A loving God

Mr John Guillaumier (The Sunday Times, February 6) again puts in doubt God's love and indeed His existence. If he is so convinced that God does not exist, why is he so obsessed with His existence or otherwise? I am somewhat perplexed why this correspondent goes to such great lengths to convince us that God does not exist, even going so far as to quote from Shakespeare's plays, Chaucer's prose, etc. - all fiction!

Instead he would do himself a favour if he could just read of God's love for us in the whole of John's Gospel, and especially in chapter 17, verses 25-26: "Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them."

And again in John, Chapter 3 verse 16: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life", and yet again in the first letter of John, chapter 4 verses 9-12: "This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us."

Jesus knew that He would be accepted by many and rejected by many others: "He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognise him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him." (John 1:10-11), and that is why He repeatedly appealed to all those who doubted him: "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life." (John 5:24), and again "Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth" (John 17:17).

God's grace is bestowed in abundance upon each and every one of us, including non-believers like your correspondent, but God also allows us the free will to make the final choice, and every choice we make has its consequence: "Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son" (John 3:18)

"And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day." (John 6:39-40)

The choice is yours, the prize is yours.