The Chief Thing is to Love

 "They say: 'He's been dreaming, he's rambling, hallucinations.' Well, what of it? And they're so proud of themselves! Dream? What's a dream? Isn't this life of ours a dream? I'll go further: suppose it never, ever comes true, and there is no paradise (now that I do understand!), well, I'll still go on preaching. And yet how simple a matter it is: in one day, in one hour it could all be brought about, at once! The chief thing is to love others as oneself, that's the main thing, and that's it - absolutely nothing more is necessary: you would immediately discover how to bring it about. And yet it's just the old truth after all - an old truth a billion years ago times repeated and preached, though it fell on stony ground, didn't it? 'The cognition of life is superior to life, the knowledge of the laws of happiness - superior to happiness! - that's what has to be fought against! And I shall. If only everyone desired it, it could all be brought about at once." - Fyodor Dosteovsky, Dream of A Ridiculous Man, Page 127 and 128

When you love someone who loves and marries another

 "As if I would nurse my resentment, Nastenka! As if I would drive a dark cloud across your bright, serene happiness, as if I would inflict misery on your heart with my bitter reproaches, wound it with covert pangs and make it beat anxiously in your moment of bliss, or crush even one of those tender blossoms woven into your dark curls, when you go with him to the altar . . . Oh, never, never! May your sky be clear, may your sweet smile be bright and happiness, which you gave to another, a lonely, grateful heart!
God in heaven! A whole moment of bliss! Is that not sufficient even for a man's entire life? . . ." - Fyodor Dosteovsky, White Nights, Page 56

When the Object of our Affections do not Love us in Return

 "Heavens, how joy and happiness lend beauty to a person! How the heart overflows with love! You seem to want to pour all it holds into the heart of another, so that everything turns to gaiety and laughter. And how infectious that gladness is! Yesterday the words held so much comfort, such kindliness towards me in heart . . . how she danced attendance on me, so affectionate, how she cheered and soothed my heart! Ah, how flirtatious sheer happiness can be! And I took it all at face value; I thought she . . .
Good lord, though, how on earth could I have thought such a thing? How could I have been so blind, when it had all been appropriated by another, none of it was mine; when eventually even that same gentleness of hers, her solicitude, her love . . . yes, love for me - was nothing but gladness at the imminent prospect of a tryst with another, an urge to thrust her happiness on to me too? . . . When he failed to arrive, after we had waited in vain, she fell to frowning, she quailed and lost heart." - Fyodor Dosteovsky, White Nights, Page 38 and 39

This is a short story by Dosteovsky about a man who falls in love with a woman who seemingly lets on only herself to be in love with another man.

Love based on Kindred Spirit

"Now I had the chance to meet Luganovich's wife, Anna Alekseyevna. She was still very young then, not more than twenty-two, and her first child had been born six months before. It's all finished now and it's hard for me to say exactly what it was I found so unusual about her, what attracted me so much,but at the time, over dinner, it was all so clear, without a shadow of doubt: here was a young, beautiful, kind, intelligent, enchanting woman, unlike any I'd met before. Immediately I sensed that she was a kindred spirit, someone I knew already, and that her face, with its warm clever eyes, was just like one I had seen before when I was a little boy, in an album lying on my mother's chest of drawers." -Anton Chekhov, About Love, pg. 88

Augustine was definitely not a Behavioralist

"And if love is a substance, it is certainly not body, but spirit; and the mind also is not body, but spirit." -Augustine, On The Trinity, 9.2.2

It is not the law but the belief in immortality that drives us to love

"'Generally, again, I ask your permission to drop the subject,' Pyotr Alexandrovich repeated, 'and instead let me tell you another anecdote, gentlemen, about Ivan Fyodorovich himself, a most typical and interesting one. No more than five days ago, at a local gathering, predominantly of ladies, he solemnly announced in the discussion that there is decidedly nothing in the whole world that would make men love their fellow men; that there exists no law of nature that man should love mankind, and that if there is and has been any love on earth up to now, it has come not from natural law but solely from people's belief in their immortality....'" - Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, pg. 69

The Love of God

Does God love every single human being?

The Arminian, and the Scholastics (whether Reformed so called or no) would say absolutely. They would definitely list out Scripture verses that seemingly supports this satanic idea. One such verse, is all together popular, is John 3:16.


It says that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son so that whosoever believes in Him shall not parish but have eternal life.


In this verse those who teach God loves every single human being who has, is, and will ever live on earth point out that the text says God so loved the world.

Now the problem with this interpretation of things is that it does not fit the context of the verse itself and of the whole Scripture. For instance, Romans 9 says God loved Jacob, but hated Esau.

They who holds that God loves every single human being (we will call them universalist) basically think that the term world means every individual. This however is not the case. The universalist has simply committed a fallacy. They say look here is the word world therefore this means this. The problem is that the term world in Scripture has several different meanings and none of them speak of every single human beings.

In fact, the term world can denote the universe, all creation including things. As God created the cosmos. He is ruler of it all the stars, the skies, the ocean.

It can also mean the gentile world as distinct from the Jewish world as Paul uses the term in Romans 11.

But since Scripture interprets Scripture we know ultimately God only loves those whom He has chosen in eternity past. Therefore, God so loved the world of the elect alone.

Utilitarianism is immoral

Utilitarianism teaches that what is right is what is good for the greatest number. Utilitarianism is not moralistic at all in any sense of the word. It is immoralistic. It teaches that what is right or wrong changes with the tide so how shall we say one thing is wrong and another right. Sure what is considered moral may be so now but in 10 or 100 or 1000 years down the road it may not be for we have "progressed". Utilitarianism therefore does not teach moral norms for people and is therefore harmful for society. How unfortunate that a philosophical view that teaches that what is good is what gives pleasure for the majority. I suppose we may never know what the good is. Maybe Hitler sought the good for his people by murdering several thousands or millions of Jews for his people. Today, we find religious people accepting this viewpoint also related with Christian Hedonism.

Obligated to love God with our minds

A Christian is obligated to love God with all his mind, and thus these replies are an expression of love. Love is not an emotion; yet, contrary to some commonly held opinions, this does not prevent such expression from being vigorous. Love is a volition, and volition can be vigorous, too. At the same time, the vigor is directed toward the material and argument. To the critics themselves I am happy to direct thanks and esteem. - Gordon H. Clark, Philosophy of Gordon H. Clark