I
am saddened by the malicious hatred that some professed "Christians" have for
the unsaved. It is tragic. I have received dozens of letters over
the past month from professed "Christians" who are angry at me for my article
God Loves
People. One woman sent several internet links to me, linking to
articles which teach that God doesn't love sinners. Ironically, one of
the articles was to a website called "sound doctrine" ...
http://www.sounddoctrine.net/Nick/Does_God_Loves_Everyone.htm. Sound doctrine? You've got to be kidding me! There's nothing
"sound" about hating sinners. It's basic Christianity 101 that God loves
the sinner, but hates the sin. Tragically, the internet is overflowing
with heresy from immature believers and unsaved people butchering the Word of
God. This is wicked!
When Moses went up to the top of
Mount Sinai to beg God to forgive the sins of the Jews...God did! (Exodus
32:14, "And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his
people"). Unfortunately, the people were dancing naked around a calf
committing idolatry before Moses even got back down to the camp. Then
Moses got mad. Please notice that NO ONE died that day accept those who
chose to. Exodus 32:26 reads, "Who is on the LORD's side? let him come
unto me." The Israelites who refused to come over to the Lord's side
were killed that day (thousands of them). God didn't just kill them!
It was their own sinful pride that got them killed. Pride is a killer my friend,
just as America's day is coming when her proud neck will be broken. Yes,
God does get angry about sin...very angry! In fact, Psalm 7:11 declares
that "God is angry with the wicked every day." John 3:36 declares that
the "wrath of God" abideth upon Christ-rejecters. However, the
entire Bible is based upon the FACT that God loves mankind, so much so that He
sent His only begotten Son into the world to suffer and die for our sins.
Romans 5:8,9 reads, "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we
were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now
justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him." God
proved His love towards us by coming into this hostile sin-cursed world and
shedding His blood for our sins. Jesus Christ was God in the flesh,
Almighty God incarnate (1st Timothy 3:16). In Revelation 1:8, Jesus
claims to be "The Almighty!" Jesus is God my friend, Almighty God!!!
And God loves sinners!!!
Self-Righteousness
Only a very immature believer would claim that God doesn't love ALL sinners. In case you may have forgotten, we're ALL sinners... "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). So what gives any Christian the right to claim that God doesn't love sinners... when we're ALL sinners? Are you saying that God doesn't love anybody? Now I know a few people like that, but certainly not God. God loves people!!! You had better thank God my friend that He does loves sinners or you'd be in big trouble. For any believer to teach that God does not love the wicked is the height of self-righteousness. "There is none righteous, no, not one" (Romans 3:10). I realize that a believer is under grace and not under the law, but to say that God hates the wicked is foolish and ignorant. The heart of God is much bigger than that.
In fact, the whole concept of "Lordship Salvation" is based upon self-righteousness. The Lordship salvation crowd ADDS repentance from sin to simple faith in Christ. Listen friend, the only thing you need to repent of to be saved is your unbelief. In order to be saved, you must admit your sinful condition to God; but for anyone to claim that you must forsake those sins to be saved is a lie of the devil. There's a bunch of self-righteous believers running around teaching that you can't get saved unless you make a commitment to Christ and make Jesus your lord. Again, these are lies of Satan! Salvation is a FREE GIFT from God (Read the words "free gift" for yourself in Romans 5:15, and don't miss that important word "free").
Please don't misunderstand me, I'm
not saying that a person can come to Christ with a flippant attitude towards
sin. To turn (repent) to Christ in faith is to turn one's back against
sin, for you have to realize your sinfulness to be saved. However,
confessing your sins to God and giving them up are two different things.
The truth is that I have never known one genuine born again believer who felt
like they had a
license to
sin. The truth is that EVERY believer is a hypocrite to some degree
because we all sin at times. Yet, God still loves us and puts up with
us... "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD,
thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end" (Jeremiah
29:11). God is not a big ogre up in heaven waiting for us to mess up.
