I really like the questions. I really think that most Christians don’t adequately challenge their beliefs, and too often rely on someone else’s faith to get them by, albeit unconsciously (but I digress).

I believe that love IS God’s nature, love within the three persons of the Trinity as well as love for His created order, including creatures (flora and fauna). I, also, believe God acts with integrity, as that is part of His nature (truth). Too act outside of His nature would violate His integrity. Could He stop loving? Could He act outside of His nature? I can force myself to act outside of my personality type and basic psychological nature. However can I project that possibility upon God? I don’t think so as I exist with dual, conflicting natures-the fallen nature of the flesh and, as a Christian, a restored nature. But there is no evidence that God suffers such as we do with this conflict.

Bottom line, I fully believe that God’s nature includes love of creatures and that God cannot act outside of His nature, because truth-including integrity-is part of His full nature.

I understand your approach…but I have a related question that I think precedes your three questions. It is this: How can one know whether one is loved by God or not? Unless we retreat to the corner of saying God necessarily loves all of this creation (which I understand is where you are going), I think it’s pretty difficult to apply any doctrine of “knowing” in such a way as to be able to know that one is loved by God. If the human condition (perhaps even extending to the condition of creation) is the data base, it raises the question How strong is God’s love? And what effect does it have on us?

Help me Tom to reconcile the Biblical O.T. narrative in light of this or direct me to readings on the matter. As presented in the O.T., the Israelite people are chosen in a manner where they were enemies of their neighbors as obedience to God.
The necessity for God to Love without external coercion or internal compulsion in what way encounters the many neighbors whom the godly view as enemies? Is there a shadow side to God’s love that would Hate something/one or are the OT people merely opportunistic tyrants?
I have been asked about God “hardening the heart” of O.T. figures at times that result in the Strong arm of God. I am wondering on the openness discussion on these considerations. Thanks.
Ron

Last night I presented your questions to our men’s group. Very interesting discussion followed. We did not reach any consensus, but honestly engaged the questions. One question was raised that seems fitting and appropriate: Does God love those who ultimately wind-up in hell? I suggested that He really does and that He suffers grief when anyone ends up there, but ultimately it is their choice. We left this question mainly in the air when we departed.

Paul, Chuck and Ron,

Thanks for your responses!  I’ll make a few brief comments…

Paul - One of the classic theological positions that I affirm is that God’s nature is eternal and unchanging.  Because I think love is an essential aspect of God’s nature, I agree with you that God cannot not love. Just as a square must have four sides, God must love.

Paul 2 - I agree with your response to the men’s group you mention.  I don’t think God ever gives up loving us, even if that means loving us despite our choice to experience hell.  God’s love (chesed) is everlasting, as many OT writers proclaim.

Chuck - Great questions!  As you guessed, I think one can rationally know that God loves them, because they can know that God’s nature is love for all creatures. But as you rightly suggest, there is a difference sometimes between cognitive knowledge of God’s love for us and our deeply felt experience of God’s love. John Wesley thought that our feeling God’s love deeply was of paramount importance for our having confidence, or what he called “Christian assurance.” I agree with him. One role of the Church is to foster situations in which Christians are more likely to experience this deep feeling of being loved by God.

Ron - You raise a number of good questions.  First, I don’t think that God considers anyone an enemy, in the sense of God being essentially opposed to them. But, second, some people are enemies of God because they either 1) declare themselves as enemies or 2) act in opposition to God.  I also think, third, that God hates sin. God hating sin is a secondary consequence, however, to God’s essential nature of love. For these reason, I take very seriously OT statements about God’s wrath.  I just don’t think divine wrath is arbitrary. And I don’t think wrath is essential to God’s character.

Thanks again to all of you!

There is a tacit requirement that you have not made explicit, and that is:

“It was necessary that a loving God creates His Creation, including beings to be loved”

IOW, you tacitly assume that Creation is a NECESSARY product of God’s love.

If, OTOH, you consider Creation CONTINGENT, if God was not NECESSITATED to create His Creation, then, of course, He would NOT be necessitated to love something EXTERNAL to Him.

I guess I do not know what to think of this, and I will have to think about it a lot more. I have always been one to believe that if God so chooses, he could stop loving us. I never believed however that he would! Thinking about it, I think God is someone who obviously loved us so much to send his son, why would he choose to stop love us, but i also know that God can do anything he wants, because he is all powerful. God’s nature is to love, so I dont think he would ever stop.

I tend to agree with Holly that even though God is all powerful, his loving nature establishes his love of us and of his creation. God is capable of anything, even unbound love.

As for the sinners that go to hell, I believe that in that situation God’s pain is massive because of the severance of relationship. His love for the damned cause him the most pain.

And I believe that creation is a necessary product of God’s love, because it is in the relationship that God’s love and grace are most powerful.

Here are my answers to those questions:

1. No, God could not stop loving me. My reason for this answer is that if He could stop loving me then He would not be God. God is never changing, always the same; therefore, He could never stop loving me.

2. No, God would not stop loving me. If He stopped loving me then I would pretty much fall apart and there would be no hope for me beyond this earthly life. Once again, God would not be God.

3. I am confident that God would continue loving me because of His nature to love me. Also because He knows what would happen without His love and wants the best for me.

The knowledge that God created man in his likeness affirms that we were created out of love.  For God’s love did not begin with the sending of his son, but the breath that conceived the human race.  The written word supports God’s nature of love. Though some may use condemnation to refute God’s ultimate nature of life this simply cannot be true. For eternal life is offered as God’s greatest testament of love that eternal life is offered. God’s ultimate sacrifice, Free Will.

From the first day God created man He was in communion with human. He talked with Adam and they walked in the garden. He loved his creation. I believe that, but I still struggle with God loving his creation when he flooded it all and started new. I understand punishment, but cleaning out the whole world but Noah and his family and 2 of every animal almost doesn’t seem like love. Can someone explain that to me?

Before I finished reading this, I thought, “but God is Love”, and I truly believe this. I think that God loves us all, but hurts for us out of his love. I believe that Love is a major characteristic of God and it is important for us to grasp this concept fully.(I am still working on this.)

I believe that God is love.  Do we have to say that God Must love us in order for this to be true? I dont feel that saying God has a choice in the matter changes this.  However, Scripture does say that God is love.  It does seem that if He is love, that He must love.  If God is defined by love, than I dont think He would ever not love us especially since He created us all in His image.  Does it really matter whether God has a choice in the matter of love?

This is a very interesting post. It reminds me of a class I took where my professor said at one point “pleading with God to love is like pleading with a candy bar to be sweet. The candy bar can’t help but be sweet; it IS sweet.” Maybe I’ve got the translation incorrect but 1 John 4:8 says “...God is love.” Enough said.

I like the distinction here that you use in discussion, about whether God “could” or “would” stop loving us. Sometimes phrasing a similar idea in two different ways helps us to understand an issue in an entirely new way. I think that this is a very interesting discussion about the way that God’s nature relates to humanity, and that we would do well to think about more questions like this.  I’m pretty sure I agree, though, that maybe one of the only constants in the universe is God’s steadfast and unmovable love.

I have not given as much thought as I guess I should to answer any of the above questions. I guess I figure if God actually wanted to, he could stop loving us, but I dont believe he wants to. I believe that God loves all of us unconditionally, but believe God can do anything he wants to do.