Okay, here's a good question.
One thing that confuses me in regard to the reprobate doctrine is Manasseh.
He seems like one of the most evil people in the Old Testament, but then it seems like
he has a redemption story and may have gotten saved.
Was Manasseh reprobate?
If not, why not?
I of course believe that Manasseh was not a reprobate.
Manasseh did get saved.
And was he super evil?
Yes.
And I think that God includes him purposely so that we don't just label someone a reprobate
because they commit extremely sinful acts or do really bad things.
Now, I think that the sign of a reprobate are unnatural acts because our sinful nature
could lead us into some gnarly sins.
But to me, the surefire sign of a reprobate is somebody who, you know, men burning in
lust toward other men or women burning in lust toward other women, like it says in Romans
1, because that's just not even normal.
Like that's not even, even if people just keep getting more sinful, they're still not
going to go there because it's so weird.
It makes no sense.
It's not natural.
It's not normal.
It's against nature.
And so to do that stuff, you have to be a reprobate because it's too weird.
Whereas you could do all kinds of other horrific sins and not be a reprobate.
And the thing is that, you know, if somebody just openly hates God, then I would say, okay,
yeah, this person looks like a Romans 1 reprobate.
So hating God or homosexuality are the type of things that Romans 1 would show us are
like the hallmarks of being a reprobate, but, you know, people can be pretty bad and not
be a reprobate.
And I think Manasseh is a great example of that.
I did a whole sermon on Manasseh like a year or two ago, I think I have to look that up.
I agree with you on Manasseh, which is crazy because it's actually only in second Chronicles
that you even get that picture of him humbling himself at the end where you're like, oh,
okay, maybe he wasn't because it's kind of like Lot.
You don't know that Lot is really like saved until you read it in the New Testament, like
always he vexed his righteous soul.
What do you think of Ahab?
You know, obviously Jezebel, I believe was a reprobate.
But what do you think of Ahab as far as, yeah, he did some things where it's like, you're
like, maybe, maybe he's not.
I actually talked about him in my video that I just released, I think this morning.
You know, again, correcting the Muslims because of the fact that one of the things I love
about the Bible is the complex character development, you know, and obviously, I hope people don't
misunderstand when I talk about the Bible as literature, that I'm not saying it's only
literature or something.
Obviously, it's the Word of God, you know, but it's also just a great book.
And because look, if you're the creator of the universe, you're going to write an awesome
book.
And like, to me, if the Bible was not awesome, I'd be like, God didn't write this.
You know, because the creator of the universe is going to be an incredible author.
And like, I was just thinking about how, you know, cartoon characters are just so one dimensional
and just they're either all good or all bad.
Whereas like the Bible characters, like Ahab is such a complex character, because yeah,
there are times when he's good and when he's repenting and then other times when he's just
rotten and the Bible says he sold himself to work wickedness and like he worked more
wickedness and the people came before him and everything.
So is there a chance that Ahab could be in heaven?
And I think that I don't know.
I almost want him to not be like reprobate because of that phrase he uses where he says
let not him boast himself that taketh on his girl than him that taketh it off.
There's such an awesome, like phrase that he uses there.
Well, I want as many people to be in heaven as possible.
So I mean, it'd be great if he's up there, you know, yeah, I, you know, it's just one
of those where, you know, when I was looking through, I went through a series through the
Kings and I'm like, maybe it's, you know, like Jezebel is obviously wicked, but I think
about, here's my thing of like, well, maybe he isn't.
Maybe he is a reprobate is when you think of Second Chronicles 19.2 where Jehoshaphat
is helping, you know, and like they're helping those that hate the Lord, but I think more
so of Ahab or Jezebel maybe being referred to there.
So anyway, just something, something.
Yeah, I mean, I, you know, if I had to guess, I'd probably say that he's, that he's unsaved,
but even if, but even if he was unsaved, that doesn't necessarily make him a reprobate at
that time.
Right.
Obviously everybody who's unsaved after they die is a reprobate because you're burning
in hell at that point, you're rejected at that point, but I'm saying like, you can kind
of see God working in his life a few times.
So but that doesn't necessarily mean that he was saved either because it could just
be that God's working on him and, and it just didn't, but he never came over to the
Lord, called upon the name of the Lord and trust in the Lord.
It doesn't mean, you know, cause I think that God works in a lot of unsaved people's lives
and works on them and, and convicts them and, and right, but they don't get saved.
It's not like, you know, it's not like God just knows, Oh, I know this person never gonna
get saved, so I'm not even gonna mess with it.
He still brings that soul winner to their door and gives them a chance and, you know.