February 19, 2011

God Actively Saves, Does Not Actively Condemn

So it seems unattractive that God would choose some and condemn other people... But this is not entirely accurate... The truth is that God is not an evil God that goes around choosing people to condemn. People, left to themselves in their sin, are already condemned, and they destroy themselves. It takes supernatural intervention to make salvation possible, whereas condemnation happens naturally from the natural order of things. God chooses to save people and actively saves them. He doesn't choose to actively condemn people. Yes the Bible says God prepares people for destruction to make His riches known to the people He prepared in advance for His glory (Romans 9), but the preparation done for those destined for destruction is a passive word whereas the preparation done for those destined for glory is an active word, in Greek. If this sounds like too subtle to make a difference, just talk to the people who argue about euthanasia. So God actively saves and lets others be condemned. Yes God does destroy those who are already condemned, in His righteous anger, but He does not actively condemn them. He may choose to harden those who are already condemned. Sin is indeed so terrible that it warrants condemnation... the wages of sin is death. If anyone thinks that sin is not so bad, just think about all the suffering... Suffering shows us how heinous our sin is. God does not necessarily inject suffering to teach us lessons. The suffering is a byproduct of our own sin. Destruction and death and ugliness come from ourselves and our sin.

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