Does God Love everyone?

Does God Love everyone?

  • Yes

    Votes: 51 81.0%
  • No

    Votes: 12 19.0%

  • Total voters
    63
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Rubiks

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No, God doesn't just hate sin...he also hates sinners.

Then why doesn't God command us to hate sinners? A standard theory from Christian philosophers is that morality is derived from God's nature himself. We are told to love because God himself is love.
 
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LittleLambofJesus

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I wish the poll would have had other options, such as "I don't know" and/or "other".
I also think it would be convenient if we could see which members voted on which option.
Just bringing that up......

Does God Love everyone?
  1. Yes
  2. No
 
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HypnoToad

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No, God doesn't just hate sin...he also hates sinners.
The question, though, is "does God love everyone?", not "does God hate some"? So, you are assuming that God can not love those He hates. If God's hate and love preclude one another, how can God *BE* love (1 John 4:8) and at the same time hate some people? God would have to stop being love at some times in order to hate some. Did John mean to actually say, "God is sometimes love"?
 
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Hammster

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Hammster

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According to Hebrews 12, I would say that is a correct assessment....

Hebrews 12:
5 and ye have forgotten the exhortation that doth speak fully with you as with sons, ‘My son, be not despising chastening of the Lord, nor be faint, being reproved by Him,
6 for whom the Lord doth love He doth chasten, and He scourgeth every son whom He receiveth;’

7 if chastening ye endure, as to sons God beareth Himself to you, for who is a son whom a father doth not chasten?
8 and if ye are apart from chastening, of which all have become partakers, then bastards are ye, and not sons.
9 Then, indeed, fathers of our flesh we have had, chastising [us], and we were reverencing [them]; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of the spirits, and live?
Punishment and discipline aren’t the same.
 
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Hammster

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God does love everyone in a sense. He cares for all his creatures and his mercy is over all that he has made. But he loves his church in a unique sense in which he does not love all people.

This ^
 
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LittleLambofJesus

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I think you are confusing discipline with punishment.
LLoJ goes to the web to find out:

The Distinction Between God’s Punishment and God’s Discipline | Monergism

It is of first importance that we learn to draw a sharp distinction between Divine punishment and Divine chastisement: important for maintaining the honour and glory of God, and for the peace of mind of the Christian. The distinction is very simple, yet is it often lost sight of. God’s people can never by any possibility be punished for their sins, for God has already punished them at the Cross.

The Lord Jesus, our Blessed Substitute, suffered the full penalty of all our guilt, hence it is written “The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). Neither the justice nor the love of God will permit Him to again exact payment of what Christ discharged to the full. The difference between punishment and chastisement lies not in the nature of the sufferings of the afflicted: it is most important to bear this in mind.

There is a threefold distinction between the two. First, the character in which God acts. In the former God acts as Judge, in the latter as Father. Sentence of punishment is the act of a judge, a penal sentence passed on those charged with guilt. Punishment can never fall upon the child of God in this judicial sense because his guilt was all transferred to Christ: “Who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree” (1 Pet. 2:24)

But while the believer’s sins cannot be punished, while the Christian cannot be condemned (Rom. 8:3), yet he may be chastised. The Christian occupies an entirely different position from the non-Christian: he is a member of the Family of God. The relationship which now exists between him and God is that of parent and child; and as a son he must be disciplined for wrongdoing. Folly is bound up in the hearts of all God’s children, and the rod is necessary to rebuke, to subdue, to humble.

The second distinction between Divine punishment and Divine chastisement lies in the recipients of each. The objects of the former are His enemies. The subjects of the latter are His children. As the Judge of all the earth, God will yet take vengeance on all His foes. As the Father of His family, God maintains discipline over all His children. The one is judicial, the other parental.

A third distinction is seen in The design of each: the one is retributive, the other remedial. The one flows from His anger, the other from His love. Divine punishment is never sent for the good of sinners, but for the honoring of God’s law and the vindicating of His government. But Divine chastisement is sent for the well-being of His children: “We have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness” (Heb. 12:9-10).

