God does not love everyone
Imagine this situation for just a moment. Imagine having a dearly loved toddler in a stroller with you on a mountain cleft. You let the stroller go and walk ahead of it a short distance and peer down from the cleft to the 500 ft cliff over the edge of the cleft. When you look back at the stroller, it is slowly rolling toward you with the toddler inside happily smiling and giggling. You know that if you do not grab that stroller it will speed up and roll off the cleft over the cliff to the toddler’s death.
In the above situation, tell me what you would do. Keep in mind that you dearly and sincerely love this toddler.
(1) Would you reach out your hand, and say to yourself, “I am going to wait on the baby to grasp my hand first and then I will grab him and the stroller.” You then tell the baby, “Grasp my hand, and if you do not grasp my hand then you sent your own self off the cliff.”
(2) Or would you say, “Oh, my dearly beloved baby, you are going to perish!” You then run and grab the stroller and the baby, without hesitation, and without waiting on the baby to do a single thing and prevent him from going off the cliff.
Obviously, if you truly loved that baby, and clearly understood the peril that would befall him if he went off the cliff, you would not make saving the baby’s life conditional upon the baby, but you would take the first hand and save the child, even if the child was getting fun from the ride the stroller gave him as it was freely rolling. Cognizant of the naivety of the baby, you wouldn’t dare risk your beloved baby to an ignorant choice of his own by waiting on him to grab your hand first before you prevented imminent death.
The same is infinitely truer with God. God’s love is much greater, much more effective, and much more thorough than any love we can have. If our microcosm of love as ignorant humans would nevertheless unconditionally save one we dearly loved from imminent death if possible, definitely God’s infinite and all powerful love would transcend any kind of conditions that a recipient of this love could possibly present as obstacles.
There is absolutely NO way that the All Powerful and omniscient God can allow or rather send anyone to hell if He loved them. It can’t happen. Period. It just can’t happen. That is exactly what God’s love is for and always does. It prevents us from experiencing hell.
Some people say, “Well God is patient and gives us time to repent and choose Him and if we do not, then He has to send us to hell.” But why? Since God is All powerful, why can’t God just change our heart so that we will repent and choose Him so that we do not go to hell? If I loved somebody, I would certainly change their heart if I could if that was all necessary in order to save them!
Some people say, “Well the reason some people go to hell is because they do not CHOOSE God.” Again, if God really loved these people, why would He wait for them to choose Him? Why wouldn’t He just save them instead of playing games with their naivety and ignorance? Some people then say, “Well God wants them to exercise free-will, and God gives them free-will. It is THEIR choice. God does not FORCE us” Think about this though. Forcing somebody out of imminent danger against their uninformed and ignorant will is a profound display of …LOVE! Now, God does not force anyone to be saved, because no one can possibly resist the All mighty power of God. But imagine that toddler saying, “No no no! Don’t grab my stroller, leave me alone!” If you really loved that toddler, would you care to listen? Surely the toddler is ignorant and naïve, and your great love would not allow you to let the child to proceed off the cliff to his death. The same is true for God. God knows that we are ignorant, foolish, and naïve. He would never surrender His great love to our measly choices so that we perish in hell!
Maybe then reader, you should reconsider what hell and the Lake of fire really is! It is terrible, very terrible, more terrible than you and I can imagine. It is eternal fire, and it is far WORSE than simply tumbling off a cliff as I used in the illustration above. There is absolutely NO way that God could possibly allow someone He loved to suffer ETERNALLY in hell. God’s love is just much better than that! Consider Christ. Christ went to the lake of fire or hell on behalf of the elect. GOD GOT HIM OUT IN 3 DAYS. Why? Because God really loved Christ and simply couldn’t allow his soul to suffer any longer than that. Also because of Christ’s divinity, He was able to pay the penalty in only 3 days (he could have done so in fewer days). In contrast however, those who do not believe in God suffer eternally, and God NEVER gets them out. Tell those who are suffering in hell that God loves them and it will be foreign words to them.
We have to conclude then that those who insist that God loves everyone and admit that people still go to hell imply at least one of these conditions.
(1) God must not be all powerful. God loves everybody, but by people choosing to go to hell themselves, their choice overpowers God’s desire that they do not go to hell. God is simply at a lost to what to do about the people that He really loves that are nevertheless going to this place He created called hell. Billions of people have died throughout the history of mankind and have gone to hell… God just simply can’t stop it, nor can God devise a plan to save those whom He loves. God must be very distraught.
