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The Re-Justification of God is only $0.99 right now on Amazon

By Jeremy Myers
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The Re-Justification of God is only $0.99 right now on Amazon

Last week Amazon had the paperback version of my book The Atonement of God on sale.

This week, my eBook, The Re-Justification of God, is on sale. This book is an eBook only, and it usually sells for $3.99, but I saw yesterday that they slashed the price to $0.99. That’s 75% off!

A few other people have noticed this sale as well, and have been buying the book today. Right now, it sits at #1 in the Amazon Category “Paul’s Letters.” Here is a screenshot:

re-justification of God

I must confess that it’s pretty cool for me to share a page with N. T. Wright and Timothy Keller…

My book takes a brief look at the difficult passage of Romans 9 and presents a way of understanding this text in a way that looks more like Jesus. By reading this book, you will gain a better understanding of what the text means when it says that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart and that God loved Jacob but hated Esau.

Now I know the cover for the book is pretty boring and bland, but that’s intentional. Here is an explanation of why this book cover looks the way it does. But don’t let the book cover scare you away. As the Amazon reviews for this book indicate, the book is very readable and has helped the people who read it see Romans 9 in a whole new way.

So go get your copy today for only $0.99!

Here is what others are saying about the book:

Fantastic read! Jeremy Myers has a gift for seeing things from outside of the box and making it easy to understand for the rest of us. The Re -Justification of God provides a fresh and insightful look into Romans 9:10-24 by interpreting it within the context of chapters 9-11 and then fitting it into the framework of Paul’s entire epistle as well. Jeremy manages to provide a solid theological exegesis on a widely misunderstood portion of scripture without it sounding to academic. Most importantly, it provides us with a better view and understanding of who God is. If I had a list of ten books that I thought every Christian should read, this one would be on the list.
-Wesley Rostoll

The more I revisit the scriptures, the more I see that the same patterns come up time and time again. God relentlessly pursues us and places blessings and trials in our way to win us over. Israel was chosen for that purpose, as was Egypt. Similarly, individuals are chosen for this service, whether they be like Jacob or Esau, or Pharaoh. God is prepared to make use of men and nations that He might reconcile to Him as many as who would believe in Jesus.

This is what J.D. Myers presents in “The Re-Justification of God.” He explains that in Romans 9, Paul is making a case that the Church needn’t despair about the trials that the Jewish nation was about to suffer. They needn’t worry that God reneged on his promises and commitments and covenants with Israel. In his book, Myers highlights that in the Epistle to the Romans (Chapters 9 thru 11), the Apostle Paul emphasizes that God is faithful in keeping His promises and that He uses some pretty creative means to do so – like blessing the Church (Jews and Gentiles) with primacy in delivering God’s gospel of grace to the world. He shows how Paul argues that the goodness God demonstrates in the Church serves the purpose of calling the Jewish nation to repentance and faith in their Messiah. Since God hasn’t given up on redeeming Israel, God will not give up on seeing the Church’s redemption through to completion: “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6).
-the fab five

Take advantage of this temporary sale and get your copy of The Re-Justification of God for only $0.99!

PS, If you are like me and don’t own a Kindle, you can (#AmazonAdLink) get their free Kindle Reader app for almost any computer, smartphone, or tablet.

God is Redeeming Books Bible & Theology Topics: Books I'm Writing, Re-Justification of God, Romans 9

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“The Re-Justification of God” is now on iTunes, B&N, Google

By Jeremy Myers
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“The Re-Justification of God” is now on iTunes, B&N, Google

I know that many of you have already purchased my newest eBook from Amazon, but if you don’t have Kindle (or the Kindle app for a different device), I am happy to announce that The Re-Justification of God is now available on the following platforms:

Google Play
Google Play
Apple iTunes
Apple iTunes
Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble
Amazon
Amazon

So if you haven’t bought The Re-Justification of God already, but want to get it for your Apple or Android device (or whatever else you have) feel free to get it from one of the platforms above.

