Osage Bluestem
Puritan Board Junior
What does it really mean to say God is Love? John was quite clear that God is Love:
1 John 4:8,16 KJV
[8] He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
[16] And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
I'm noticing that Arminians and Roman Catholics like to bring up the passages saying that "God is love" when dealing with the topic of the expanse of God's love towards his creatures. They use this to build a case to defend the assertion that God loves everyone.
Is it true to say that God, who is love, hates all workers of iniquity because there is no love in them perhaps?
Because the bible is clear that he does hate all workers of iniquity:
Psalms 5:5 KJV
[5] The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity.
So if God is love, and we must accept that he is because it says so in the above passages, then that must mean that love can and does hate if we take Psalms 5:5 literally because we cannot disregard any passages of God's inerrant bible. The only other way to take it would be to assume it is an anthropomorphism, which is apparently the Roman Catholic position because they include in their canon the book of Wisdom which says the following:
Wisdom 11:23-26 KJV
[23] But thou hast mercy upon all; for thou canst do all things, and winkest at the sins of men, because they should amend.
[24] For thou lovest all the things that are, and abhorrest nothing which thou hast made: for never wouldest thou have made any thing, if thou hadst hated it.
[25] And how could any thing have endured, if it had not been thy will? or been preserved, if not called by thee?
[26] But thou sparest all: for they are thine, O Lord, thou lover of souls.
Since we don't accept the book of Wisdom it has no real bearing on our conversation but the above quote simply illustrates where the Roman Catholic is drawing his scriptural conclusions from. With that in the canon the Roman Catholic cannot ever say that God hates anything because it clearly says that God loves all things that are. So we can see where they disconnect with us and why they prohibit the doctrine of double predestination.
I accept the 66 book canon and believe in double predestination and that God only loves the elect. However, I am having a hard time wrapping my brain around the concept of God actually BEING Love and then hating at the same time.
So, according to John the person of God actually is Love. How does love itself literally hate? I assume love is holy because God is holy and God is love, so God would hate things that are not holy because anything unholy is evil. Does this sound logical? So then love must hate evil. What about a person or a demon who is said to love evil? Can there really be true love for evil in existence if God is love and God is holy at the same time? I think that would mean that the only things that can love are holy things, because love is holy. So it would not be possible to actually love evil. Any pointers or ideas?
All thoughts welcome.
Thanks
1 John 4:8,16 KJV
[8] He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
[16] And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
I'm noticing that Arminians and Roman Catholics like to bring up the passages saying that "God is love" when dealing with the topic of the expanse of God's love towards his creatures. They use this to build a case to defend the assertion that God loves everyone.
Is it true to say that God, who is love, hates all workers of iniquity because there is no love in them perhaps?
Because the bible is clear that he does hate all workers of iniquity:
Psalms 5:5 KJV
[5] The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity.
So if God is love, and we must accept that he is because it says so in the above passages, then that must mean that love can and does hate if we take Psalms 5:5 literally because we cannot disregard any passages of God's inerrant bible. The only other way to take it would be to assume it is an anthropomorphism, which is apparently the Roman Catholic position because they include in their canon the book of Wisdom which says the following:
Wisdom 11:23-26 KJV
[23] But thou hast mercy upon all; for thou canst do all things, and winkest at the sins of men, because they should amend.
[24] For thou lovest all the things that are, and abhorrest nothing which thou hast made: for never wouldest thou have made any thing, if thou hadst hated it.
[25] And how could any thing have endured, if it had not been thy will? or been preserved, if not called by thee?
[26] But thou sparest all: for they are thine, O Lord, thou lover of souls.
Since we don't accept the book of Wisdom it has no real bearing on our conversation but the above quote simply illustrates where the Roman Catholic is drawing his scriptural conclusions from. With that in the canon the Roman Catholic cannot ever say that God hates anything because it clearly says that God loves all things that are. So we can see where they disconnect with us and why they prohibit the doctrine of double predestination.
I accept the 66 book canon and believe in double predestination and that God only loves the elect. However, I am having a hard time wrapping my brain around the concept of God actually BEING Love and then hating at the same time.
So, according to John the person of God actually is Love. How does love itself literally hate? I assume love is holy because God is holy and God is love, so God would hate things that are not holy because anything unholy is evil. Does this sound logical? So then love must hate evil. What about a person or a demon who is said to love evil? Can there really be true love for evil in existence if God is love and God is holy at the same time? I think that would mean that the only things that can love are holy things, because love is holy. So it would not be possible to actually love evil. Any pointers or ideas?
All thoughts welcome.
Thanks