Is it more loving to carry out their wish (or preference) of annihilation than it is to continue to save them? Genuine question.
When I look at my own life, I see many things that God has given to me or allowed to happen that I do not want or at least never chose to have.
For a start, I never got a choice as to whether I ever even existed. Indeed, there are times where I wish I didn’t. But thank God that by His grace, He does not oblige me in those dark moments.
I never got a choice as to which family I was born into. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t change my family for anything but what if I was one of those people who grew up in a family environment where they were abused or neglected? These people were never given an option as to whether they would or would not like to be born into that family. They had to cope with it.
I never got a choice whether or not I ever wanted to be capable of experiencing pain. Every day there are moments when we suffer; sometimes it’s mere tiredness, sometimes it’s a headache, sometimes we may feel utterly heartbroken and despairing, sometimes we may be in serious physical pain, sometimes we may be able to do nothing but breakdown crying. How many people in the world do you think would happily have all pain and suffering taken away if they had the option? I’d wager almost all.
I never got a choice about whether I’d like to be born into a world of sin, with natural urges to sin myself. After all, it wasn’t me who sinned in the first place; I am not responsible for the sin of Adam or any curse that may have happened as a result. Yet I find myself everyday in this battle, this fight that I generally seem to lose.
I never got a choice to live in a world where I cannot see God. That may not be true in some sense; it may be argued that you can see Him in nature or in a loving action or in music or art or the Bible. But I cannot hold a normal conversation with Him whenever I want, I cannot hear Him answer my prayers straight away, I cannot see any direct physical evidence of Him in front of my eyes. Most of the time when I pray, I feel like I get nothing; no response, no answer, no voice. That includes times when I’m absolutely pleading for a reply, screaming, shouting. And I look at the walls and feel like God is looking back at me, displeased, refusing to even bother to respond.
I never got a choice as to whether Jesus died - in fact, possibly the main part about Jesus dying is to stop us conforming to our wants - “While we were sinners, Christ died for us.” He died so that we might leave behind our wants, our petty evil desires. He died to save us from the sin that kills us. If it was more loving for God to give us what we wanted or preferred, if it was more loving for Him to confirm and leave us in our sin than it was for Him to save us from it, why did he die on the cross? Why did He ever make the commitment in the first place that He would save us from our sin if it was more loving for Him to leave us in it?
If it was more loving for God to give us our wants than it was for Him to give us our needs then we would live in a pain-free world, a world of pleasures and comforts and nothing less. Yet if that was the case, then there would be no will for God, there would be no real love, there would be no sacrifice, no commitment, no fellowship of any worth, no righteousness of any strength, no unity between creatures.
I’ve come to realise that God’s purpose is far higher than our mere, feeble desires. God’s purpose is tough, God’s purpose is hard work, God’s purpose is painful, God’s purpose often takes us far away from comfort. Yet it’s the only way we reach ultimate joy, it’s the only way God creates in us the will for good, the will for Him, the will for each other, the love that He craves between all his creatures that is eternally present in Himself.
I don’t think God cares for our wants; rather He cares for our needs. That is infinitely more loving than deciding to permanently give us up to our sinful desires; that would be a clear defeat and nothing more. No, instead He cares deeply for our needs - He couldn’t care more for them in fact. Ultimately, I believe God wants to achieve an end where our wants and needs are one and the same thing - that is what a free will is, not this thing we’re stuck with at the moment. That means that He does indeed sometimes give us up to what we want; He does not force Himself onto us otherwise we would never develop any actual will for Him. But I fail to believe that He ever hands us permanently over to our wants until they are everything that He wants and everything that we need.
Thank God for His relentless love and grace that never gives up on us