Josh McDowell
P.O. Box 1000Q
Dallas, TX 75221
Dr. Norman Geisler
Box 471974
Charlotte, NC 28247
Mr. McDowell/Dr. Geisler:
I want to begin this letter by thanking you for all the work that you
have done in promoting God's glory, and being an ambassador for Christ.
Your books and tapes and thinking have helped me invaluably in defending
the Christian worldview as well as developing greater conviction for
God's truth.
This letter is in response to the book you co-authored with Norman
Geisler/Josh McDowell, entitled Love Is Always Right. I agree
wholeheartedly with the main theme of the book: that Love is a moral
absolute that is unchanging and applicable in all situations. In the
Preface, you wrote "While our intent is to be honest to biblical
interpretation, you may disagree with our assumptions and conclusions. I
welcome you response. Please feel free to write me and share your
biblical concern or comments. . . .I will carefully consider each concern
you may express." This is the spirit and hope in which I write. While
agreeing with the majority of the contents of the book, there are certain
assumptions and conclusions which do not seem to coincide with the
teachings of the Bible.
To begin with, you write on page 73:
Love isn't something you necessarily feel; it's something you do.
Good feelings may accompany loving deeds, but we are commanded to love
whether we feel like it or not. Jesus didn't feel like giving His life to
redeem humankind (Matt. 26:38-39).
Certainly you are correct in asserting that mere feelings do not and can
not replace action (James 2:16; 1 John 3:18). However, we do not think
that it is proper to conclude from this that one can love apart from
feelings. As John Piper writes, "YES, love is more than feelings; but,
NO, love is not less than feelings" (Desiring God , p. 101). In
Rom. 12:8, we are commanded to "show mercy with cheerfulness."
In Micah 6:8, we are to "love mercy," not just do mercy. 2 Corinthian
9:7 says that we should be cheerful givers, not just givers. 1
Corinthians 13 equates true love as being inseparable from true feelings,
and incompatible with wrong feelings. An example might be useful here.
If I speak to a person after church, and do it only out of duty, am I
really being loving to them? Don't we find it belittling when people do
things for us because they feel it's just "something you do." In fact,
I'm personally aware of people who refuse to return to Christian meetings
because of others who speak with them out of a duty-centered action, not
out of enjoyment for the person.
As for Christ being an example of one who died for us out of duty and
not because he wanted to, consider Hebrews 12:2, which says that the very
reason that he went to the cross was for the "joy set before Him." Yes,
Jesus despised the shame and it was not fun. But this verse indicates
that a deep-seated joy was the motivation for his action, not a
feeling-less duty-centered ethic.
Also within your work I find a great exaltation of human freedom and
choice, while there is little mention of God's actions for his glory and
his sovereignty over good and evil, which seemed to be left by the
wayside in your discussion of these important issues. You quote 2 Pet.
3:9, rightly saying that God desires that no one perish but that everyone
comes to repentance. Here comes the problem: Not all are saved.
Therefore, there must mean that God desires something more
than for all to be saved. You seem to indicate that this something
must be man's free will and freedom of choice. I would answer that He
values to display the full range of His character in wrath and mercy
(Rom. 9:22, 23; Prov. 16:4), He values His own sovereign freedom (Rom.
9:15, 18; Exodus 33:19; Psalm 115:3; Daniel 4:35), and He values that
fact that He continually seeks to humble the proud and rescue the weak (1
Cor. 1:26-31; James 2:5). I am truly amazed by the disproportionate
emphasis on self-determination within American Christianity in comparison
to the sparse mention of it in Scripture.
To begin, there are a number of false dichotomies in the sections
regarding God's love. In this and other works, you write that:
"He could not have chosen to make a world populated by creatures who
love Him without choice. Forced love is a contradiction in terms.
Robots don't really love; they are programmed to respond" (p. 61). "
No one can force love from someone else. You choose to love God; He
won't force you to love Him" (p. 54).
I strongly agree that forced love is not really love at all. But I
strongly disagree that the only other alternative is that our choice
regarding salvation is ultimately dependent upon on self-determination.
