Healthy Questions

The last post generated some very interesting discussion. I wanted to respond to a few of the comments, but it got lengthy and made more sense as a new post. The main focus here is God's love for the unelect - those who will never truly be His and will not gain eternal life. Dave: "I am not a Greek scholar but as a layman I can see that “world” [in John 3:16] has at least five different meanings in the NT. >> I agree that Kosmos has at least five general meanings: creation, the present age, world system, adornment and people. However, none of these definitions equates to "elect" or "chosen." Dave: I think the context is clear...we have Jesus talking with Nicodemus (a Jewish Pharisee) about how in the past God provided healing for the Jews by lifting up a brass serpent, but under the new covenant, saving is not for the Jews only, but for the whole(believing) world. (those from every tribe, tongue and nation)...... by looking to Jesus (who became sin, ...

God Loves the World To help (me) keep track of where we've been: Part 1) All are sinners Part 2) Sinful man hates God Part 3) God hates sinful man Let's see if I can wrap up my thoughts in this fourth post. God Loves the World If my last conclusion is correct and God hates man, how can He therefore "love the world" as John 3:16 states? Perhaps this passage is referring only to those "chosen before the foundation of the world" (Eph 1:4 etc.) and not the whole of humanity. In other words, "God so loved His chosen ones that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life." Unfortunately, I'm not convinced that we can interpret world in this way. When John uses world it clearly means only one of two things: either this physical world (Jesus made the world and came into the world), or the world of humanity (the world did not know Him, the world hates Jesus.) I don't think we can confidentl...

Rather than add yet another review that may only draw more attention to the book called "The Shack," I have decided to make my point brief and direct folks to existing reviews. For myself, I found the following: The book is poor fiction The fiction is a vehicle for the theology The theology is rotten I haven't yet found a comprehensive review - I suppose such a thing would be a book unto itself, but here's a few of the better ones: Tim Challies (17 page .pdf) Albert Mohler (radio) Hank Hanegraff (brief) If you must read the book (and you really don't have to), please realize that you will be absorbing more theology in the few hours it takes to read it than you will in most calendar months. Examine Young's version of God in light of what the Bible says about God. Use the reviews to help with this. Other related resources: The Love of God, John MacArthur. Young's God is not only love, but is really ONLY love. This is a classic and appealing distortion of...