Unjust giving?
I often hear the question "How could a all knowing and just God create people that he knew where destined for hell?"
It seems to me that this question takes for granted the wonderful gift that we have been given in this life. Even in our fallen condition, this life is pretty darn cool. It is a gift.
Are we to say that it is unjust for somebody to give us one gift, because they are not later going to give us another better gift later? I don't think so. Moreover, if we are unimpressed with the gift that we have been given, why would we expect more gifts like it?
Hell, in my option is simply existence without the gifts of the common grace given by God, and taken for granted by Man. There is a finite amount of pain in this world, where God's protective hand restrains evil, but there will be an infinite amount of pain where the hand of God does not intervene.
Be thankful for what you have been given. Do not have a hard heart towards the one who gave it to you.
WOW is that Calvinism taken to the extreme! I don't think it is humanly possible to be thankful for the gift of life knowing one is destined for hell. Hell is eternal separation from God. I can't imagine how someone could live anything but a miserable life knowing that is their final, forever state. This is the problem with Calvinistic predestination. It is a problem of perspective. As you talked about in your thoughts below, the different views of free will are closer then we usually realize. It’s just a matter of perspective.
God is powerful, wise and amazing! He controls all and yet still give us choice, from our perspective. Ultimately, if we believe in the God of the Bible, we know He is in complete control of all. He is ALL powerful and ALL knowing. He is so amazing that He has created a system where we can freely choose His way or not...that is from our perspective, the only perspective we'll ever know until eternity. The big picture is that God is in complete control. We will never be able to comprehend this until we are released from time into eternity. The analogies we spin help, but we are left with ultimate questions that will not be explained from within the sphere of time (See how God answered Job: 40:1 & 2, 42:1-6).
The Bottom line is that we either trust God or we don't. We either choose to live for Him because of His love & power or we don't because we don’t want a Lord or ignore His call.
What He has shown me makes me trust Him for what He hasn't. He shows Himself to us all through the first (Creation Rom 1:18-20) and second (Jesus John 1:18) revelation. It is evident to all so that we are without excuse…As CS Lewis has stated well in his works, the only people who will go to hell are the ones who, from their perspective, choose it.
Ultimately we have no choice...like Peter who said, "Where else can we go Lord, You have the words of life!"
I don't think many folks destined for Hell live life worrying about it much. People who know and trust God, most likely believe they are not headed there. Those who don't know of trust God, they don't believe in Hell, so they don't worry about it.
It is the believer who is worried about his non-believing friends that tends to make this argument.
The truth is that much of our heart condition is based on how much we take for granted. But of course this descends to a chicken and egg argument as well. It is fairly well documented that God hardens and softens hearts. Are we thankful because he made us to be thankful? No man can boast..
Grrr I had some really good thoughts written & forgot to save them elsewhere. I'm @ The Service Station & it logged me out and I lost the paragraph...
I'm almost out of time, but Phil 2
"Work out your own salvation in fear & trembling
Because it is God who works in you for His good pleasure"
That is the tension we must deal with. We must work out, make choices about what we will do while God is ultimately working out His will...with or without us.
The choices decide whether our knee will bow in loving submission, leading to a life of Confidence, Joy & Abundance & Heaven forever
or
Will our knee be forced down in the end after living a life of fear, anxiety and misery and hell for eternity.
God's will will be done...with or without us!