The Highway Forums General Discussion Theology Discussion Forum Whom does God love?

Brad,

I appreciate the quotes from "The Free Offer of the Gospel" by Murray and Stonehouse, which I am overly familiar with.

My response is simply I do believe that those two notables have erred in deducing that God loves all but in different ways. I can understand how they got where they ended up but I find it to be wrong when I look at the Scripture itself which clearly makes a distinction between God loving the elect in Christ before the foundation of the world and God being "kind, beneficent, long-suffering, generous, etc.," with the non-elect. Love, like grace in the Scriptures, I believe is reserved for the elect and them alone. Re: "Common Grace", I do hold to the truth of that doctrine but think the name is misleading at best. There is nothing "common" about God's grace for it is extended to the elect in order to save them from their sins in Christ Jesus. It seems rather dubious to insist that God loves those whom He has consigned to damnation and eternal punishment and of whom the Scripture says He hates. Linguistic and logical gymnastics I have never been good at.

In His grace,