Hebrews 12:6-11 clearly teaches that God will chasten His children when they
sin. No one is going to get away with anything.
He First Loved Us
1st John 4:19 declares, "We love
him, because he first loved us." Ok, when did God start loving us?
The Bible teaches that God loved us before we loved Him. So when we
didn't love God, the Bible says that He still loved us. The truth is
that God loved mankind before He ever spoke the universe into existence.
Revelation 13:8 reads, "And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him,
whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world." Jesus is the "Lamb of God" Who in God's time
(eternity) was slain before the foundation of the world (our time).
Remember, we live in time but God lives in eternity where there is NO TIME
(Revelation 10:6). In God's mind, Jesus had already died upon the cross
before man ever became a living soul. Romans 5:8 tells us, "But God
commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us." Jesus Christ laid down His life for us, knowing every sin which
we would ever commit. The Bible declares that this is the PROOF of God's
love towards us. God commendeth (or manifest) His genuine love towards
us by making a way of escape...a plan of redemption...a Saviour to atone for
our sins. Jesus paid a debt He did not owe because we owed a debt we
could not pay. There is no doubt from the Scriptures I've just
shared with you that God loved mankind before creation itself. Again,
I'd like to quote 1st John 4:19... it is such a beautiful Scripture... "We love
him, because he first loved us." I am heart-touched every time I read
this Scripture, "...because he first loved us." When people don't love
God, they live in sin. Before we loved Him, we were still wicked sinners...
yet the Bible declares that God loved us enough to give His life's blood to
pay for our sins
(Colossians 1:14). The world isn't in a mess today (1st John 5:19)
because God has stopped loving man, but because man has never started loving
God. Yet, God loves wicked sinners in spite of their lack of love for
Him. God's love is unconditional love.
No Pleasure in the Death of the Wicked
I am saddened when I hear Christians
rejoicing over a wicked soul who went to hell. The Bible proclaims
that God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked... Ezekiel 33:11, "Say unto
them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the
wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from
your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel." Yet, the Bible
declares that the righteous in heaven will rejoice over the destruction of the
wicked, "Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for
God hath avenged you on her" (Revelation 18:20). Though a seeming
contradiction, the answer is very simple... BOTH verses are accurate.
Though a part of us will be glad to see the wicked receive the horrible due
punishments they have coming to them, still there is another part of us that
feels sympathy and sorrow over the loss of a soul into hell. No
Christian who has God's love in their heart should be glad to see anyone go to
Hell. Many people rejoice that vile sinners are burning in hell, but God
is not pleased about it. Hitler was a monster and we will one day
rejoice to see him get his due punishments, but we should also have godly
sorrow over ANY lost soul. I am NOT diminishing the victims of Hitler's
evil, not one bit; but the plain teaching of the Word of God is that God does
NOT want any soul to perish into hell. "The Lord is not slack concerning
his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not
willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance"
(2nd
Peter 3:9).
Corrupt Bibles Remove the "Love of God"
Not too many believers have the heart of God nowadays. They have God's Holy Spirit living in their soul, but they've never yielded their mind and will to God. Many believers today are immature, not grounded in the Word. One of the big problems is that many believers are using corrupted Bibles. I guarantee you that most of the professed Christians who deny the pre-tribulation rapture are using an NIV (New International Version) of the Bible. The NIV removes or changes 65,000 words as compared to the King James Bible. The only reliable English Bible today is the authorized 1611 King James Bible. As believers are being led astray from the True Word of God; they are falling into heresy, compromise, and even apostasy. The King James Bible is powerful. Listen to the words of Hebrews 4:12 in the King James Bible... "For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." All of the modern bible versions have been watered down, diluted; they've lost their potency. Today's bible versions are powerless, wimpy, and impotent. The NIV horrifyingly reduces "God was manifest in the flesh" in 1st Timothy 3:16 down to "he was revealed in a body."
