Golden Nuggets from Really Old Books: The Permissive Sense

In our day many atheists, agnostics, and anti-Christians denigrate the God of the Bible due to their failure to interpret it properly. Understanding the "permissive sense" of many passages would alleviate the problem of understanding some passages that make God appear to be arbitrary and unfair. In 1895, Charles F. Schaeffer explained this "permissive sense" while commenting on Matthew 23:31-32:

31 Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.
Predictions of evils that God permits, but does not desire, are often expressed in the language of command; this circumstance simply indicates that such results of human depravity will not be prevented (see 1 Kings 22:22; Isai. 6:9, 10; 8:9; 13:6; 29:9; Jer. 1:10; John 13:27; and comp., 13:14, B., above). Thus the language, as in the word "run" in 2 Sam. 18:23, or "send" in 2 Kings 2:17, IS USED IN A PERMISSIVE SENSE ONLY. Sometimes, as below (ver 38, and in John 5 : 40), such an event is merely stated as a fact that is about to occur, or that has occurred. The present words, which are closely connected with the preceding verse and are to be interpreted in the sense of the parable in ch. 21:33-40, imply: Your fathers killed the prophets, who were mere men; yE intend (12:14) to kill the Prince of life (Acts 3:15; 7:52; 1 Thess. 2:15); if the wickedness of your fathers did not proceed to the utmost possible degree (figuratively=did not make the vessel or measure full), you desire to reach that ultimate point of iniquity ("fill, etc."), beyond which divine justice cannot allow you to proceed. Hence you exceed in guilt your fathers whose murderous acts you profess to condemn.
Charles F. Schaeffer, Annotations on the Gospel According to St Matthew: Matthew XVI-XXVIII. Part II (New York: Scribner & Sons, 1895), pp. 206, 207