The Fallacy of Unconditional Love

[EricRauch]

Modern Christianity is known, among other things, for teaching the idea of God's unconditional love. It is often spoken of in terms of evangelism, when believers express their concern for the "afterlife" of unbelievers. "God loves you unconditionally," they tell their unbelieving audience, "and He wants you to be with Him in heaven." I cringe every time I hear something like this said, not because I doubt the motivation behind the evangelistic sentiment, but because the unbeliever has such a perfect opportunity to ask a question of the believer that would probably end the conversation on the spot. Although I have never heard an unbeliever ask this question, it is important that we think about it so that we may be "always ready with an answer" (1 Peter 3:15).

What is the question? Simply this: "If God loves me unconditionally, why does it matter how I live my life?" Or it could also be phrased this way: "If God truly loves me unconditionally, why should it matter whether or not I 'become a Christian?'" Be careful to not miss how powerful and deadly this question really is. It is not just a clever twist of wording, meant to sidetrack the evangelistic efforts of well-meaning proselytizers. Far from it. This question is the stake in the heart of the modern evangelical notion of God's "unconditional love." In fact, I challenge you to search for the phrase "unconditional love" in the Bible or find the concept that God unconditionally loves every person on earth being taught anywhere in Scripture. In fact, R.J. Rushdoony makes the bold claim that "unconditional love is contrary to the Bible."

Unconditional love is a more revolutionary concept than any other doctrine of revolution. Unconditional love means the end of discrimination between good and evil, right and wrong, better and worse, friend and enemy, and all things else. Whenever anyone asks you to love unconditionally, they are asking you to surrender unconditionally to the enemy.[1]

Strong words, but necessary ones because modern Christianity finds itself exactly where Rushdoony claimed they would be: in an unconditional surrender to the enemy. Any situation that does not have "conditions" can play to the advantage of either side. Imagine entering a marriage with "no conditions." There would never be grounds for divorce (even in the biblical "condition" of adultery), because no terms were ever agreed to. We tend to think of unconditional love in a positive sense, but there is just as much an equal and opposite negative side. Rushdoony continues:

We are told to love our enemies, that is, those who offend us personally on non-religious and non-moral issues. When the cause of division is petty and personal, we must rise above it with an attitude of law and justice; we must continue to extend to all such persons the full protection of the law from injustice, malice, and false witness. But the enemies of God's justice and God's law, of fundamental law and order, must not be loved. To love them is to condone their evil. The accusation of the psalmist is to the point: "When you see a thief, you delight to associate with him, and you take part with adulterers" (Psalm 50:18, Berkeley Version). What we condone morally, we also approve of or delight in. St. John forbad hospitality to those who trying to subvert the faith: "If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds" (II John 10,11).[2]

Notice that Rushdoony says that we are to love our enemies unconditionally, but never God's enemies. This is precisely what is wrong with saying that God's love is unconditional. We are applying a command that has been given to us by God back onto God Himself. While it is true that God loves his friends unconditionally, that love can exist only because Jesus Christ has already fulfilled the conditions of the friendship on the cross. The same Jesus who said "no longer do I call you slaves..but I have called you friends," also said that His friends do what He commands and "if you love Me, you will keep My commandments" (John 15: 14-15; 14:15). God's friendship/love is conditioned upon obeying Him and doing what He commands. If we show love for Jesus by keeping His commandments, then we also show hate for Him by not keeping them.

Those who preach unconditional love are simply trying to disarm godly people in order that evil may triumph. The same is true of the idea of unconditional forgiveness. Forgiveness in the Bible is always conditional upon true repentance. Unconditional forgiveness is simply the total, unconditional toleration of and acceptance of evil. It demands that we accept the criminal, the pervert, the degenerate, the subversive as they are. But to do so means that we must change. We must surrender our laws, faith, religious standards, and all godly order. The demands for unconditional love and unconditional forgiveness are demands for total change on our part, total revolution in society. They are in reality demands that we commit suicide in order that evil may live.[3]

By now you should begin to understand why I said that the unbeliever's question above is a deadly pill to modern evangelism. The very fact that we are telling the unbeliever to come to Jesus so that he might be saved from eternal punishment and separation from the holy God implies a condition. If God truly loved everyone unconditionally, there would be no need to evangelize. In fact, there would be no need for the church at all. If God was truly an "unconditional" God, then it wouldn't much matter if we gave Him praise or not, it wouldn't much matter if we read and taught His word or not, it wouldn't much matter if we lied, cheated, and stole our way to fame and fortune or worked diligently and honestly. In fact, the entire Bible would be a waste of time and effort if God did not expect us to learn something from it and respond to it in obedience and faithfulness. God's holiness is completely opposed to sin and disobedience. God's love is conditioned upon repentance and obedience, therefore it can never be offered as "unconditional."

