It's not merely my thinking, Poly. It's what the Bible teaches. It's what logic demands. It's what makes God trustworthy. In a universe that is random, there can be no trust, no solid confidence, no unwavering assurance. God is only slightly less clueless than man. How long will God sit by and let scores of people funnel into hell? There's nothing He can do to stop it, except end it all now. But He doesn't. I thought you people said your God was loving, relational, personal, good and living. Why then does He not end it all right now? Can't He do the arithmetic? Every day that goes by, He loses more and more souls to hell. Every day that goes by, more and more people are born, the vast majority of which will choose hell instead of Him. With every child that is born, is He crossing His fingers, convincing Himself that "this time it will be different"? That is a psychotic God who is disconnected from reality. That is the Open Theist God.
On the Settled View, God inexorably saves each and every person that Christ died for. He doesn't lose a single one. Everyone for whom Christ shed His blood has full assurance, an absolute guarantee of salvation, and can trust God fully to work all things for the good of His elect. Even in the midst of the evil that befalls us, we can be absolutely sure that God has decreed it for His good purposes, just like Job, just like Joseph, just like Paul. Each of these men knew that God's decrees of evil would bring about only the good and the best for His elect. In that they could confidently rest.
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