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Originally Posted by Barnpreacher  Quote:
Originally Posted by caddy What's the short answer....  | I listened to it last week and if I remember correctly he said that we should tell people that God loves all those that repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. So in that sense, God's love is conditional. He said if we just tell people that God unconditionally loves them then they will never see their need for faith and repentance. |
Hm. Well, not having listened to his presentation of the issue, I'm not particularly with his take on it. Certainly it's true that God loves all those that repent and believe on Jesus, but God's love is prior to their repenting and believing, and so I'm not sure it's helpful even to mention it.
In fact, I can't see any reason to even desire to tell a person on the street that "God loves you". Whether or not God loves that person is irrelevant to the truth of the fact that they must repent and believe if they are to be saved. I don't see how saying "God loves you" is much of an inducement to repent and believe, anyway - rather, it seems a disincentive, for "If God loves me, then he'll accept me just the way I am and forgive me whatever I've done." Seems to me it's just a slick and syruppy enticement (that may not turn out to be true) and utterly misses the point of evangelism.
__________________
Todd K. Pedlar
member, First Congregational Church, (CCCC) Cresco, IA
http://semperubi.rtrc.net
"Many men, after a long conversion, see more of the workings of sin in their hearts than ever they did before or at their first conversion. Now, such men have not an increase of sin, but an increase of illumination and light"
(Christopher Love)
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