"Prepared" in Romans 9:22-23

[Matt Chung]

Hello all,

Just something I wanted to note from last invest meeting concerning
the meaning of Romans 9:22-23, which states:

"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"

I mentioned that I read in a commentary that the word "prepared" in v.
22 is passive while "prepared" in v.23 is active, making the vessels
of wrath responsible for their own destruction while making God the
one responsible for bring glory to the vessels of mercy. I read this
from John MacArthur's commentary, but you can read his notes here:
http://www.gty.org/Resources/Questions/QA183_How-do-we-understand-Romans-922-vessels-of-wrath-prepared-for-destruction

I would like to say though that it seems Grudem disagrees with this
interpretation of the word "prepared", as seen in his Systematic
Theology book on the footnote #17 of Chapter 32 (Election and
Reprobation) on pages 682-3. He basically states that the grammer
doesn't necessarily dictate the active/passive tense, and that having
vessels "prepare" themselves for destruction doesn't really fit the
illustration of a potter molding various vessels. I am not an expert
in Greek tenses, but the second point does make sense. This discussion
is probably way out of my league, so I will stop here :p

For me personally, I fully believe that God is in complete control of
both good and evil (Isa 45:7). I am still not 100% by what means he
controls evil, whether it be actively hardening hearts or passively
removing common grace from a person to allow their sinfulness to grow.
Whatever it is, it cannot contradict James 1:13-14 (God tempts no one)
while preserving God's providence over all things.

Any thoughts?

-Matt

[Jettamethis]

Matt, u interested in white water rafting?

jPhone4

[Abbi Mcmanigal]

Hey Everyone,
Just wondering if whitewater rafting is still on for tomorrow. What are the details, when, where, cost? Thanks, Abbi