Ok, should I say Evangelicalism? Not everything is about problems in my own time and country. But this is an interesting theological topic that has to do with people’s rejection of the gospel of Jesus Christ, or maybe the church’s failure to present the true gospel that is by nature “irresistible.” So here we go, this is presbyterian theology. The idea is this: the great commission that Jesus gave his disciples after a total defeat of all death and his own acceptance of all authority in heaven and earth says “Go make disciples of all men.” All men, and yet any thorough survey of the bible would at least call into question most “lapses” into universalism. On some eternal level, most Christians believe that there end up being saints and aints. That’s actually not something I am questioning that much in this post, though sometimes I do try to think of how some people might like being in hell. But what I am wondering about is whether people’s personal failure and even all too fast giving up on sharing their faith is not just one of God’s tools for destiny but actually his main strategy for choosing who will be redeemed. And that the most human aspect of it, which can even in totality be seen as personal achievement or failure, might be exactly proportionally the most key factor in predestination. I say that based on the great commission only, though verses like John 3:16 might also be relevant. This idea that salvation really was meant for everyone, and that the task of sharing the gospel was left to humans in some way, could mean that gaining converts might be an equal blessing to losing converts. And that by not succeeding and experiencing ever increasing grief over the loss of the world could be a way of joining God in his rejection which was the inevitable manifestation of his loving nature on the cross. The jealous God of the Old Testament, a father who gave his own son to a world that hurt him, the son who was despised and rejected, and the holy spirit with a loss that can’t be told. What better honor could there be than to see everyone you care about choose hell over listening to what you have to say.