It is NOT surprising that professed
Christians who use such flawed bible versions would also believe that God
hates sinners. Here's a classic example... 1st John 3:16 in the King
James Bible reads, "Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid
down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren."
Now here's the perverted NIV... "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ
laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our
brothers." Notice that the NIV butchers completely removed "the love of
God" from 1st John 3:16. The New King James Bible butchers the
same Scripture. It is wicked!!! Do you see why so many people are
being deceived by Satan nowadays? It is obvious to the faithful
Christian who is awake to righteousness. If I had my way, I would burn
every New International Version of the Bible in existence! I
would burn every copy of Today's International Version as well. I
would burn every copy of the corrupted New King James Version. In
fact, I would burn every perverted Bible out there, including the Living
Bible and Good News for Modern Man. I would burn the
Revised Standard Version. God only wrote one book folks!
Matthew 4:4 commands us to live by "every word" of the Bible. To do that
we must have an "every word" Bible. We have it in the 1611 King James
Bible which has been tested and proven trustworthy over the centuries.
God Loves Sinners!
I'll say it again... God loves sinners! Now God certainly does NOT love their sin, but He loves the individual. How could God not love His own creation? How could God not love the object of His redemptive plan? As I mentioned, I've had many people write me letters in anger because I say that "God loves people." They send me all the verses in the Bible where God opened the ground to devour people or killed thousands of people in His anger. Although God certainly did execute judgment in many places throughout history, it does not in any way diminish the fact that God loves all those people who were destroyed. Jesus didn't just die for believers..."And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world" (1st John 2:2). Jesus died for the sins of the whole world. In Luke 9:54-56, we find James and John eager to destroy the wicked with the wrath of God, but Jesus rebukes them instead... "And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did? But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And they went to another village." And I say to you professed Christians who insist that God hates sinners the same thing Jesus said to James and John... "Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of." In case you don't know, it is the spirit of Satan. Jesus came to this world to save sinners; not hate them.
There are only two Scriptures in the New Testament where Jesus said "I hate" (Revelation 2:6 and 2:15). Revelation 2:6 states, "But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate." And again in Revelation 2:15... "So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate." Jesus said that He hated the "deeds" of the Nicolaitans, and their "doctrine." Please notice that Jesus DIDN'T say He hated the Nicolaitans (a false cult). Jesus loves all sinners; not because they are sinners, but because they are people, with souls, whom He loves. John 3:16 tells us, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." The world includes EVERYBODY, even a dirty, rotten, vile sinner like me.
Yes, I do take an uncompromising stand on my website against all types of wickedness, heresies, and sins...but I will never stop proclaiming the Biblical Truth that God loves ALL people (no matter what they have done). That's not to say that God condones their wickedness, it just means that God unconditionally loves people. Even after being nailed to a cross, Jesus expressed forgiveness to the Roman soldiers who had stripped him naked... beat Him beyond recognition...placed a sharp crown of thorns upon His head... mocked Him... and then nailed Him to a cross to bleed and die (Luke 23:34). Don't you tell me that God doesn't love sinners! There is no depth of sin known to man which can prevent the arm of God from saving the person who seeks forgiveness... "Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God..." If Jesus could save a murderer like Saul (the Apostle Paul), then he can save anybody. If Jesus could save a drunkard like Noah, then He can save anybody. If Jesus could save an adulterer like David, then He can save anybody. God will receive any repent sinner that comes to Jesus Christ for salvation (John 6:37). If you go to Hellfire (and you will if you don't get saved), it will be your own stubborn fault (Romans 1:20; Revelation 20:15).
What a tragedy that 95% of all the people in the world will one day burn in the Lake of Fire, forfeiting the gift of eternal life which is already paid in full by Jesus' precious blood (1st Peter 1:18,19). Would you like to know for sure that if you died right now, that you would go to Heaven? You certainly can KNOW according to 1st John 5:13.
Kindest regards,
David J. Stewart
