First, I think you got us confused with the Pope.....The Pixie wrote:Exactly a third of a year later...You guys represent Christianity, and Christianity is responsible for the signs, so...met wrote:Well, no one here is responsible for church signs either, Px.....See here:high
https://www.projectinspired.com/god-lov ... ividually/
Or here:
John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Second, the "everyone personally" emphasis is a Prot theology thing (for some Prots, ie those who don't buy the Calvinistic limited atonement spin) extending basically from Martin Luther's "every man his own priest" kind of concept. The emph Prots give there has theo-historical roots, you see?
And even the famed John quote you just quoted, you might have noticed, says "the world" and not "everyone personally."
That is not necessarily the same thing...
Jim gave a good answer!Hmm, maybe the solution is for Christianity to stop lying about God loving us. That is the reason for talking at cross purposes. Christians saying God loves us each when actually they do not believe it, and then they go all when atheists take them at their word..
I think maybe the more sophisticated and direct NT scripture might be the famed "God is love" from 1 John. But it's given in a context of emphasizing love within an early Xian community, so while God is in that relation, the direct recommended objects of that relation are solider, more concrete actual human individuals and/or the community itself.
... & prolly, if Xians did this better, we'd have to stand for less of these kinds of a-theological grillings, so..., but well, now, maybe I sound a little like the pope.... Sorry!