Free will. Even if it were a true idea. Would it matter? Would it change the outcome of what God intends to accomplish?
When someone thinks I am a lunatic for thinking that God will reconcile all of creation to Himself, the first thing I do is give them a simple algebraic problem. I ask, "Do you believe that God is all-loving?" I have never heard anyone answer no. Then I ask, "Do you believe that God is all powerful?" Once again the answer is always yes. Then comes the really tricky part, I ask "Okay, so assuming you believe that He is all-loving, is it a fair assumption that you believe He wants to reconcile everyone to Himself?" And of course the answer is always yes. Then I ask, "Okay, and assuming that you believe that He is all-powerful, is it fair to assume that you believe that He can reconcile everyone to Himself?" Yet again without fail, the answer is always yes. But here comes the curve-ball. No one ever expects the next question and I really don't know why they don't see it coming with such an obvious set-up. If God wants to reconcile all, and God can reconcile all, then why do you think that most people will be forever lost?
Number One Answer: Because God gives us free-will to choose Him or to deny Him.
My response to that, is "Why in the world would that matter?"
Even if free-will were a logical law of the universe, which by even secular scientific accounts it is a fallacy, it would have no bearing on the final outcome of what God intends to achieve.
Even if our will was free, God knows exactly what to do to cause us to fall in love with Him, and I truly think that the biggest hindrance in this life preventing people from falling in love with God, is the horrible ideology behind eternal conscious torment, and the sick picture that was painted so deceptively by Satan that millions upon millions of people could actually believe that God is more twisted and sadistic than an human that has ever walked the Earth.
I don't believe in free-will, but I do believe we have a will, and I believe that we should be trying our best to remove this sick picture of God and show others who He truly is. When I believed in eternal conscious torment, I never loved God. I only did what I was supposed to to keep myself convinced that I was saved and that I wouldn't be going to hell. I was afraid of God. It wasn't until He showed me His true self, that I fell in love with Him and all of the things that I felt conflicted about determining who it was okay for me to love and care about vs those that I was told to condemn went away. I could finally truly LOVE everyone. No matter who they are.
Anyone reading this, please remind me tomorrow night to do my blog on Romans 7. I am very excited to have lived the exact scenario out in my life. I just now understood what Paul meant during this passage and it makes me very excited, haha.
Love you all,
Chris
Dear Brother in Christ.
ReplyDeleteThese Romans in Romans 7 : 1-6 were Israelites and Paul's relatives. [See Ch. 16] Paul is explaining Philippians 2: 5-8 how that Yahweh became a human flesh and blood man for the sole purpose of dying as the Husband to release the wife from the penalty of the offenses against the Sinai marriage covenant. [There was no way the former wife could return while ever the law was in force, so the Husband died and the law was legally nullified.
When the Husband dies the wife [relationship] dies with Him, yet the woman lives on, and can remarry a new Husband. The Resurrected Christ Jesus, Who is Yahweh in human form invites His former wife to remarry Him under a new and better covenant. See Hebrews 8: 6-12.
Universalism is nonsense. See Mathew 15: 24.
David.