LARRY WESSELS AND ROB ZINS: REPROBATION AND MORE CALVINIST ASSUMPTIONS

Romans 1:28-32, God Curses/Gives Up Wicked To Do Evil Eternally For Damnation Known As Reprobation.

Furthermore, since they did not see fit (ἐδοκίμασαν) to acknowledge God, He gave them up to a depraved (ἀδόκιμον) mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, slanSderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant, and boastful. They invent new forms of evil; they disobey theiIDhat those who do such things are worthy of death, they not only continue to do these things, but also approve of those who practice them. (Romans 1:28-32).

Rob Zins began by giving a very thorough definition of the adjective ἀδόκιμος, from which we derive "reprobate". However, he failed to ascertain exactly why God gave the godless up to a reprobate (depraved) mind due to his neglect to define the verb δοκιμάζω. 

 

The definition of the verb δοκιμάζω (ἐδοκίμασαν > third person aorist) is to test; by implication, to approve -- allow, discern, examine, like, (ap-)prove, try.1 

In context, God gave the godless up to a reprobate mind because they did not opt to acknowledge God. Some other translations confirm this interpretation. 

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge > KJV
And because they did not think it worthwhile to acknowledge God > Holman Christian Standard Bible.

And because they decided in themselves not to know God > Aramaic Bible in Plain English 2

Romans 9

Therefore God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and He hardens whom He wants to harden.
One of you will say to me, “Then why does God still find fault? For who can resist His will?” But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to Him who formed it, “Why did You make me like this?”Does not the potter have the right to make from the same lump of clay one vessel for special occasions and another for common use?
What if God, intending to show His wrath and make His power known, bore with great patience the vessels of His wrath, prepared for destruction? What if He did this to make the riches of His glory known to the vessels of His mercy, whom He prepared in advance for glory— (Romans 9:18-22)

Wessels introduced Bob L Ross (deceased) into the Romans 9 question: Why are some people vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? Unfortunately, Ross was not much help and, in fact, contradicted himself. He proposed that we blindly accept the Calvinist interpretation, whether we like it or not. Ross: "Paul didn't try to rationalize it, he didn't try to explain the philosophy of it. He didn't try to explain some apologetic type statement for it.. That's Paul's answer, that's my answer. I am not going to try to explain it.."  Ross went on to contradict the Calvinist view of total inability: "If you don't want to be in this class, if you don't want to be classified here, the Bible says 'whosoever will may come'. So you can get out of that category by 'whosoever will may come. You can come on in the door. The door is still open. If you want to stay over here and maybe be one of these vessels of wrath fitted to destruction. It's up to you, right? (11:00 mark)

The assumption of Wessels and Zins is that Romans 9 refers to individual predestination to salvation. However, in context Romans 9 describes how God chooses to reconstitute Israel. As such, Romans 9 refers not to individuals but to "the lump" i.e. Israel. (Romans 11:16). Israel is the lump that has been split because a number of of them have opposed God by rejecting Christ. Those Jews who have rejected Christ have excluded themselves and are no longer included within the lump that God approves.    

Paul makes a historical argument from Israel's past and defines God's choice of what constitutes the lump i.e., those elected to continue Abraham's seed. God's sovereign choice of Jacob over Esau was clearly right, given Esau's godless nature in that he rejected his birthright. (Genesis  25:34; Hebrews 12:16). 

Not only that, but Rebecca’s children were conceived by one man, our father Isaac. Yet before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad, in order that God’s plan so election might stand, not by works but by Him who calls, she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” So it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Certainly not! For He says to Moses:
“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
So then, it does not depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” Therefore God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and He hardens whom He wants to harden. (Romans 9:10-18). 

Paul's argument about Pharaoh in Romans 9:17 has been expounded many times by various commentators. Pharaoh hardened his own heart a number of times; it was not until the sixth plague that God eventually hardened his heart. (Exodus 7:21; 8:15,19,32, 9:7,12,35,10:1,20,27,11:10).  

For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” Therefore God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and He hardens whom He wants to harden. (Romans 9:16-18)

A further example can be made from Ishmael. Ishmael was not the child through whom the specific covenant of the Messiah would come. Nevertheless, God blessed Ishmael on Abraham's account and made a promise to make him into a great nation. 

And God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.” Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, “Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” And Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!” God said, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him. As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He shall father twelve princes, and I will make him into a great nation. But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year.” (Genesis 17:15-21 cf. Genesis 16:10-12,21:13,25:12-18).

For a detailed analysis of Romans 9, I recommend Joel Korytko's YouTube videos: 

How Romans 9 Doesn't Support Calvinism
Debating James White on Romans 9

1. Strong's Greek: 1381. δοκιμάζω (dokimazo) -- To test, to prove, to examine, to approve
2. Romans 1:28 Furthermore, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, He gave them up to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.