Hey guys
First off, I really appreciate this site and those who post. I have been following this issue of hell/universalism for a few months now and its been really helpful looking around here.
One theological aspect that has me in a bit of a bind is the idea of just HOW God’s love operates in relation to his other attributes (not that we can ever ‘box’ God’s love in doctrine or dogma). From the spectrum of views I’ve looked over, I’ve figured that there are two differing ways of explaining this. Please correct me if I seem in error. I aim to summarize the two sides:
A: The ‘driscollian’ explanation. God’s love is an attribute described alongside (and contrast to) other attributes in Scripture. These attributes are consistent and one cannot be elevated above the other in any degree. God can, however, choose to be loving to one human being and angry at another. God is loving, but His love is in subject to His holiness or righteousness and therefore He must (wants to?!) to send people that are without Christ to hell.
B: A more C. Baxter Kruger variety. God’s Trinitarian love is the foundation through which all of God’s other attributes are filtered. He is lovingly holy, lovingly just, lovingly righteous. It is in God’s chosen nature to love everyone (not just the elect) and out of His nature anything He does is loving, including sending people to hell, whether for an infinite time or for a remedial period.
This has a lot to do with processing how God feels about us. What is His initial attitude towards humanity? Wrath and hate or love and compassion? One ideal causes anxiety and terror while the other prompts assurance and loyalty. I struggle with this because a lot of fundamentalist believers accuse universalistic minds of elevating one part of God and ignoring others. I think there’s something to the idea that God is free to love who He wants, but I somehow don’t (want?) to believe that He deliberately withdraws love from some and then calls Himself good. In what way does position B best hold up? What kind of Biblical evidence is there that God, in His chosen nature, refuses to hate and instead loves us all unfailingly?