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An interesting thing concerning the unconditional love of God.... I don't believe that God unconditionally loves everyone. God has set apart his people to save. He has done everything for his people to secure saving grace. No strings, no conditions. Respond as you will, do as you will. But God has paid the price of ultimate justice to restore the broken relationship with his people. I believe in the Calvinist views that God died for (and unconditionally loves) only his chosen people. The rest, sadly, have not and will not receive the grace of God.
This is difficult because it means that the majority of people are destined for hell and do not have a chance to go to heaven. In my mind and my theology, it makes more sense to me that God has chosen specifically to save some and specifically not others, rather than that God loves all yet is powerless to save them (except that they receive Christ). It makes no sense to me that if God would desire with all his heart to save me, but if I decide not to be saved, then I will be lost. And in the end, if we as sinners have no chance but to go to hell, we have only received our just punishment.
In church, we are often taught that there is a step of faith that *we* take to receive God. But I think this is a simplification of reality. The reality is that God gives all grace and all strength. Without God we are powerless- not able even to respond to his call.
Like Newtonian physics which is accurate at large scales, the closer you examine and the more precise your measurements, you find that quantum mechanics, special relativity, and other theories must be used to describe the expanding understanding of the world as we know it. All the while there is a sneaking suspicion that there is indeed a theory of everything that explains both things more simply and more beautifully than what we have previously understood. There is a paradox there concerning God that doesn't fully make sense either way right now but needs more thought and reflection by some smart people.
It's interesting to think about for me because it is still a topic of debate and it is, in a way, very central to what I believe.
This is difficult because it means that the majority of people are destined for hell and do not have a chance to go to heaven. In my mind and my theology, it makes more sense to me that God has chosen specifically to save some and specifically not others, rather than that God loves all yet is powerless to save them (except that they receive Christ). It makes no sense to me that if God would desire with all his heart to save me, but if I decide not to be saved, then I will be lost. And in the end, if we as sinners have no chance but to go to hell, we have only received our just punishment.
In church, we are often taught that there is a step of faith that *we* take to receive God. But I think this is a simplification of reality. The reality is that God gives all grace and all strength. Without God we are powerless- not able even to respond to his call.
Like Newtonian physics which is accurate at large scales, the closer you examine and the more precise your measurements, you find that quantum mechanics, special relativity, and other theories must be used to describe the expanding understanding of the world as we know it. All the while there is a sneaking suspicion that there is indeed a theory of everything that explains both things more simply and more beautifully than what we have previously understood. There is a paradox there concerning God that doesn't fully make sense either way right now but needs more thought and reflection by some smart people.
It's interesting to think about for me because it is still a topic of debate and it is, in a way, very central to what I believe.
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