Join us as we delve deep into the theological implications of Solomon’s writings and their significance in the broader canvas of biblical teachings. Through this lens, Bob and Ken navigate the debates on perseverance, faith, and the enduring notion of grace, drawing parallels with historical figures like King Saul. They offer insights into how these scriptural narratives inform modern interpretations of salvation, with a poignant reminder to keep grace at the heart of evangelical teachings.
The following is a listener-supported ministry from the Grace Evangelical Society. If at the end of his life he was such an idolater, how could Solomon have written the book of Ecclesiastes, a book of the Bible? Let’s have a discussion about that today here on Grace In Focus, and we’re glad that you’re with us, friend. Grace in Focus is the radio broadcast and podcast ministry of the Grace Evangelical Society. Find out more about us at our website, faithalone.org. Many things there, such as videos and books and blogs, and information about GES Seminary, our online seminary, where you can earn an MDiv degree. And it’s free if you maintain a 3.0 average. Also, have a look at our conference ministry. Our national conference is coming up at the end of May. We’d love for you to be with us. Find what you need at faithalone.org. Now, with today’s question and answer discussion, here are Bob Wilkin and Ken Yates.
SPEAKER 03 :
We have a question sent in from John, and he’s talking about a book that is probably not studied too much in the Old Testament. He has a question about Ecclesiastes. He says he understands that Solomon wrote Proverbs. Now, Solomon didn’t write all of Proverbs, but he wrote most of it. But he says, what about the book of Ecclesiastes, which is another one of the wisdom literature, how we live a wise life, just like Proverbs. And we’re told in Ecclesiastes 1.1 that these are the words of the preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. And that is a reference to Solomon as well.
SPEAKER 02 :
Right.
SPEAKER 03 :
And the issue that John has and really the question he has is we all know from the book of First Kings that Solomon did not do too well after he started off well. He was the wisest man on earth. God was blessing him. He took over the reign after David died. Right. But he fell into idolatry. First Kings 11. Right. He married many foreign wives and they drew him away.
SPEAKER 02 :
He built temples for their gods, and he ended up going with them to worship their gods.
SPEAKER 03 :
Exactly. And John’s question is, could he, Solomon, have written the book despite his unrepentant attitude? In other words, could somebody like that have written a book of the Bible? You know, an idolater, someone who was clearly out of fellowship. Now, he was a believer, but he was certainly not walking in obedience to the Lord.
SPEAKER 02 :
Okay, well, there’s several questions here, but let me throw out one thing. It’s widely held, not everybody agrees, but most people agree that 1 Kings 11 suggests that Solomon died as an idolater. He was not simply an idolater and then repented and ended his life walking in fellowship with the Lord. One piece of evidence for that is look at Hebrews chapter 11. It’s the Hebrew Hall of Faith or the Hall of Fame. And you have lots of people mentioned there, but not Solomon.
SPEAKER 03 :
And you would think Solomon would be mentioned if he had… Okay, because the issue is, even though 1 Kings doesn’t mention it, could he have repented of his idolatry?
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes, it’s possible, but that’s not the impression you’re left. Since why wouldn’t 1 Kings mention it if he did repent?
SPEAKER 03 :
And then someone could ask as well, why isn’t he mentioned in Hebrews 11? Yeah, I mean— Because Samson is mentioned.
SPEAKER 02 :
Samson’s there, and he was kind of a scoundrel. He had all kinds of problems, but he did end well, right? God gave him his strength back, and he sacrificed himself to kill 3,000 Philistines by pushing down the pillars in this pagan temple. And he was, although a troubled man and problem with women, he still was someone who wanted to please the Lord.
SPEAKER 03 :
And Solomon had problems with women.
SPEAKER 02 :
And Solomon had problems. You know, he had 700 wives and 300, what do they call them, porcupines?
SPEAKER 03 :
No, I think concubines.
