This may seem confusing to some, but it is never the less true.
In The Scripture, God uses terms human kind can relate and interact in coming to some concept He is trying to communicate.
To that end, it is imperative that scholarship includes balance. That no single theme desired by humans be taken to some meaning that it violates other Scriptures.
In this thread, I sense that is happening.
The desires and will of God is certainly communicated by the Scriptures that God does not quickly move to rebuke and destroy the wicked any more then He did in the Garden. He has a plan in place, and, although wicked rebelliousness demands, God patiently withholds judgement until His plan of fulfillment objectives are met.
Humankind then may inappropriately earmark the delay as God's desire and will being demonstrated towards what in reality it is not.
For example: The Peter passage is not to the lost, but to the believers to understand that there are others yet to be added to the assembly. So then the delay of the return of the Savior.
God is not "willing that any should perish" is not an invitation to the lost, but to those of God's choosing by His purpose and at His timing to be redeemed and adopted.
The assumption that God desires all to be saved is just not Biblical. It ultimately diminishes God's attribute of knowing, and of being present at all times at the same time.
Keep the balance. Keep the Scriptures in perspective and understand that God communicated in terms of human ability to comprehend, and be very careful that what you take of the Scripture and the views to which you adopt do not diminish any attribute of the Almighty, All Powerful, All Knowing, All ,,,
The human condition is to deny God's power, to lessen His knowledge, to rebel against His authority, to ignore His commands, to withhold His praise, and even to mar His Holiness and mock His ways.
It is that way also within the believer, much to our shame. For we, too, are still in the flesh and if not alert and responsive to the impulse of the Holy Spirit will communicate at least in some measure a diminishing of Him.
In the Revelation, the scene is that of the sky being opened and folks gazing directly into the throne room of God. Do they repent? No they rebel, they hide, they scorn, they do all they can in attempting to diminish the sight set before humankind.
Keep that in mind the next time anyone presents that God desires all on earth to be redeemed.
For God is also an all consuming fire, filled of judgment and justice, and will wipe away ALL heaven and earth in a fervent heat.
God loved His creation (Kosmos) that He gave His only Uniquely Born Son; must be balanced with God will destroy all the physical creation that was made even the heavens of the throne room. He will not tolerate sin, nor where sin has occurred.
Keep the balance!
Here is a good article for the casual reader of the BB considering the "Devine Revelation: God Making Himself Known." It will give a good foundational basis for one's own exploration of the attributes of God as He revealed Himself through the Scriptures.
Divine Revelation: God Making Himself Known - The Gospel Coalition