OR
(2) God must not be all knowing or omniscient. He loves everybody and intended for everyone to go to heaven, but some kind of way that He didn’t or doesn’t understand, people still turn up in hell. He is frustrated and ignorant, and simply couldn’t predict that this would ever happen. He doesn’t know how to stop the people whom He greatly loves from going to hell. He gave people free-will, and didn’t know that they would use it to choose hell for themselves. He doesn’t even know how to suspend or transcend their “free-will” and save them nevertheless. He thought that everybody would choose Christ, so He had Christ to die for everybody, but instead it turn out to be a big waste because only a minority of people choose Christ.
OR
(3) God’s love is ineffective. He loves everyone, but His love is weak and impotent and less effective than human love, because it doesn’t cause Him to save those whom He loves. His love is meaningless because it doesn’t cause Him to save that which He loves.
OR
they imply that all of these are true.
I hate to even write this, because to believe anything like this about God is blasphemy. So-called Christians who say that God loves everybody give atheists great occasion to blaspheme the fair name of God, but atheists love to emphasize these inevitable arguments to seek to prove that God does not exist.
I would like to emphasize an important fact, which may have led some people to believe that God loves everybody. In Matthew 5:45, Christ informs us that God “…causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” Empirically, we know that God heals the heathen of sicknesses and injuries as well as the Christian believer. God provides food and sustenance for countless of atheists and ungracious blasphemers. God even sometimes corporally “blesses” them with riches, great health and stamina. It is important however to remember that this is instead a sign of God’s divine longsuffering and patience. Only the All mighty God can display this level of longsuffering and patience. His corporal care and provision for humans is evident in ALL people. His eternal love however is reserved exclusively for those whom He has chosen for it.
If I were God (and I sound insane) and if I loved everyone, and if I knew everything and if I was all powerful then I would save everyone and send them all to heaven. I wouldn’t wait on anybody to do anything, I would simply save everyone, regardless of their free-will or choice and send them to eternal bliss, because that is what everyone truly wants instead of hell. Despite what anybody says, NOBODY truly wants hell. If anyone says they do want to go to hell, like some satanists may say, they simply don’t know what hell truly is. Even satan is fearing hell or the lake of fire!!!!
Now if I would save everybody if I were an all powerful god that loved everybody and knew all things, why doesn’t God do the same? Is my love better than God’s? May it never be! God’s love and wisdom exceeds all human love and wisdom collectively. Surely then, people go to hell because of a splendid design from God, and for a profoundly wise choice that God has made to show His severe and holy indignation toward those who practice unrighteousness.
Christ died only for those whom God loves. Christ did not die for everyone! Ponder this for a moment. Christ died on the cross, AND he went to the lake of fire to suffer God’s wrath normally reserved for God’s elect. If Christ died for EVERYONE, then Christ would have had to suffer the wrath God had reserved for EVERYONE in hell or the lake of fire. Now since God is all knowing, surely it would have been nonsense and injustice for that matter for Christ to be in hell, suffering wrath and punishment for a host of people that God knew would never get saved in the first place. In fact, before Christ even died, Christ Himself said that “the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life (heaven) and FEW are those who find it” and that the way to hell is “broad…. and many are those who enter by it” Matthew 7:13-14. This would mean that the majority of the wrath that Christ experienced in hell was wasted and useless because the majority of people don’t enter heaven, and that Christ knowingly suffered all this excess wrath for nothing. So people who say that Christ died for everyone actually are dishonoring Christ by saying that He is very inefficient.
Many people then say, “Well the Bible says that God loves everyone , as in John 3:16, ‘For God so loved the world….’”. Right. God does love the world, and not just the nation of Israel, as the Jews at that time thought. But John 3:16 doesn’t say anything about God loving every individual person. Instead John 3:16 says God loves the world. The word “world” here doesn’t mean every individual person, but in Greek means “kosmos” which means “world system” or “universe”. The word “world” here is used in contradistinction to the Jewish nation. The Jews simply thought that they were exclusively God’s favorite people, and that God hated everybody else among other nations. Christ is saying in John 3:16 that God loves the whole world of the elect, and not just the elect born of Israel. God loves the elect who are Japanese, and the elect who are Chinese, those who are American, or Indian, or Canadian, or European, or Asian, black, white, or mixed… the whole world. God’s true Christians are among ALL nations throughout the world, and not just among the Jews, as the Jews thought. This verse says nothing about God loving every individual person.
