Does God Try His Best to Save Everyone?

[jimmyjimmy]

If God desires all men to be saved, why aren't they? Is it that He isn't trying hard enough?

Please answer the following question without changing any of God's attributes. Why aren't all men saved, if indeed God desire all men (without exception) to be saved?



* I do not believe that God has ever intended to save all people, but many people do, so I am interested in their replies.

 

[Godlovesmetwo]

Your questions are a lot more challenging than the ones I ask.
Last time I attended my performance review meeting with God, He told me this. "Paul, I try to save everyone, but some just don't want to be saved and others just don't deserve to be. And those people who follow me, that think good works aren't important, had better wake up! Paul tell them! Good works or Hell. That's their choice!"

 

[Wolfe]

God has.

Christ, it's mind numbingly easy to follow Christ ,but many don't.
God aint gonna force anybody to follow him, so that's the best he can do within his parameters.

A better question would be, why hasn't man done the best it can do to be saved.

 

[jimmyjimmy]

God has.

Christ, it's mind numbingly easy to follow Christ ,but many don't.
God aint gonna force anybody to follow him, so that's the best he can do within his parameters.

A better question would be, why hasn't man done the best it can do to be saved.

Doesn't the word, "save" imply someone else is doing it? Does a person unconscious in a burning building, "save" himself?

Also, did you just use, "Christ" as an expletive? I colored it red to point it out.

 

[jimmyjimmy]

Your questions are a lot more challenging than the ones I ask.
Last time I attended my performance review meeting with God, He told me this. "Paul, I try to save everyone, but some just don't want to be saved and others just don't deserve to be. And those people who follow me, that think good works aren't important, had better wake up! Paul tell them! Good works or Hell. That's their choice!"

Some people don't deserve to be saved? Are there some who do? Do you?

 

[section9+1]

God would have everyone saved if they would. We have free will so we get to decide. I have no issue with people rejecting God. I take issue with the belief that God has already pre-selected who gets saved and who doesn't.

 

[Monna]

Believe it or not, it's because in his love, he respects their right to choose. And he will/can not go against his love. It's about relationship primarily, and he wants no phoney relationship. He doesn't want a relationship based on "I don't want to burn in hell" but one based on "I love you, because you have showered your love on me; you deserve my love and devotion and I give it to you." The changed behaviour (against self-will and self-centredness) comes as a result, not as a precondition or cause.

 

[Wolfe]

Doesn't the word, "save" imply someone else is doing it? Does a person unconscious in a burning building, "save" himself?

Also, did you just use, "Christ" as an expletive? I colored it red to point it out.

Yes, Christ is our salvation, he saved us.

And no, I didn't use it in that way.
I was simply telling you what God has done, Christ.

I can see how you'd misunderstand that, given the poor placement of the word.
But I'd never use his name as a cuss word like that.

 

[sdowney717]

Believe it or not, it's because in his love, he respects their right to choose. And he will/can not go against his love. It's about relationship primarily, and he wants no phoney relationship. He doesn't want a relationship based on "I don't want to burn in hell" but one based on "I love you, because you have showered your love on me; you deserve my love and devotion and I give it to you." The changed behaviour (against self-will and self-centredness) comes as a result, not as a precondition or cause.

Go with what Christ says.
If anyone receives Christ, it is only because they have heard Him and been taught by God.
And those taught are those God has given to Christ who will come to Him.
John 6
37 All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.

44 No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. 45 It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.

64 But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him.

65 And He said, “Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father.”

 

[jimmyjimmy]

God would have everyone saved if they would. We have free will so we get to decide. I have no issue with people rejecting God. I take issue with the belief that God has already pre-selected who gets saved and who doesn't.

What makes a person, "decide"?

 

[jimmyjimmy]

Yes, Christ is our salvation, he saved us.

Now I'm confused because you said, "A better question would be, why hasn't man done the best it can do to be saved.", and then you said, "Christ is our salvation, he saved us."

Which is it?

 

[Hammster]

If God desires all men to be saved, why aren't they? Is it that He isn't trying hard enough?

Please answer the following question without changing any of God's attributes. Why aren't all men saved, if indeed God desire all men (without exception) to be saved?



* I do not believe that God has ever intended to save all people, but many people do, so I am interested in their replies.

