One of the defining characteristics I’ll hear Christians speaking of regarding their faith is that they worship a God of unconditional love and grace.
Fantastic.
And then they (including my past self) will say ‘salvation’ (heaven, eternity, life to the fullest, etc) is a gift of God … given by grace … it can’t be earned …
all you have to do is …
‘Conditions’ like trust, believe, have faith come to mind.
And what if someone doesn’t?
Or what if someone fervently believes, who also was trained to be an active listener, who happened to hear John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ on the radio, and at the moment she hear’s the phrase “Imagine there’s no heaven’, honestly contemplates it for a moment, and Bam!, gets struck to death by an oncoming collision.
Sorry, in the end you just didn’t have faith.
The rules have been set. God may be all powerful, but the game is completely in your hands.
This is an age old issue. But doesn’t it seem like God’s kryptonite is the human will?
There can’t be love without freedom of will. But could there not be love even when you screw up royally?
I’m glad people are feeling more able to address questions like this. I think getting in to this issue will eventually lead to happier people. At risk of stone throwing….have you read “love wins?
Hey Mike! Yup, read it, didn’t fully agree with it all, but yes, liked it.
I’m just wondering…are you intimating that everyone is going to be “saved” regardless of whether they are a believer??? I know that these articles are designed to make a person think…but…it just sounds like you are saying “you’re in, regardless..”…and that is way wrong…
Hey Vickie absolutely not. I’m just raising some age old questions that I think believers tend to forget and it disconnects them from the faith struggles many people have.
I couldn’t imagine God being God without being completely loving and offering humanity the capacity to both choose and to reject him… our choices matter a great deal in this life and into eternity – yet I wrote the post reflecting on the oddness of how our limited human will’s could trump the desires of an all powerful God when he created every person out of love with a desire that all would have life.
Do you have some thoughts on reconciling all of this?
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