God loves everyone?

[Hammster]

I'm so glad God has given you the ability to know what I think. God does save one and not the other, but that's because he set in place a condition for salvation, namely faith. God could choose any condition he liked, or none at all, being the Supreme Being, that is his prerogative. However, to be faithful to the Word, salvation is by grace through faith. Faith would be irrelevant if God was merely choosing people in advance for salvation. It is irrelevant, if God is just implanting faith in some irresistibly and implanting rebellion in others, which is what you have with double predestination. It's simply not Biblical.

“God could choose any condition he liked”

Even the Reformed Theology view of election?

 

[Hammster]

In the OT, yes - but Jesus died for sinners.

Did he die for OT sinners?

 

[section9+1]

1 Cor. 13 describes Godly type Love which God has and every place that describes Godly type Love it is describing God's Love. We can Hate and Love someone at the same time so can God hate and Love someone at the same time? Where does it say: "God has no Love for a person?"

Psalm 5:5
I'm not so sure we can both hate and love at the same time. We can love and dislike together, but hate is not dislike. Hate and love are both choices that do not depend upon the object. Like and dislike are dependent upon the performance of the object. Nowhere are we told to like or dislike anyone. So we can love and dislike at the same time but I can't see love and hate together.

 

[Strong in Him]

The term "love" in Scripture isn't a warm, fuzzy, emotional feeling God has for people.

No one said that it is.

It is an action.

Yes; seen by the cross, 1 John 3:16.

If God loves all people the same, then all people would enjoy the same acts of his benevolence - including salvation.

Salvation is a free gift, Romans 6:23. A gift needs to be received and opened before it is yours.

God's love for Israel were all the peculiar blessings and promises he made only to them that no other nation could have enjoyed.

But after God's own people had shown that they were incapable of keeping his covenant, he made a new one - and Jesus came and sealed it with his blood, Matthew 26:28.
Jesus spoke to, accepted and healed Gentiles ad told the disciples to do the same.

The problem with Christ dying for every person is that you still have people going to hell.

Yes, because God did not make us puppets or robots, without minds of our own. He gave us the ability to choose - even to choose something that would be very bad for us; as with Adam and Eve.

When Scripture says "all" it means it in a general way.

All minus a few billion?
That's not all; that's some, or most.

If God doesn't love everyone, then he created some people in his image with every intention of hating/ignoring/destroying them. Why would he do that, when we are told that everything that God made was VERY good, Genesis 1:31?
Scripture says that God is love, 1 John 4:8 and that he is light with NO darkness in him, 1 John 1:5.
Read 1 Corinthians 13 - where does it say that love is selective?

 

[Mark45]

John 3:16 refers to mankind in general, not every individual person, as the context is a conversation between Jesus and a Jewish teacher about salvation.

If God loved every human being ever born, then all would have been saved by the blood of Jesus.

Salvation is offered free to all men apart from The Antichrist & False Prophet. All other human men sons of Noah , Jewish, Samaritan & Gentiles are loved in that Christ died for all men to receive salvation but it is a free gift that involves illumination from The Holy Spirit and belief in Christ’s death upon the cross & resurrection and that He is The Only Begotten Son of God. Hear oh Israel YHWH (The Father) God YHWH (The eternal Son) (Elohim) they are One (Unity) Echad not Yachid absolute singular .
We could add to that and say
Hear oh Israel YHWH The Father and YHWH The Son (Yeshua) and YHWH The Holy Spirit they are God they are One (Echad)

 

[Strong in Him]

Did he die for OT sinners?

Jesus hadn't come into the world in the OT - he was present but not made flesh. Clearly he hadn't died then; if he had, they would not have been given the sacrificial system to atone for sin.

 

[ChicanaRose]

The boastful shall not stand before Your eyes;
You hate all who do iniquity. You destroy those who speak falsehood;
The Lord abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit.
— Psalm 5:5-6

I think God desires all to be saved (1 Tim. 2:4), but He will still exercise His justice and righteous anger.

