Does God Love Everyone Equally?

[Glaurung]

Having a God that suddenly sees everyone as equals contradicts the claim that God is unchanging as I see it.

Is It Possible To Be A Pagan?

In the post-Christian West? Is it actually possible to be a Pagan in the Ancient/Classical sense? Can we ever see the world the same? Have the same values? &c.

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Many people are under the impression that Christianity teaches an absolute equality between all individuals. That God loves everyone equally. That in the eyes of God every soul is interchangeable in value. But that is not in fact what Christianity has taught historically. According to St. Thomas Aquinas:

I answer that, Since to love a thing is to will it good, in a twofold way anything may be loved more, or less. In one way on the part of the act of the will itself, which is more or less intense. In this way God does not love some things more than others, because He loves all things by an act of the will that is one, simple, and always the same. In another way on the part of the good itself that a person wills for the beloved. In this way we are said to love that one more than another, for whom we will a greater good, though our will is not more intense. In this way we must needs say that God loves some things more than others. For since God's love is the cause of goodness in things, as has been said (Article 2), no one thing would be better than another, if God did not will greater good for one than for another.
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God loves everyone with the same intensity but not to same degree. The intensity of God's love cannot differ since God is love itself. But the degree of love to which God predestines us differs from soul to soul. Although God sincerely desires the eternal happiness of every soul, some souls are nonetheless more valuable to God than others. The greater the capacity a soul has for good, the greater degree of love God will have for that soul.

St. Thérèse compares Heaven to a garden where each soul is a flower.

“[Jesus] opened the book of nature before me, and I saw that every flower He has created has a beauty of its own, that the splendor of the rose and the lily’s whiteness do not deprive the violet of its scent nor make less ravishing the daisy’s charm. I saw that if every little flower wished to be a rose, Nature would lose her spring adornments, and the fields would no longer be enameled with their varied flowers. “
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The divine garden would be boring if everyone were a rose or a chrysanthemum. The daises and the violets have an irreducible beauty of their own that is not diminished by the presence of the bigger flashier flowers. That some are loved to a greater degree does not detract from the intensity with which God loves each of us without distinction.

The idea that we are all equivalent in the eyes of God is a conceit of modern egalitarianism rather than actual Christian teaching.

 

[JustGeorge]

Being a polytheist, I don't think all Gods love all people equally.

 

[PureX]

Being that we are all free to envision God in whatever ways we choose, I'll assume that God loves everyone equally. Anything less then that gets ideologically problematic and unnecessarily complicated. And I don't have the time or energy to sit around wondering who God loves more, or doesn't love, and why.

 

[danieldemol]

The idea that we are all equivalent in the eyes of God is a conceit of modern egalitarianism rather than actual Christian teaching.

I agree that it is more modern than the historical teachings of Christianity, but I think it did come from people reading their own values into the writings of Paul who spoke out both sides of his mouth on the issue of Christians specifically (as opposed to all people) being equal in the eyes of God.

 

[danieldemol]

By the way in response to the question in the title, "Does God love everyone equally", my answer to that question would be my God loves everyone equally because it understands that people didn't choose their own defective natures, nor did they choose the defective environments they were born into. Therefore to love any more or less would amount to injustice as I see it and I imagine God to be just.

 

[Glaurung]

I agree that it is more modern than the historical teachings of Christianity, but I think it did come from people reading their own values into the writings of Paul who spoke out both sides of his mouth on the issue of Christians specifically (as opposed to all people) being equal in the eyes of God.

St. Paul taught that being Jewish does not alone confer good standing before God. Anyone who approaches God though faith in Christ becomes an adopted child of God regardless of their race, sex or position in this world. That does not imply an absolute equivalence of each and every soul. Some will achieve a greater degree of virtue and some less all based upon God's divine plan.

By the way in response to the question in the title, "Does God love everyone equally", my answer to that question would be my God loves everyone equally because it understands that people didn't choose their own defective natures, nor did they choose the defective environments they were born into. Therefore to love any more or less would amount to injustice as I see it and I imagine God to be just.

Do not think the material state of this life (which is over in a blink of an eye) has any bearing on your standing before God. It is your cooperation with grace and love for others that counts. Christianity makes no promises of happiness in this life. If anything, it promises the opposite.

God owes us nothing. That some are granted greater grace to achieve greater merit is no injustice to those of us not predestined to the same heights. No one who dies saying yes to God will go wanting for anything. As St. Thérèse says, every flower will be splendid in its own right. You will experience the same divine love as everyone else.