And hey, if you have already bought and read the book, would you mind leaving a review of it on Amazon? (#AmazonAdLink) Go here to leave a review. Even 2-3 sentences would work. Thanks!

God is Redeeming Books Bible & Theology Topics: Books by Jeremy Myers, Calvinism, election, justification, predestination, Re-Justification of God, Romans 9, TULIP

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Understanding the Potter and the Clay in Romans 9

By Jeremy Myers
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Understanding the Potter and the Clay in Romans 9

potter and the clayWestern theology has committed a terrible disservice to this imagery of a potter and clay by making it seem as if God is a deterministic puppet master up in heaven pulling the strings of people and nations down here on earth.

This is exactly the opposite of what Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Paul meant by using this terminology.

The Potter and the Clay in Jeremiah 18

In Jeremiah 18, for example, while God is equated with the potter, God calls upon Israel to turn from her wicked ways and obey His voice so that they, as the pot which God is fashioning, will not be marred (cf. Jer 18:8-11).

God calls upon Israel to come into conformity to the work of His hands. If they do not, they will become marred, and He will have to reform the clay again into another vessel (Jer 18:4). He does not destroy or discard the clay; He simply forms it into another pot which will be used for a different purpose.

A similar understanding is seen in Isaiah 54 and Romans 9.

The Potter and the Clay is not teaching Determinism

There is no deterministic message in the image of the potter and the clay in Isaiah 54, Jeremiah 18, or Romans 9. If we accept the deterministic perspective of these texts, just imagine for a moment what sort of God is being portrayed. H. H. Rowley sums it up best:

Neither Jeremiah nor Paul had in mind an aimless dilettante, working in a casual and haphazard way, turning out vessels according to the chance whim of the moment … To suppose that a crazy potter, who made vessels with no other thought than that he would afterwards knock them to pieces, is the type and figure of God, is supremely dishonoring to God. The vessel of dishonor which the potter makes is still something that he wants, and that has a definite use … The instruments of wrath … were what the New Testament calls ‘vessels of dishonor,’ serving God indeed, but with no exalted service. They were not puppets in His hand, compelled to do His will without moral responsibility for their deed, but chosen because He saw that the very iniquity of their heart would lead them to the course that He could use (Rowley, Doctrine of Election, p. 40-41)

potter and the clay

Neither Isaiah, nor Jeremiah, nor Paul had in mind a potter who purposefully created pots just so that He could smash them. No potter would do that, then or now. Instead, God is the wise potter who works with the clay to form useful tools. The vessels of “dishonor” are not vessels which are destroyed, but vessels which will be used in “ignoble” ways. They still serve important purposes and help with vital tasks, but they are not vessels of honor.

Typically, vessels of dishonor do end up being destroyed (which is not necessarily hell!), but this is not because the potter made them for such a purpose, but because unclean vessels, when they have served their purpose, are usually not useful for anything else.

potter and the clayAnd what makes one vessel clean or unclean? As H. H. Rowley pointed out above, God allows humans to determine what kind of vessel they will be, and then He uses those who have made themselves vessels of dishonor.

A careful reading of Romans 9:22 reveals this very point. W. E. Vine, in his Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, says that the word “destruction” is used “metaphorically of men persistent in evil (Rom 9:22), where ‘fitted’ is in the middle voice, indicating that the vessels of wrath fitted themselves for destruction” (Vine’s Expository  Dictionary, 2:165)

None of this Relates to  Person’s Eternal Destiny

Again, none of this has anything to do with whether or not a person goes to heaven or hell after death. The way a vessel is used refers primarily to how God uses individuals, kings, and nations in this life. Marston and Forster add this:

The basic lump that forms a nation will either be built up or broken down by the Lord, depending on their own moral response. If a nation does repent and God builds them up, then it is for him alone to decide how the finished vessel will fit into his plan … God alone determines the special features / privileges / responsibilities of a particular nation (Forster & Marston, God’s Strategy, 74).

To read more on Romans 9, get my book The Re-Justification of God.

If you want to read more about Calvinism, check out other posts in this blog series: Words of Calvinism and the Word of God.

