For God so Loved the World, but He hates the Wicked???

I love having people over at the house and getting into theological discussions!  It gets me torqued up, and I have to have a release, haha, so here goes.

Really we touched on so many topics... but something that's been in the back of my mind for quiet a while spurs from conversations with my (earthly) father, who like most Christians in America, hold to Arminian theology.

One verse that is frequently cited by the Arminian is John 3:16, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life."  At first look, it seems quite the clencher!  I think the problem largely results from the paucity of the English language as compared to the richness of Hebrew or Greek, and an equivocation of our term "love."  

When we say "For God so loved..." we instantly think warm mushy feelings, the kind we feel when we fall in love with someone.  This is actually not the type of love the apostle John is describing.  The Greek term for that form of love is eros, from which we get our term erotic, used of a romantic love between two people.

The type of love that John is referring to is Agape.  This is the unconditional, unfailing faithful love that only God Himself can hold in perfection.  This type of love is described in 1 Corinthians 13, which is known as the "Love Chapter."  

4 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, 5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, 6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 [b]bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  8 Love never fails.  (www.biblegateway.com)

Being in college during the early 90s, I listened alot to DC Talk. One of their songs was "Love is a Verb," which totally sums up the chapter. Nowhere in 1 Cor. 13 does it say that love is a warm, mush feeling. It is described as a verb!

Now reading John 3:16 with a Biblical definition of "love," we can now reconcile this verse with the harder, more difficult verses like Proverbs 16:4, which says, "The LORD has made everything for its own purpose, Even the wicked for the day of evil" (NASB). Or when the Apostle Paul quotes from the Septuagint, "Just as it is written, 'JACOB I LOVED, BUT ESAU I HATED.'"

And I love how Paul anticipates the objectors: "What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! For He says to Moses "I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION." So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE I RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MIGHT BE PROCLAIMED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH. So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires" (Rom. 9:13-18).

In the Bible, the Sovereignty of God is never in question. Numerous other scriptures could be cited, but a timely topic is Yhwh's judgment on Babylon, the great city that reigns over the kings of the earth (Rev. 17:18), i.e. New York, ergo the U.S.!

16 And the ten horns which you saw, and the beast, these will hate the harlot and will make her desolate and naked, and will eat her flesh and will burn her up with fire. 17 For God has put it in their hearts to execute His [a]purpose [b]by having a common purpose, and by giving their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God will be fulfilled.  (www.biblegateway.com, emphasis mine)

Why did the ten regions of the One-World government give their power to the Antichrist (Madhi/Messiah/Maitreya, etc.)? Because it was God's will for them to do so. And he will reign on earth for 7 years, or 3 1/2, depending on how you see it (Dan. 9:27; 2 Thess. 2:4).

So what is the end of the matter, when it comes to understanding God's sovereignty over creation? Romans 9-11 is a great place to start for study of such a weighty issue, but I think it is summed up in

Psalm 115:3 But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases.

A Response to Free Will or Calvinism?

image from http://subrealism.blogspot.com/2009/09/calvin-free-market

It seems in our day there is a big controversy between the teachings known as Arminiansim (Free Will) and that of Calvinism (Doctrines of Grace).  I went to a website that I really appreciate, (www.eternal-productions.org/articles.html)and I found and read an article posted there entitled Free Will or Calvinism. Reading the paper, I saw a few faults and thought I would type up a response.  Because this has been and continues to be such a major disagreement, I thought I would share my thoughts on it here.


Under the heading of “T” in defining the doctrine of Calvinism, you said: “that man is spiritually dead in trespasses and is incapable of responding to the gospel unless God regenerates first” (p. 4). This is not a true statement. Calvinism teaches that man does have a free will, with regard to everything except salvation. You cited numerous verses that states we are dead in our sins, and that no one can rouse himself to seek God.




I think you believe God raises the dead to life (i.e. quickens), and then if they reject the gospel, He lets them fall dead again?



There are points I would like for you to consider from an Arminian, free-will standpoint:


What about the apostle Paul? Did he have a choice of free-will in his salvation? Did God not literally choose Him? What about the disciples? We know one was predestined to hell. What of the others, if God knows all things? Didn’t He choose them? And what about Abraham? Was he not chosen by God out of the land of Ur? What of the Jews? We know they are God’s “chosen” people! And certainly through no merit of their own.



