Does God Love Those In Hell?

Hell was a place created by God for the Devil and his fallen angels; this is not a place where the love of Christ is overflowing its burning brim.

 

Almighty God only loves His people who follow Him. We have a relationship with or to Him; the lost are in rebellion against Christ and have no relationship with Him. Those who died without Christ in their lives land in Hell forever. This is the severity of His sovereign and Divine justice. He cannot love those in Hell who after all are 'children of the Evil One.' [I John 3:8a,b] In I John 3:8 the Greek says, 'He who practices sin is of the Devil.' This is the telling mark of the lost; they practice sinning as a way of life.

Ray Berrian, Th.D.

 

Calvinists seem to stumble over the texts that show that God loves MORE than the "FEW" of Matt 7.

Yet they turn a blind eye to it - and freely choose to "believe in arbitrary selection of the FEW" being called "So loved the WORLD".

Yet the Arminian freely accepts "God so loved the WORLD" and the fact that God's Son is the Atoning "Sacrifice For OUR sins and not OURs only but for those of the Whole World" 1John 2:2.

And what does this say about the future?

When the Calvinist finds himself in heaven enjoying the perfect love, unity and selfless concern for others that is not possible here on this sinful earth - and then observes his OWN precious sweet daughter writhing in the agony of eternal roasting in hell - he may well run to his sovereign lord with the cry "Oh My Lord, my great God and Savior! Couldn't you have done Something for my precious child??"

And of course the answer will come back that Calvinism so loves to hear - "Why of course I COULD - IF I had Cared to"!

Ahh that blissful eternity with calvinism's God that unfairly saved you but not your precious daughter - and you will be praising through all eternity that YOU were spared though she was not. (For it IS all about You in the end) Blessing the fact that He chose You - that it was "unfair" as you way - but it was in YOUR favor - so just enjoy! Enjoy!

God who arbitrarily selects out the FEW of Matt 7 and loves THEM alone - and then represents that to Cavlinists as "So Loving the World". Oh the pure joy that thought must cause the calvinist mind.

And for us Arminians - well we will just have to be content with the fact that God really DOES "So Love the World" not merely the "Few " of Matt 7 - and He is the "Atoning sacrifice for OUR sins and NOT our sins only - but for those of the WHOLE WORLD" 1John 2::2.

We will have to be content in all eternity with the God that DOES Love ALL and died for ALL and "IS not WILLING for any to perish but for ALL to come to Repentance". Somehow that will have to help us enjoy eternity too. I wonder how we will fair by comparison.

In Christ,

Bob

[ September 27, 2002, 12:26 AM: Message edited by: BobRyan ]

 

hmm - they always seem to stop on that point.

 

Brother Glen,

I will have to honestly admit that I don't have all of the answers. I am not sure how to reconcile passages like this with passages like the ones mentioned in some of the previous posts that mention "hate".

In this particular passage in Mark I don't think it was necessarily a "condition" put on salvation. It was that the man was not willing to submit to the Lordship of Jesus. When we are saved it is a submission to the Lordship of Jesus in our lives.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20
19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

The man was not willing to yield control of his life to Jesus. This is part of what faith is.

James 2:17
17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.

Romans 10:9
9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;

A "Lord" has ownership and control. One way in which a lot of Baptists are mischaracterized in our belief of eternal security is, "You Baptists believe that a person can get saved and then go live any way he/she wants and still go to heaven." That is an unfair statement that I have heard several times. I believe that if a person makes a "profession of faith" and then continues in sin, that is all the person had was a "profession of faith" and not genuine salvation.

If a person is not willing to make Jesus Lord of his life, as was the case of this man in Mark's gospel, he does not have the faith required to obtain salvation in the first place as stated in James 2:17. A lot of modern evangelism completely neglects the aspect of coming to Christ as Lord. I am not saying that you are doing that. It just breaks my heart when I turn on the television and see things like TBN with their humanistic evangelism that makes God the servant of men. It has so infested our nation that it is sad. They think it is all about what they can get from God, when in actuality true evangelism brings us to:

Revelation 4:11
11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

Well, I guess I will get off of my soapbox now. All of these comments were not necessarily directed to you, Brother Glen. Please don't take it that way. I just got a little upset today. I just moved to a new location and visited several Christian bookstores today and very little of what was in them was of any real value to a pastor. I think I saw maybe two or three books on systematic theology in all of the stores combined. There were all kinds of books on what I could get out of God, though.

 

I did not see your reply to this - except that you point out that even if God loves those in hell - the length of time they burn there is a problem.

A point that does not address the proof - namely that "God is not willing For ANY to perish" and that He states "I take NO pleasure in the death of anyone" and also "Oh why will you die - rather TURN to Me and LIVE"?

There is no "And so God joyfully burns our child in hell while you rejoice and praise him saying - Well at least it is not ME".

The quandry left for Calvinism - remains.

In Christ,

Bob

[ September 29, 2002, 10:59 PM: Message edited by: BobRyan ]

 

Calvinism appears to me, to need a God that hates as quickly and easily as he loves. This is why so many scriptures used to support their position dealwith hate rather than love... Without that hate, they cannot explain election. In this, i willingly stand subject to correction...

[ September 30, 2002, 06:59 PM: Message edited by: Chappie ]

 

Bump -

The board seems to have accepted John Piper's statement that God did NOT "So love the World that He GAVE His SON" where the World would really MEAN the World instead of the arbitrarily elect "Few" of Matt 7.

IN that case - the point of this thread is highlighted.