God’s Will to Save All Men (2)

Last time we saw that the free offer view of I Timothy 2:4 (God "will have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth") leads inescapably to Arminianism’s universal atonement. For if God desires to save "all" absolutely (including the reprobate), then Christ must have died for "all" absolutely (including the reprobate) (6).

What then is the true interpretation? To answer this question, we must consider the context. The apostle is speaking about prayer and for whom it must be made: "I exhort ... that ... supplications, prayers, intercessions, giving of thanks, be made for all men" (1). Paul continues by specifying: "For kings, and for all that are in authority." He then gives two reasons why we should pray for those in civil government.

First, we must pray for them "that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty" (2). Thus we are to pray for magistrates that they will maintain law and order. Then Christians ("we") may "lead quiet and peaceable [lives] in all godliness and honesty," for we can worship God publicly on the Lord’s Day and serve Him at home, school, work and in the world without being attacked by mobs or hauled off to prison. Even this prayer is, of course, subject to God decree, for He wills civil unrest and/or government persecution of the saints at various times and in various places. Thus it is a lawful, good and commanded thing to pray (subject to God’s will) for the civil magistrates that God would use them to restrain wicked men so that we, His people, may individually and collectively serve him in our respective callings. This petition, Paul tells Timothy, must be brought before God in congregational prayer.

Second, we must pray for civil magistrates, "For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior; who will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (3-4). Is there any point praying for the conversion of Prime Minister Tony Blair or Taoiseach Bertie Ahern or any rulers of this world? I Timothy 2 tells us that God can and will save "kings" and those "that are in authority," according to His eternal election. So we must pray for the conversion of earthly potentates and not only those of lowly station, as we might otherwise be inclined. For God wills to save (and will save, for His will is never defeated) all kinds of people.

Augustine (354-430) put it well: "Now the apostle had enjoined that prayers should be made for all men, and had especially added, ‘For kings, and for all that are in authority,’ who might be supposed, in the pride and pomp of worldly station, to shrink from the humility of the Christian faith. Then saying, ‘For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior,’ that is, that prayers should be made for such as these, he immediately adds, as if to remove any ground of despair, ‘Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth’ ... Our Lord ... says to the Pharisees: ‘Ye tithe mint, and rue, and every herb.’ For the Pharisees did not tithe what belonged to others, nor all the herbs of all the inhabitants of other lands. As ... in this place we must understand by ‘every herb,’ every kind of herb, so in the former passage we may understand by ‘all men,’ every sort of men" (The Enchiridion, ciii).