Why the God of love sends people to hell?

 

https://www.facebook.com/sing.f.lau/posts/10218471659878261

##GodisLove_hell_lakeoffire

A Brother inquired:
My former varsity classmate, a Roman Catholic, opined:
since God is love, and Jesus came to save the whole world, why should He punish some of His creatures in hell.

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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 is love indeed. But that’s an acknowledgment and confession with grave and serious implications too. What is hell but  God’s love spurned and slighted; heaven 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; otherwise, we will run afoul of the First and Third 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.

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 is love, and He 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 is love, and He so loved…

He not only made Adam and his woman perfect and upright, thus very good, 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 is love, and He 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 likely can recite John 3:16 - God so loved that He gave us His only begotten Son. Jesus said that He came to save sinners. Those who end up in hell are those sinners who have spurned and slighted the Savior that God has so lovingly provided; they despised and scorned the love of God.

Yes, the LORD God is love, and He 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 faults 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.

The gospel truth of imputation is soiled

We give Christ our sin? 
Really? When, and how?

"The Protestant Reformation" is administered by some Reformed Baptists. What ails these Protestants and the Reformed folks?

(Reformed Baptists see themselves as Protestants; the Old School Baptists don't since Baptists were never part of the Harlot church!)

For a short period of time a few years ago, I was able to leave comments on their posts but I have since been banned; they hate me for pointing out their errors.  However, their postings still appear on my feed now and then.

Imputation is a wonderful truth; double imputation is even more so. However, these Protestant Reformed folks must pollute and defile nearly every pristine truth they touch. They have soiled the great exchange, a glorious gospel truth of free grace.

Look at the post screenshot below on double imputation.

Liked and loved 36 times and shared 30 times; none of them is aware of a grievous error in the post; none of the 27,430 followers of the page say a thing about the plain but subtle error.

O, the evil inclination and propensity of some sincere folks in subtlely slipping in their own works even as they mouth grace alone. They love usurping God's prerogative, likely unconsciously.

Tell us what's the poison in the post screenshot below.

If any Protestant Reformed folks are reading this, pray tell, when/how did you give Christ your sin? Thank you most kindly.

Did you give Christ your sin? If yes, when, and how?
Did you do an adequate job of giving Christ your sin? Good luck to you! 😉
Where were you when the great exchange took place?
Who imputed to Christ your sin - yourself?
Did you take part in the great exchange?

How orderly is your order of salvation?

(dazzling fruit of a roselle plant.)

https://www.facebook.com/sing.f.lau/posts/10215852345797046
March 6, 2020  ·

#Order_of_salvation

Romans 8
29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.

The Scriptures speaks of THE Order of Salvation. Below are two different orders: which do you believe, the first or the second, or a mixture of the two?

Take a look. How are you saved? Tell us the order which you believe is taught in the Scripture about your salvation.

Order 1:
You were dead in trespasses and sins:
The gospel call came to you - bringing the free offer of eternal salvation to you.
a. Effectual call: gospel call made effectual by God, to enable you to respond to the gospel call. (This is call prevenient grace.)
- Conversion: your response of faith in Christ through the gospel ministry.
- Born again: you believe in order to receive eternal life. (You didn't have eternal life; now you do because your of your believing!)
- Justification: you believe in order to be justified, i.e. declared righteous by God. (You were not justified before, i.e. under the just condemnation because of sin; but through your act of believing, God has justified you!)
- Adoption – you believe in order to be received as son by God. (You were alienated but by faith God has adopted you into His family.)
- Sanctification – you become progressively more holy in life.
- Perseverance – you persevere in a life faith and holiness. (if you don't, it means that you were not even a child of God; i.e. you are a fake)
- Glorification - your future glorification based on your perseverance. (I pray and hope that you persevere well enough to qualify a place in heaven!)

Order 2:
You were dead in trespasses and sins (the same starting place as Order 1)
a. God effectually called you when you were dead in trespasses and sins, in active enmity against God.
- God freely, by His sovereign grace alone, called you out of your native state of sin and death to that of grace and eternal salvation in Christ Jesus.

b. This effectual call out of the state of sin and death to that of grace and salvation requires these FREE and sovereign acts of God:
- Justification: God removed your condemnation by declaring you righteous, through the application of the righteousness of Christ to your personally; yes, freely by His grace, Rom 3:24. Not by your faith.
- Regeneration: You are born of God, and receive eternal life. You were quickened from spiritual deadness to eternal life.
- Adoption: God received you as son, and gave His Holy Spirit to dwell in you, who works saving graces, including faith.
- All of the above in the effectual call to grace and salvation is entirely by God's free grace alone. You did nothing. Why? Because it was when you were in a condemned, dead and alienated state that God acted freely to save you by His grace. (EVERY elect of God are effectually called to eternal life, by God's free grace alone, at God's  own appointed time.).
- Eph 2:5 " Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved." Yes, EVEN WHEN WE WERE DEAD... BY GRACE ARE YE SAVED."
- YES, even when we were dead, incapable of faith, are we saved. Have you understood?

c. Gospel ministry is blessed for your further sanctification (temporal salvation) 

- Faith in Jesus Christ through the gospel ministry.  Your faith evidences your justified state by God's free grace.  
- God works in you to will and to do His good pleasure, and you working out your own salvation, through the gospel ministry, with fear and trembling, here and now in this present life.
- Perseverance: you as a child of God immutably remain and continue in the state of grace and salvation in Christ Jesus. (Some of God's children do not experience this further sanctification. Of those who do, they experience it to vastly different degrees.)
- Glorification - based on God’s perseverance alone in keeping His children in the STATE of grace and eternal salvation.

