It is not a matter of what "my belief" is, but rather what
the BIBLE teaches.
The Bible doesn't teach what you believe.
Am I pleased the BIBLE teaches that (because of Adam's sin)
ALL MEN (every single one) is born spiritually dead and a slave
in Satan's "Kingdom of Babylon", destined to the SAME FIRE as
Satan and all his demons [Mat 25:41]
No, I am not "pleased" with that reality.
Why would you not be pleased with everything that God does? Based on what you said here, that means you must believe babies and small children all go to hell because, according to you, they are born spiritually dead and a slave in Satan's kingdom.
If that was true then why would Jesus have said this:
Matthew 19:13 Then people brought little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked them. 14 Jesus said, “
Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” 15 When he had placed his hands on them, he went on from there.
Is this something Jesus would say about those who were born spiritually dead and were slaves in Satan's kingdom? Of course not. You are sadly mistaken.
Am I pleased the BIBLE teaches that God, wanting to have
a people for Himself, "chose" or "elected" SOME of the lost
and provided a Savior to PAY for their sins so that they would
not have to endure eternal torment, but could receive eternal
life... yes, I am VERY PLEASED with that reality.
While He hates everyone else and will make them suffer for eternity just because He wanted that for them (since they had no choice in the matter)? Are you pleased with that?
Does that not please you?
Would you rather that God left EVERYONE to remain in Satan's
Kingdom and destined to eternal torment? Would it make you "feel"
better if EVERYONE remained in Satan's Kingdom and destined to hell?
While God can do whatever He wants, it's also true that God is love (1 John 4:8). Your "God" is partial love and partial hate. Since He is love, that is His character. He is also impartial. An impartial God of love would want everyone to have the opportunity to be saved. And that is exactly what scripture teaches.
1 Timothy 2:3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of
God our Saviour; 4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man
Christ Jesus; 6 Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.
Don't bother trying to tell me that this isn't speaking of God wanting all people to be saved or that Christ didn't give Himself as a ransom for all people. That is clearly what this is saying.
2 Peter 2:1 But there were
false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be
false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even
denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
This says that the Lord paid the price even for these false prophets and false teachers that Peter wrote about. Just because Jesus died for all people doesn't indicate that would mean universal salvation as Calvinists falsely allege. It means He gives all people the opportunity to be saved because God loves the world (John 3:16). So, Jesus died for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2) so that whoever believes in Him will have eternal life.
There is no "version" of God.
Your understanding of God is terribly flawed. You turn Him into a partial, hate-filled God when the reality is that He is impartial and is love.
There is the Biblical Truth revealed about God and His
salvation plan and there are all manner of heresies made
by men to deny that Biblical Truth.
Including yours.
Do you think that a God that SAVES some of those
destined to eternal torment is "hate"... I fail to follow
your reasoning. That is "love", or maybe you can explain
why SAVING SOME is (in your mind) God being "hateful"?
Is He only partially love? No. Scripture says simply that He is love (1 John 4:8). Scripture also says that He is impartial (not a respecter of persons). So, the revelation about His character shows that the scriptures which teach that God wants all people to repent (Acts 17:30-31, 2 Peter 3:9) and to be saved (1 Tim 2:3-6) and that Christ died for the sins of all people (John 3:16, 1 John 2:2, 1 Tim 2:6, etc.) are speaking of literally all people.
An impartial God of love would give all people the opportunity to be saved but would also not force anyone to be saved because love is not something that can be forced. It's impossible to love a robot or a puppet and a robot or puppet is not capable of loving anyone back.
1Jn 4:6
We [the elect] are of God:
he [the elect] that knoweth God heareth us [the elect];
he that is not of God [not of the elect] heareth not us [the elect].
Hereby know we [the elect] the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.
In other words... we can tell the unsaved "tares", and those
OUTSIDE the church, by their "fruit" of not loving the Saints.
7 Beloved [the elect], let us [the elect] love one another:
for love is of God; and every one that loveth [the elect]
is born of God [is part of the elect], and knoweth God.
In other words, the elect love each other because we are
born of God and we know God.
8 He that loveth not [the elect] knoweth not God;
[is not part of the elect] for God is love.
In other words, the unsaved "tares" in the church and those
lost souls OUTSIDE the church will NOT love the elect... as Jesus
told us [the elect] they hated Him... and they will hate us also.
That is their choice, not God's. Show me any scripture which teaches that God made some people so that they could not help but to hate the elect.
What does this scripture say about what God wants people like that to do?
Ezekiel 18:21 But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die. 22 All his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him: in his righteousness that he hath done he shall live. 23 Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord God: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?
Ezekiel 33:11 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?.
These passages make it very clear that God does not want anyone to remain in their wickedness and instead calls for them to turn from their wickedness. You say they can't. God says they can or else He wouldn't implore them to turn from their evil ways and turn to Him instead.
You see... in order to understand any passage of Scripture
you must FIRST be able to discern the CONTEXT of that Scripture.
