“When David arose in the morning, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying, ‘Go and speak to David, “Thus the LORD says, ‘I am offering you three things; choose for yourself one of them, which I will do to you.’”’ So Gad came to David and told him, and said to him, ‘Shall seven years of famine come to you in your land? Or will you flee three months before your foes while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days’ pestilence in your land? Now consider and see what answer I shall return to Him who sent me.’ Then David said to Gad, ‘I am in great distress. Let us now fall into the hand of the LORD for His mercies are great, but do not let me fall into the hand of man.’”
Similarly, as with 1 Samuel 24:4, God gave a choice to David to make. Given three options, David decided: “Let us now fall into the hand of the LORD for His mercies are great, but do not let me fall into the hand of man.” (2 Samuel 24:14) So, God did according to David’s choice, but if all human choices are the product of an eternal decree, including David’s choice, then why would God seek to mislead people in this manner? The alternative is that God is not misleading people at all, and there is no such “immutable decree” as taught by Calvinists.
[This post has been excerpted with permission from Richard Coords, Calvinism Answered Verse by Verse and Subject by Subject, © 2024.]
