I guess some people just are not going to be convinced that God doesn't hate other people.
I cannot understand wanting to believe in a God who hates people when Scripture goes to such lengths to show that God loves people.
Even in the OT, when God brought judgment on Israel for disobedience, it wasn't quickly or gladly. He spent years appealing to people to repent and turn, sending them warning after warning.
Psalm 103:8-14 The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.
I guess some people just are not going to be convinced that God doesn't hate other people. I cannot understand wanting to believe in a God who hates people when Scripture goes to such lengths to show that God loves people.
Which response ignores what I said, and is a false dilemma, for as doctrinally explained, Scripture teaches that God hates, abhors, and is angry with the lost, and we ourselves were object of His wrath, and God He will send the lost to Hell and "despise their image," (Psalms 73:20) none of which corespond ot love for them, but all of which are negative dispositions, yet are not opposed to God loving the same as Christ dying for them all supremely examples.
While to us here the Biblical idea of hate versus love are mutually exclusive, this is manifestly not so in Scripture, and while we may feel better not telling souls of God's negative disposition to them in His justice, it is in the light of this that mercy is appreciated.
Thus the Holy Spirit by Peter convicted the 3,000 in Acts 2 that they were guilty of not recognizing their Biblical Messiah, and were implicit in His killing and whom the Lord would make His footstool, which resulted in their cry, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?."
In dealing with doctrinal difficulties, including the fact that God sends judgments while also preventing evil, what is emotionally appealing must be not be the basis for our conclusions, as some do in Theodicy , but must go wherever the Truth leads, even if it seems contradictory to us.