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A Merciful God |
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 "What kind of a God have we got? He's a merciful One Who's not willing that any should perish." |
David also differed with many church
theologians over who was going to be in Heaven. Reaffirming his unshakable faith in God's
unfailing Love, he discarded notions that God would allow millions of unevangelized souls
to spend eternity in Hell. "What kind of a God have we got? -- He's a merciful One Who's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance! (2Peter 3:9)." [145] "God is Love. [He's] not a cruel tyrant, not a monster Who is trying to frighten everyone into Hell, but a God Who is trying to love everyone into Heaven!" [146] "God is just! God is good, God is merciful, God is Love, and I believe it with all my heart! ... I'm completely, utterly convinced of the righteousness of God and His Love and His mercy and His justice and fairness and that He does only the right thing." [147] "We need to have a much broader concept of God and His Love than to be so hidebound that we can't break out of a certain mold that we have been taught and certain shibboleths and certain words. It's good to have something definite to believe in and a way to believe it and a way to practice it, but you don't want to get so dogmatic that you're trying to contain God in a circle of ink! "[Some people] are going to be surprised one day to find out the breadth and the depth of the Love of God! -- That if anyone turns toward Him at all, the Lord will receive them. ... 'He that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out!' (John 6:37)." [148] "What about the unsaved? -- Those that haven't received Jesus' forgiveness and free gift of eternal life? Is all of mankind divided into just two total classes like most religious leaders and church theologians teach? Are all the rest of the people going to go to an eternal burning, torturing, fiendish, unending Hellfire, where there's no difference in punishment or reward? "If that's true, then God is a monster! … Someone once told me, 'I couldn't believe in a God that's going to send everybody to Hell forever, people that never even had a chance to hear about Jesus, little babies and ignorant natives and the millions of people of different religions who are fairly righteous and are trying to do the best they know how, living up to whatever light they've got. I just can't believe in such a God!' "I replied, 'Well, I agree with you. I don't believe in such a God either!' For I am personally convinced, from my own study of the Scriptures and people and the nature of God, that God has made some other provision for the ignorant unsaved, those who never heard, the unevangelized unsaved." [149] "There are all kinds of Scriptures in the Bible which indicate not necessarily that there will be another chance, or a second chance for people beyond this life, but maybe some people's first chance!" [150] "God's going to give everybody a chance -- dead or alive, now or then -- to hear the Gospel, to even see and believe and receive Jesus Christ as their Savior! ... Now wouldn't that fit your picture of a truly just and merciful and all-loving, all-merciful God, that … everybody is going to have a clear-cut chance to see and believe and receive and obey Jesus Christ? Everybody! Dead or alive!" [151] "He says specifically, 'This is the Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world!' (John 1:9). Everybody is going to have their chance sooner or later! Maybe they haven't had it yet, but everybody is going to have their chance at 'the Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world' sooner or later. It sounds to me like most people are going to eventually get saved, or at least reconciled to God." [152] "So God is just, God is loving, God is pure, God is holy, God is perfect, and everything will work out perfectly in the long run." [153] |
