Bible Truth #267 - 2 Timothy 2:24-26

2 Timothy 2:24-26
24  And the Lord’s servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful.

25  Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth,

26  and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.

I’ve written about this passage before (Bible Truth #12) but I didn’t even touch upon the last phrase of verse 26.

...that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.

Do you think for one minute that the devil wants anyone to be saved? Of course not. But here Paul clearly writes that those who are not saved have been taken captive by the devil to do his will. I write again that “free will” of man is a myth. Paul wrote in Romans 6:17-18 that we are slaves of either the devil or of God, and here he tells us that the lost WILL do the devil’s will.

This is also why Paul writes in Ephesians 2:2 that people who are lost are demon-possessed. Will a man who is demon-possessed confess Christ as Savior? Will a man who is demon-possessed come unto the Light (Christ)? Of course not, and this is exactly what Jesus said (John 3:20).

Will the Arminian argue that Paul is writing a lost man can come to his senses on his own without any movement from God? Read the passage again - the lost men who are opposing Timothy must FIRST be granted repentance by God (v25) which leads to the knowledge of Truth and their coming to their senses. This is easily reconciled with John 6:29 - God does His work first.

Paul tells Timothy in the very next chapter that lost men are always learning but NEVER coming to the Truth (2 Timothy 3:7). And until lost men are granted repentance by God, they will NEVER know the Truth nor come to their senses. This results in them doing the will of the devil. Jesus said the same thing to the Pharisees in John 8:42-47.

Bottom Line - I ask again, do those who believe in man’s “free will” think it is the devil’s will to let anyone get saved?