{"id":7803,"date":"2019-01-05T00:00:22","date_gmt":"2019-01-05T04:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/?p=7803"},"modified":"2019-01-05T00:00:23","modified_gmt":"2019-01-05T04:00:23","slug":"saving-the-world-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/?p=7803","title":{"rendered":"Saving the World"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Zahnd-11.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7804\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Zahnd-11.jpg 800w, https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Zahnd-11-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Zahnd-11-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>For God to resort to violence in order to save the world is not saving the world; it&#8217;s condemning the world.  But John tells us, &#8220;Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.&#8221;  God saves the world not through the impatience of violence but through the infinite patience of divine love.  I understand the incredulity of unbelievers toward the idea that the world can be saved by love and without violence; it is this very incredulity that lies at the foundation of their unbelief.  But it is the very inconceivability of God-saving love in Christ that Christians are to believe in most of all.  If John 3:16 is to mean anything, it must mean that God gets what God wants through love, or not at all.  If I believe that love never fails, it&#8217;s because I believe that God is love.  To believe in the sufficiency of God&#8217;s love to save the world is not na\u00c3\u00afve optimism; it&#8217;s Christianity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8212; Brian Zahnd, <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sonderbooks.com\/Nonfiction\/sinners_in_the_hands_of_a_loving_god.html\">Sinners\u00c2\u00a0in\u00c2\u00a0the\u00c2\u00a0Hands\u00c2\u00a0of\u00c2\u00a0a\u00c2\u00a0Loving\u00c2\u00a0God<\/a>,<\/em> p. 206-207.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Photo: South Riding, Virginia, March 21, 2018<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For God to resort to violence in order to save the world is not saving the world; it&#8217;s condemning the world. But John tells us, &#8220;Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.&#8221; God saves the world not [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,15,48,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-god","category-love","category-redemption","category-universalism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7803"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7805,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7803\/revisions\/7805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}