You seem to indicate that it may not be totally up to us, but
rather ultimately up to us, as to whether or not we're saved.
After all, you repeatedly point out that "He won't force you to love
Him." You say that there are two, and only two options: 1) God can force
us to love Him like robots, or 2) We can freely choose God. But there is
a third option that you are ignoring: 3) God is able to cause us to
willingly believe in Him. Philosophers may ridicule this option as
impossible, self-contradictory, or devoid of true love. My aim, however,
is to try to let Scripture speak for itself on this issue:
"And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not
turn away from them, to do them good; and I will put the fear of
me in their hearts, so that they will not turn away from me." --Jeremiah
32:40
"Moreover, I will give you a new heart, and put a new
spirit within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your
flesh, and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my
Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you
will be careful to observe my ordinances." --Ezekiel 36:26-27
"But you do not believe because you are not of my sheep."
--John 10:26
"I will give them a heart to know, for I am the LORD, and they
will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will
return to me with their whole heart." --Jeremiah 24:7
"Moreover, the LORD your God will circumcise your heart, and the
heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart
and with all your soul, in order that you may live."
--Deuteronomy 30:6
"So then, it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who
runs, but on God who has mercy." --Romans 9:16
As Piper says in The Pleasures of God, "You are not "forcing
faith" when you cause someone to want to believe" (p. 237). These verses
stand in marked contrast to your statement that, "Having tried to
win them, God will ultimately say to some, All right, have it your way'"
(p. 55.) This is a frustrated God that does not demonstrate effectual,
electing, saving love, but merely hopes for our approval like a beauty
queen contestant awaiting the judges' decision. This view that you
advocate clearly lessens the greatness of God's love. J.I. Packer brings
this out well when he says, "Our minds have been conditioned to think. .
.of God's love as a weak affection which cannot keep anyone from hell
without help, and of faith as the human help which God needs for this
purpose. . ." (A Quest for Godliness , p. 131). When you are
saying "His love failed" and that "God's love for the unbeliever
never ends, but it does fail" (p. 85) you are saying his plans can
be frustrated, which contradicts Job 42:2, Isaiah 46:10, John 10:26, and
Acts 13:48.
Which conception of God's love is greater (not to mention biblical)--the
one which says that in His love, the most that God can do is make
salvation possible , or the one which says that God's love is so
wonderful and great that it can always work effectively to make a
person's salvation actual? How can God's love ever be a rock of
security if its effectiveness ultimately depends upon our sinful,
wavering will? If we choose what we most desire, then none will ever
decide to choose Him, apart from God's electing grace, for there is
nothing good within us before He changes our heart (Rom 8:7, 8).
Furthermore, do we really want to hold that there is something good which
is not ultimately from God? (Rom. 11:36). That is what you are implying
if you say that love for God is ultimately produced by our free will,
rather than given to us by God.
"God will, of course, do everything within His loving power to invite
you to love Him. That's what redemption is all about" (p.54).
His ultimate plan of redemption, as far as I can tell, is not merely to
invite us to love Him (Acts 13:48; 2 Timothy 2:25; John 6:44). God's
ultimate goal, as revealed in Scripture is to ultimately glorify Himself
and His own sovereign freedom. He acts for His own name's sake ,
so that He may be ultimately glorified. (See Isaiah 43:7; 48:9-11;
49:3; Exodus 14:4, 18; 20:5-9; Ezekiel 20:21-22; 36:22-23, 32; 2 Samuel
7:23; 1 Samuel 12:22; Psalm 23:3; 25:11; 106:6-8 1 Kings 8:41-45; 2 Kings
20:6; John 12:27-28; 13:31-32; 17:4; 2 Thess. 1:9-10).
Thank you for taking the time to read this letter that concerns such
important issues such as who God really is, the nature of love, and how
it is that we are saved. God has sovereignly worked so that you have
directly affected hundreds and thousands of lives and walks with the
Lord. I thank God every time that I remember you, and simply ask for
your consideration concerning the contents of this letter.
Your partners in Christ,
All Scripture quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1975, 1977, by the Lockman Foundation.
Go back to Contend for the Faith.
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