Hello, my name is Layton Flowers. I am the director of apologetics and youth evangelism for Texas Baptist, an adjunct professor of theology,

and want to discuss today some specific passages that have been brought up in our discussions over sociology, the doctrine of salvation.

Specifically, these are the passages that are having to do with that which seems to put blame

on God for certain evil things.

We've got passages, for example, out of Isaiah chapter 10 where the king of Assyria is incited

to attack Jerusalem, to attack Israel for their lack of belief and their rebellion.

And so God uses this nation, Assyria, to bring judgment upon and wrath upon Israel.

And God even talks about God inciting this, as if this is God's plan and God wanting it to happen.

And then it goes on to describe how God judges them for that, judges Assyria. So you've got on one hand God

actually using Assyria in their wrath as a method of wrath against Jerusalem and against Israel and for their

rebellion, but then at the same time punishing Assyria for doing what they do to Israel.

So it doesn't make a lot of sense that for some people to see that and say, oh, you used these

people over here to bring wrath on Israel,

and then you condemned those people for doing that.

So that doesn't seem like it's right, and it seems like God is unholy,

and like he's bringing this to pass, and so he's bringing about a moral evil thing,

and then judging these people for it.

So a lot of people use this as kind of a proof text for what's often referred to as

compatibilism, and which is really the philosophical underpinning of what Calvinism is all

about, which is really the concept of saying, God's ultimately determined this evil thing,

but yet man is, some in some mysterious way responsible, still held

accountable for those things that he's doing.

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