SPEAKER 02 :
Concubines. Okay. Anyway, they certainly got him into trouble. But no, I don’t think, John, that Solomon was out of fellowship with the Lord when he wrote Ecclesiastes.
SPEAKER 03 :
So that leaves one other option, that he wrote before he fell into idolatry.
SPEAKER 02 :
Right, but I guess there’s one other point before we get to John’s question, and that is… Was Solomon born again? You see, a lot of people hold the view, I’m sure you know this, Ken, that if you fall away, you either lose your salvation or prove you never had it in the first place, or modern Calvinists, they call them the new Calvinists, you fail to win final salvation.
SPEAKER 03 :
Sure, right.
SPEAKER 02 :
So there are a lot of people who think that Solomon is in hell now.
SPEAKER 03 :
And they take the view that he clearly didn’t repent, you know, and that’s why. That shows that he wasn’t saved.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, they take verses that talk about the fact that idolaters will not inherit the kingdom, and they say inherit the kingdom means get in, so therefore Solomon’s idolater, he won’t get in. Well, it is not talking about getting in. It’s talking about inheriting the kingdom, which is ruling. I remember Zane Hodges talking to him, and he held the view that King Saul, a very troubled man himself— died in faith, that even though he took his own life, he didn’t take his own life just to take his own life. He didn’t want to be tortured and abused by the Philistines. He was still someone that was reaching out to God. He was praying. And he said it’s at least remotely possible that King Saul might have some level of rulership in the life to come.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, I certainly, when I teach, I certainly point out that Saul will be in the kingdom. 1 Samuel 10, right? He had a new heart. He was prophesying. He was prophesying with the prophets. So this is a believer.
SPEAKER 02 :
Right. But Hodges went on to say, but arguably the greatest king of Israel, certainly the wisest and richest, King Solomon, Hodges said, will not rule and reign with Christ because he died as an idolater. And the New Testament says no idolater will inherit the kingdom of God. Solomon will probably have great riches in the kingdom because he laid up a lot of treasure, but he’s not going to rule and he’s not going to reign. And I would say that’s my view. So the idea that somehow if you fall away, you don’t make it into the kingdom. That’s a contradiction of John 3, 16.
SPEAKER 03 :
Absolutely. Yeah. Solomon will be in the kingdom.
SPEAKER 01 :
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SPEAKER 03 :
We’re going to be surprised at some of the people in the kingdom, and we’re going to be surprised at some of the people who aren’t in the kingdom, right? Of the people we know, you know, because they never believed in Christ for eternal life.
SPEAKER 02 :
To give you kind of a puzzler, I don’t know how many popes there have been. Do you know? I think the number has to be a couple hundred, probably. say, five or more per century. And there were some times where there were multiple competing popes at the same time. But let’s say there were 100 popes. I wonder how many of those were born again.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s a good question.
SPEAKER 02 :
Would you know if you wanted to take an over under, would you be over or under on 10? More than 10 were born again or less than 10 were born again?
SPEAKER 03 :
I don’t know. I guess maybe from more modern history, I would go under. I would go under.
SPEAKER 02 :
I would go under also. I think it’s conceivable that none of them were, but most likely some of them early in their experience got it, or early in church history too, but early in their lives maybe got it. And so maybe the number is more than 10, but whatever it is, a pope can’t be saved by their good works. A pope is only saved by grace through faith apart from works. And if they never believed that, then they were never born again. Same thing with monks and same thing with priests. Nuns and nuns, all that.
SPEAKER 03 :
Mother Teresa.
SPEAKER 02 :
Mother Teresa. If she’s with the Lord, it’s only because at some point she believed because she helped out people in India.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right. Well, in Ecclesiastes, let’s just say, okay, this is written before he fell into idolatry. And I can show you some evidence. Oh, sure. But right now, with the time thing, we’re going to get into the conclusion of the book. That’s where I want to go. Well, there you go. I knew you were headed there. This is not written by an idolater.