To reject that love. To reject the happiness God has planned for you because you cannot countenance the fact that some are predestined to surpass you in that happiness is to embrace mindset of the demonic. It is to throw the same temper tantrum Lucifer threw when God revealed the divine plan to the angels.

 

[Glaurung]

This discussion reminds me of an episode of the Simpsons. A new girl named Allison enters into Lisa's life. Lisa rather than being happy that she now has someone on her own level to befriend, instead grows to fear Allison's marginal superiority in intellect and talent. As if no longer being the undisputed 'best' in her class somehow diminishes her own good qualities. Lisa can no longer take joy in her own goodness yet alone admire the goodness in others due to her own self-absorption.

A Christian ought to realize that everything we have is a gift from God. We should not envy the good God gives to others either in this life or in the next. As if someone else's sanctity or virtue in any way impugnes on our own relationship with God. As if someone else's gifts in any way diminishes our own gifts given to us by that same God.

 

[danieldemol]

That some are granted greater grace to achieve greater merit is no injustice to those of us not predestined to the same heights.

Ah the apologist's up is really down black is really white toolbox in my opinion.

 

[Glaurung]

Ah the apologist's up is really down black is really white toolbox in my opinion.

It is no injustice in my view that God wills for some to achieve greater things than what he wills for me to achieve. That I exist at all is amazing gift on its own; yet alone that he invites me (all of us) to the beatific vision. God does not owe us utter equality in the gifts he bestows on each soul. It is his grace to give not ours.

If the existence of others who surpass you in merit is unjust in your eyes, then there is not much I can say to you except that your view of what is fair is that of a child's in my opinion.

 

[danieldemol]

I wouldn't even accept un-merited favouritism from humans as being just yet according to the apologist God should get a free pass in my opinion.

 

[Eli G]

Atheists should not care much about God's judgment, since they consider human life as something ephemeral and insignificant. What importance does a life have (from the atheist point of view) if in the infinite stream of time it does not occupy even an infinitesimal point?

It is the believers who really consider God's point of view to be important. Imagine: God is giving the opportunity to simple humans to live forever in ideal conditions.

Rev. 21:3 With that I heard a loud voice from the throne say: “Look! The tent of God is with mankind, and he will reside with them, and they will be his people. And God himself will be with them. 4 And he will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore. The former things have passed away.”

 

[soulsurvivor]

Many people are under the impression that Christianity teaches an absolute equality between all individuals. That God loves everyone equally. That in the eyes of God every soul is interchangeable in value. But that is not in fact what Christianity has taught historically. According to St. Thomas Aquinas:

Depends on which God you are talking about. Jesus, for instance, loved John more than he loved Peter. But that was because he knew the two of them personally.

The Gods do not necessarily know every person individually, so the vast majority of humans are loved equally. Regardless of whether a God loves someone more than others, he will treat all of them equally - no favoritism among his children, otherwise he wouldn't be a God.

 

[Quintessence]

Don't different Christian traditions have different teachings? What exactly makes some of these a "conceit" or "not actual"?

Purism is a silly thing.

 

[1213]

...

The idea that we are all equivalent in the eyes of God is a conceit of modern egalitarianism rather than actual Christian teaching.

I think God is equal for everyone. This means, if one is evil and does bad things, he will be treated the same way as anyone else who is evil and does bad things.

 

[Trailblazer]

Many people are under the impression that Christianity teaches an absolute equality between all individuals. That God loves everyone equally. That in the eyes of God every soul is interchangeable in value. But that is not in fact what Christianity has taught historically. According to St. Thomas Aquinas:

As a Baha'i, I believe that God loves everyone unconditionally.

"How ignorant therefore the thought that God who created man, educated and nurtured him, surrounded him with all blessings, made the sun and all phenomenal existence for his benefit, bestowed upon him tenderness and kindness, and then did not love him. This is palpable ignorance, for no matter to what religion a man belongs even though he be an atheist or materialist nevertheless God nurtures him, bestows His kindness and sheds upon him His light."​

('Abdu'l-Baha, Star of the West, Vol. 8, issue 7, p. 78)​

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Matthew 5:45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.​

However, that does not mean that God considers everyone equal, be they good or evil.

