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Here is the practical problem with Calvinim's and Arminianism's good news of conditional love--
YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL OF YOUR HEART, SOUL, MIND AND STRENGTH, (TOTAL AND UNCONDITIONAL COMMITMENT)--*WHILE BEARING IN MIND that He loves you with mere conditional commitment to your eternal well being, depending on YOUR performance in this lifetime. In other words, God demands that you love Him more (with greater commitment) than He loves you. (Arminianism)
*You must love God with your total being WHILE BEARING IN MIND that you must believe, or at least, sustain the strong hope that you will be able to perform better than most of the human race. For few *ever will* find the narrow way according to Arminianism's glad tidings of great joy (which shall be to all people)?
*You must love God with your total being WHILE ALSO BEARING IN MIND that He loves you with conditional commitment, depending on whether or not you prove out to have been "truly" saved in your earthly lifetime. You must also bear in mind that those who apostasize or die in unbelief or a "sin that is unto death" most likely have never been truly saved. (According to Calvinism's good news.)
*You must love God with your total being WHILE BEARING IN MIND that you must believe, or at least sustain the strong hope, that God loves YOU more than He loves most of the human race. And you must also bear in mind that this may include many of your loved ones. For Calvinism's glad tidings of great joy (which shall be to all people?) assures us that few EVER WILL be chosen and that God loves only the elect (Jacob) and hates the non-elect (Esau).
*You must love God with your total being WHILE BEARING IN MIND that He demands that you "emulate" Him as His dear child and not let the sun go down on your wrath. You must also love your enemies, not with mere words, but with DEEDS, and be forgiving, tenderhearted and kind. And you must do this while also remembering that "love never fails." However, this means that YOUR love must never fail, but not so with the love of your "Heavenly Father"--whom the Holy Spirit bids you "to emulate." No, your Heavenly Father actually expects YOU to make sure that the sun does not go down on your wrath. He requires that YOU must always be tenderhearted, forgiving and kind.
*You must therefore love God with total commitment WHILE BEARING IN MIND that He DOES NOT expect that you--literally--perceive Him as not letting the sun go down on His wrath. Nor does He want you to think of Him as ACTUALLY forgiving others 70x7 times daily or as loving His enemies--and not merely with words, but with DEEDS. That's YOUR job!
At least for now it is. But later on in the resurrection when you fully reflect God's "holiness" you can be as harsh and vindictive as you wish. Probably you'll be able help your Good Shepherd cast some of your friends and family into hell. That is--IF--you have proven sufficiently obedient to remain loving and kind in THIS lifetime. Know ye not that the saints shall judge the world?
*You therefore must love God with your total being--and with unconditional commitment--WHILE BEARING IN MIND that you are destined to be conformed to His "holy" likeness. So, as you pursue holiness, "without which no man will see the Lord" you must also bear in mind that God's HOLINESS is the quality in His nature that is (supposedly) ALTOGEHER DIFFERENT from His love. God's holiness is the quality that has caused Him to plan in His foreknowledge (or in His "sovereign will") to consign most of His human offspring to the fiery torture of hell "forever and ever." So of course, the holier YOU become, the more vindictive, unforgiving and harsh you will--and must--become. Yep.
THAT IS YOUR DESTINY. Just take care that none of those "holy" traits surface in your personality in THIS lifetime. That is because--for now--God expects YOU to be more loving than He is, and if you fail at that, you may be denied entry into heaven.
*You must love God with your total being--and unconditional commitment--WHILE BEARING IN MIND that He expects you to oppose abortion. And why? Could it be so that hell will have a full house when the curtain falls at the conclusion of "The Divine Romance" of the ages?
Whatever the reason, you must oppose abortion WHILE ALSO BEARING IN MIND that most babies you save will grow into teenagers and adults that will burn in hell "for the ceaseless ages of eternity." For again, the way that leads to life is narrow and only a few EVER WILL find it according to the glad tidings of Calvinism and Arminianism.
I've pointed out only some of the problems that confront those who--seriously--believe that "Unfailing Holy Love" has planned to consign billions of people to endless fiery torture. However, those who would urge us to believe in "the restoration of merely a few things"
(which none of God's holy prophets have proclaimed) would also urge that you NOT bear all of their ideology in mind.They don't want you taking their endless hell-fire doctrine SO SERIOUSLY that you wind up in legalism--or despair--or in a mental hospital. Nope. Such results would be an embarrassment, for they would only serve to expose the bitter root of their glad/grim tidings that God is 3% lovingkindness and 97% eternal vindictive rage.
