There are a lot of passages of scripture that speak of promises made by God. The apostle Peter wrote, “Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust”. Certainly the promise of eternal life in heaven would be an example of an “exceeding great and precious” promise. Of course the list of the promises of God would be great and no doubt worthy of our study. However, in this article we wish to notice promises that God never made. Sometimes the very absence of a promise from God ought to be thought of as a conspicuous absence or in other words, it ought to point us toward realizing a truth we may well have been overlooking. Let us consider a few promises that God never made.
God has never promised to accept the excuses of man for a failure to be obedient to Him. In fact, all Biblical evidence indicates that God will not accept such excuses. In the garden of Eden, Adam and Even both sought to cast blame elsewhere (Gen. 3:11-13), but such efforts were in vain. They were held accountable for their actions. Saul, the first king of Israel was commanded to destroy all the nation of Amalek, including all the people and all the herds (I Sam. 15:3). Saul did destroy Amalek, but he brought back king Agag and the best of the sheep and oxen (I Sam. 15:9), which was a failure to obey all that God had commanded. When questioned about his disobedience, he attempted to make an excuse based upon good intentions, to offer them as a sacrifice to God (I Sam. 15:15). Samuel’s response to Saul was, “Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams” (I Sam. 15:22). No matter the good intentions we may have, it is never acceptable in the sight of God to be disobedient to Him. He has never promised to accept excuses for disobedience.
God has never promised to give us another single day of life. Again, the scriptural evidence indicates in that He has warned us over and over, that we should be prepared at all times to leave this earthly life. Recorded in Luke’s gospel account, the Lord in a parable tells of a man who obtained riches and began making great plans for what he would do with all his wealth. The Lord then stated, “But God said unto him Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?” (Luke 12:20). James wrote, “Go to now, ye that say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away” (James 4:13-14). Solomon the wise stated, “Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth” (Proverbs 27:1). We have no promise from God that we will live another day past this one we are currently in.
Although contrary to the beliefs of many, God never promised that if we will become one of His children that we would enjoy a life free from all hardships. None could have been more righteous than the picture that is painted of the apostle Paul, yet scripture records great hardships that he endured (II Cor. 6:4-5; 11:23-27). Indeed, the trials of life fall upon all, both the good and the evil.
Another promise of God conspicuously missing from scripture is that of anyone being saved in this Christian dispensation, outside of Christ. The apostle Paul clearly states that all spiritual blessings in heavenly places are in Christ (Eph. 1:3). Paul went on to point out that it is in Christ that “…we have redemption through his blood” (Eph. 1:7) and “…also we have obtained an inheritance…” (Eph. 1:11). Paul pointed out to Timothy that salvation is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory” (II Tim. 2:10). To the Romans Paul revealed the means of getting into Christ when he wrote, “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:3-4). He revealed it a second time in writing when he told the Galatians, “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Gal. 3:26-27). No salvation outside of Christ!
One last missing promise is one that a man would be able to change his spiritual state after he has died. The account of the rich man and Lazarus found in Luke sixteen clearly shows that such simply cannot be done. Abraham told the rich man, “between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence” (Luke 16:26). It will be too late to chance after death!