FutureAndAHope
Personally it is my view that God will not destroy the majority of his creation.
I see. I take the scriptures that say that few find the way to narrow way to life and that unless a man is born again you cannot see heaven to mean that very few do find life and that those who aren't born again go to hell and that is the VAST majority of humanity. Jude considered his efforts to save the lost to be properly worded with the expression "plucking them out of the fire" in Jude 1.23 and Paul felt like he HAD to go witness to everyone because if he could not or did not then what chance did humanity have? Romans 10.14 and onward.
When Peter spoke of Jesus witnessing to the dead in 1 Peter 3 this referring to what I have always considered to be Jesus preaching to the angels who the bible seems to say created the Nephilim (I know that this is widely speculated by the believers who care to deal with the origins of the giants before and after the flood. A lot of Christians don't even deal with that topic)
About 1 Peter chapter 4. I have always considered this to be referring Jesus preaching to the dead Saints of the Old testament who resided in a place we like to call Abrahams Bosom. Those that were indeed dead under the law but that had a faith to caused god to give them a non tormenting place near or in hell. Such as the place Jesus talks about in his story about the Rich man and Lazarus. The man was in torment and he saw Abraham there but Abraham was not in torment. Abraham was being treated differently and people like Abraham are who I believe the bible says were preached too and I believe this is why the bible says that these old dead Saints were seen on earth after Jesus returned Matt 27.53
I can find no New Testament teaching that says the dead will have the gospel preached to them sometime in the future so they can hear the gospel or accept it.
That is just from my personal experience with God. I see him as very kind and generous in spirit.
I understand, the bible does actually say he is such though I don't feel like his actions display that at all.
I could be wrong however, but i have never known him to be filled with wrath.
He created hell which is unspeakable wrath in substance and location. Hell is a pure reflection of the wrath that god is capable of and contains and he will actually put humans there, he even came to earth and died in an attempt to keep himself from doing it. In order to make a loop in the rule that he created.
As an example many people in the world think God destroyed all the people in Noah's flood and sent them to hell.
Well he did, that was the only place for them at the time and he did in fact kill them. Children watched their parents drown, parents watched their little ones drown and they probably tried to save them but god would not not have that. He killed them all because they weren't able to believe a man talking about a flood coming to kill them all. I wouldn't have believed it either.
In a similar way just because not the majority of the World are Christian does not mean God can't save them, even on their death beds.
How many people do you think die everyday? People are dying and they always have been and really really small percentage of them are or ever have been Christians. You talk about what god can or could do... but it hasn't been happening.
Personally I don't believe this view of man. Only some Christians think we are inately evil. I believe we all need Jesus because we have all sinned but I don't believe God made us sinners, beasts motivated only by sin.
Well I'm glad that you don't think humans are inherently evil. I can't believe such a thing either. Paul expressed that their was something inside him that caused him to do things he did not want to do and that that prevented him from doing what he wanted to do in Romans 7.
Paul said in Romans 5.18 that a single act, a single sin condemned the entire human race. The bible does that everyone has sinned but Paul elaborated on what people commonly call the sin nature by saying that one act brought sin into the world and that this single act caused the death of every human being. If this single act did it then it did effect us somehow, it caused it to be impossible for anyone to live righteously and for it to be impossible for anyone to not die. This seems to say that everyone begins evil. The bible does say that the human heart simply IS evil and deceitful beyond understanding, that it just is... Jer 17.9
I liked your view on the different seasons of life.
