Does God love everyone? Does God love everyone the same?

[angels4u]

While we were yet sinners Christ died for us. He gave His only begotton Son for us, a part of Himself. Does He love sinners more than His Son and Himself? Probably. Does that mean that He loves the lost more than He loves us, His adopted kids in whom Christ lives? Possibly. He came for the lost sheep and those who are sick rather than those who are well.

So I have to ask myself, do I love the lost as much as God does? There remains somethng in me that is reluctant to go to Ninavah and preach repentance to those who are cruel and evil. Would I go and preach repentance to ISIL? Probably not. Jonah, move over!

 

Good question ..would we go ?

I remember the song: Lord  please don't send me to Africa..would we argue with the Lord if He told us to leave everything behind and just go?

 

Would go and preach to ISIS ?

[missmuffet]

I have a chart somewhere but can't find it on the different views people have of the millennium.

 

 

http://thirdmill.org/answers/answer.asp/file/40285

 

Premillennialism 

Premillennialism takes its name from its assertion that Christ will return prior to this thousand-year period. There are two major forms of premillennialism: historic and Dispensational. Both versions believe that Christ's return will be preceded by a seven-year tribulation that will mark the beginning of his one thousand year earthly reign, though not all historic premillennialists believe this is a literal seven years. They also believe that at Christ's return believers will be resurrected and Satan will be bound. The millennium will then consist of a golden age of Christ's reign. At the end of the millennium, Satan will be released to lead a last rebellion against Christ, and this rebellion will be crushed. Then will ensue the general resurrection of the rest of mankind, and the final judgment, followed by the New Heavens and the New Earth. 

The clearest difference between historic and Dispensational premillennialism concerns their different views of Israel and its relationship to the church. Historic premillennialism sees the church as spiritual Israel, so that God's people in the Old Testament were Israel, while in the New Testament his people are the church. Historic premillennialists see the millennium as the great age of the church's triumph, in union with believing Israel (i.e. Old Testament saints). Dispensational premillennialism, however, sees Israel and the church as distinct entities, such that God has one plan for Israel and another plan for the church. In the Old Testament, God was dealing with Israel, but when they rejected Christ God began to deal with the church instead. However, they believe that in the millennium God will again deal with national Israel and fulfill his promises to them. Most Dispensational premillennialists also believe that the tribulation is designed primarily for God's dealings with Israel. 

Postmillennialism 

Postmillennialism takes its name from the fact that it holds that Christ will return after the thousand-year period mentioned in Revelation 20. There are also two major kinds of postmillennialism. One kind teaches that the millennium is a literal one thousand years, more specifically, the last one thousand years before Christ returns. According to this system, we can never really know whether or not we are in the millennium. Only when Christ returns can we look back and see when the millennium was. The other kind of postmillennialism teaches that the millennium is not a literal one thousand years, and that it spans the entire period between the first and second advents of Christ (this is also the position held by amillennialism). 

All versions of postmillennialism share the belief that there will be only one bodily resurrection, and that this will occur when Christ returns. At Christ's return, all Christ's enemies will be finally defeated, the final judgment will take place, and the New Heavens and New Earth will be created. The distinctive mark of postmillennialism is that prior to Christ's return the gospel will progress and triumph more and more, so that the world will be largely Christianized prior to Christ's return. Things will get better and better for the gospel and the church until Christ returns. 

Amillennialism 

"Amillennialism" is a somewhat misleading name in the term means "no millennium." In actuality, amillennialism is "postmillennial" in that it teaches that Christ will return after the millennium. The "a-" in "amillennialism" designates the idea that there is no literal millennium, that is, the idea that the reign of Christ may be shorter or longer than a literal one thousand years. The millennium, in amillennialism, is the entire period between the first and second advents of Christ. As mentioned above, one type of postmillennialism is identical to amillennialism in this respect. What distinguishes amillennialism from this type of postmillennialism is the nature of the development of the kingdom of God during the millennium. 

There are varieties of views regarding the shape and progress of the church and of the gospel during this period. Some amillennialists believe that things will get markedly worse before Christ returns, some believe things will go on about the same as they always have, and some believe that Scripture doesn't tell us enough to know what will happen before Christ returns. At Third Millennium, we are in this last camp, but with the added twist that we believe the shape of the kingdom of God (i.e. the millennium) will be influenced by the obedience or disobedience of the church. When we are obedient, things will go better; when we are disobedient, things will go worse. 