Endnotes:

[1] Rousas J. Rushdoony, Roots of Reconstruction (Vallecito, CA: Ross House Books, 1991), 625. Emphasis mine.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid, 626.

[john_rowland]

"Covenant Love" might better describe what the scripture communicates.

[Lemuel McGrath]

I question Rushdoony's interpretation of "Love your enemies." If "enemies" only means those with whom we have a petty, personal quarrel, then why does Scripture also say, "Love your enemies, AND BLESS THOSE WHO PERSECUTE YOU"? Someone who is persecuting Christians is certainly subverting God's justice and God's law, and so according to Rushdoony that person should neither be blessed nor loved.

Plus, your explanation of why God can love us is a bet screwy. If God could only love us because Jesus satisfied the penalty for sin, there could be no love causally prior to the atonement. Therefore, God's love could not have been the motive for sending his Son in order to provide the atonement. But the Gospel of John tells us quite precisely that it was God's love that motivated him to send his Son. In other words, He loved us first not BECAUSE Jesus died, but He demonstrated his love BY sending his son to die. If He did not have love for his creatures apart from the atonement, there would have been no motive for him to send his Son.

I am not a Calvinist, so I believe that this love extends to all creatures and the atonement covers the corporately elect - all who believe in the Messiah, and that by His mercy he delays the judgment to allow men to the chance to choose to come to repentance. However, as a Calvinist, you must suppose that God's pre-atonement love, which motivated him to provide His son as a sacrifice, extends only to elect individuals. Therefore, in your evangelistic discussions with unbelievers, you really ought to be telling them that, "God does not love unconditionally. He only loves those individuals whom he arbitrarily hand-picked to redeem. You may or may not be one of them, so God may or may not love you. If you convert now, then possibly God loves you. However, you could also be deceiving yourself. Therefore, you can probably not be certain that God loves you."

[Jeff Swanson]

Good topic and conclusion. The attitude of unconditional love is a type of Trojan Horse being used on Christianity. I here some, especially in the media, using it as a way to claim that we all serve the same god, and that Allah is the same as the Jewish or Christian God. What a huge mistake and a pathway to hell. This is a secularization of Christianity, where it is just an opinion.

I would like to add a paragraph from C.S. Lewis. “Even while we kill and punish we must try to feel about the enemy as we feel about ourselves—to wish that he were not bad, to hope that he may in this world or another, be cured: in fact, to whish his good. That is what is meant in the Bible by loving him: wishing his good, not feeling fond of him nor saying he is nice when he is not.”

Sharia is advancing, and will not coexist with Christians, so I will listen to the Bible, R. J. Rushdoony, and C. S. Lewis.

[Be Not Afraid]

I've always believed that the idea of "Once Saved Always Saved" was a satanic deception, simply because scripture is so clear about what we must do in order to be saved.

We indeed are saved by God's grace, and grace it is a free gift. But grace is a gift we can accept, reject, or even give up through sin after it's been given to us. God's grace can be lost through sin, but it can always be regained through repentance. But to accept it means that we must follow the commandments and persevere with the help of God's grace. I think the passage in 1 John 2:3-11 makes it all very clear:

"My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense---Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.

Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.

Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him." 1 John 22:3-11

[dwjohnson]

I don't see it that way. I would have agreed with you some time ago, but not now. I do believe God has conditions for salvation, it must be based upon truth, real repentance, complete faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ as Savior AND Lord.

Yet this does not change His Love. My response or ignorance does NOT change his Love for me. His love was for the World, His love has been and stands as demonstrated in "not willing that any should perish" and God's desire that the 'wicked would change his ways'. It still calls out that "he is the Saviour of all men, especially of them that believe."

God's love is not "voided" or made "conditional" because God has established certain laws like "whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap".

So therefore, I am to love my enemies, forgive them WHEN they repent to me, do good to them, even as God does to the "just and the unjust" with rain and life and children etc.

God has shown to all of creation, but has always had conditions to be received and enjoyed. That I think is perhaps what is really at question here. Like a "pardon" not received is "no pardon" as our law states.
God is LOVE and that does not change. It is WHO or WHAT is His very essence of being. I see God IS love as the very CORE of who He is and thus affecting every other attribute of Himself to all of creation. His conditions or laws do make his love CONDITIONAL to receive in the most personal sense.

In his love, he is "angry with the wicked everyday" and yet in this Everlasting Covenant Age, has offered salvation to "whosoever will call upon the name of the Lord" with CONDITIONS of faith in Jesus Christ, repentance etc.

