unconditional love spawns hate
The following is basically a repost of what i wrote on Advindicate on an article called “Too Much Jesus?”
I appreciate the generally civil tone while discussing the problems with unconditional love. One of the main problems in 1888 was that the leading brethren would not treat the young ministers (or Ellen White) with brotherly love. (^-^)
The point about unconditional love is the main point. It is not an idle statement I made when I said that this doctrine is the worst to enter the SDA church in my lifetime. It is the “root” if you will of the “branches” of other unscriptural doctrines such as unconditional pardon and salvation, which of course lead to unscriptural “fruit” such as “No matter what you do, you are OK with God”. Dig out the unscriptural roots, and the branches and fruit will automatically be disposed of.
Your definition of “unconditional” (absolute), is right as far as it goes, but it left out the main meaning – that of being “without conditions”. This is the meaning that is unscriptural.
In some ways, this discussion about unconditional love is similar to that about Justification/Sanctification. Justification is an act where any sinner who truly comes to God will be washed free from all sin, and seen by God as completely clean, all because of the infinite value of the blood of Christ. There is nothing the sinner can do to add to that value, just as there is nothing the sinner can do in order to “get” Christ’s love. It is a free gift, totally unmerited.
Most SDAs I know will agree completely with this explanation of Justification. However, when it comes to Sanctification, there are huge divides. There is a large group who are usually labelled “liberals/progressives” who say there is never anything for the sinner to do. It is all of Christ from start to finish, and nothing we do has any bearing on our salvation. Many of them do not say it quite so clearly, but that mindset is clear in their rejection of following inspired counsel on how to live our lives today. They have no absolute foundation to stand on, and some of their leaders understand that, but most of the followers agree with it because it does not involve a cross.
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