New Testament 175

Luke 9:52-56

These verses speak eloquently of the Savior’s desire not to damn or to hurt, but to save and to bless.

Again, this portrayal seems incompatible (to me, at least) with what I understand to be the Calvinist position that some — indeed, most — of humanity were created to be vessels of wrath, destined irrevocably to be sent to eternal torment in Hell.

Could the person quoted in verse 55 really be the author of the Calvinist scheme for human destiny?

I think not.

Now, I freely admit that many ancient manuscripts actually omit the words translated in the King James Version as “Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.  For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.”

But even those manuscripts indicate that, when James and John proposed that they “bid fire come down from heaven and consume [the Samaritans],” Jesus “turned and rebuked them.”