1st Chronicles 28:9

1st Chronicles 28:9 (see also Acts 17:27)
As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind; for the LORD searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever.  


  • Notice that God makes Himself accessible.
  • Notice the conditional “if” statement.
  • Notice that God allows a person to decide their own destiny.
  • Notice that God searches the heart, which would otherwise be odd if God had decreed what is searched, as per Calvinism.
  • Notice the similarity with the Acts 17 sermon.


Acts 17:24-28: “The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist , as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’” 

One member of The Society of Evangelical Arminians: “If God had pre-determined everything, then this statement is deeply superfluous and even false. Calvinists might play their metaphor card at this point, but that’s nonsense. A cry for ‘metaphor’ would undermine the clarity (perspicuity) of Scripture here. Second, there is a powerful statement from God Himself concerning Solomon’s conditional covenantal fellowship with God: ‘...but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever.’ There’s room for healthy debate over whether this rejection is about salvation and/or Solomon’s royal vocation. Either way, though, this is an explicit endorsement of conditional election. Calvinists would have to claim that God foreordained Solomon’s fellowship with God and Solomon’s idolatrous turn from God--all for the sake of His glory! Imagine that! God ordains idolatry for the sake of His own glory, even though He commands the opposite in the Scriptures. Isn’t it wonderful, ‘God-centered’ theology, to sacrifice God’s character and testimonies on an altar to His sovereignty?”