Understanding God’s election

In the realm of faith, one does not walk by proof, but these Scriptures obviously provide evidence that God's love is unconditional,
so why do you not share the same Spirit but instead kick against His goad? Apparently it is because you did not discern in JN 3:16 that although God's love is always unconditional, His salvation is eternally conditional upon saving belief/faith.

How about this from Romans:

“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Ro 5:8 NKJV)

And guess what else "teacher"? No body is making the argument that God does that. That is your own close minded, biggoted, looney toon version of what you've been told about a belief, with your own warped personal bias sprayed on top.

That is the biggest problem with talking to you and the CDSC (Calvinist Derangment Sysndrome Cult), you've made up this enemy in your own heads. Nobody makes the stupid arguements that you battle nonstop. No one. Your every argument elevates men and degrades God, even more than that your whole crews understanding of God the Spirit is not "lacking", it doesn't exist in anything you type. You never glorify God or point to Him at all, for anything. You do not concider His power or the transformation that happens when we are born again in ANY of your comments, arguments, theological beliefs, or anything else I've ever read from you or any of the others. You glory and take pride only in your choice and preceved superior understanding of scripture. You are all about you and your glory, we always point to God, we give the credit and glory to who it belongs to in truth, we give it ALL to Jesus. You simply don't.

My loving my children is unconditional.

This is a lot of work to be basing on the NIV translation which is different than many other translations (including the ESV the forum links to). And you're tackling a big subject and a heavily studied and debated word in the Hebrew Text, ḥesed which is used many times in the Hebrew Scriptures.

You're going to run into a lot of issues trying to convince most anybody, firstly about the meaning of ḥesed, then a bigger problem trying to attach ḥesed to agapē in John3:16.

Another consideration is that if God's agapē (agapaō - verb form) in John3:16 is supposedly covenantal, then it should be proven through analyzing its 140+ uses in the NC or at least the half of them that are in John's writings. Or maybe point us to research that has done just that.

Who is your target audience? Who do you intend to persuade?

Refresh your screen = hit the circular arrow near the top left if on a PC. It's blue and working on my screen. Success. "A" for the day.

Now teach somebody some harmonized truth using your newly learned verse referencing skill.

No, it isn't. You love YOUR children (as opposed to all the other children of the world) because they are YOURS. You love your children because they are a PART of you.

You don't see the necessity of belief in John3:16 as an exception to "all men w/o exception"? John 3:17 isn't a stand-alone verse. It's actually tied to John3:16 with an explanatory conjunction meaning it's explaining or elaborating John3:16. The belief in John3:16 carries over into John3:17. He sent His Son to save the kosmos of men. If all men w/o exception believe, then all men w/o exception can be saved.

No, it isn't. You love YOUR children (as opposed to all the other children of the world) because they are YOURS. You love your children because they are a PART of you.

My circular arrow is black. Does the toggle icon being black or blue have anything to do with this?

I won't have any problem if we discover at some time in the future that God's love happens to be unconditional. I am simply saying that the claim is not evidenced in scripture, so I don't have any reason to affirm it. Why is it so important to you that I bow to your opinion on the matter? And so irksome to you that I do not?

My choice to love them comes completely from within myself. It has nothing to do with what is true of them. Just as God has mercy on whom He has mercy, my decision to love my children is simply based on decision to set my affections upon them.
Should this be the way we extend love to all people? Sure. Do we? Generally not.

Just start hitting buttons. Have fun. Funny, my first reaction to this post was, Just do what I say!

I've found that when I post, the hyperlinked (blue) verse references don't show up. Clicking the refresh (black circular arrow) resolves this and they show up. If they're formatted correctly, once you post, we can see them in your posts even if you can't yet.

But would you love them in the filial sense if they weren't yours? You love them because they BELONG to you; just as God loves his elect because they belong to him -- and they belong to him because he sovereignly brought them into a covenant relationship with himself.

As far as us loving our neighbor, we do not love them with a filial love. We cannot love anyone deeply and profoundly that we don't KNOW! The big emphasis on our love expressed on a horizontal plane is that we should have a loving disposition toward our neighbor and this loving disposition of heart is defined for us in 1Cor 13. But generally we don't love our neighbor as we love our OWN -- like we love our parents, grandparents, children, grandchildren, adopted children, etc. in the filial sense.

Yeah...and IF "IFS and BUTS were candy and nuts, everyday would Christmas, too.

I take Jn 3:17 at face value and understand it to be that God sent Jesus into the World to save the Gentiles nations, which is precisely what God promised his Faithful Servant he would do on his behalf, i.e. make him a light to the Gentiles. God sent his Son into the world to save all those the Father gave to him in eternity.

The "necessity of belief" is exactly what qualifies the Gr. term "kosmos". God so loved the world that all in the world who believe on him shall not perish but have eternal live. And this interpretation harmonizes perfectly with Jesus' prayer in John 17, since Jesus did NOT pray for all men w/o exception! Prior to the NC, Abraham's physical descendants (as nation) were the sole recipients of God's covenant of love. But in this NC economy, which fulfills the Abrahamic Covenant, that covenant of love applies to all Abraham's spiritual descendants.

Okay, I will try that now: Well, that was weird. Refreshing deleted the JN3:16 reference I had typed after the

That made "colon" disappear that was after "the"

I replied and saw no blue which I am now letting you know by editing the post.

But would you love them in the filial sense if they weren't yours? You love them because they BELONG to you; just as God loves his elect because they belong to him -- and they belong to him because he sovereignly brought them into a covenant relationship with himself.

As far as us loving our neighbor, we do not love them with a filial love. We cannot love anyone deeply and profoundly that we don't KNOW! The big emphasis on our love expressed on a horizontal plane is that we should have a loving disposition toward our neighbor and this loving disposition of heart is defined for us in 1Cor 13. But generally we don't love our neighbor as we love our OWN -- like we love our parents, grandparents, children, grandchildren, adopted children, etc. in the filial sense.

Post and then hit refresh!

Love for his children and friends is conditional if the lover does not love all children and enemies too.