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: Bible Study, Books by Jeremy Myers, Calvinism, election, potter and the clay, Re-Justification of God, Romans 9, Theology of Salvation, TULIP, Unconditional Election

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Why did God love Jacob and hate Esau?

By Jeremy Myers
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Why did God love Jacob and hate Esau?

love Jacob hate EsauPaul writes a difficult statement in Romans 9:13:

Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.

Scholars debate whether or not God actually hated Esau. There are two main opinions on this question.

Option 1: Hate = “Love Less”

Some argue that the reference to hate in Malachi 1:2-3 is a Hebrew idiom for “love less.” They point out that Jesus instructs us to love our enemies rather than hate them (Matt 5:44), point to the places where Jesus tells His disciples to both hate and love their parents (Luke 14:26; Mark 10:19), and remind people that God has strictly forbidden the Israelites from hating the Edomites (Deut 23:7).

Greg Boyd succinctly explains this idea:

Some might suppose that God’s pronouncement that he “loved” Jacob and “hated” Esau shows that he is speaking about their individual eternal destinies, but this is mistaken. In Hebraic thought, when “love” and “hate” are contrasted they usually are meant hyperbolically. The expression simply means to strongly prefer one person or thing over another.

So, for example, when Jesus said, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple” (Lk 14:26), he was not saying we should literally hate these people. Elsewhere he taught people to love and respect their parents, as the Old Testament also taught (Mk 10:19). Indeed, he commanded us to love even our enemies (Mt 5:44)! What Jesus was saying was that he must be preferred above parents, spouses, children, siblings and even life itself. The meaning of Malachi’s phrase, then, is simply that God preferred Israel over Edom to be the people he wanted to work with to reach out to the world (See “How do you respond to Romans 9?“)

God loves Jacob and hates Esau

Option 2: Hate = Hate

Others, however, argue that God did in fact hate Esau (and the Edomites), for that is what the text clearly states. The Calvinistic commentator John Murray provides a good explanation of this view:

We must, therefore, recognize that there is in God a holy hate that cannot be defined in terms of not loving or loving less. Furthermore, we may not tone down the reality of intensity of this hate by speaking of it as “anthropopathic” … The case is rather, as in all virtue, that this holy hate in us is patterned after holy hate in God (Murray, Romans, 2:22).

So which view is right? Did God hate Esau?

love and hate in GodHow can we choose between the two views above? Does God hate Esau and Edom, or does He simply love Edom less than He loves Israel?

The solution to the problem of Romans 9:13 is to agree with those who say that “hate” means “hate,” but to also agree with the others who argue that neither Paul nor Malachi are talking about Esau’s eternal destiny (or anyone else for that matter).

More critical still is to recognize that what God hated is not specifically Esau, for Malachi 1:3 was written many centuries after he had died, nor was God saying He hates the people of Edom.

Instead, God hated how Edom behaved toward Israel.

The Hebrew word used in Malachi 1:3 for “hate” (Heb., sanati) is used in various other places to speak of hatred for the sin and wickedness of people (cf. Psa 26:5; 101:3; 119:104, 128, 163; Prov 8:13; Jer 44:3; Amos 5:21; 6:8; Zech 8:17), not hatred for the people themselves. In light of what many other biblical prophets say about the actions and behavior of Edom (cf. Jer 49:7-22; Lam 4:21-22; Ezek 25:12-14; Amos 1:6-11), this is how we can understand God’s hatred in Malachi 1:3.

God does not hate Edom; He hates how she has behaved. Specifically, God hated how Edom treated Israel.

To read more about this, check out my new book: The Re-Justification of God.

If you want to read more about Calvinism, check out other posts in this blog series: Words of Calvinism and the Word of God.

God is Redeeming Theology Bible & Theology Topics: Bible Study, Books by Jeremy Myers, Calvinism, election, Esau, Jacob, Malachi 1, Re-Justification of God, reprobation, Romans 9, Theology of Salvation, TULIP, Unconditional Election

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