A
kind soul inquired:
My
former varsity classmate, a Roman Catholic, opined, "Since God is love, and our Lord came to save the whole world; why should He punish some of His
creatures to hell?"
=======
1
John 4:16 KJT
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.
(Please note the distinction between hell/paradise in the intermediate state and the lake of fire/heaven in the eternal state.)
I will address your classmate thus:
Every person has some opinions of God, i.e. the God of the Bible. To opine that God is love is a good start. He loves indeed. "For God SO loved..."
This is an acknowledgement and confession with grave and serious implications, too. What is hell but God’s love spurned and slighted; paradise is God’s love embraced and reciprocated.
I
love reminding people that it is not unreasonable to let God speak for Himself
if we are to know Him rightly and to represent Him faithfully/truthfully;
otherwise, we will run afoul of His 1st and 3rd Commandments:
First Commandment: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” – a god of our own imagination is having another god before the God who has spoken in the Bible.
Third Commandment: “Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.”
Misrepresenting the LORD God is simply taking His thrice-holy name in vain, with the solemn warning. Any God-fearing man will be careful in representing the LORD God faithfully and truthfully.
Also, remember the solemn rebuke recorded here:
Job
42:7 And
it was so, that after the LORD had spoken these words unto Job, the LORD said
to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two
friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant
Job hath.
8 Therefore
take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and
offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my servant Job shall pray for
you: for him will I accept: lest I deal with you after your folly, in that ye
have not spoken of me the thing which is right, like my servant Job.
Surely, a good Roman Catholic like you will agree with this basic principle; if you are to be known and represented truly, then you yourself must be the source of information about yourself and not some opinions of others about you. That being so, we ought to let God speak for Himself and His love expressed in His works of creation, providence, and redemption. He has spoken plainly in the Holy Scriptures.
Yes, the LORD God so loved... He gave Adam and his woman- of whom Adam said, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of Man” - a paradise, the garden of Eden.
Yes, the LORD God so loved… He not only made Adam and his woman perfect and upright, thus very good, but He also put them in the universe that is described as “very good” – “And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.”
Yes, the LORD God so loved… He did not leave Adam and his wife to themselves after they had chosen to listen to the devil, in broad daylight rebellion against the LORD God’s plain and clear command, and damned themselves. He not only cursed the devil through the promise of the Seed of the Woman, He also provided salvation for them – “Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.” The coats of skins were obtained through the blood sacrifices of innocent animals, foreshadowing the promised Lamb of God, the Seed of the Woman who will crush the serpent’s head…
You probably can recite John 3:16 - God so loved that He gave us His only begotten Son. Jesus said that He came to save those whom God has given unto Him. Those who end up in hell are those who have spurned and slighted the Saviour that God has so lovingly provided for them; they despised and scorned the love of God.
Yes, the LORD God so loved… you are right in your opinion, God is love. But men are hateful against Him; they spurn and slight His love. And I find it perverse that you would find fault with God that they end up in hell. Put your hand to your heart, and ask yourself, have you represented the LORD God of the Bible fairly. Remember the First and the Third Commandments.
A man who finds fault with the LORD God is a wicked and evil man, especially when he is blind to man’s own wickedness and evil in his rebellion against his Creator and God.
Think
about these, and may the LORD GOD give you understanding.