 

[missmuffet]

 

While we were yet sinners Christ died for us. He gave His only begotton Son for us, a part of Himself. Does He love sinners more than His Son and Himself? Probably. Does that mean that He loves the lost more than He loves us, His adopted kids in whom Christ lives? Possibly. He came for the lost sheep and those who are sick rather than those who are well.

So I have to ask myself, do I love the lost as much as God does? There remains somethng in me that is reluctant to go to Ninavah and preach repentance to those who are cruel and evil. Would I go and preach repentance to ISIL? Probably not. Jonah, move over!

 

Good question ..would we go ?

I remember the song: Lord  please don't send me to Africa..would we argue with the Lord if He told us to leave everything behind and just go?

 

Would go and preach to ISIS ?

 

If we got a loud and clear message from the Lord how could you refuse?But.....you would have to be sure the message was from God.

[ayin jade]

 

While we were yet sinners Christ died for us. He gave His only begotton Son for us, a part of Himself. Does He love sinners more than His Son and Himself? Probably. Does that mean that He loves the lost more than He loves us, His adopted kids in whom Christ lives? Possibly. He came for the lost sheep and those who are sick rather than those who are well.

So I have to ask myself, do I love the lost as much as God does? There remains somethng in me that is reluctant to go to Ninavah and preach repentance to those who are cruel and evil. Would I go and preach repentance to ISIL? Probably not. Jonah, move over!

 

Good question ..would we go ?

I remember the song: Lord  please don't send me to Africa..would we argue with the Lord if He told us to leave everything behind and just go?

 

Would go and preach to ISIS ?

 

 

If He truly told me to go there, I would squirm and rebel a bit but ultimately do what He wanted. Because if He sent me there, then He would watch over me until it was time to be out of there one way or another. But I would have to be certain He wanted me there.

[Raven]

Does God love everyone?

My understanding is that God loves the truth in a person.

 

Does God love everyone the same?

My understanding is that everyone has their own unique measure of truth.

[FresnoJoe]

Interesting responses.

 

Did anyone read the free book I linked to by chance?

 

 

By Chance

 

Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed. Proverbs 15:22 (ESV)

 

....But the worldview of Contact is monistic, naturalistic, pluralistic (after all, the film was dedicated to Carl Sagan). It has far more connections with New Age, Pollyannaish optimism than anything substantive. Suddenly the Christian doctrine of the love of God becomes very difficult, for the entire framework in which it is set in Scripture has been replaced.

 

(2) To put this another way, we live in a culture in which many other and complementary truths about God are widely disbelieved. I do not think that what the Bible says about the love of God can long survive at the forefront of our thinking if it is abstracted from the sovereignty of God, the holiness of God, the wrath of God, the providence of God, or the personhood of God—to mention only a few nonnegotiable elements of basic Christianity.

 

The result, of course, is that the love of God in our culture has been purged of anything the culture finds uncomfortable. The love of God has been sanitized, democratized, and above all sentimentalized. This process has been going on for some time. My generation was taught to sing, “What the world needs now is love, sweet love,” in which we robustly instruct the Almighty that we do not need another mountain (we have enough of them), but we could do with some more love. The hubris is staggering.

It has not always been so. In generations when almost everyone believed in the justice of God, people sometimes found it dificult to believe in the love of God. The preaching of the love of God came as wonderful good news. Nowadays if you tell people that God loves them, they are unlikely to be surprised....

 

....postmodernism play into the problem with which we are dealing. Because of remarkable shifts in the West’s epistemology, more and more people believe that the only heresy left is the view that there is such a thing as heresy. They hold that all religions are fundamentally the same and that, therefore, it is not only rude but profoundly ignorant and old-fashioned to try to win someone to your beliefs since implicitly that is announcing that theirs are inferior.