The fact that God loves people throughout the whole world, rather than just among the Jews was truly a remarkable concept for the Jews at the time of the dispensation of the gospel. This is the reason the word “world” is used so freely in the gospel, and is partly why the phrase, “whoever calls upon the name of the Lord” is used. The Jews thought that they alone were God’s favorite people, mostly because they thought they could please God by perfectly keeping God’s law in the outward sense of the word. Gentiles were considered outsiders and Jews separated themselves from them and considered them all to be heathens. Even the Apostle Peter had to be taught by a direct vision from God that the Gentile believer, Cornelius, was not to be disregarded as a favorite of God. Likewise, many Jews felt like harlots, tax-gatherers and other societal outcasts were outside the ring of salvation. The phrase "Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord" used by Paul and Peter in the gospel dispelled this haughty attitude prevalent among the leading Jews, and emphasized that salvation isn't contoured to fit the status and nobility of societal norms, but is rather based strictly upon God who has to first quicken the soul to be able to call upon His name. At the time of the gospel however it was clearly understood that God didn’t have salvation reserved for every individual person in the world.
Romans 9:13 is very explicit and says,
“Just as it is written, ‘Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” and Romans 9:11 tells us that God loved Jacob and hated Esau, “though the twins were not yet born, and had not done anything good or bad, but in order that God’s purpose according to HIS choice might stand, NOT because of works (us choosing him would be works)..”
What can be clearer? The Bible says clearly that God did not love Esau. So God does not love everyone. Now some people wish to argue and say, “Well God hated Esau because He already foreknew what kind of person Esau was going to be.” Well if this is true about Esau, then this is also true about EVERYBODY else that God does not love, because God foreknows what kind of person all of us will be. If God didn’t love Esau because what He foreknew then neither does God love anyone else whom He foreknows will reject Him just like Esau. So then God doesn’t love everybody. But the truth is that God’s hatred for Esau wasn’t based simply on what He foreknew about Esau, but what God foreordained and predestined for Esau (Romans 8 :28-30).
Some people will call it injustice for God to hate Esau but love Jacob before they were even born. So Paul addresses this in Romans 9:14,
“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.”
What can be clearer? One theologian once wrote, “Considering the deep depravity of mankind, the fact that God hated Esau is predictable and understandable. But the fact that God actually loved Jacob is truly a remarkable miracle.” Apparently, God saves whom He wishes, and hardens those whom He doesn’t want to save. Think this is unfair? Read Paul’s reply, Romans 9:19-24.
God loves only some, and it is this “some” that Christ died for. This is the only conclusion that makes sense. Christ saves this “some” at His own will, without them doing ANYTHING on their own to acquire salvation. In fact Paul says in Romans 5:10, “For if while we were ENEMIES, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son….”. Reader, if you chose salvation and if you chose Christ BEFORE Christ “chose and saved” you, you are NOT a true Christian. Christ only saves those whom He alone has chosen. Those who have chosen themselves are hypocrites. Remember, God chose Paul while Paul was on the road to Damascus actually fighting against the cause of Christ.
We read in John 17:9 Christ’s prayer to God for the elect that He died for. Christ specifically says in this verse, “I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom Thou hast given Me, for they are Thine.” We know that this word “world” is referring to the vast majority of people who never turn to God because we read in verse 16, “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” Now if Christ died for everyone, He would have died for the world, and we all would be of the world. But these verses show that Christ is making a distinction between those whom God has given Him to be the elect and the rest of the world who reject God.
Some people say that Christ died for everyone, that salvation is available for everyone, and that all we have to do is just trust Christ as our Savior and just believe in Him and just choose Him. However, consider this interesting fact for a moment. God has already said that all of our righteous deeds are like filthy rags. (Isaiah 64:6). Specifically, we read that even the prayer of the non-believer is an ABOMINATION to God (Psalms 109:7, Proverbs 28:9, Isaiah 1:12-15). We already know that apart from Christ we cannot make a move that pleases God. If then we must choose Christ before we are saved, then we must make the act of choosing him before we are saved. Is this act of choosing Christ a sin or an act of righteousness? If this act of choosing Christ is righteousness, then surely we CAN act righteously before we are saved, since salvation must come only after our choice. This however contradicts God who says that we cannot act righteously until after salvation. So then the only thing that we can conclude is that choosing God is still a sin, and that some kind of way God saves us when we commit the sin of choosing Him. This clearly doesn’t make sense.