SPEAKER 02 :
No, if you read—now, different people have different views, but I was talking with Brad Daskasil, who’s writing our commentary on Ecclesiastes, and there are different views on its purpose. Some people think its purpose is pessimistic and basically to say that life is frustrating, so just get all the joy you can. That it’s a gift.
SPEAKER 03 :
Just enjoy it as a gift from God.
SPEAKER 02 :
As best you can.
SPEAKER 03 :
And don’t try to figure anything out.
SPEAKER 02 :
But if you read the last two verses of the book in Ecclesiastes 12, 13, and 14, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter.
SPEAKER 03 :
Here’s the conclusion of the book. Written by Solomon. Right. Fear God and keep his commandments. Yeah, it’s kind of hard to see an idolater saying that. Hey, here’s what you need to do. Right? Yeah.
SPEAKER 02 :
For this is man’s all. For God will bring every work into judgment. He’s talking about judgment in this life and certainly after this life.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, I think Brad takes the position that this is mainly looking in the world to come because he can’t judge. All a man’s work is not going to be judged in this life. But he’s going to judge all.
SPEAKER 02 :
Right. Yeah. And so at the judgment of believers, there will be their works judged. At the judgment of unbelievers at the great white throne, their works will be judged. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing. This is brought out in Matthew 6, that all the things done in secret will be rewarded.
SPEAKER 03 :
And even 1 Corinthians 4, wait till the Lord returns and he’ll judge our motives. Right.
SPEAKER 02 :
And sometimes it talks about the hidden deeds of darkness, because a lot of the hidden things are hidden in the darkness, whether good or evil. So if you have good things that are not good, well-known, they were hidden, that’s going to be brought forth, and the bad things too. So this is the purpose of Ecclesiastes, and basically it seems to me this sounds like the theology of rewards we see all through the New Testament and the theology of accountability.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, and Solomon talking here about keep his commandments, you know, because one day we’re going to give an account. And that, again, that seems there’s no way that could be written by a man who is completely out of fellowship with the Lord.
SPEAKER 02 :
He would certainly be hypocritical if he wrote this out of fellowship. We believe that all of the, how does 1 Peter 1.21 say it? Men moved by the Holy Spirit. So the Holy Spirit’s moving through Solomon to write this.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right.
SPEAKER 02 :
Is he going to be doing that when Solomon is in rebellion against him and idolatry? I don’t think so.
SPEAKER 03 :
And even verse 13, when he’s talking about fear God, what does it mean to fear God? Well, certainly it means you fear him in the sense you’re worshiping him, you have awe of him, but also you fear him, what he’s going to say to you. Exactly. You know, what is he going to say to me on this judgment? I understand that he can withhold these eternal rewards or he can give me eternal rewards if I’ve been faithful to him.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, I recently did a talk about fearing God and the expression fear of the Lord. You know, it’s beginning wisdom, etc. And I said, maybe the fact that it has the word fear in it suggests there should be some fear. Yeah. Right.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, thank you, John, for this question. We hope that answers it. Basically, we’re saying that Solomon wrote this before he fell into idolatry. So in his younger days. Right. Well, thank you. And Ecclesiastes, therefore, is a book of grace. God, in his grace, allows us to work for him for rewards. And remember, keep grace in focus.
SPEAKER 01 :
Be sure to check out our daily blogs at faithalone.org. They are short and full of great teaching, just like what you’ve heard today. Find them at faithalone.org resources blog. We would love to hear from you. Maybe you’ve got a question, comment, or some feedback. If you do, please don’t hesitate to send us a message. Here’s our email address. It’s radio at faithalone.org. That’s radio at faithalone.org. And when you do, very important, please let us know your radio station call letters and the city of your location. On our next episode, is there a second chance for salvation after you die? That’s next time. And until then, let’s keep grace in focus. The preceding has been a listener supported ministry from the Grace Evangelical Society.
