God that I serve does not show favoritism.
You define favoritism by assuming God treats everyone the same (or at least I assume this definition). This is empirically shown to be incorrect as God choose Israel to be His favored people. He chooses some to be blind and other not. Some to hear the gospel, and others not. Thus, you have a contradiction.
There is no reasoning capacity that can ever convince me that God chooses some and leaves others to burn in hell. My perception of God is that of drawing all men to Himself.
If there is not reasoning to change your mind then a counter argument is pointless. I just state that one should let God tell us who He is and not us determine who He is. (Aside: If I thought God was 'fair' by my definition, then I would change a lot of things.)
John3:16"For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten son, so that whoever believes in him may not perish but have eternal life".
Whoever does believe does get eternal life. God chooses some to believe. (Aside: there are ample verses saying man is not able to believe of his own power. There is no verse saying man can believe of his own free will meaning independent of God giving him faith. There are verses where God says you must believe and it is implied by that, that you can. But that is an implication that is shown to be false by many verses saying man isn't capable of believing on his own. Some counter this with a 'prevenient grace' (see gotquestions.com for definition), but biblical evidence for this is weak.
1John2:2"He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the
whole world ".
The word
WORLD is ambiguous. If WHOLE WORLD means everyone without exception then the verse is saying that everyone without exception has had their sin atoned. This is universalism which contradicts verses saying some go to hell.
John 14:17 the Spirit of Truth, whom the
world cannot receive [and take to its heart] because it does not see Him or know Him,
but you know Him because He (the Holy Spirit) remains with you
continually and will be in you. .... If your definition of WORLD be consistent then this verse says no one can be saved.
Aside: Use a concordance and search for the word WORLD and insert your definition into the verse and you will see many conflicts and some impossibilities.
Aside2: This is heavy stuff to absorb ...takes a lot of study
Aside3: I could be wrong ... of course, I don't think I am .. ponder it
Aside4: Some try to keep their doctrine alive by saying Christ died for all our sins except the sin of unbelief. There is no explicit scripture to substantiate this claim.
Heb2:9"But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone".
The word
everyone and
ALL have a similar explanation as the word WORLD. Use a concordance and search for the word ALL and insert your definition into the verse and you will see many conflicts and some impossibilities. Unfortunately, the word EVERYONE is not used sparingly so you can't do the same thing. But ALL and EVERYONE are synonyms.
Examples of ALL where it cannot mean everyone without exception:
- Acts 26:4 Paul says, The Jews all know the way I have lived ever since I was a child, from the beginning of my life in my own country, and also in Jerusalem. Does he mean that every Jew without exception knew him? How about those who lived in the past and those who would live in the future?
- Romans 5:18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. 19 For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous. “All” without exception would validate universalism.
Here is an explanation of the word all with an example:
An error occurs when there is confusion about whether we refer to a term in a
collective sense, or a
distributive sense. A collective sense means all the items are considered together as a whole. In a distributive sense, all the items are considered separately, one at a time. The tricky thing is that the word "all" can be used either way. When "all" is used collectively, it means "all together". When "all" is used distributivity, it means "each and every one." The difference is really important and can often be distinguished only from context.
.. Example... Jill says, "All motorcycles have two wheels. " Greg responds, "That's ridiculous. A single motorcycle has two wheels. And there are of 200,000,000 motorcycles in the world. Therefore, all motorcycles would have over 400,000,000 wheels. Thus the word ALL is ambiguous and often construed by one's bias.
Thanks for the response. I can understand where you are coming from. Many agree with you.
Sorry for the lengthy response.
Supper time.
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