None of the verses you cited mentions "sheep", OR "children" for that matter. The descriptions are not of the truly saved, but of pretenders (some of the goats). We are told that the pretenders will be exposed, especially in the end times. We are told to not be like unto them. Goats can wander among the sheep, but they are not sheep. They never were and never will be. They must be divided.
Matt 25:32 : 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
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Those who know God have choices. From what you write it seems clear that you deny that we have choices.
Not at all. We absolutely do have choices, more so after we are saved. But even then, we have choices, but they are subject to parameters. With my age and experience, I cannot "choose" to be a professional baseball pitcher. Likewise, the saved cannot "choose" to leave the true faith permanently. There are always parameters.
You believe in 'captive' love; love that imposes.
You better believe it! :) By myself I would spit on God's love for me. God imposes a changed heart upon His elect and then they are free to love Him as He intended.
You keep bringing up the example of not allowing your children to walk into traffic or jumping off the cliffs...nonsense. God allows calamity and evil. God allowed Adam and Eve to 'jump off the cliff' and ruin it for themselves and all subsequent generations.
Yes, God allowed Adam and Eve to sin, as He does with us all. But this has nothing to do with the only thing that matters here, eternal destiny. In my examples, Adam and Eve never 'jumped off a cliff', unless you believe they are in hell today. I don't think that's true, and I don't think you do either. Adam and Eve sinned, which did earn them eternal death, if there was no Savior.
We must be free to give back to God what God has given us freely. Otherwise we have something other than love.
In terms of love, we do exactly this. Believers send the love He has given us back to Him. But that is not a return, as in "no thanks". After giving Him love we do not lose it, in fact we get more in return from Him. This is not like giving a gift back. The same is true of saving grace. Once given, we have it for life. We cannot return it.
Those whom you love you will protect, but if they want to leave because they don't love you, you must let them go. Love is not imposing. Love only gives — freely.
Well, it doesn't work that way at all in MY house! :) If one of my teenagers wanted to run away from home because he/she didn't love me, there is no way I would let them go if I had the power to stop it. NO WAY. At that point my love would be doing some pretty industrial strength imposing! :)
I keep getting the impression that you all use the Father-child Biblical analogy to refer to parents with adult children. I don't think this is accurate at all. Consider: human parents with small children, and human parents with adult children. Which relationship is closer to the gulf between all humans and God? It's not even close, is it. We are like sheep, right? I'd say that's a far cry from being like dolphins. :)
All of the goats. The meaning of the term 'goat' in the Judaic biblical sense is associated with demons,.
The Bible tells us that God created the lake of fire for the devil and his angels (the 'goats'). It also says that the goats will be separated from the sheep and commanded to depart into the lake.
In other words, some are 'goats,' devil's angels, those who, like Faustus, sold their soul to the devil the way Esau sold his birthright. This is clear from 'your father is the devil'(cf Jn 8:44), for the devil did not create them; God, the maker of everything and all, did. They turned to the devil. They are not saved because they are the unrepentant.
We absolutely do have choices, more so after we are saved. But even then, we have choices, but they are subject to parameters. With my age and experience, I cannot "choose" to be a professional baseball pitcher
You are mixing apples and oranges, FK. You cannot change your corruption (aging), but your soul doesn't 'age.' The only choice in your heart is to cling to God or not. You can make that choice at the very end of your life even. There is never a 'parameter' on that choice.
God imposes a changed heart upon His elect and then they are free to love Him as He intended
God does not impose, FK.
I keep getting the impression that you all use the Father-child Biblical analogy to refer to parents with adult children
How about just adults?. Is your own flavor of Protestantism not based on adult baptism? When you can accept Christ, and you can recite the sinners prayer?
God creates us rational and capable of being moral beings. Through our faculty of reason and a heart that forgives and loves. You have this idea that we are just a bunch of toddlers running around in God's playpen like a bunch of little morons.
God expects us to be able to forgive before we can ask for forgiveness. God expects us to be pure in heart, merciful and humble, to understand that loving those who love you is no feat but rather loving those who persecute you is. Are children like that? No they are not.
This is not a fairytale, FK.