 

....For example, in a recent book Caleb Oluremi Oladipo outlines The Development of the Doctrine of the Holy Spirit in the Yoruba (African) Indigenous Church Movement. His concern is to show the interplay between Christian beliefs and Yoruba traditional religion on the indigenous church. After establishing “two distinct perspectives” that need not detain us here, Oladipo writes: These two paradigmic [sic] perspectives in the book are founded on a fundamental assertion that the nature of God is universal love. This assertion resupposes that while Western missionaries asserted that the nature of God is universal love, most missionaries have denied salvation to various portions of the world population, and in most cases they did so indiscriminately. The book points out the inconsistencies of such a view, and attempts to bring coherency between Christianity and other religions in general, and Yoruba Traditional Religion in particular....

 

http://s3.amazonaws.com/tgc-documents/carson/2000_difficult_doctrine_of_the_love_of_God.pdf?utm_source=StandFirm&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=link

[Willa]

While we were yet sinners Christ died for us. He gave His only begotton Son for us, a part of Himself. Does He love sinners more than His Son and Himself? Probably. Does that mean that He loves the lost more than He loves us, His adopted kids in whom Christ lives? Possibly. He came for the lost sheep and those who are sick rather than those who are well.

So I have to ask myself, do I love the lost as much as God does? There remains somethng in me that is reluctant to go to Ninavah and preach repentance to those who are cruel and evil. Would I go and preach repentance to ISIL? Probably not. Jonah, move over!

 

Good question ..would we go ?

I remember the song: Lord  please don't send me to Africa..would we argue with the Lord if He told us to leave everything behind and just go?

 

Would go and preach to ISIS ?

 

If He truly told me to go there, I would squirm and rebel a bit but ultimately do what He wanted. Because if He sent me there, then He would watch over me until it was time to be out of there one way or another. But I would have to be certain He wanted me there.

You are right Jady. I was sitting here thinking that my health didn't even allow me to go to church this morning. I wouldn't consider flying across country, let alone to Iraq the way I am. But if God want me to do something like that He would enable me, just like He did Sara. My faith fell flat as a pancake this morning. Thank you for reminding me that all things are possible with Him.

[Matthew T.]

Definition of "Hate", as defined by the 1828 Edition of Webster's Dictionary (Noah Webster):

 

HATE, verb transitive [Latin odi, for hodi.]

 

1. To dislike greatly; to have a great aversion to. It expresses less than abhor, detest, and abominate, unless pronounced with a peculiar emphasis.

How long will fools hate knowledge? Proverbs 1:22.

Blessed are ye when men shall hate you. Luke 6:22.

The Roman tyrant was contented to be hated, if he was but feared.

 

2. In Scripture, it signifies to love less.

If any man come to me, and hate not father and mother, etc. Luke 14:26.

He that spareth the rod, hateth his son. Proverbs 13:24.

 

HATE, noun Great dislike or aversion; hatred.

Edited June 1, 2015 by Matthew T.

[Omegaman 3.0]

 

I have a chart somewhere but can't find it on the different views people have of the millennium.

 

 

http://thirdmill.org/answers/answer.asp/file/40285

 

Premillennialism 

Premillennialism takes its name from its assertion that Christ will return prior to this thousand-year period. There are two major forms of premillennialism: historic and Dispensational. Both versions believe that Christ's return will be preceded  . . .  break

 

 

 

And this has to do with the question of the love of God how exactly?

[Omegaman 3.0]

D.C. Carson is also a Calvinist.That is two marks against Carson for me.

 

Just a thought . . . 

 

and this is for anyone, not directed at or to bopeep, but to us all . . . .

 

If we disagree with some one on a point of doctrine, does that make them wrong about other doctrines? If someone, even an unbeliever, quotes the Bible, does the bible become less true, because of who said it, or because they believe something different?

 

So, to me, if this is how we want to think of things, I should never pay attention to anything any pastor I have ever heard, or any Christian author, has ever written, because I can probably find some point of disagreement. 

 

If we disagree with someone, especially on peripheral issues, such as the millennium or  "Calvinism", do we not stop to consider, that perhaps it is we who are wrong, and instead of them? I find it more that likely, that I am probably wrong about something, but if I lay out my case, with scripture, I hope that people can look past me, to what the scripture says, and take direction from the bible, not me, the imperfect sinner.

 

Now, back to the subject of the love of God . . . . PLEASE!