Speaking of God’s Love - Part 1
“God loves everyone” or “God loves you!“ seems to be the beating drum of today’s Evangelism. People standing on the street shouting to all sinners walking by, “God loves you!” Yet when you read the book of Acts you will not see one example of that. The point here is not that you can’t say “God loves you” but that the Apostles didn’t go around saying “God loves you” or “God died for you.” It’s for this reason that Calvinists don’t casually utter these words. Non-Calvinists (NC) often accuse Calvinists of reading into the text or teaching things not found in the Bible. In this series you’ll see why the NCs are wrong again.
Let me share a dialogue I had back in September of 2023. It went like this:
Dialogue
ME: Isn’t it strange that the Apostles in the book of Acts didn’t go around saying “God loves you!”?
I do not find that strange. There’s a lot of things they didn’t say, such as “Just cry out to God and ask him to be merciful with you”.
Agree, but if “God loves you and died for you” is central to the Gospel, and our understanding of God when reaching the lost, then shouldn’t we at least see an example of that in their evangelism? Why left out such an important detail?
Well since “God so loved the world, that he gave…” (John 3:16) is part of the good news it’s unnecessary to explicitly say it. But if you feel impelled to include it, go right ahead.
John 3:16 is in the context of a discourse Jesus had with Nicodemus. Also, “love the world” and “whosoever” etc… aren’t the same as “God loves you“ or “God died for you” — one is general speaking collectively, the other is specific. Believers can say God loves them, and God died for them. But when you evangelize, and speaking to the crowd or random individuals, the message isn’t God loves them, but that God loves the world. The message isn’t that God died for them, but that God died for sinners. This is why we don’t find an example in Acts—a historical account of the early Church and Apostles, going around saying God loves you or God died for you (specific).
“The message isn’t that God died for them, but that God died for SINNERS.” Do you believe there is an “individual” who is NOT a “sinner”?
Everyone is a sinner. But not everyone will acknowledges that they’re sinners. In fact, it’s an insult to them to tell them that they’re sinners and in need of saving. We are fisher of men. We throw the net not knowing what we will catch.
Telling an individual that God loves him and died for him is very problematic for the following reasons:
The book of Acts outlines how the early Apostles went about evangelizing and there isn’t an example of preaching “God loves you and died for you.”
We don’t know who the Elect are. Paul states in 2 Timothy 2:19 that only the Lord knows those that are His. So why do we preach as if we know who He died for?
Even in His priestly prayer, Christ didn’t specifically pray for everyone. The wording is crucial here, “I pray not for the world…” Then who was He praying for? (a). Those the Father has given Him (John 17:9) and (b). “for them also which shall believe on me through their word” (John 17:20). Christ is that specific. He does not pray for everyone without exception, but for the disciples and future believers (those who will believe in Him through the disciples’ words). Street preachers today abuse Revelation 3:20, painting a Jesus pleading and knocking on the door of their hearts. Some will even say that “Jesus is praying for you!” Note: To understand why that is problematic, see here: Christ’s Death and Intercession.
It gives two conflicting messages. God is angry with the wicked everyday, but He loves you! He died for you and is praying for you! Which is it? Does He love me or does He hate me?
“So you walk up to what we know about a sinner. He’s self-centered, he’s autonomous… he wants to do his own thing, he has his own dreams, and he is in love with himself. So you walk up to him and say, ‘God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life!’ And he goes… ‘What?! God loves me?! That’s fantastic! I love me, too! And you’re saying he loves me more than I love me? Now that sounds impossible. How can anyone have such a great love? And God has a wonderful plan for my life? Oh!! I have a wonderful plan for my life, too! And you’re telling me that if I accept this Jesus, he will help me with all my wonderful plans, and I can have my best life now?! Well, I’ll take a God like that! You got two of ‘em?” —Paul Washer
Evangelism is about sheep-hunting. We don’t know who the Elect are until they recognize that they’re sinners and accept Christ. We don’t want to give people false hope, thinking that Christ died for them without seeing the need for their sins to be dealt with. That’s the problem with today’s evangelism: God loves you and He died for you. When it should be, “He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.” (Acts 17:31).
God is angry with the wicked everyday. And unless sinners repent they will perish. But the seriousness of all that is either canceled out or watered down by “God loves you and He died for you!”