The above distinction should at once rebuke the thoughts which are so generally entertained among Christians. When the believer is smarting under the rod let him not say, God is now punishing me for my sins. That can never be. That is most dishonoring to the blood of Christ. God is correcting thee in love, not smiting in wrath. Nor should the Christian regard the chastening of the Lord as a sort of necessary evil to which he must bow as submissively as possible. No, it proceeds from God’s goodness and faithfulness, and is one of the greatest blessings for which we have to thank Him. Chastisement evidences our Divine son-ship: the father of a family does not concern himself with those on the outside: but those within he guides and disciplines to make them conform to his will. Chastisement is designed for our good, to promote our highest interests. Look beyond the rod to the All-wise hand that wields it!

The Hebrew Christians to whom this Epistle was first addressed were passing through a great fight of afflictions, and miserably were they conducting themselves. They were the little remnant out of the Jewish nation who had believed on their Messiah during the days of His public ministry, plus those Jews who had been converted under the preaching of the apostles. It is highly probable that they had expected the Messianic Kingdom would at once be set up on earth and that they would be allotted the chief places of honour in it. But the Millennium had not begun, and their own lot became increasingly bitter. They were not only hated by the Gentiles, but ostracized by their unbelieving brethren, and it became a hard matter for them to make even a bare living.

Providence held a frowning face. Many who had made a profession of Christianity had gone back to Judaism and were prospering temporally. As the afflictions of the believing Jews increased, they too were sorely tempted to turn their back upon the new Faith. Had they been wrong in embracing Christianity? Was high Heaven displeased because they had identified themselves with Jesus of Nazareth? Did not their suffering go to show that God no longer regarded them with favour?
 
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com7fy8

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Hate can mean different things.

It can mean God is displeased with someone but He loves the person . . . desiring all which is good for the person, and so He is so displeased with the person who doesn't want to share all with God like God would love to do with the stubborn person.

You can hate the smell of a dog which was sprayed by a skunk, but you love the doggie. And you are displeased with your little doggie since he or she has gotten sprayed for the third time. But that displeasure kind of hate does not keep you from loving your doggie cutie sweetie pie; but you're quite mad that you and your little pet can't snuggle and kiss for a while.
 
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HypnoToad

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God is Love. So the answer is yes.
While I agree with that part,

Hell is proof: He sees the gold in us, and is willing to put us through the fire so that we can come out....pure gold.
that seems problematic, unless you are claiming to be a universalist, and hell is only temporary.
 
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Monk Brendan

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Since Hell exists, the answer is obviously No.

WRONG! GOD LOVES EVERYONE. However, He allows every person to make a choice as to whether they want to cooperate with Him, or not. Those that choose violence, murder, lust, lying, etc., will never make it to heaven, unless they repent.
 
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Danielwright2311

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Simple question with profound theological and philosophical underpinnings, but I am going to poll this closed-ended. If you have more to add, please comment below.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son to die on the cross.

I think people forget what Jesus said on the matter.

I follow only Jesus.
 
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RaymondG

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While I agree with that part,


that seems problematic, unless you are claiming to be a universalist, and hell is only temporary.
I Dont know the universalist doctrine, so i cant claim to be with them....nor do i wish to be a follower of doctrine, but a follower of Christ. The best ones to intelligently discuss the temporality of the physical hell...are those who have been there and back.
 
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JoeP222w

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Simple question with profound theological and philosophical underpinnings, but I am going to poll this closed-ended. If you have more to add, please comment below.

Depends on the understanding of love you are referring to. Are you talking about man's limited perspective on love, or love as defined by the Bible (and thus God)?

God gives all His creation common grace, as a means of demonstrating one form of His love. We are born into sin, and God would have every right to end our lives the moment we are born, but He grants us grace and mercy for a time, to demonstrate His glory and power. So if you are alive at this moment, everyone is under God's common grace.

God gives redemptive grace (redemptive love) to only the elect. The non-elect remain dead in their sins by default, they do not have God's redemptive love and grace. [We do not know the identity of the elect]. Redemptively, God hated Esau, yet all the more amazingly God loved Jacob.

God does not play favorites, but He does choose how He defines His love. I define my love for my wife drastically different than my love for my next door neighbor, but they are both forms of love. If we have the ability to differentiate love, God does even more so.
 
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RaymondG

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John 3:16 for God so loves the world
Another verse I can't remember the exact verse says that God takes no pleasure in sending people to hell. The choice is ours to accept Christ and live or reject Christ and die.

Ezekiel 33:11 King James Version (KJV)
11 Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?
 
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