Jeremiah 3:6
Jeremiah 3:6-10
Then the LORD said to me in the days of Josiah the king, “Have you seen what faithless Israel did? She went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and she was a harlot there. I thought, ‘After she has done all these things she will return to Me’; but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. And I saw that for all the adulteries of faithless Israel, I had sent her away and given her a writ of divorce, yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear; but she went and was a harlot also. Because of the lightness of her harlotry, she polluted the land and committed adultery with stones and trees. Yet in spite of all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to Me with all her heart, but rather in deception,” declares the LORD.
One member of The Society of Evangelical Arminians: “It seems that the Lord gave Israel over to her idolatry for the express purpose of bringing her back to Himself (in that Israel would realize the fruitlessness and foolishness of her actions and return to the Lord), yet Israel remained stubborn and did not return. Another big problem is all of the ‘why’ type questions that God asks Israel (i.e. why have you left Me?, etc.).”
Jeremiah 2:5: “Thus says the LORD, ‘What injustice did your fathers find in Me, that they went far from Me and walked after emptiness and became empty?’”
Continuing: “How does this make sense when [according to Calvinism] God irresistibly caused them to walk after emptiness by an unchangeable, eternal decree?”
Jeremiah 2:17: “Have you not done this to yourself by your forsaking the LORD your God When He led you in the way?”
Continuing: “Not at all. God did this to them, through the irresistible enacting of an unchangeable, eternal decree.”
Jeremiah 18:13: “Therefore thus says the LORD, ‘Ask now among the nations, Who ever heard the like of this? The virgin of Israel Has done a most appalling thing.’”
Continuing: “Again and again, God is appalled that Israel would forsake Him, while all the while, knowing that He has caused them to forsake Him, and that they could not possibly do anything but to forsake Him.”
Calvinism turns God’s Word into a charade. That’s as simple as it can be stated.
Dave Hunt: “God desired ‘peace, and not...evil’ for Israel (Jeremiah 29:11) and ‘would have healed’ her (Hosea) and blessed her without limit (Psalm 81:13-16). Instead, reluctantly, He had to punish her. God’s ‘will’ is for ‘all men to be saved’ (1 Timothy 2:4) and that not ‘one of these little ones should perish’ (Matthew 18:14) but ‘that all should come to repentance’ (2 Peter 3:9).” (Debating Calvinism, p.181)
