"The LORD tries the righteous: but the wicked and him that loves violence His soul hates." - Psalm 11:5
"As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated." - Romans 9:13
"And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness." - Malachi 1:2
God does not love every single person.
Also Cody the verses you selected did not say God loves sinners in an all inclusive sense. All of the elect were ungodly at one time, and all do sin but God loves them unconditionally and saves them from themselves. Also it would take a work of grace for a sinner to even genuinely ask God to draw him to Himself, therefore they would be elect, because God chose move upon them to even realize his need and cry out.
Also for everyone bagging on Calvinism. A lot of the misunderstandings being set forth here are the same old regurgitated stuff that most people say who really just don't get it or are offended by the thought of it. I won't debate about it. It's been argued about for years and years to no avail. There was once a time you couldn't convince me of God's sovereign grace. In fact I remember how extremely angry Romans 9 made me the first time I studied it. Now I rejoice in God's judgments and wisdom.
I do not necessarily consider myself a Calvinist, simply because I have drawn nothing from Calvin himself, and I have not read his works, but I was taught by the Spirit of God in the scriptures that the Lord is sovereign in salvation and my Christian experience bears witness to it. I did not make a decision for Him: I read His word and He came down and saved me. I made no conscience decision, nor did I make any accent to Him, but rather He descended upon me and I could not stop Him or resist him. Even after that I tried to run and fight against Him. I tried to reject God and even told Him I hated Him to His face. I did everything in my power to lose my salvation and run away from Him but He saved me in spite of myself. Now I'm here, thankful, and alive in Him.
I remember trying to say the sinners prayer some time after I was saved, and I felt uncommonly silly about it. Then afterwords I came to an alter call and a man walked up to me and said "The Lord wants you to know that you did not chose Him, He chose you" A year or two later when I came up to the front a different man came up to me and said the same exact thing.
I know it's not wise to build doctrine from experience and I am not attempting to do that, but I will confess that my experience does greatly fortify what I know and have been taught of God, and He has made sure I do understand and experience His sovereignty in my salvation. Now I know that my will has only ever done one thing and that is rebel against God. I could not obey apart from Him, I couldn't cry out for Him without His grace to move me.... I couldn't even have believed at all if He did not first enable me to do so.
I guess that's it
(unsubscribing)
In Christ,
Shaun
not.