“Let no one imagine that by Our assertion that all created things are the signs of the revelation of God is meant that—God forbid—all men, be they good or evil, pious or infidel, are equal in the sight of God. Nor doth it imply that the Divine Being—magnified be His name and exalted be His glory—is, under any circumstances, comparable unto men, or can, in any way, be associated with His creatures. Such an error hath been committed by certain foolish ones who, after having ascended into the heavens of their idle fancies, have interpreted Divine Unity to mean that all created things are the signs of God, and that, consequently, there is no distinction whatsoever between them.”​

Gleanings From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 187​

 

[Trailblazer]

It is no injustice in my view that God wills for some to achieve greater things than what he wills for me to achieve. That I exist at all is amazing gift on its own; yet alone that he invites me (all of us) to the beatific vision. God does not owe us utter equality in the gifts he bestows on each soul. It is his grace to give not ours.

If the existence of others who surpass you in merit is unjust in your eyes, then there is not much I can say to you except that your view of what is fair is that of a child's in my opinion.

I take no issue with some people achieving greater things than others since we all have different capacities.

What I do take issue with is why some people have to suffer so much more than others through no fault of their own. Some people suffer for most of their lives while other people go through life with hardly any suffering. Obviously, it has to be this way since all peoples' lives are very different, their heredity, upbringing and life circumstances. However, I don't know how you consider that fair or just.

Existence is not amazing gift for everyone. I often wish I had never been born.
Does God even care about people like me? If He cares there is no way to know that and it doesn't change anything anyway.

 

[Glaurung]

I wouldn't even accept un-merited favouritism from humans as being just yet according to the apologist God should get a free pass in my opinion.

The designs of an omniscient intelligence are never arbitrary. Even by human standards a world of utter equality would be stupid.

 

[Glaurung]

What I do take issue with is why some people have to suffer so much more than others through no fault of their own. Some people suffer for most of their lives while other people go through life with hardly any suffering. Obviously, it has to be this way since all peoples' lives are very different, their heredity, upbringing and life circumstances. However, I don't know how you consider that fair or just.

If you really believed in eternity, in life after death, then you would not resent the transitory sufferings of this world to the point of cursing your own existence.

Existence is not amazing gift for everyone. I often wish I had never been born.
Does God even care about people like me? If He cares there is no way to know that and it doesn't change anything anyway.

I used to hate my life as well. Then I realized that the hatred of life was but mere pusillanimity. I endeavor to cherish life even when things are bad.

 

[Trailblazer]

If you really believed in eternity, in life after death, then you would not resent the transitory sufferings of this world to the point of cursing your own existence.

Nothing could be further from the truth since I am 100% certain there is life after death.

“O My servants! Sorrow not if, in these days and on this earthly plane, things contrary to your wishes have been ordained and manifested by God, for days of blissful joy, of heavenly delight, are assuredly in store for you. Worlds, holy and spiritually glorious, will be unveiled to your eyes. You are destined by Him, in this world and hereafter, to partake of their benefits, to share in their joys, and to obtain a portion of their sustaining grace. To each and every one of them you will, no doubt, attain.”​

Gleanings From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, pp. 328-329​

I am also well aware how transitory this existence is.

“The world is but a show, vain and empty, a mere nothing, bearing the semblance of reality. Set not your affections upon it. Break not the bond that uniteth you with your Creator, and be not of those that have erred and strayed from His ways. Verily I say, the world is like the vapor in a desert, which the thirsty dreameth to be water and striveth after it with all his might, until when he cometh unto it, he findeth it to be mere illusion.”​

Gleanings From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, pp. 328-329​

However, none of that changes the sufferings of this life. We do not live in the next life, we have to live in this life.
You do not know my background or life experiences and what I am going through now, so you cannot say that If I really believed in life after death I would not resent the transitory sufferings of this world.

And how about my not wanting a life after death, in spite of all the promises religion offers? What if I do not want to continue to exist forever, in spite of how great it is supposed to be? I am not the only person who feels this way, not everyone wants to exist forever.

I used to hate my life as well. Then I realized that the hatred of life was but mere pusillanimity. I endeavor to cherish life even when things are bad.

I do not lack courage or determination, quite the contrary, and I am very grateful for what I have, but that does not change my life circumstances and the way my brain works to try to accommodate them. Do you know anything about psychology?

 

[danieldemol]

The designs of an omniscient intelligence are never arbitrary.

Irrelevant in my view as I never said they were.

Even by human standards a world of utter equality would be stupid.

I'm not arguing for a world of utter equality, I'm arguing that any shortcomings in our spiritual capacity are God's fault, therefore if someone has to suffer for God's faults it should be God alone. The buck stops at the top in my view.

Since you raised it a world of perfect equality would probably not be stupid as you assert it to be though. It is unachievable by human means but that doesn't make it stupid.