Luke 19:10 says He came to seek and save the lost. That sounds definitive, but some will have to conclude that He just tried really hard.

 

[Bob Crowley]

Doesn't the word, "save" imply someone else is doing it? Does a person unconscious in a burning building, "save" himself?

Also, did you just use, "Christ" as an expletive? I colored it red to point it out.

I think Wolfe just made a typo by mistake.

He was trying to say that God has already taken the step necessary to save all through "Christ". He put in a comma, instead of a full stop, and would have been better to start the next sentence on a new line. I'm quite sure he wasn't being blasphemous.

As for God wanting to "save" everybody, but not everybody being saved, I suppose it boils down to free will. The question falls into the same category as all those other "too hard basket'" questions, where our definition of an omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God (and a God of "love" at that) leaves us wondering about why He permits evil (and so much of it), why there is suffering and injustice, and a lot of it, why He doesn't use His power more overtly to "save" etc.

Even if we did come up with an unbeatable philosophical answer to the questions of evil and suffering, salvation or the lack of it, it wouldn't be much use when the rubber actually hit the road. It might be one thing to be satisfied intellectually about God's inability to create worlds without evil and suffering, but quite another when one is confronted by intense personal suffering, either their own or someone else's, or both. Reading the unbeatable argument might be intellectually satisfying, but how much help would it be when you've just been diagnosed with cancer, your wife is killed in an accident, a terrorist bomb blows your family to pieces, or a hurricane demolishes your house?

 

[jimmyjimmy]

Believe it or not, it's because in his love, he respects their right to choose. And he will/can not go against his love. It's about relationship primarily, and he wants no phoney relationship. He doesn't want a relationship based on "I don't want to burn in hell" but one based on "I love you, because you have showered your love on me; you deserve my love and devotion and I give it to you." The changed behaviour (against self-will and self-centredness) comes as a result, not as a precondition or cause.

So, although God loves these people, He cannot help them? His plans to save them are frustrated. Is that correct?

If that's your answer, you didn't read the OP, as you've removed an attribute of God in order to arrive at your conclusion. God is all-powerful. Nothing can frustrate His plans or intentions.

 

[-Hannah-]

"This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."
(...)
"And they cried out again, Crucify him."

Your question revolts me. God sends His beloved Son, Jesus goes through all that He went through, and here we are: little, insignificant humans, questioning God's efforts to save us. He gives us everything. We just have to choose. This is our second chance, the alternative plan.

God wants to be wanted. He wants us to want Him. Everyone has their opportunity to accept salvation. Nothing is forced on us. God made everything so everyone could be saved.

 

[jimmyjimmy]

Luke 19:10 says He came to seek and save the lost. That sounds definitive, but some will have to conclude that He just tried really hard.

They will also conclude that He tried really hard and failed.

 

[jimmyjimmy]

little, insignificant humans

Do you mock the way that God designed us?

We just have to choose

What does that mean?

This is our second chance, the alternative plan.

Do you imagine that God was surprised by what happened in the Garden? Do you think that Christ's death was plan B? See Rev. 13:8

Everyone has their opportunity to accept salvation

Has everyone who has lived in died had an "equal opportunity to accept salvation"? You do realized that billions of people have died never hearing the name Jesus, let alone His gospel, right?

 

[Hammster]

"This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."
(...)
"And they cried out again, Crucify him."

Your question revolts me. God sends His beloved Son, Jesus goes through all that He went through, and here we are: little, insignificant humans, questioning God's efforts to save us. He gives us everything. We just have to choose. This is our second chance, the alternative plan.

God wants to be wanted. He wants us to want Him. Everyone has their opportunity to accept salvation. Nothing is forced on us. God made everything so everyone could be saved.

God doesn't use effort. That goes against His omnipotence.

 

[jimmyjimmy]

God doesn't use effort. That goes against His omnipotence.

I completely agree, brother. He saved me with both hands nailed to a cross.

 

[Wolfe]

Now I'm confused because you said, "A better question would be, why hasn't man done the best it can do to be saved.", and then you said, "Christ is our salvation, he saved us."

Which is it?

What I meant when I said that was, why don't we try OUR best, Christ is here, yet 2 thirds of the world ignore him.