Are Some People Sure to Go to Hell From Birth? (Jeremiah 18 Study)
There are many, even though they often will not come right out and say it, who believe that some people are hopelessly evil and guaranteed to go to hell from birth. There is a chapter in the Bible which addresses this topic head on (Jeremiah 18). We will go through that chapter here.
Jeremiah 18:1-4: “The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.”
The illustration in the preceding verses demonstrates the Lord’s conditional dealings with mankind. The rest of the chapter will prove that He has not decided to favor or oppose anyone unconditionally. He indeed deals with people according to their choices which they make in response to their obligations before Him. Many who talk about God’s sovereignty try to say that man cannot really choose to seek Him and turn away from his sins. They are wrong. His sovereignty is actually demonstrated by His authority and ability to deal with each person appropriately in accordance with their choices.
Jeremiah 18:5-6: “Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.”
The illustration of the potter and the clay was given in order to strengthen what will be said in verses 7 through 12. It was not to be taken independently of what is taught in the following verses. Jeremiah 18 will go on to emphasize man’s capability and responsibility to respond to God obediently.
People do resist God’s will in that they rebel against His authority and commandments. People cannot resist God’s will in that every person will eventually receive what He judges to be a fitting recompense for their choices before Him. That is a proper view of His sovereignty and that is what was established in verses 1 to 6 of Jeremiah 18. In His benevolence, God would rather that people repent and obey Him to their salvation. However, He still has a useful purpose for those who resist His authority and continue in sin. This is totally righteous on His end yet very bad for the obstinate sinner.
Jeremiah 18:7-10: “At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil (i.e. their moral evil), I will repent of the evil (i.e. the calamity) that I thought to do unto them. And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.”
Some say the preceding verses apply only to nations but not individuals. They are dead wrong. Throughout the Bible, God often speaks concerning individuals as He speaks of nations in Jeremiah chapter 18. Ezekiel 18:20-32 provides an obvious example of this.
Moreover, these very verses from Jeremiah are directly applied to individuals in Romans chapter 9. Many use Romans chapter 9 to try to justify Calvinism. However, when the Old Testament examples which Paul gives in Romans 9 are actually consulted in their context, Romans 9 is actually one of the many places in the Bible which disproves Calvinism. Jeremiah chapter 18 is one of these Old Testament examples. Paul expected his readers to account for everything in Jeremiah 18 and the other Old Testament passages which he cited within Romans 9 to illustrate the points that he was making there.
We even read in Romans 9:22: “What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:”
Enduring people with long-suffering when there is no possibility of their repentance is a joke.
Paul had said earlier in Romans 1:18: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness…”
Anyone who has ever held the truth in unrighteousness was at least a vessel of wrath at some point. Those who are still holding the truth in unrighteousness are currently vessels of wrath. People who had been vessels of wrath can become vessels of mercy- and vice-versa.
The popular theology of Calvinism falsely teaches that many never had a realistic chance of coming to repentance. Though people who believe in Calvinism use sophistry to try to not come right out and say what they really believe, don’t let them fool you. The Calvinist can say that he believes no one was appointed to go to hell before they were born even though he believes that some were unconditionally appointed to be saved before they were born. Yet if some were unconditionally chosen to be saved before they were born (like Calvinism teaches), and not a single person who was not chosen in this manner will be saved (like Calvinism also teaches), then it is common sense to conclude that Calvinism does indeed teach that some are sure to go to hell from birth.
Jonah chapter 3 is a perfect parallel to Jeremiah 18:7-10 since it directly exemplifies what these verses talk about.
Reading Jonah 3:3-10: “So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days’ journey. And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water: But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not? And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.”
Within the Gospel accounts, Jesus applied the example of how the Ninevites in the Book of Jonah repented and obtained mercy to meet the standard for deliverance on a corporate level from judgment in this life to the standard regarding the salvation of individuals on Judgment Day. Individuals on track to condemnation can turn from their sin in authentic repentance and get on track to instead obtain mercy on Judgment Day. There is absolutely no good reason then to say that Jeremiah 18:7-10 should not be applied in principle to the ultimate salvation or condemnation of individuals on Judgment Day.
