Skip to main content

Should God Repent?

In John Piper's book, Jesus: The Only Way to God, he shares a short story of missionary William Carey, who served in India for forty years.
Once [Carey] was talking with a Brahman in 1797.  The Brahman was defending idol worship, and Carey cited Acts 14:16 and 17:30. 
God formerly "suffered all nations to walk in their own ways," said Carey, "but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent." 
"Indeed," said the native, "I think God ought to repent for not sending the gospel sooner to us."
Carey was not without an answer.   
He said, "Suppose a kingdom had been long overrun by the enemies of its true king, and he though possessed of sufficient power to conquer them, should yet suffer them to prevail, and establish themselves as much as they could desire, would not the valour and wisdom of that king be far more conspicuous in exterminating them, than it would have been if he had opposed them at first, and prevented their entering the country?  Thus by the diffusion of gospel light, the wisdom, power, and grace of God will be more conspicuous in overcoming such deep rooted idolatries, and in destroying all that darkness and vice which have so universally prevailed in this country, than they would have been if all had not been suffered to walk in their own ways for so many ages past."
You must have a very big view of God and His purposes to even begin to wrap your mind around these thoughts.  But these are Biblical thoughts that Carey is sharing with the Brahman.  They are well-thought-out Biblical thoughts.  They are not based in any, "...well I think..." or "...I just feel that..." type arguments.  Piper closes this quote by saying the following:
Carey's answer to why God allowed nations to walk in their own ways is that in doing so the final victory of God will be all the more glorious.  There is a divine wisdom in the timing of God's deliverances from darkness.  We should humble ourselves to see it, rather than presume to know better how God should deal with a rebellious world. 
(This story of William Carey comes from Tom Wells book A Vision for Missions.)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Seed and The Soil of Education (New Learning Project Part 1)

(This is my entry for the first part of my project for my New Learning course that I am taking.) Introduction Corn Fields in Illinois I have lived the majority of my life in the Midwest: mid-state Illinois to be specific. Where I live, farming is everywhere. My grandparents and great-grandparents on both sides of my family were farmers. My dad grew up on a farm and owned farmland, well into my own adulthood. But, even if it wasn’t in the family, I still would have been surrounded by farming. You can’t go more than a mile outside of my city’s limits without encountering miles and miles of fields. Most of our highways, and even interstates, are located between acres of farmland.

This too shall pass...

Gam zeh ya'avor (Hebrew) "This Too Shall Pass" Welcome!  According to Google Analytics, this is by far the most visited post that I have ever written.  If someone comes here from a search engine, most of the time they are looking for " this too shall pass quote " or simply " this too shall pass " on Google or one of the other search engines. I am sure that most of the time visitors are looking for the originations of this quote, but I have to wonder, why is this quote on people's minds? Why are they pondering the passing of events?   Here is my thought: It is probably because most of us have realized that the adult life is much harder than we ever imagined it to be. There is more pain and more sorrow than we had ever imagined as children, but we have learned that time keeps ticking. And as time continues to flow things pass. In fact, even the really big things and the really hard things will still pass. If you are here because you are thinking ...

The Minnesota Crime Commission wrote:

Every baby starts life as a little savage. He is completely selfish and self-centered. He wants what he wants when he wants it: his bottle, his mother's attention, his playmate's toys, his uncle's watch, or whatever. Deny him these and he seethes with rage and aggressiveness which would be murderous were he not so helpless. He's dirty, he has no morals, no knowledge, no developed skills. This means that all children, not just certain children but all children, are born delinquent. If permitted to continue in their self-centered world of infancy, given free reign to their impulsive actions to satisfy each want, every child would grow up a criminal, a thief, a killer, a rapist.