God’s Love Always Saves
This article aims to explain the doctrine of God's Love, unadulterated by the emotions of man.
We love him, because he first loved us. (1 John 4:19)
The elect of God are God’s beloved before the foundation of the world. He loved us first in eternity (where there was never any moment that He did not love His elect) and that causes His elect to love Him in earthly time and space. In other words, we can believe in Him because God has unconditionally chosen us in Christ in eternity. The opposite of 1 John 4:19 is equally true for the wicked reprobates: they do not love Him, because He first never loved them. The wicked reprobates do not love Him and will never love Him because God has no love for them at all in the first place.
God has no lesser love (commonly
called universal, general love) than His electing, salvific and special love.
There is only one love of God i.e. His eternal particular love for the elect
alone that causes their salvation, manifested in true repentance and belief in Christ
in this earthly time and space. “Behold, what manner of love the Father
hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore
the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not (1 John 3:1)”. God’s love
cannot be inefficacious and fruitless that it will not cause someone to believe
in Christ. God’s love always saves and the wicked reprobates will never be saved
because God does not love them. The goodness of God always leads people
to repentance (Romans 2:4). What good is God’s love and goodness when they
do not lead a person to repentance? It is a futile love. The doctrine of
universal, common, general goodness and love of God is therefore futile and false.
God does not love the wicked
reprobates (the non-elect) proven by the simple facts that: 1) He hardens hearts
unto damnation by the means of general revelation and the preaching of the
Gospel, 2) He does not cause them to repent and believe, and 3) God does not
bring the Gospel to everyone without exception since the time of Adam (but when He does bring it to certain reprobates, it’s to
harden the their hearts). Can you see that it is a logical
contradiction to still think that God still desires for the wicked reprobate to
be saved? God always fulfils what He desires: “But he is in one mind, and who
can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth (Job 23:13)”.
How about food, rain and sunshine
which God bestowed upon everyone without exception? It is undeniable that God
provides for all men without exception. God is the one who actively sustains
heavens and earth that men can live. But that is just common providence, which does not automatically
imply God’s love. Common providence have two purposes for two different
people: 1) a common providence that is grace unto the elect, and 2) a common
providence that is curse unto the wicked reprobates.
God uses pain and suffering (e.g. the loss of a loved one, terminal illness, etc), and pleasure (e.g. rain, food, drink, sunshine, etc) for the good of those who love God (who were first loved by God). “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28)”. That is the purpose of God's providence for the elect.
What is the purpose of God's providence for the wicked reprobates? The opposite of Romans 8:28 is also true that God uses pain and suffering, and pleasure not for the good of those who do not love God (who were never loved by God in the first place). God causes the wicked reprobates to flourish in this life with pain and suffering, and pleasure, so that they will be destroyed forever. In other words, for the wicked reprobates, this life is the means towards their damnation, thus fulfilling God’s decree of eternal reprobation according to His mere pleasure and wise counsel. The hearts of the wicked reprobates are being hardened and hardened each moment through general revelation (as revealed in God’s creation) and the promiscuous preaching of the Gospel. “When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; it is that they shall be destroyed for ever: (Psalm 92:7)”. God strikes and brings them to hell for the glory of His justice when the sins of each of the wicked reprobates are full like the example of the Amorites (Genesis 15:16).
Asaph in Psalm 73:12 reflected regarding the high status of many wicked reprobates: “Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches”. His conclusion about them in Psalm 73:18-20 is: “Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into destruction. How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors. As a dream when one awaketh; so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image”. The whole universe is a slippery place for the wicked reprobates (rich and poor), leading them closer to damnation each moment. It is stated clearly that God despises the image of the wicked reprobates, how is it logical that God still loves them at the same time?
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