God is the same “yesterday, today, and forever” (Heb. 13:8). Can he have a different method of salvation for the Jew and the Gentile? I think not.



Let’s look at some other passages:

Matthew 13:13-15 13 "Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. 14 "In their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says, 'YOU WILL KEEP ON HEARING, BUT WILL NOT UNDERSTAND; YOU WILL KEEP ON SEEING, BUT WILL NOT PERCEIVE; 15 FOR THE HEART OF THIS PEOPLE HAS BECOME DULL, WITH THEIR EARS THEY SCARCELY HEAR, AND THEY HAVE CLOSED THEIR EYES, OTHERWISE THEY WOULD SEE WITH THEIR EYES, HEAR WITH THEIR EARS, AND UNDERSTAND WITH THEIR HEART AND RETURN, AND I WOULD HEAL THEM.'



Did Jesus just say that he speaks to them people in parables, so that they will not be healed? But what about their free-will and free-choice? Isn’t that being infringed on by God?



The prophet says: 17 Why, O LORD, do You cause us to stray from Your ways

And harden our heart from fearing You?

Return for the sake of Your servants, the tribes of Your heritage.

Isaiah 63:17 (NASB95)



Let’s examine the passage Paul writes about the condition of Israel. Did all the Jews in their free-will choose to turn away from God?



Romans 11:8-11 8 just as it is written, "GOD GAVE THEM A SPIRIT OF STUPOR, EYES TO SEE NOT AND EARS TO HEAR NOT, DOWN TO THIS VERY DAY." 9 And David says, "LET THEIR TABLE BECOME A SNARE AND A TRAP, AND A STUMBLING BLOCK AND A RETRIBUTION TO THEM. 10 "LET THEIR EYES BE DARKENED TO SEE NOT, AND BEND THEIR BACKS FOREVER." 11 I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous.



Paul is hear quoting from Deut. 29:4 and Psalm 69:22-3, and is telling us that God gave the Jews a spirit of stupor, eyes to see not and ears to hear not, to respond to His commands of recognizing the new covenant with Messiah. And why did God do this? He did it to bring the gospel to the Gentiles! Isaiah 49:6 6 He says, "It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make You a light of the nations So that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth."



Where you err my friend is in your assumption that people who are commanded to follow God are able to do so if they choose. There are two types of people, scriptures tell us. Those controlled by the Spirit, and those controlled by the flesh. Let’s look again to what Paul says about those controlled by the flesh, (i.e. the sinful-nature).



Romans 8:6-7 6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, 7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so,



For the letter “U” you state: "Calvinism teaches that God decides on no basis whatsoever but by the mystery of His will to save the elect and to allow the rest to go to hell even though He could save them all." From here you draw this conclusion: "This is not the God of love, mercy, grace, faithfulness, and righteousness revealed in the pages of Scripture. According to Calvinism, God is capricious and unpredictable. The true God of love has revealed His nature as merciful, loving, forgiving, patient,compassionate, dependable, and just to all."



I see no conflict between what the Bible has stated concerning man’s sinful disposition, being unwilling and unable to come to Him (Rom. 3:11; 8:7-8), and that of God being loving, passionate, rich in mercy to His creation. In His letter to the Ephesians, Paul tells them that God predestined them before the foundation of the world, in love, to the praise of His glory (Eph. 1:4-6). So evidently God thinks that His free election and predestination of some sinful and rebellious humans, who were created in His image, IS praiseworthy and glorious!



And so just how did God choose to elect and save the weak and shameful and those that are not, to shame the wise and strong and those that “are” (1 Cor. 1:27-28)? Verse 6 tells us that He “freely bestowed on the beloved” this amazing grace of salvation, with no respect to persons. In His letter to Titus, the apostle tells us that we have been saved “not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy by the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5).



To call God “capricious and unpredictable” (p. 6) for choosing not to elect some to salvation, is to blaspheme His attributes of love and grace, which he does freely bestow on the beloved. The Arminian explanation assumes that God owes man something. He doesn’t owe sinful, rebellious, unregenerate man anything except justice, and that puts us ALL in hell eternally. If anything, the doctrines of Grace can better explain all scriptures and most certainly highlights and exalts Yahweh’s amazing grace, that He would choose some of us sinful, rebellious humans, to save us for Himself.

That's what I call Grace!