Question: How does God grant people repentance?

*Our Q&A section is primarily pulled from the Dave Hunt archives. Although some references may be dated, we believe there is timeless value within the messages.

Question: The amount of time you invested in your careful writing of What Love Is This? was well spent. How I needed this information! I have one question.... In 2 Timothy:2:24-26 [24] And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, [25] In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; [26] And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.
See All... Paul talks about God granting people repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth.... What is this talking about? Would you address this passage sometime?

Response: Here is that scripture: “In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth...that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.” Obviously, Paul doesn’t believe that some are predestined to heaven and others to hell, or such a general prayer for sinners would be both senseless and blasphemous. 

Christ commissioned Paul to go to Jews and Gentiles “To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me” (Acts:26:18To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.
See All...). Paul declared that “the god of this world [Satan] hath blinded the minds of them which believe not...” (2 Cor:4:4In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
See All...). And he warned that during the reign of Antichrist God will send upon those who “received not the love of the truth...strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned...” (2 Thes:2:10-12 [10] And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. [11] And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: [12] That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
See All...). They willfully rejected the love of the truth to follow Satan’s lies. In sending them a strong delusion God is only helping them to believe the lie they wanted to believe. “Sinners are taken captive at his [Satan’s] will” because they willingly believed his lies in rejection of the truth.

Therefore Paul suggests a specific prayer for the lost: that God would help them not to believe the lie they want to believe but would help them to understand and in repentance admit the truth. The prayer Paul suggests does not ask God to sovereignly regenerate sinners and give them the faith to believe the gospel—but to help them to understand and admit the truth. What they do with that understanding will be up to them, for they must from their hearts embrace the truth in order to “recover themselves out of the snare of the devil....”