Discussion Jumpstarter
Study leader reference - not a definitive answer
Question 6
The teacher quotes 2 Peter 3:9 and 1 Timothy 2:3–4 to say God “desires all men to be saved,” yet also says God “ultimately knows the number of those who will be saved”; how does the teaching hold God’s desire, foreknowledge, and human responsibility together without slipping into fatalism?
Another way to ask: How can God truly want everyone to be saved, yet still know ahead of time who will be saved? How does the teaching keep human responsibility real without saying everything is fixed no matter what?
Discussion Jumpstarter
Direct Answer
The teaching holds these together by affirming God’s universal saving desire and patience, while also insisting humans must choose repentance and obedience; God’s foreknowledge doesn’t cancel the real “if/then” responsibility. The teacher explicitly rejects the idea that our end is fixed by “arbitrary” predestination, even while admitting God “foreknows all things.”
- 2 Peter 3:9: God is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance,” explaining the “delay.”
- 1 Timothy 2:3–4: God “desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.”
- The teacher adds a qualifier: God is giving “opportunity,” but “he does ultimately know the number of those who will be saved.”
- He rejects fatalism: “we are not slaves of fate… or… predestined determination by God arbitrarily. Of course, he foreknows all things.”
- He grounds responsibility in choice texts: “choose life,” “if you be willing,” “choose this day.”
- Ezekiel 18 reinforces accountability: God judges “each one according to his way,” and calls people to “turn… and live.”