(Or will eternity prove perhaps that He is 40% lovingkindness and 60% eternal vindictive rage? Theories vary among Arminians and Calvinists as to the percentage of the saved versus the damned.)
My experience is that many who promote Arminiansim and Calvinism want you to learn to cultivate--COMPARTMENTALIZED THINKING-- while you worship the Lord. They want you to "believe" in an endless hell as a point of "orthodoxy"--while at the same time--they would prefer that you focus on and ACTUALLY believe in the "loving" side of their "God." Yep.
They want you to keep the thought that He plans to fry most people forever in your mental "back-files" while avoiding legalism and "resting secure in His grace."(That is, except when you're being a bad boy or girl--or perhaps WANTING to be a bad boy or girl. :-)
This kind of mental back-filing is what they called, "balanced Christianity." Amazing, isn't it? Especially when--
WE'RE ONLY TALKING ABOUT YOUR
*ETERNAL DESTINY* HERE!Even so, I've found that endless punishment proclaimers aren't consciously aware of it. Nevertheless, their message DOES transmit the expectation that you are to love the Lord *wholeheartedly*--while ALSO believing-- that He (actively and effectively) loves only a few people who who will somehow manage to correctly perform in this lifetime. Or they transmit the message that you must love Him wholeheartedly--while also believing--that He loves only a few select elect (Jacob) and hates the vast majority of His human creation (Essau).
So... Arminians demand that you believe that you will be able to perform better than most of the human race, while Calvinists demand that you believe that God loves you more than does most of the human race...
Yikes--talk about a religious rat race!
But the heart is desperately wicked, who (but God) can know it? And Scripture also says that only a fool trusts in his own heart. So the above irrational requirements can only be good news to the blindly self-confident or to the hopelessly self-centered, whaddyathink? Or perhaps to those glib and yet-to-mature temperaments that hear only the "upside" of the message and the "downside" has never come home to them--yet.
The Bible says to prove all things and hold fast to that which is good. Any message that demands that you love God more than He loves you HAS to be irrational and abusive nonsense. Any message that requires that you be more loving and forgiving than God is toward other people HAS to be wrong. Any message that destroys love toward God HAS to be satanic in origin.
We don't need Scripture verses to document these self-evident facts any more than we need Scriptures to document that water is wet.
Don't get me wrong. I APPRECIATE the fact that our Heavenly Father punishes evil and rewards righteousness. The fact that He disciplines and corrects us causes me to feel all the more secure in His love. All the more admiring of Him, too. I can praise Him for His judgments, hope in His judgments, and like David of old, I can even sing of them, too! However, if I thought that the *slightest* chance existed that my Heavenly Father would punish *you* or myself or anyone else--*forever*--I would cease to love Him. So what would be the point of "serving" Him if I didn't love Him? Does God accept pretence of love, worship and praise--obedience?
Nope. Of course not.
But isn't that exactly what Calvinism's and Armnianism's gospels demand:
AN OUTWARD SHOW OF RIGHTEOUSNESS? These messages demand the rigorous mental gymnastics of constant "back-filing" and compartmentalized thinking. They therefore demand double-mindness that produces a double LIFE STYLE. They demand that we perceive God (our Father!) as a double-dealing, double-minded, double-talking hypocrite. So these grim messages turn those who (seriously!) absorb them into double-minded, double-talking hypocrites.Experience talking here... I've been there! As my dear wife will gladly bear witness... :-) Not that I'm perfect now, by any means. However, the revelation that God loves me (and everyone else) with UNconditional commitment is what--energizes--me to serve Him. And that is what has made all of the difference in my life. Take away God's *committed* love and you will take away my energy to love and obey Him.
Ha! I told an old Arminian pal of mine something the other day. I said, "Glen, if Arminianism IS correct, then I have a lot better shot at "making it to heaven" as a believer in universal reconciliation. Your belief would cause me to hate and distrust God and wind up in hell. In fact that is what it did for many decades when I believed it. My belief in His unfailing and committed love causes me to thirst after Him and to obey Him from my HEART. I want to obey Him ONLY because I love Him!"
Glen got kinda quiet after that... He'll see the truth yet, bless him!
Just some thoughts to ponder prayerfully... I also thought it would be helpful to "stir up the pot" toward more discussion on the practical and daily outworkings of our internal belief structures.
If a doctrine--*when seriously believed and daily meditated on*--doesn't foster increased love and trust toward God... if it doesn't produce the kingdom of God which is "righteousness, peace and joy"... how can it originate from Him Who is Unfailing Holy Love?
God bless you--
Charlie