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My own anchor and the basis of my view of reality is that “God is love”

I wouldn't disagree. The issue isn't what God is. Rather the issue is what man is. God is love. Man hates this love:

Joh 3:19-20 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.

God is perfect, beauty, love, peace, etc. All those very good quality we crave. Yet unbelievers don't really want them. They do the very thing that is against the nature of God-against perfect love, perfect peace, perfect joy. And as believers were not much different. All we have to do is look in a mirror to understand that while we desire these characteristics of God, it is difficult for us to practice them.

It is because of this very principle that God calls men "wicked", "evil", and "perverse". Men are at eminity with God. I don't understand how anyone can read the OT, especiall the Psalms and not understand this. Here is but a small sample:

Psa 3:6-7 I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around. Arise, O LORD! Save me, O my God! For you strike all my enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked.

Psa 5:8-9 Lead me, O LORD, in your righteousness because of my enemies; make your way straight before me. For there is no truth in their mouth; their inmost self is destruction; their throat is an open grave; they flatter with their tongue.

Psa 7:10-11 My shield is with God, who saves the upright in heart. God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day.

This is only a very, very small sample of how God views the wicked. It goes on and on and on. Can anyone imagine King David passing out, "God Loves You" t-shirts?

God is love. Man hates this love. That is the problem.

God is love. Man hates this love. That is the problem.

I can only conclude that you're generalizing from yourself and people you know well.

God is love. Man hates this love. That is the problem.

Also -- just how do you understand "Love thy neighbor," given your stated view of humanity?

Can anyone imagine King David passing out, "God Loves You" t-shirts?

No, but I can imagine Jesus doing so.

We do not understand God as they did in David's time, else we would still be Jews.

In the OT we have the massive revelation that God is not like the pagans gods. First of all "He is one." Second, we can enter into conversation and covenants and have a concept of God as "just" rather than capricious.

We have "God loves you, if..."

If nothing changes, nothing changes. Something really changed in the Incarnation. Revealed to us was that God's love does not depend on our keeping the law. Jesus took us from "God loves you, if.." to "God loves you."

If we do not follow Jesus, if nothing has changed with His Incarnation, we have not learned more about His Father; we still have only the OT and not the Gospel.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.