Jesus befriended sinners, demon possessed , adulterers , pagans etc …. while they were sinners/ unbelievers and spoke with them , ate with them. Gods wrath will be upon those who die in unbelief but while they are still living there is still hope they will repent and believe in Him.
There are two sides to the wrath coin
Nope-notice the Perfect-Passive-Participle, in 1 Pet 2
Unbelievers in a STATE of being blinded-I sound like a Calvinist but I'm not.
"which has been rejected by men" This is a PERFECT PASSIVE PARTICIPLE. This may be an allusion to 1 Pet. 2:7, which is from the Septuagint of Ps. 118:22. The stone is disapproved by "the builders," which may refer to the Jewish leadership, but in Peter it
is widened to all unbelieving humans.
This compound term, from apo and dokimazō, means the testing of someone or something to find if it is genuine.
The Jews continued to reject Jesus as the Messiah and this rejection became a state of spiritual blindness (cf. Mark 8:31; Matt. 6:23).
NASB "and to this doom they were also appointed"
NKJV, Peshitta "to which they also were appointed"
NRSV "as they were destined to do"
TEV "such was God's will for them"
REB "this is the fate appointed for them"
Calvinists use this verse and Rom. 9:22; 1 Thess. 5:9 to assert that God chose some to salvation and some to damnation.
However, verses like John 3:16; 1 Tim. 2:4; 2 Pet. 3:9 show this cannot be true. God's election is primarily for holiness (cf. Eph. 1:4; 2:10); for Christlikeness (cf. Rom. 8:29).
This verse reminds me of Isa. 6:9-13. God's covenantal people had the light they needed to respond appropriately to Him, but they would not.
This continual rejection issued in hard hearts that could not respond. Only judgment was possible. The God of time and history knows what humans will do but allows them to do it and then He affirms and recognizes the consequences of their temporal/eternal choices.
It must have been very hard for these Jewish believers to deal with the Jewish rejection of Jesus. How could this happen? These early believers began to read the Scriptures for clues to this surprising unbelief.
Isaiah 6:9-10; 8:14-15; 43:8
Jeremiah 5:21; 7
Matt. 21:33-44; Mark 12:1-12
Luke 2:34; 20:9-18
Romans 9-11
1 Corinthians 1:23
The following quote is from F. F. Bruce, Answers to Questions, pp. 196-197, about "election" vs. "selection."
"Are 'election to salvation' and 'election to damnation' correlative terms?
In certain theological systems they are, but it is important to test all theological systems by Scripture, and to remember that, when the teaching of Scripture is systemized, something is usually left out in the process. The term 'election' has become so involved in theological controversy that the sense of the Biblical teaching on the subject might be better grasped if we used a non-theological word like 'selection' in its place. Christ selected twelve men to be apostles (Luke 6:13); He selected Saul of Tarsus to be a 'chosen vessel' (Acts 9:15); but His selection of these men for a special purpose implies no disparagement of others who were not so selected. God selected Israel from among the nations (Acts 13:17)—to the great benefit of the other nations, not to their disadvantage. When the election of the people of God in this age is in question, it is not so much their 'election to salvation' as their election to holiness that is emphasized. This is so, for example, in Eph. 1:4 and 1 Pet. 1:1f; and similarly, in Rom. 8:29, the purpose for which God foreordained those whom He foreknew was that they should be 'conformed to the image of his Son.' In none of these places is there any suggestion of 'election to damnation' as a correlative. We should beware of generalizing from such particular references as those in Rom. 9:22 ('vessels of wrath made for destruction') and 1 Pet. 2:8 'they stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do'). The general analogy of Biblical teaching on this subject indicates that some are chosen or selected by God—not in order that others, apart from them, may be left in perdition, but in order that others, through them, may be blessed."
www.freebiblecommentary-org.
Johann.