Matthew 12:41: “The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas (Jonah); and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.”
Not only does Matthew 12:41 demonstrate that it is right to apply what is said about the judgment of nations in Jeremiah 18 to the salvation of individuals on Judgment Day, it also demonstrates the reality that the Lord will use the examples of those who really repented and got right with Him on Judgment Day to justify the condemnation of those who did not do so (as well as the condemnation of those who turned away afterwards). This means that Matthew 12:41 also destroys the Calvinistic concept of Unconditional Election. This in turn destroys the entire system of Calvinism. It is common sense that repentant, faithful people could not justify the condemnation of unrepentant, unfaithful people unless all really had the ability to repent and be faithful.
Jeremiah 18:11: “Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the Lord; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.”
The judgment pronounced on the men of Judah was not unavoidable. However, they would have to heed the instructions set forth in verse 11 in order to be spared from judgment. Verse 11 is call to repentance as the Bible prescribes. The men of Judah needed to do what the Ninevites did in Jonah chapter 3 in order to avoid the calamity which God had devised to do against them. It was seen in Matthew 12:41 how what the Ninevites did in response to Jonah’s preaching exemplifies the true repentance which the Lord requires.
Many preachers would tell the men of Judah that they are not capable of turning from their evil way and making their ways and their deeds good. Such preachers are deceivers who are justifying everyone who persists in practicing sin. Many also say that people can be saved without turning from their evil way and making their ways and their doings good. They are deceivers. Jeremiah would even lament over such preachers five chapters later in Jeremiah 23.
Jeremiah 18:12: “And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart.”
The men of Judah spoke to the man who called them to repent in line with God’s Word as if he was the loser in the matter and they were the winners. It was actually the opposite. People still speak like this to those who are calling them to repentance in line with the Bible. The men of Judah did not refuse to repent towards God because they did not have the ability to do so. They had a real and valid chance for God’s wrath to be turned away from them that they chose to despise. Saying that they had no ability to repent justifies them and all who are committed to sin in their enmity with the true God.
In relation, Jesus said in Luke 13:34: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!”
Jeremiah 18:13-18: “Therefore thus saith the Lord; Ask ye now among the heathen, who hath heard such things: the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing. Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon which cometh from the rock of the field? or shall the cold flowing waters that come from another place be forsaken? Because my people hath forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a way not cast up; To make their land desolate, and a perpetual hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and wag his head. I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will shew them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity. Then said they, Come and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.”
The men of Judah boasted about having the Bible. Yet they refused to heed a man who was calling them to get in line with the Bible and warning them of the severe judgment that they would face for not doing so. Evil professing Christians who live in sin and Christ-rejecting Jews do the same today. Many of the most hardened, wicked sinners on earth are regulars in a church or synagogue. Yet their own choices to mock the Lord by persisting in wickedness, while also claiming to be right with Him, are how they ended up like that. They were not hopelessly evil and sure to go to hell from birth. That never was and never will be the case with anyone.
Jeremiah is praying directly to the Lord in verses 19 to 23. Verse 20 further demonstrates that the condemnation of those who refused to repent at Jeremiah’s warning was not inevitable. In accordance with verses 1 to 11 of Jeremiah chapter 18, they could have turned from their evil way and become vessels of mercy who were spared from the disaster that the Lord had devised to do unto them.
Jeremiah 18:19-23: “Give heed to me, O Lord, and hearken to the voice of them that contend with me. Shall evil be recompensed for good? for they have digged a pit for my soul. Remember that I stood before thee to speak good for them, and to turn away thy wrath from them. Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and pour out their blood by the force of the sword; and let their wives be bereaved of their children, and be widows; and let their men be put to death; let their young men be slain by the sword in battle. Let a cry be heard from their houses, when thou shalt bring a troop suddenly upon them: for they have digged a pit to take me, and hid snares for my feet. Yet, Lord, thou knowest all their counsel against me to slay me: forgive not their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from thy sight, but let them be overthrown before thee; deal thus with them in the time of thine anger.”
Aaron’s email is: gospeltruth768@yahoo.com