Mike,

Today, this is a big headache to me. I read and found Jer 32:35:

Jer 32:35 (NKJV) And they built the high places of Baal which are in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire to Molech, which I did not command them, nor did it come into My mind that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.’

It can’t be ‘free will’, but God said He did not have His will (command) nor His mind (purpose)? I know that God is not evil, but he has His own reason for the cause of evil (Satan the deceiver) just like Joseph and his brothers. I wondered, how come Jer 32:35 doesn’t support other verses? See below:

Rom 9:18 (NKJV) Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.

Pro 20:24 (KJV) Man’s goings (good and evil) are of the LORD; how can a man then understand his own way?

Rom 9:11 (KJV) For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth

I am sure you will help me if God is willing. I appreciate it.

B____

Hi B____,

Thank you for your question.

I am not sure exactly what you think it is in Jer 32:35 that does not support the verses you quote.

If you believe:

Rom 9:18 (NKJV) Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.

And if you believe:

Pro 20:24 (KJV) Man’s goings (good and evil) are of the LORD; how can a man then understand his own way?

Then you know and realize that it was God Himself who, through an evil spirit, had the very idea of building the high places of Baal which are in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire to Molech.

God Himself does not put this into their minds and hearts. He sends an evil spirit to do these evil things:

1Sa 16:14 But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him.

Now if you can understand how God’s spirit departs from Saul and an evil spirit “from the Lord troubled Saul,” then you will have no trouble understanding how God can say that it “never entered my mind” to have you offer your live children to Molech in fire. The reason it never entered God’s mind, is because it came from the mind of an “evil spirit from the Lord.”

The natural man will call this a contradiction. The mind of the spirit will call this a great revelation about the mind of God.

It is all for God’s own purpose that any and all evil is committed. And here is yet another example of God sending an evil spirit to do an evil deed which will eventuate in producing much good:

Gen 50:20 But as for you, ye [Joseph’s brothers] thought evil against me [only because of “an evil spirit from the Lord”]; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.

God does not absolve Joseph’s brothers of their choice to “think evil against Joseph.” God instead requires them to “give account” for their sins.

Mat 12:36 But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.

So, too, will He require an accounting from Israel for their sin of causing their children to pass through the fire unto Molech, which thing “never entered His mind.”

The fact that the entire “historical orthodox Christian church” to this day teaches the exact opposite of what God plainly declares here in this verse to be “my mind” on the subject of placing live human beings into physical flames of physical fire, is a testimony against them. It is not a contradiction of…

Pro 20:24 (KJV) Man’s goings (good and evil) are of the LORD; how can a man then understand his own way?

When “man’s goings” are evil, they are evil because “an evil spirit from the Lord” placed an evil thought into the mind of man to do that evil deed. Thus God can truthfully say “neither entered it into my mind.”

I hope you are not confounded by how God’s Word is spoken to the spiritual man to remove his blindness and heal Him of his naturally blind condition, but at the same time it is spoken to the natural man for the very purpose of keeping him in His naturally blind condition

Joh 9:39 And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which [claim that they] see might be made blind.
Joh 9:40 And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also?
Joh 9:41 Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.

God’s Word is constantly carrying out this two-fold purpose. Only those who have been given eyes to see and ears to hear will do so.

Mat 13:10 And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
Mat 13:11 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them [the multitudes who come to hear Christ’s parables every Sunday morning] it is not given.

God bless!
Mike