Furthermore, if we must choose Christ and accept Christ ourselves before we are saved, then we are forced to conclude that some people are better than others. People who choose Christ and get saved are clearly better and superior than people who continue to deny Christ. We all know this to be wrong as well. In fact Paul says salvation is not of works so that no man can boast or say how wise and good they were thus acquiring their own salvation. Read Ephesians 2:8-10, “For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works that no one should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” This verse clearly says that we cannot be saved by a choice of our own. Salvation is exclusively God’s choice.
Some people insist on quoting verses from 1 John, such as 1 John 3:1, “See how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us…” or from 1 John 4:8-10, “….for God is love ……By this the love of God was manifested in us……In this is love not that we loved God, but that He loved us…..” or 1 John 4:19, “We love, because He first loved us.” It is imperative to know who the “us” word in this book of John refers to. Whenever John uses the word “us” he is talking to the born-again Christian disciples of Christ whom he addressed this letter to. It is safe to say that he is also talking to all modern day true Christians. He is NOT talking to the pagans and non-believers who hate Christ and speak against His word! Proof of this is seen when John specifically says who he is writing to in 1 John 2:13, “I am writing to you fathers because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I am writing to you young men because you have overcome the evil one. I have written to you children, because you know the Father.” This verse clearly shows us that John is writing to people who have already been saved by God and that John is talking to his spiritual brothers, sisters and children. John is NOT talking to people who do not know God, who hate God and who reject God’s word.
So then when John says that God is love, John is saying that God is love for the true Christian disciples. He is not saying that God is love for satan and nor is he saying that God is love for all of the children of satan! The children of satan will receive punishment with satan in hell. This clearly cannot be manifestation of God’s love, but instead a manifestation of God’s hatred for sin and deep displeasure for those who reject Him.
What more shall I say? The American Standard Version Bible reads in Psalms 5:6 , “Thou dost destroy those who speak falsehood; The Lord abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit.” The King James reads in Psalms 5:5-6, “The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity. Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing: the Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man.” The word “abhor” here has an even stronger connotation than hate does. Psalms 11:5, “The Lord test the righteous and the wicked, and the one who loves violence His soul hates.” Clearly, God does not love everybody.
Be honest with yourself. Do you love everybody? Surely there are some people out there that you do not like. It is however, not unfair that God hates some and loves others. This is His holy will and no one has the right to judge God. Anyone who can create a human has the prerogative to do with them as he or she pleases. In Romans 9:20 – 24 the American Standard Version reads, “On the contrary, who are you O man who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this’ will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath PREPARED for destruction? And He did so in order that He might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He PREPARED beforehand for glory, even us whom He also called, not from among the Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.” This is such a beautiful yet profound verse. This verse tells us what John 3:16 means when Christ says, “God so loved the world”. This verse tells us that Christ meant that God calls His elect not only from among the Jews, but also from among the Gentiles, which comprises the whole world. But God doesn’t call everybody, as this verse clearly tells us that God who is the potter has clay PREPARED or fitted for destruction or hell. This is not harsh, but is God’s own holy and unquestionable will.
In John 8:44, Christ Himself says to the non-believing Jews, “Ye are of your father the devil and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning…” This certainly doesn’t sound like love! In fact, this statement caused the Jews all the more to seek to kill Christ, - but Christ was telling the truth. This statement of Christ’s is a hard statement for so many people even today who portray Christ as a soft all-loving people-pleaser.
Always remember, when trying to understand the Bible, never make up what you want to believe. Always use scripture to interpret scripture. And always remember that the truth is scarce these days, and is usually rejected by those in the mainstream. If you simply hold to the popular meaning of scriptures, you are simply following the world, and you may be one of those who when Christ returns will say, “Lord, Lord, didn’t I not prophesy in your name? Didn’t I go to church every Sunday? Didn’t I pray in your name? Didn’t I pay my tithes? And unfortunately God is going to say, “Depart from Me, I never knew you, you who practice lawlessness (iniquity) Matthew 7: 21-23, and Luke 13:23-27.
I have told you the truth reader. Beware! Saying God does not love everybody and that Christ did not die for everybody may be a hard saying in today’s degenerate world…. But it is the truth. Many olden time theologians acknowledged that God doesn’t love everybody, such as St. Augustine and John Calvin, but today, such a doctrine is simply incompatible with many churches that are simply seeking to attract a lot of members for the sake of raising more money and attention. Undeniably, however there realistically is just no other way the All Powerful, All knowing God can possibly create a place as terrible as hell, and allow some people to suffer for eternity therein.
Think about this…..