Loren T. said in post #188:
Although, he is only vaguely honest, instead of coming right out and saying that God damns most of humanity for his own Glory.
As mere humans, we must be careful not to condemn the way that God Himself has chosen to reveal all that He is (Romans 9:20-24): both a loving being (1 John 4:8, John 15:13, Matthew 26:28) and a vengeful being (Hebrews 12:29, Luke 12:49; 2 Thessalonians 1:8-9). We must not say that it is evil for God not to elect and save everyone, and to send the nonelect and unsaved into eternal suffering (Matthew 25:41,46, Revelation 14:10-11). For by saying this we would be making humans more important than God and His wishes. And this is something which Satan causes people to do, just as Jesus Christ at one point "said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me:
for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men" (Matthew 16:23).
No matter how it may irk the Satanic pride of us humans, wanting to be important like God (Isaiah 14:12-14), so important that He would never even think of not saving all of us, and casting some of us into hell forever (Isaiah 14:15, Revelation 20:10,15), we must always remember that it is God's right to do with His creatures whatever He wants (Romans 9:21-23), and that even all of humanity together is infinitesimal and worth "less than nothing" compared with God (Isaiah 40:17-18, Daniel 4:35, Isaiah 2:22). We must resist our Satanic, human pride (which we can unconsciously disguise with good-sounding words about God's love for us), and completely humble ourselves before God (James 4:7-10; 1 Peter 5:6-8), pleading that He might have mercy on us sinners (Luke 18:13-14).
Satan would love nothing more than to get us humans in our sinful pride to wrongly reject YHWH God of the Bible as evil, so that we will end up in the lake of fire and brimstone forever with Satan and his fallen angels (Matthew 25:41,46, Revelation 20:10,15, Revelation 14:10-11, Mark 9:43-44). The future Antichrist, who will be empowered by Satan (2 Thessalonians 2:9, Revelation 13:4), will utterly revile YHWH (Revelation 13:6, Daniel 11:36). And no doubt one of his chief blasphemies against YHWH will be that YHWH is an evil god. (This is one of the ancient blasphemies of Gnosticism, another being the antichrist lie that Christ is not in the flesh: 2 John 1:7.) During the future Antichrist's literal 3.5-year worldwide reign, the world will be deceived into rejecting YHWH, and worshipping Lucifer (Satan, the dragon) and the Antichrist (the individual-man aspect of Revelation's "beast") instead (Revelation 13:4-18, Revelation 12:9).
It is the ultimate proof of the humility of Christians (James 4:10, Acts 20:19a, Matthew 23:12) for them to accept the facts of double predestination (Romans 9:11-24) and an eternal hell (Matthew 25:41,46), without rejecting YHWH as being evil for these things. For it means that Christians have humbly accepted the fact that the wholly-good YHWH God (Deuteronomy 32:4; 1 John 1:5) is infinitely more important than even all of humanity together (Isaiah 40:17, Daniel 4:35, Isaiah 2:22).
Loren T. said in post #188:
If God elects arbitrarily, then it follows that he damns arbitrarily.
No, for He only damns sinners (Romans 6:23).
Loren T. said in post #188:
Better hope you win the election lottery, because there is no way to know on this side.
There is a way to know. For any believer in the Gospel (of 1 Corinthians 15:1-4, John 20:31) can know that he or she is elect. For only elect individuals become believers in the Gospel (Acts 13:48b).
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Loren T. said in post #190:
God doesn't Chuck anyone into hell, they Chuck themselves.
No, they don't, and won't (Matthew 13:41-42).
For there are two literal hells, one temporal and one eternal. The temporal hell, called Hades in Greek (Luke 16:23), and Sheol in Hebrew (Psalms 86:13), is where the souls of non-Christians go when they die, and where they are tormented by flame (Luke 16:23-24). Before Jesus Christ's first coming, Hades was also where the souls of saved people went when they died. But the part of Hades for the saved was a place of comfort (Luke 16:25).
After Jesus Christ fulfilled the Gospel by suffering and dying on the Cross for our sins, and rising physically from the dead on the third day (1 Corinthians 15:1-4), He went down into Hades and preached the fulfillment of the Gospel to the souls there (1 Peter 3:19; 1 Peter 4:6), and then drew the souls of obedient believers there who had died in faith (Hebrews 11:13) up with Him when He ascended into heaven (Ephesians 4:8-9, Hebrews 12:22-24). Since then, the souls of obedient Christians go directly into heaven to be with Jesus when they die (Philippians 1:21,23; 2 Corinthians 5:8, Revelation 6:9-11).
At Jesus Christ's future, Second Coming, He will bring with Him from heaven the souls of all obedient Christians who have ever died (1 Thessalonians 4:14), and their bodies will be physically resurrected into immortality at that time (1 Thessalonians 4:16; 1 Corinthians 15:21-23,52-53). They will then physically reign on the earth with Jesus for 1,000 years (Revelation 20:4-6, Revelation 5:10, Revelation 2:26-29). After the 1,000 years and subsequent events (Revelation 20:7-10), all non-Christians of all times will be physically resurrected out of Hades and judged (Revelation 20:12-13), and then cast into the eternal hell, called the lake of fire and brimstone (Revelation 20:15, Revelation 21:8), where they will be tormented along with Satan and his fallen angels forever (Matthew 25:41,46, Revelation 20:10,15, Revelation 14:10-11). This eternal hell is also called Gehenna in Greek (Luke 12:5, Mark 9:45-46), and Tophet in Hebrew (Isaiah 30:33).
Tophet was also the name of a place in ancient times called the valley of Hinnom (2 Kings 23:10), just outside the southern wall of Jerusalem (Joshua 15:8). "Gehenna" literally means "the valley (ge) of Hinnom". Just as the ancient Tophet/Gehenna was outside the wall of ancient Jerusalem, so the eternal Gehenna, the lake of fire, will be just outside one wall of New Jerusalem (Revelation 22:15, Revelation 21:8), on the future, New Earth (Revelation 21:1-8), as in a new surface for the earth. Christians will go forth from New Jerusalem on the New Earth to witness the eternal torment of non-Christians in the lake of fire (Isaiah 66:24, Mark 9:46, Matthew 25:41,46, Revelation 20:10,15, Revelation 14:10-11).
Loren T. said in post #190:
And the main reason for being a Free Willy as you call it, is because we believe that whosoever means whosoever.
John 3:16 means that anyone who believes in Jesus Christ gets initially saved.
It does not mean that everyone can believe in Jesus, for other verses show that some people (the nonelect) can never believe in Him (John 6:65, John 8:42-47, John 10:26, Matthew 13:38-42).
Also, it does not mean that God originally intended to save everyone. For before the foundation of the world, He intended to save only the elect, the chosen (Ephesians 1:4-11; 2 Thessalonians 2:13b, Acts 13:48b).
Loren T. said in post #190:
To become a believer requires humility, it doesn't just happen by God sprinkling fairy dust on you.
To accept God's election of only some people requires humility. But to become a born-again Christian requires only His election (John 1:13).
And not fairy dust, but God's Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:13).
