“Rowland Croucher” <> wrote in message .

Seriously, does God love the devil?

To which someone asked: And your opinion on your own question would be?

My response:

A good teacher teaches *how* to think rather than *what* to think…

However, since you’ve been very good here are three clues:

1. When asked to complete the sentence ‘God is…’ what word comes to mind, to describe God’s essence?

2. The Pharisees – ancient and modern – put people along a ‘spectrum of deserving’: the very very good people/angels etc. are at one end; bad people/bad angels at the other. According to Pharisaical systems God’s love is conditional, and therefore cuts out somewhere along that spectrum (‘Gentiles were created to be fuel for the fires of hell’ sort of thing). The more strict the Pharisee, the fewer people – and only people like them – are loved by God.

3. Jesus told us to love our enemies. Are we saying God can’t do what he has commanded us to do?

I’m not giving the answer, just some clues :-). Ask your pastor.

This is one of the questions I posit at pastors’ conferences. Most seven year olds ask it, but few adults!

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Shalom!

Rowland Croucher

http://jmm.org.au/

Shalom!

Rowland Croucher

http://jmm.org.au/