Quote:
Originally Posted by dnlgfnk
"Does God love all the people in this world unconditionally?...Not one shred"!
One aspect of divine love is willing the Good of the individual. Existence of the individual himself is an extension of Divine Goodness (Gen 1:31)... https://biblia.com/books/nasb95/Ge1.31 ...If God did not love what he created and even now maintain its existence, it would be obliterated. This is also why "Total Depravity" is a mistaken concept. For it to be true, man's nature would have to morph into another nature, as a totally corrupt nature wouldn't be "man". |
But it does not follow logically that God loves
unconditionally, nor is it taught anywhere in scripture. In fact, if it were taught in scripture, it would contradict no small number of passages. I have already provided several qualified statements relative to God's love but here is a partial list of scriptures that explicitly teach that God "hates" both sin and the sinner (Ps 5:5-6; 10:3; 11:5; Jer 12:8; Dan 12:2; Hos 9:15; Nah 1:14, Rom 9:13 etc.)
God allowed the world to continue on after the Fall so that He could redeem a people for himself. This is stated in Gen 3:15 to the [one] seed of the woman as "he" -- alluding to the Messiah. I could just as well argue that God has loved his elect from all eternity and that this is why he has allowed the world to continue -- so that all his chosen ones -- every single last one of them -- will be brought into his kingdom. We shouldn't forget that the Creator/Redeemer manifests his "Divine Goodness" particularly toward those who love him and who have been [effectually] called according to his purpose (Rom 8:28-30). This goodness is manifested to his elect through his
sovereign saving grace, whereas God's general goodness toward all men (in the distributive sense) is manifested through his
common grace (Mat 5:45).
Also, God has allowed the fallen angels to exist even though their doom is sealed! And he has no intentions of ever redeeming them.
Lastly, the final nail in the coffin of your thesis is that we humans will always be human no matter our spiritual condition when we die! The redeemed in the next age will still be human even though the saints will have a very different kind of body after the resurrection of the living. Likewise, after the resurrection of the dead, all the eternally damned people will still be fully human for the duration of eternity in their final state of the second death in the lake of fire. Since the humanity of the damned will continue throughout eternity, then why can't those predestined for destruction exist for several millennia in this age?
In short, God has permitted good and evil (and all this entails) to exist side-by-side all these millennia so that he could manifest his infinite wisdom and love for his elect, while simultaneously manifesting to all mankind his justice for all eternity.
I'll finish up in my next post.