Which order have you been taught?
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Dhong
I have been taught the first order but later came across the second order. I believe that the second order is the biblical one for it brings all the glory to God for the salvation He has freely bestowed upon His people. It further explains why people are negative to spiritual things prior to being made spiritually alive by the sovereign act of God.

Doug Messer
Will agree with Dhong. The Glory must...and will be His alone. He chooses whom He wills, for His purpose and Glory. 

Khaw Eng Sun
Many of us were taught Order 1, believing this Order 1 without blinking of our eyes till the opportune time our Lord Jesus Christ kindly pointed to us our erroneous understanding. My best half and I had many questions unanswered then till that opportune moment where scales dropped from our eyes, wax melted flowing out of our ears (we suddenly hear loud and clear), our hearts melted and felt the love & free grace of our Elder Brother. Yes, yes and yes...Order 2 is all found in the Bible. Praise Him, the Captain of our Salvation.

Matt Jordan
Order 2 is biblical. Not only that, it gives all the glory to God, and it brings the most comfort to a sinner saved by grace. Thank you for sharing!

Reggie Lee
When I read that word (Prevenient) before Grace, I knew order 1 wasn’t for this guy.

When a dead man eat, he shall have life

https://www.facebook.com/sing.f.lau/posts/2709142683255

When a man CAN'T even distinguish...
"... whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life,"
AND
"... whosoever will believe in him should not perish, but will have everlasting life"
... he should just hold his peace instead of blaspheming the truth of the gospel of Christ!

The first is directly from the Scriptures, the second is how many like want to read it!

The biblical passage is a statement declaring a certain truth... i.e. the believing ones (present active) have (present active) or possess everlasting life, already born of God. Their believing is because of their possession of everlasting life, of having been born of God.

The humanistic reading is a conditional offer - everlasting life is offered to those who are dead in trespasses and sins conditioned on them believing in Christ.

It is like turning a declaration of truth, "whosoever eats has life' into a conditional offer to the dead, "whosoever will eat will have life.'

========

Go to this Facebook post to read some comments of ardent believers of the latter, spouting their ignorance and idiocy. 

https://www.facebook.com/sing.f.lau/posts/2709142683255

What is the state of a man before regeneration???

 

https://www.facebook.com/sing.f.lau/posts/2709800539701

A man inquired, "What is the state of a man before regeneration?"
======

You want the simple, glaring truth?
You may not like it. The truth shatters lies. 

Eph  2:1 ¶ And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
4 ¶ But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved...

First, the question presupposed the man to be an elect of God, since only the elect is regenerated. 

1. He is dead in trespasses and sins. This deadness does not consist in inactivity. In fact, he is full of activities but they are all activities of death! In this deadness, he is utterly incapable of any activities that bring himself to God. Instead, he is actively in enmity against God and separated from God.

2. He walks according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air. He is under the power and influence of the spirit that works in him. (so much for the imagined 'free will' of this captive under Satan's power!)

3. He is a child of disobedience... a rebel, in enmity against God. (so much for the fable that man in his native state can believe Christ and get eternal life!)

4. He lives in the lusts of his flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. That's his native state. (so much for the fiction that such a man will believe in order to have eternal life!"

5. He is by nature a child of wrath; the just and righteous wrath of God upon him.

BUT... BUT... BUT... BUT... BUT... this disjunctive is one of the best in the Scriptures!

Without grace... a man will happily remain in his NATIVE states of sin and death, happily serving sin! He is completely helpless, dead in trespasses and sins, captives under the power and influence of the strong man, and in enmity and rebellion against God.

While in such helpless condition, God freely and sovereignly - i.e. by grace, quickened him who was dead in sins.

In quickening him, God VITALLY unite him to Christ and gave him the eternal life that Christ has secured for His people. This is 'by grace ye are saved'! With the quickening that man is saved... yes S. A. V. E. D. - as saved as could be... i.e. perfectly and completely fit for eternal glory. Faith, his act of believing, is completely excluded; faith was an impossibility with a man dead in trespasses and sin; it is only possible as an effect and consequence of having BEEN SAVED FREELY BY GRACE. (So, beware of twisting and perverting "faith" in verse 8!)

God saves and saves by His free and sovereign grace. He quickens the dead, and this enables a man to believe. God does not give faith to a man dead in trespasses and sins, and expects him to believe, in order to be regenerated! That's a fable!

The simple and plain truth is, "Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace ye are saved."

Those SAVED by God's free grace are called by the ministry of the word to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling... through their obedience to the will of their FATHER.

The salvation that God freely and sovereignly bestows upon the elect dead in trespasses and sins and which enables them to work out their own salvation, and the salvation that God's children are summoned to work out for themselves are different and distinct salvation.

The biblical distinction is the essence of sound theology.