers: “If you go to Hell, you’ll be an intruder. Hell was not prepared for you. It was prepared for the Devil and his angels. But if you choose to follow Satan, you’ll follow him to Hell.” (Five Minutes After Death: Luke 16:19-31, emphasis mine)
Obviously, some people will go to Hell, as in the “broad”
road to destruction. (Matthew 7:13) The question, however,
is whether that is by God’s design. Arminianism says no, as
well as Single Predestinationist Calvinists. In contrast, the
Double Predestinationists disagree, and teach that God, by
necessity, indeed created a class of the damned, that is, the
“non-elect,” who were predestined to spend eternity in the
Lake of Fire.
According to the Calvinistic, Westminster Confession of Faith: “III. By the decree of God, for the manifestation of his glory, some men and angels are predestinated unto everlasting life; and others foreordained to everlasting death.” (III. Of God’s Eternal Decree, emphasis mine)
If by the alleged “decree of God,” God foreordained any of mankind to Hell, then why didn’t He instead say: Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for [you]?
Single Predestinationist Calvinists, instead teach:
Calvinist, Charles Spurgeon: “What does he say to those on the left? ‘Depart, ye cursed.’ He does not say, ‘ye cursed of my father, but, ye cursed.’ And what else does he say? ‘into everlasting fire, prepared’—(not for you, but)—‘for the devil and his angels.’ Do you see how it is guarded, here is the salvation side of the question. It is all of God. ‘Come, ye blessed of my father.’ It is a kingdom prepared for them. There you have election, free grace in all its length and breadth. But, on the other hand, you have nothing said about the father—nothing about that at all. ‘Depart, ye cursed.’ Even the flames are said not to be prepared for sinners, but for the devil and his angels. There is no language that I can possibly conceive that could more forcibly express this idea, supposing it to be the mind of the Holy Spirit, that the glory should be to God, and that the blame should be laid at man’s door.” (Jacob and Esau, emphasis mine)
Charles Spurgeon: “My soul revolts at the idea of a doctrine that lays the blood of man’s soul at God’s door. I cannot conceive how any human mind, at least any Christian mind, can hold any such blasphemy as that.” (Jacob and Esau, emphasis mine)
Calvinist, John MacArthur: “God never meant for hell to be for people. He made it for the devil and his angels. But people choose to go to hell by rejecting Christ. Some souls are suffering that torment right now, and have been waiting for their resurrected bodies for thousands of years. But even after they receive their transcendent bodies, they will be no closer to the end of eternal punishment than when they first entered hell. No wonder Jesus had to teach about hell!” (Hell-the Furnace of Fire)
Single Predestinationist Calvinists believe in the doctrine of Preterition, which teaches that while God may not actively create people for Hell, He simply leaves them out of His will for Heaven, and thus they perish. However, this leaves very little difference with the Double Predestinationists, because if God had eternally created a class of Calvinism’s elect, then it stands to reason that all of the rest would be as equally, eternally damned as any demon.
Now comes the Double Predestinationist:
John Calvin: “Though the reprobate were appointed to death by God’s secret judgment before they were born, yet as long as life is being offered to them they are not reckoned Satan’s heirs and fellows; their perdition emerges from their unbelief, it is uncovered; and before it was hidden.” (Calvin’s New Testament Commentaries: Matthew, Mark and Luke Vol. III, and James and Jude, p.118, emphasis mine)
When in doubt, the secret-will, always comes in handy. In other words, Hell was prepared for them! But, it’s a “secret”! While eternal life is offered to them (who of course are predestined to reject it), this alleged, eternal predetermination of making them “Satan’s heirs” is kept “hidden,” and uncovered only when they reject Christ. The problem with secret will theories is that they can be used to dismantle any Bible verse, and all that is offered for proof is mere speculation. Hence, the Double Predestinationists stand on the “secret” promises of God.
While the escape hatch for Calvinists may be a secret will, Calvinists respond that the escape hatch for Arminians is Foreknowledge. However, at least Foreknowledge is well established in the Bible as the basis for election (1st Peter 1:1-2), the basis for predestination (Romans 8:29) and the basis for the predetermined plans of God. (Acts 2:23) Can the Calvinist say the same for a secret will defense?
Question for a Calvinist: Do you believe that “the elect” were created for Heaven?
Answer: I assume that the Calvinist would answer: “Yes.”
Question for a Calvinist: Do you believe that the “non-elect” were created for Hell?
Answer: Calvinists are conflicted on this point. Those who answer “yes” are being consistent with an immutable decree, though inconsistent with Matthew 25:41, while those who answer “no” are left explaining where exactly the alleged non-elect were created to spend eternity, and how such indeterminism fits with the determinism of Calvinism’s decree.
Question for a Calvinist: If the “non-elect” were not created to spend their eternity in Heaven, and if they were not created to spend their eternity in Hell either, then is there a third option?
Answer: The simple fact that Matthew 25:41 states that God had created Hell for the devil and his angels, without any mention of humanity, affirms to me that there are no such thing as a class of the “non-elect,” and further reinforces the fact that Jesus died for everyone, so that they wouldn’t have to end up in Hell with the devil and his angels. Apparently, the reason why the demons take such vitriolic retribution against humans is because they are created in the image of God. So for a human to end up in Hell, is like a cop being sent to prison. They will be targets for retribution. So in addition to everything else that is horrible about Hell, that is just one more thing that makes it even worse. One thing to consider is that the motivation for Jesus to have willingly endured the cross is because of the emotional pain that He personally felt, when agonizing over humanity’s plight and desperate need for salvation from the punishment and judgment of God’s Word, and if there really was a two-class segment of humanity, split into “elect” vs. “non-elect,” that is, those whom He willingly suffered and died for vs. those whom He passed by, the result would be a contradiction in Jesus’ motivation for enduring Calvary. Why would He feel such a motivation for one class, and yet not the other, even though both share the same plight and the same desperate need? If Calvinism is right, then Jesus’ motivation to endure the cross had nothing to do with our plight, but only to do with a prior electing purpose by the Father.
The more that I consider this, the only way that Calvinists can explain this verse is by invoking a Secret Will theory, that is, by the “Revealed Will,” Hell was not meant for mankind, but by the “Secret Will,” Hell was in fact created for the alleged, non-elect, because nothing happens without it being predestined, and besides, God gets glory from the non-elect spending eternity in Hell, in which the mere existence of Hell for the “non-elect” serves to magnify God’s grace toward the “elect.”
Calvinist, Vincent Cheung: “One who thinks that God’s glory is not worth the death and suffering of billions of people has too high an opinion of himself and humanity.” (The Problem of Evil, p.10, emphasis mine)
That was never God’s purpose for humanity.
See here for additional discussion on this verse.
