Deeper Dive
Inclusive God

“The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”¹

Back in the mid-1800s the populace spent untold time debating predestination, the idea that God sovereignly “elected” who would be saved and who would go to Hell and that you either were or weren’t and you could not change your fate. D.L. Moody was a prominent evangelist of the time and was repeatedly asked his opinion on this polarizing subject which was debated in the newspapers wherever he appeared. His classic response was, “The whosoever wills are the elect and the whosoever won’ts are the non-elect”.

If God gave His Son Jesus ‘while we were yet sinners’ and with no promise that we would respond to that gift, He appears to have done all He could for all who would respond. Paul, who was brought up as a strict legalist and Pharisee, wrote, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, this is neither slave no free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”² God does not make distinctions other than based in the response to willingness to live agreeing to Him. He is not bigoted, racist, aloof or concerned about your prior status as a rebel. We are all equal in His sight and all can come into relationship on His terms.