Welcome back to the S.P. John podcast and welcome back, Pastor John.

We have a question from a listener named Tuck Warner in Coldstream, Canada.

Dear Pastor John, although I see that the Bible supports a predestination concept, I'm

still having trouble reconciling the fact that a perfectly loving God would in essence

force us to love him and leave us no other options.

If his love is perfect, then how can he not allow us the freedom to accept or reject

it?

How would you respond to Tuck?

I have three responses and mainly these are responses to the way the question is asked,

but I think can help get at the underlying issues he's concerned about.

The first response has to do with assuming that we know what it means for God to be perfectly

loving before we actually see from the Bible how he loved.

Second is a response that has to do with the word force when he asks, would God force

us to love him?

I want to say we're about force.

And third is a response to God allowing us freedom to accept or reject his love.

So those are my three things I want to say a word about.

When Tuck asks how a perfectly loving God could do this or that, it seems to suggest,

and I can be wrong, that he has in mind the way a perfectly loving God must act.

But we humans are not in a very good position to define what perfect love in the creator

of the universe must look like.

We are too sinful, too finite, too culturally bound.

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