The Question

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of judging two rounds of the Michigan/Ohio home school debate tournament and the final round of impromptu apologetics. This individual event purposes to prepare the students to give an answer for their faith. Each speaker entered the room, was given the question, then had just three minutes and one 3 x 5 inch card to prepare a seven minute response. The question was, "Is God a loving God who accepts everyone just as they are?" When I saw the question, my mind began racing in anticipation of the forthcoming responses. I was thinking, "Will any of the six speakers actually deal with God's wrath and judgment toward sinners?" One by one, each speaker answered yes God is a loving God, and most cited John 3:16 as their biblical reference. They then tried to explain why, if God is a loving God (meaning equally toward everyone), why He doesn't accept each person just as he is...which was very amusing to me. One young man even stopped in the middle of his explanation to say that he was confusing himself. At least he was beginning to see the fallacy in his reasoning. So one by one, I made notes on their ballots to the effect that they misused John 3:16's "For God so love the world.." "The world" in that verse does not mean every individual belonging to the human race; rather, it refers to people from all over the world who are the recipients of God's saving grace. I also reminded them that, apart from being in Christ, we are God's enemies (Colossians 1:21), and they should not confuse God's love with His common grace. The other two judges happened to be pastors, so I took the opportunity as the end of the event to ask them how they would answer the question. There was a moment of silence, then one said "yes and no." I gave him an opportunity to expound on that answer (which he didn't), before I relayed to them what I had written on the speakers' ballots. At that moment, Marilyn came it to remind me that I was immediately needed for the final debate round, so I didn't get to hear a response from either of them, but I think it is safe to say that I was the only Calvinist in the room. And I was grinning all the way to the next event. ;)