This morning, a Fellowship of the Minds reader named Lance Jackson wrote this comment on one of DCG’s posts:
My future participation here is questionable at best as I just got out of the hospital after a month; extreme back surgery, then triggering a heart attack and shutdown of my bowels. Too bad euthanasia is not legal. Born agains tell me to give it all to Jesus which is met with utter silence when I pray. Perhaps the Calvinists I have met are right: I’m one of the people God hates and am predestined to hell. I live alone, have no friends or living family.
Sorry to rant….
I am not a Calvinist. I don’t believe that God hates anyone — why would He hate His own creation? Jesus Christ does not hate even Judas Iscariot or the Jews who, when asked by Pontius Pilate, shouted “Crucify him!” and so sentenced Him to die on the cross — the most extreme form of execution which the Romans reserved for only the worst criminals.
Nor do I believe that God predestines anyone to Hell, for if that were the case, why would He create us as creatures of free will? Without the free exercise of our will, the concepts of sin and virtue are empty of meaning as nothing is our fault or our achievement.
Lance, our brother in Christ, is suffering terribly — physically, mentally, and spiritually. He is alone and in despair.
Please pray for Lance — that he receives the grace that can come only from our Lord Jesus the Christ, who loves all human beings, including Lance Jackson, in spite of ourselves. He loves us so much that He willingly allowed Himself to be whipped, his scalp pierced with thorns, then nailed to a cross, where every breath He took was a searing gasping pain, and where He died alone, abandoned by the disciples He had traveled, eaten, and prayed with for three years.
Lance, in your suffering, look to Jesus on the cross. He will comfort you and give you peace.
Love,
Éowyn
