We are told that God loves all, but saves only some. How is this? Does it not take away from the faith in God’s love we might otherwise have? The way Christianity is usually preached, a Christian might say truly, “God loves me I know, but I am still afraid.”
So what is it that is more powerful than God’s love? “If God be for us, who can be against us?” asks Paul in Romans 8.31. What is the enemy that threatens us with real danger of eternal death despite the power of God’s love?
It is our own “free will,” apparently, which might reject God’s grace.
And how do we know if we have done that? Oh, the answers vary widely from those who say, “don’t worry, if you had done anything as drastic as that, you would know it” to those who say or imply that as long as we are living lives of sin, we have not accepted Christ, and are not saved. (And how little sin do you have to commit before you are no longer living a “life of sin”?)
Thus it is that the power of a conviction of God’s love can be set at naught.
Belief that some will go to eternal hell negates the power of God’s love, stops it from being a force in our lives, relegates it to a little corner in a dark room, shaking alternately with fear and feeble hope: “yes, God loves me, but…” is its plaintive cry.
We cannot believe in God’s love strongly if we cannot believe in our inevitable salvation. Hell hanging over our heads thwarts everything God has to give us.