Better For That Man If He Had Not Been Born

Q: Would God be denying someone the rights to be against him if he refused to give life to someone who he knew was gonna be a non-believer when they grew up and died? I know God gives us a freewill , so would this be denying a person their freewill , if he stopped someone from being born who was gonna be against him?

A: Thank you for your question. I do not believe there is anything in the Bible to support the idea that God would deny someone the rights to be against Him even to the point of denying them birth because they would not believe in Him. Scripture is full of individuals and groups of people who were unbelievers and inflicted vast amounts of pain and suffering on others. You could start with Adam and Eve. The first two people God created would turn against God by listening to Satan and eating the forbidden fruit. Thus, sin entered the world. You have numerous references to Pharaoh hardening his heart when it came to freeing the Jews from captivity in Egypt (Exodus 7-10, 11). Then there are the countless numbers of unbelieving tribes mentioned in the Old Testament that stood against Israel. You have the Philistines, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, the Amalekites and the Jebusites, to name a few. Ultimately, however, if God were to deny someone the right to be against Him, to the point that He refused to give life to someone, nobody would ever had been born.

In his letter to the Romans, the apostle Paul writes, "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one (Romans 3:10-12)." And later in the same chapter he says, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23)." Notice how Paul uses the phrase, "All have turned aside." To turn aside means to deviate or depart from the direct course. In other words, you can say that all have deviated or departed from believing in God because of our indwelling sin. Therefore, God can be said to have granted people the right to deny Him and given life to people He knew would not believe in Him. One could argue that without God allowing people not to believe in Him, nobody would be have the opportunity to accept Jesus Christ's offer of salvation. This is what Jesus said about Judas, who would betray Him. "The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born (Matthew 26:24)." Perhaps, if Judas were not born, Jesus would not have been betrayed. Therefore, Jesus would not have gone to the cross to die for our sins. Now, I am sure God would have found another way to accomplish His plan of salvation, but I trust you understand my point. 


One of the blessings God has granted to all of us is the ability to have freewill. Answer a question; Is it better to force someone to love you or have them choose to love you? Personally, I believe it is better to have someone choose to love you. That means they want to be in your life and have you in their life. When someone is forced to do something, their heart is not in it. God allows for people not to believe in Him because He must do so in order to allow people to believe in Him. That is the essence of freewill. God knows that when someone accepts Jesus Christ as their savior, they have chosen to love Him because they want Him in their life. Therefore, rather than deny people from being born or create robots who have no ability to think on our own or choose what direction we want to go in, God, in His love, gave us freewill in hopes that we would exercise it to come to Him by faith. For example, Jesus said, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing (Luke 13:34)!" Here you see Jesus admit the Jews were "not willing" to believe in Him. They were exercising their freewill to deny believing in Christ. 

God is omnipotent and we are impotent. He is infinite and we are finite. Therefore, if He decided to deny someone the right to be against Him by not giving them life, we would not even be aware that such a thing had taken place. However, the Bible gives strong evidence that the exact opposite of this is true. Everybody who has ever taken a breath comes into the world as an unbeliever. Yet, God has created this world in such a way that it testifies to the unbeliever of His existence (Romans 1:20). Furthermore, He has given each individual the conscious understanding of right and wrong (Romans 2:15). Finally, He has given us Himself, in the Person of Jesus Christ (Romans 3:22). All of these things, combined with the testimony of Christians and the emptiness of the human heart, which longs to be filled by God, come together to present an iron clad presentation of the existence of God and His desire for unbelievers to accept Jesus Christ as their only means of salvation. Be encouraged and always remember that, "The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9)." God allows unbelievers life, so that they will have the opportunity to repent of their unbelief. He loves them that much!