Yes, I agree. Why do you have so much trouble with that?
The Bible separates all of mankind into three (3) groups, so when
you read a passage you must be able to discern WHICH of those
groups is the focus of the Scripture... or else you have error.
(1) The saved "wheat" in the church, sown by God.
(2) The unsaved "tares" in the church, sown by Satan.
(3) The lost souls OUTSIDE the church (also "children of Satan")
Wrong. There are only 2 groups. Saved and lost.
Matthew 12:30 He that is not with me
is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.
Jesus made it clear that there are 2 groups. Those who are with Him and those who are against Him. That's it. Let's accept what Jesus said instead of creating an unknown 3rd group that Jesus knew nothing about.
In the passage you cited, the CONTEXT is identified by the [blue].
However, if you cannot discern WHO is in view in each verse then you
have no hope of ever understanding the MEANING of that verse.
1Jn 2:1 My little children [the elect], these things write
I unto you [the elect], that ye [the elect] sin not. And if any
[elect] man sin, we [the elect] have an advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous:
In other words, the elect have Jesus as an advocate.
However, the unsaved "tares" (sown by Satan) and those
OUTSIDE the church (also "children of Satan") do not have
Jesus as their advocate... I hope you are now beginning to
understand WHY we must first understand the CONTEXT of
a verse before we can hope to understand the MEANING.
I understand that you take many passages out of context.
1Jn 2:2 And he [Jesus] is the propitiation for our [elect's] sins:
and not for ours only [only the Jews the letter was written to],
but also for the sins of the whole world [both Jew and Gentile].
This is an embarrassing interpretation on your part. The letter of 1 John was not just written to Jews. Where are you getting that from? That is a lie. It was written to Christians in general, both Jew and Gentile.
John was saying that Jesus is the propitiation for our (believer's) sins and not for ours only (only for those who currently believe), but also for the sins of the whole world (all people - 1 Tim 2:6).
I need to quote this verse again:
2 Peter 2:1 But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
You say that the Lord paid the price only for the elect. This says He paid the price even for these false prophets and false teachers. They were not unsaved because God didn't care about them and didn't choose them. They were unsaved because they chose to deny the Lord who bought them. Your doctrine has no way around this, though you no doubt will try.
The fact that Jesus was resurrected or He awill judge all the unsaved
does not negate the fact there are three groups in the world and
you cannot hope to understand the MEANING of any passage
when you CONFLATE those groups... because you have not
correctly understood the CONTEXT of the passage.
You have missed the context of every verse you have quoted in your post. You make things up like trying to say that 1 John was written only to Jews and that there are 3 groups of people instead of 2. What else are you going to try to make up to keep your doctrine afloat?
BOTTOM LINE:
It is a shame that YOU THINK God is hateful because He
"chose" or "elected" to save SOME of those destined to hell,
and not ALL of them. However, Romans 9:14-24 makes it very
clear that it is GOD who is the potter... and HE gets to decide
who He will save, and who He will leave unsaved.
It's a shame that you think God, who is love, only cares about some people and hates the rest. As for Romans 9, I'm continually having to remind Calvinists that they only look at half of the picture rather than the big picture. While it's true that God can have mercy on whoever He wants, it's also true that He wants to have mercy on all people, but makes them responsible to repent and believe.
Romans 11:30 30 For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief: 31 Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. 32
For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.
And Mark 4:11-12 reminds us that SOME are given understanding
while other men are NEVER MEANT to be saved... they were not
meant to "perceive" or "understand" or "be converted" or have
"their sins forgiven". When men were not meant to have their
sins forgiven - then they were NEVER MEANT to be saved.
That is not at all what Mark 4:11-12 says. If you read Matthew 13:15 you can see that they closed their own eyes before God gave them over to their wickedness and blinded them. Read Romans 1:18-32 and 2 Thess 2:9-12 and you should see that God only gives people over to their wickedness and reprobate minds after they have chosen to repeatedly reject the truth. To say that they were never meant to be saved is absolutely false since God wants all people to be saved (1 Tim 2:3-6).
When God decides to make some men "vessels of mercy"
and others "vessels of wrath fitted for destruction" [Rom 9]
that means some men were NEVER MEANT to be saved. And,
if this Biblical reality "offends" you... that is just your "fruit".
Wrong. Don't form doctrine out of isolated scripture. You think a passage like that means that God just randomly has mercy on some and destroys the rest. Scripture does not teach that. He wants to have mercy on all people (Rom 11:32) so that's why He sent His Son to die for the sins of the whole world.
This is all PART of the Gospel of the Bible.
If you think that makes God "hateful" then you demonstrate
the "fruit" of not being "elect". Remember, Jesus PROMISED
we would be able to know the unsaved by their "fruit"... which
includes BOTH bad behavior and heretical doctrines.
Matthew 7:1 Judge not, that ye be not judged. 2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. 3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? 4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? 5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.
