Does God love all people?

The short answer is that yes, God loves everybody.

Even thouogh God loves everybody, there are things people do which God does decidedly not love, the two most repugnant being idolatry and injustice. As you have noted, people who do these things are apparently hated by God.

That said, there is no one who is beyond the reach of God's love and grace. The one who repents, even of the sins of idolatry and injustice, can be reconciled to God.

 

God can do whatever God desires to do.

Don't confuse "love" and "hate" as theological realities with "love" and "hate" as human feelings. God is not moved by feelings.

Love as a theological reality is evidenced in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. That reality is open to all, regardless of who they are. Romans 5:8 is evidence that it is an outright lie to say things like "God hates you" to those separated from God.

Hate as a theological reality is the inevitable result of separation from God and acting toward God and God's creation in ways that harm that creation.

In other words, emotions do not enter into the picture, only realities.

 

He loves ALL -

We are ALL wicked according to the Law of God see Romans 3:9-15.

God hates the sin and loves the sinner. but at some point sinful man has made a final choice to BE wicked and to resist the gospel. At that point man becomes the enemy of God by his own choice.

Notice what happened to king Saul when "God BECAME his enemy" through the choices that he made.

In Christ,

Bob

 

The simple answer is that God loves all His creation enough to send Christ to die in order to restore it (all creation) to a right relationship with Him.

John 3:16

It is a simple logic question. If you draw a big circle and label it "cosmos (all creation)" and then draw a smaller circle inside that big circle and label it "all mankind" it should be clear to you that because God so loved the cosmos (Greek meaning all creation translated as "world" in most English Bibles) and all mankind is within the cosmos, that God loves all people.

 

Excellent answer :thumbs: :godisgood:

 

Amen..........

 

Amen & Amen, Bible-boy.

 

hmm - so you are presbyterian but not a 4 or 5 point Calvinist??

Where does reformed theology allow you to make the statement above?

In Christ,

Bob

 

Hmm - so not arbitrarily selecting some for hell and others for heaven. He Loves ALL according to a Calvinist position?

Then Why do you guys object to this idea so strongly when we debate Calvinism vs Aminianism?

In Romans 2 God says He is NOT partial (Rom 2:11-13)

In 2Peter 3 "Not willing for ANY to perish but for ALL to come to repentance".

God loves the sinner - hates the sin.

But when the sinner finally turns irrevokably from salvation -- hardened towards sin - he is no longer open to the DRAWING of the Spirit of God. He has committed himself to being the enemy of God.

in Christ,

Bob

 

I don't recall reading where Bible Boy is a calvinist. I think he is saying exactly what you have said.

 

Calvinism can't say that. If anything calvinism uses "Jacob I loved, Esau I hated" as proof that God creates people to hate.

 

I think your question is a good one and worthy of reflection, but you want to be careful not to separate God the Father from God the Son; or the OT from the NT. Remember Jesus was there in the OT as well.

(Oh, and BTW, in an unrepentant state, we are the wicked.)

CA

 

No, that is a myth, scripture never says that or implies that !

Romans 9:13


13As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.

How can it be sincerely taught that scripture teaches that God loves all men without exception, when it specifically says of Esau, God Hated ?

And I got news for you, He did not only hate Esau, but all the workers of iniquity. Ps 5:5


5The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity.

And they that work iniquity shall soon hear these words Matt 7:23


23And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

Yes, these and those in Ps 5:5 are the very same !
​

 

Unbeleivers are "condemned already" (Jn. 3:18) and under the wrath of God (Jn. 3:36). Before we were saved we were "children of wrath even as others" (Eph. 2:2-3).

Outside of Christ there is no salvation, no righteousness, no holiness and therefore no love of God. The love of God is found only "in Christ."

When we deal with the wrath of God we are not dealing with emotions but with a judicial and legal perspective. The law of God is God's standard of what is viewed by God as holy, righteous and just. Anything coming short of that standard comes under the legal sentence of condemnation, wrath, and holy hatred as defined by law. Hence, God loves righteousness but hates wickedness by His judicial standard.

This is why salvation is by grace because there is nothing in sinners to merit as objects of God's love. The law defines what merits to be the object of His love - righteousness and holiness. This is why salvation is by mercy because God's justice is withheld from sinners receiving what they justly deserve.

Outside of Christ there is no love of God because only Christ provides a justified basis or justified object for God's love. Outside of Christ is the wrath of God:

John 3:36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

This is why salvation must be "in Christ" because outside of Christ is only the wrath of God because outside of Christ there is no justified basis to be a recipient of God's love.

Many Christians believe election places "in Christ" before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4) all who wil be justified objects of God's love and all who will come to him by faith (1 Thes. 1:4-5; 2 Thes. 2:13) because they have been given to the Son before the world began (Jn. 6:37-39; 44-45; 64-65; 17:2) and that God's love for the "kosmos" includes the redemption of all the material universe (Rom. 8:20-25) and all mankind without distinctions of race, class and gender but not all mankind without exception.

However, one thing is for certain - there is no salvation OUTSIDE of Jesus Christ but we do know what is OUTSIDE of Jesus Christ - the abiding wrath of God that will come to fruition in eternal judgement in Gehenna for eternity and by no stretch of the imagination can that be construed to be the love of God.

 

I think there are two opposite errors here:

1. "God does not hate anyone." "God loves the sinner and hates the sin." This statement is nowhere in the bible! It comes from pagan thought. There are clearly places in the bible where God Hates:

-It is also true that God Hates the wicked: Psalm 5:5, "The boastful shall not stand before Thine eyes; Thou dost hate all who do iniquity,"


2. However, we should also note that God also loves those he hates:
-John 3:16 - (no need to quote that one) [if we need to discuss if "the world" includes unbelievers, we can, but hopefully the following 2 verses will make that discussion unnecessary)
-2 Peter 3:9 - The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you,1 not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
-Matt. 5:44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. (God loves his enemies, and expresses this by giving them rain and sun...sometimes called common grace)

Now...He Does NOT Love everyone the same way. He does not love those who have rejected him in the same way he loves those who have received him.