 

[bling]

Psalm 5:5
I'm not so sure we can both hate and love at the same time. We can love and dislike together, but hate is not dislike. Hate and love are both choices that do not depend upon the object. Like and dislike are dependent upon the performance of the object. Nowhere are we told to like or dislike anyone. So we can love and dislike at the same time but I can't see love and hate together.

Psalm 5 is a very poetic Lament,

God abhors, detests, destroys, hates, unwelcomes and is unpleased with all those who spill innocent blood, lie, act arrogantly, do wrong, and are wicked, so did God not Love David sometimes?

Can God abhor David and Love David at the same time?

David tells us, in other places, God never left him, so does God leave those He abhors?

Is an evil person still: in the image of God, a product of God’s creation, and Loved by God?

Can the person, who winds up like the rich man in hell, blame God’s lack of Love for him? (The rich man didn’t?)

God showed great Love for the rich man, by providing the easiest and best way possible for the rich man to experience Godly type Love, by having Lazarus at his door step each day. The rich man not ceasing that opportunity would be truly upsetting to God, since God is allowing one of his children Lazarus to go through lots of unnecessary pain for the rich man.
Luke 14:26
“If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple.

 

[A_Thinker]

Matthew 23:37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!

Did God not love the inhabitants of Jerusalem ?

Is not God's relationship with the Hebrews (and ultimately those in Jerusalem) ... a picture of God's relationship to the whole world ?

Does God not love His enemies, ... as He admonishes His followers to do ?

Matthew 5

43 You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
...
48 Be perfect, therefore, as your Heavenly Father is perfect.

 

[Hammster]

Salvation is a free gift, Romans 6:23. A gift needs to be received and opened before it is yours.

No it doesn’t.

 

[Hammster]

Jesus hadn't come into the world in the OT - he was present but not made flesh. Clearly he hadn't died then; if he had, they would not have been given the sacrificial system to atone for sin.

For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
— Hebrews 10:4

So how were they saved in the OT if the blood of bulls and goats doesn’t take away sin?

 

[bling]

For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
— Hebrews 10:4

So how were they saved in the OT if the blood of bulls and goats doesn’t take away sin?

God forgave those who repented, sought out His Love and begged for forgiveness.

 

[Hammster]

God forgave those who repented, sought out His Love and begged for forgiveness.

On what basis were their sins forgiven?

 

[bling]

On what basis were their sins forgiven?

It was not the Law, but after they realized they could not be saved by their obedience to the Law, that they beat their chest fell to the ground and relied on God's unconditional, unbelievable, selfless Love/mercy/grace/charity/forgiveness. (the same way the Tax collector was justified before God)

 

[Hammster]

It was not the Law, but after they realized they could not be saved by their obedience to the Law, that they beat their chest fell to the ground and relied on God's unconditional, unbelievable, selfless Love/mercy/grace/charity/forgiveness. (the same way the Tax collector was justified before God)

So their sins could be forgiven without the cross?

 

[bling]

So their sins could be forgiven without the cross?

Yes, the Bible says they were and Christ forgave sins prior to the cross.

 

[Hammster]

Yes, the Bible says they were and Christ forgave sins prior to the cross.

Then Christ died for nothing.

 

[~Zao~]

Romans 3:24-25
they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith. He did this to show his righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over the sins previously committed;

 

[Strong in Him]

For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
— Hebrews 10:4

So how were they saved in the OT if the blood of bulls and goats doesn’t take away sin?

That verse hadn't been written in OT times.
Leviticus 4:1-21; Leviticus 5:1-5;Leviticus 5:14-19; Job 1:5.

 

[eleos1954]

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
— John 3:16

The boastful shall not stand before Your eyes;
You hate all who do iniquity. You destroy those who speak falsehood;
The Lord abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit.
— Psalm 5:5-6

Romans 5:8
But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

God hates sin, but loves the sinner, and His will is that mankind chooses not to sin and the only way one can get help with that is through Jesus.