How God's Love was Perverted
In order to fully appreciate the good news of the gospel, it is important to be familiar with how satan has perverted God’s love in order to pervert the gospel.[1]
Here is a brief history of what happened:
The Greek language has 4 words for our English word “love.”
|
Eros |
is the passionate human love, between (a) man and (a) woman |
|
Storage |
the love of a parent toward a child |
|
Phileo |
brotherly love, between friends |
|
Agape |
God’s unconditional love, divine self-sacrificing love |
Of these four words, EROS was considered the highest form of love. As Plato described it, EROS was man seeking after God. It was the basis of all pagan religions.[1]
Now, we discovered in (Jer 31:3) that God’s Love seeks after us!!
Jer 31 (v. 3) The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying: “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with loving kindness I have drawn you.”
If we really want to know what God is like and how He feels about us, we need to study the life of Jesus....As we see Jesus washing the feet of the one who would betray Him, we see how God does not give up on any one of us, even though we may choose to betray Him.[2]
Image #1
Jesus takes the initiative to pursue us, when we are lost, even when we are not looking for Him.
So, you can see that this concept of: “Man must seek after God” is a false idea created to deceive us!!
After some research you will notice that, the New Testament writers did not use this word EROS even once. This was unacceptable to some of the Church Fathers, who became the leaders of the Christian Church after the apostles died.[1]
Some of these Church Fathers, who were of Greek origin, wanted to substitute the word EROS for the word AGAPE, the key word used in the New Testament to define God’s self-emptying, unconditional love. So began the great battle in Church history between EROS and AGAPE.[1]
The following is a table[1] showing the distinction between man's EROS love and God's AGAPE love.
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HUMAN EROS LOVE IS: |
GOD'S AGAPE LOVE IS: |
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CONDITIONAL - Depends on beauty or goodness and therefore needs arousing. |
UNCONDITIONAL - Is spontaneous, uncaused, and independent of our goodness (see Romans 5:6-10). |
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CHANGEABLE - Fluctuates and is unreliable (consider the divorce rate in the United States). |
CHANGELESS - Is everlasting and never ceases (see Romans 8:35-39 and John 13:1). |
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SELF-SEEKING - Is egocentric, and therefore always wants to climb socially, politically, academically, economically, and even religiously. |
SELF-EMPTYING - Is selfless, and therefore will step down for the benefit of others (1 Corinthians 13:5; 2 Corinthians 8:9; and Philippians 2:6-8). |
Do you see how AGAPE love is different than human EROS love?
Human love is good only to those who are good to us!
How could you be sure that God is faithful or would keep any of His promises concerning your salvation, if it were based on EROS (man's) love and not on AGAPE (God's) love?
There would be no assurance of salvation and no trust in God for anything!!
All religions based on EROS love, demand that man must save himself by his own good works (this includes all non-Christian religions). This is salvation by works – legalism.[1]
In contrast, the message of the gospel tells us that God sent His Son into the world to save mankind while we were helpless, wicked, still sinners and even enemies of God (Romans 5:6-10).[1]
Rom 5 (v. 6) For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. (v. 8) But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (v. 10) For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
Oh, how He loves us....How He loves us all.... video Ref. [3]
References:
1. Savior of the world Bible Course, (2000). Lesson 2, “The Love of God.”
2. Mark Finley, (1995). Beyond Orion's Gates, p.31, Hart Research Center.
3. David Crowder Band (Lyrics) "How He Loves Us" Online video. YouTube, 23 Dec 2009. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxTOsQ3LDE4
Image #1: Pearls of Grace, (2014). God seeks us first. Retrieved from https://missguidedmom.com/tag/spirituality/
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