[EricRauch]

Lemuel wrote:

Plus, your explanation of why God can love us is a bet screwy. If God could only love us because Jesus satisfied the penalty for sin, there could be no love causally prior to the atonement. Therefore, God's love could not have been the motive for sending his Son in order to provide the atonement. But the Gospel of John tells us quite precisely that it was God's love that motivated him to send his Son. In other words, He loved us first not BECAUSE Jesus died, but He demonstrated his love BY sending his son to die. If He did not have love for his creatures apart from the atonement, there would have been no motive for him to send his Son.

Hebrews 4:3 states that all of God's (Jesus's) "works were finished from the foundation of the world." It matters little when Jesus performed the atonement in history—although it certainly matters THAT he performed it—because the outcome was settled from the very beginning of creation in the covenant of redemption between the members of the Godhead. God was not bound by the historical sequence of earthly events before He was able to set His love on His elect in Christ. The atonement was settled in the mind of God (therefore in historical reality) even before man sinned.

Eric

[HappyHappy 1]

Yes spot on.GOD loves but he also hates remember he said Jacob I love Essau I hate but if people don't read his letter the way he says to LINE ON LINE AND PRECEPT ON PRECEPT they don't get the full meaning of this beautiful biography of who we are and what purpose GOD his children has for us.Why he made us in the flesh.He told us I knew you before you before you were born of women.In order to understand that we are the GENERATION OF THE FIG TREE you have to go back to the beginning GENESIS read with understanding if you don't understand pray for wisdom GOD will open it to you and the truth will set you free it will give you so much peace in your mind and heart.He tells us how to be happy in these flesh bodies.JESUS WAS GOD IN TH FLESH TO SHOW US HOW IT'S DONE HE DID IT FOR OUR SALVATION.HE DEFEATED DEATH (satan) and rent the curtain from top (heaven) to bottom (earth) and said come in.You don't have to sacrafice animals anymore you don't have to go to anyone to confess your sins they can't save you.The door is open straight to GOD and all are welcome.He knows your thoughts,he knows your heart,he knows your needs and IF that two letter word is a condition IF you love me and follow my commandments and believe in my only begotten son JESUS CHRIST whom I sent as your savior ye are SAVED. JESUS DOES THE SAVING not man,not pastors,not priest,not money.IT IS FAITH IN ALMIGHTY GOD and his son JESUS CHRIST and the HOLY SPIRIT.

[Aaron Artt]

You guys are great! I love the mental gymnastics. I emphasize mental. Information instead of revelation has been the matter for all time for a fallen world. Now, that eternity is invading time, God's love is still ever proceeding and manifesting from His thone. It has never stopped because it is based on His life coming to us in time finding us. Adam, immediately after the fall, missed the love relationship most of all, but looked at the eternal truth which says, "A lamb slain before the foundation of the world." It changed him completely. Restoration began as well as a relationship of love again, because after all, he was a son of God. Effected by the fall, yes, but love does "cover a multitude of sins," and how about all sins? You and the great theologian have used the terms in these articles, "unconditional love." So where is Holy Spirit in all of this? I thought you guys believed in "Godhead" actions of finding fallen people and placing them into the eternal family. Let's see, a Father's love ever reaching out for the unbeliever "conditionally", a Savior's words of truth cutting the soul and spirit actually birthing him from above, "conditionally," making him have now a divine nature instead of the fallen nature, "conditionally," and then the wind of the Spirit causing the pre-work, actual work in time, to be an eternal act of "conditional" love. Wow, what manner of love this is! Thank you for making me think "mentally' again, but also to see, hear and know spiritually about God's "conditional" love. The inclusion of a how God deals with the unbeliever and how you share the truth with him would be an exciting follow-up to this article. Personal testimony of your encounters sharing the Gospel presentation would be so interesting, since you do not share "unconditional love." It seems that you do share the truth that works to change someone. Thanks again for this article.

[JKozak]

God IS (period) God Is Love (period) God's unconditional Love makes no statement on His acceptance of a person or a person's actions. That is a different topic.

[Keith]

I was glad to see that someone finally tackled this subject. All of our Father's promisses come with conditions and love is no exception. He loves us when we stay in His will, and He doesn't love us as much when we defy His will. 'Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated,' was said because Essau didn't care about his heritage from our Father, even selling his birthright for a bowl of porridge. The Hebrew word for 'hated" is properly translated, "loved less." The amount that God loves us is most definitely related to what we think, do, and say. Thank our Father that, when we repent, He forgives us and loves us all the more.

[inspiredhome]

My atheist nephew, as with all AV articles I repost on my FB page has a problem with this article. How do you talk to loved ones. The holidays are going to be extremely AWKWARD. We are only ten years apart.