“To love your enemies is Divine” sign ironically displayed by a church who says God doesn’t love all His enemies!
If to love your enemies is Divine, then to hate your enemies is…
“To love your enemies is Divine” sign ironically displayed by a church who says God doesn’t love all His enemies!
If to love your enemies is Divine, then to hate your enemies is…
Love your enemies (except for Calvinists).
Loving your enemies might make a good topic. The meaning of *love your enemies *seems to vary a lot in a varying context and experience.
Nah, Stef – even Calvinists. 
Sorry 'bout that. (You know I’m teasing you.)
I know 
Bless you Cindy (and all you por’ Calvinists).
Steve
Love your enemies and hate your relatives? It seems that Jesus taught both.
[size=130]Love your enemies (Matt. 5:44, Luke 6:27,35
Hate your your relatives and yourself (Luke 14:26)[/size]
Yes, the bible is absolutely full of apparent contradictions which need to be reconciled. I believe God makes this so obvious to prepare us that this is no ordinary book. We need to suspend all preconceived notions when reading the bible and seeking understanding. God writes in riddles, metaphors, symbols, parables, poetry, analogy, history and prose. It combines all of these features, and we must be prepared mid-sentence to adopt one or more of these different communication mediums. This is why there is so much discrepancy and confusion, and when the heart leads… contempt also.
Steve
Sometimes the apparent contradictions are due to word usage. Some say that the word translated as “hate” actually means “love less”. Others say it means “despise” or “disregard” when compared to the better thing. Do you think either of these would dispose of the apparent contradiction? I am inclined toward the latter of the two explanations of the word translated as “hate.”
Well, I believe that everyone will be saved. But I know what the Calvinists believe. They believe God has special grace to some and common grace to all. So, they do believe God loves His enemies on earth. It’s when He returns in judgment that He removes His common graces off the reprobate and they feel His wrath full force. Even here though R.C. Sproul believes that certain types of God’s love can coexist with a type of Divine hatred. He can love a person in one sense while hating him in another sense because of the different types of love.
Either way, there are countless examples of this, and it is not always related to word usage. God has designed to make our understanding a struggle. I fully concur with this. As spiritual creatures, we are very capable of unraveling riddles and contradictions with the spiritual tools God gives us. It is only when we try to understand through our fleshy eyes that we are most prone to being confused.
That is interesting, Michael. I don’t think I can grasp your idea of Divine hatred. I think this is trying to marry the literal with the figurative. God can hate in a figurative way, but that way must also align with the love, graciousness and holiness of God. God points to language that is anthropocentric. It is how we see God, not as He really is. This is how figurative language can also be a riddle simultaneously (i.e., Samson’s Riddle).
Judges 14:12-18
“What is sweeter than honey? and what is stronger than a lion?”
Steve
To be a real Calvinist, I suspect you have to deal with a lot of cognitive dissonance. (In other words, that doesn’t make sense, though I know you’re right. That’s what they do say, more or less, depending on the flavor.)
Steve,
That’s not my idea it’s R.C. Sproul’s. I believe that God’s hatred (when directed towards people) means simply “love less”
Ok, sorry. I thought you were endorsing this view. My mistake.
Steve
Yes, I find many ideas in christendom “have to deal with a lot of cognitive dissonance”. Calvinism is an example of how things can be taken to extremes; although this problem, when digging a little deeper, is very common. I find extremes in consumerism and capitalism to be examples of cognitive dissonance (relative to christianity), along with anti-Islamic and anti-semetism, militant christianity, nationalism and patriotism (when they lead to killing that has nothing to do with defense), globalization, unethical stocks and share investments, church commercialism, compulsory education of evolution (with the rejection of Intelligent Design), etc. When we open up this can of worms the cognitive dissonance is far and wide. There is no real answer to it, though, as it is a struggle of good and bad on a global scale. It has been providentially established as part of our personal ‘Garden of Eden’ complex.
Steve
Before anyone has a go at Calvinists, I’m delighted that they have this sign up, the more they dwell on this the better 
Very much so. I won’t make the quip I had in mind – I WON’T!!!
But yes, you’re right Alex.
I don’t think this slogan puzzles Calvinists as you think it should. Calvinists don’t ‘hate’ their neighbors, they love them as much as any other religious person. They just have a special explanation to account for why people are not all Calvinists. Some Pentecostals and Jehovah’s Witnesses are very similar. They are very community minded and charitable in times of disasters, yet they are the only ones are saved. Seen from their view there is no incongruence. They believe that God wants us all to love each other; it’s just that some people do not want God’s love.
Y-e-a-h only the some people who don’t want God’s love, don’t want His love because God has predestined them to glorify Him forever by their never ending and just torments in hell. Just because He predestined them to rebel against Him doesn’t let them off the fact that they are rebels and deserving of hell – that’s, I believe, something in the line of a sillygism.
Yeah, that’s a really tough position to take. Ones I have spoken to say they don’t know which ones God will predestine, so they love their enemies and let God choose.
Love 'em all; let God sort 'em out? 
But of course, Jesus said we’re to love our enemies so we’ll be LIKE our Father . . .
I agree. It is incongruent. It sort of says ‘we can love them, but God cannot’. It is that religious mindset which blinds us at times. I have found people who think that I am guilty of this, and vice versa. It is difficult to understand how we arrive at the views we adopt. Sometimes it is because it is family tradition, other times it is demographics, other times it is because of a painful encounter. At least God loves us all regardless.