AMEN Irishtenor! The Bible tells us in no uncertain terms that some are His children and some are not:
John 1:12-13 : 12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God — 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.
Rom 8:20-21 : 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
Phil 2:14-15 : 14 Do everything without complaining or arguing, 15 so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe ...
1 John 3:1-2 : 3:1 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God ! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God , and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
1 John 3:10 : This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.
The Apostolic claim that all are children of God doesn't come close to matching scripture.
The Bible also tells us in no uncertain terms that God became Man to save the world and that His grace is given to all.
The trouble is that there are passages that seem to contradict that, and therein lies the issue, just as some Arians and Gnostics and non-trinitarian Christians find that Christ says that "the Father is greater than I" and conclude that there is no Holy Trinity.
John 1:12-13 : 12 Yet to all who received him
Well, it doesn't say "those who were forced to receive Him..." If I hand out gifts, only those who wish to receive them will receive them, unless I force them to receive them—in which case they didn't "receive" them, did they?
Phil 2:14-15 : 14 Do everything without complaining or arguing, 15 so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God
Here again the choice is ours...it has to come freely from our hearts.
1 John 3:1-2 : 3:1 ... The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
Well, of course...no one knew God, except the prophets and patriarchs of the OT, and even then not completely. Mankind forgot God when Adam willfully sinned and fell from grace.
You deserted the Rock, who fathered you; you forgot the God who gave you birth. [Deut 32:18]
You have forgotten God your Savior [Isa 17:10]
Yet my people have forgotten me; they burn incense to worthless idols, which made them stumble in their ways and in the ancient paths. They made them walk in bypaths and on roads not built up. [Jer 18:15]
The world came again to know God through the prism of Jesus Christ, and only through that prism. Everything else is burning incense to worthless idols, even those who are monotheists.
1 John 3:10 : This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.
Anyone who does not d what is "right?" And who is to say what is "right?" Everyone thinks he or she is right and has a "good" reason for doing and believing what he or she believes or does. Remember +Paul's famous "doers of righteousness?" That is a loaded term. Anyone can find himself in this formula...