Hello again, Sonia:
After re-reading your post this morning, I realized that my response written last night did not address your pastor’s concerns as directly as it might have. So on further reflection, I thought I would relate to you three questions that I would love to put to him.
(1) Your pastor states that I make “several assumptions that God’s word doesn’t make.” Whenever I confront a generality of that kind, I typically ask for a specific example. I would therefore ask: “Could you perhaps identify a specific assumption that I make and that God’s Word, as you understand it, does not make?”
(2) Your pastor also states: “What it really comes down to is do you trust what He [God] actually says even if you don’t understand it or it appears to make no ‘human’ sense at all?” Here I would ask, “What does it mean to trust in something that makes no sense at all?” The putative statement that the number seven is in C-sharp minor makes no sense to me at all. So what would it mean for me to trust that we nonetheless have here a true statement?—or even to trust that God actually said something like this? Does the mere opinion that God has said something suffice to show that he actually did say it?
(3) If your church does indeed teach that all three propositions in my inconsistent triad are true, how does this differ from the teaching that although no humans will be lost forever, at least some will indeed be lost forever? From a human perspective that seems impossible to understand. But should we somehow trust that it is true nonetheless?
Okay, I woke up in a feisty mood and couldn’t resist that. Anyway, these remarks are perhaps more relevant than what I wrote last night.
Take care,
-Tom