gkmcnees@comcast.net wrote:

> I take all the word of God as comfort. For I believe in the God
> who says that HE IS LOVE. I do not believe in a God who
> has created the vast majority of His human creatures to be
> damned, without a free will to receive His salvation.

I note here the internal contradiction of your view. You
can't believe in a God who would damn His own creatures,
yet you insist that He gave them free will so that they
have the tool to get damned.

You call this a "God of love", but He doesn't display
even the love a human parent towards His children. If
my kids were in mortal danger, I sure wouldn't leave
their safety up in the air by refusing to help them
until they asked for it, or showed some sign that they
wanted help from me, or showed some sign that they
trusted my judgement. I'm not waiting around for their
exercise of free will and some sort of reaching out to
me. I'm just going to save them.

If my toddler is walking toward a cliff, do I just say
"If you keep going, you're going to break your neck" and
then leave it up to him? Is my policy to let
him exercise his free will a loving policy? After he falls
and kills himself, do I say "Oh well, it was his choice"?

The God you describe is a monster, who creates billions of
people and lets wander off in their ignorance. When they
all end up in Hell, He just shrugs His shoulders and says
"Oh, well, it was their choice".

There is no comfort in "free will" doctrine.

Bart

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gkmcnees@comcast.net wrote:

>>>>>God did NOT cause Judas to betray Jesus.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>Do you have any basis for that last statement? We
>>>>don't know what God will is.
>>>
>>>Well, we do know what God has revealed concerning
>>>His will.
>>
>>
>> But we don't know _all_ of God's will, and specifically,
>> you still don't have any evidence that God did not
>> will Judas to betray Jesus.
>
> But what HE has revealed we do know.

You made the statement "God did NOT cause Judas to
betray Jesus." Show me where God revealed this to you.
So what if God revealed something else to you. What
has He said about Judas? You have to keep adding
to Scripture to support your doctrine.


> We know that He does not
> "secretly" will the opposite of what He has told us He wills.

How do we know that? There are lots of paradoxes in Scripture.
It's not a matter of "willing the opposite", bu