If God loves the unevangelized, then why does he allow them to live and die without hearing the gospel if that is their only hope for salvation? As Pinnock argues, “If God really loves the whole world and desires everyone to be saved, it follows logically that everyone must have access to salvation.”[i] His argument is that if exclusivism is true, then God is not all-loving. But because God is all-loving, Calvinism and exclusivism cannot be true.
But the mistake he is making is failing to grasp the distinctions that exist in the display of God’s love. Just as we have different kinds of love based on that person’s relationship to us, so God has different kinds of love based on the relationship of his creatures to him. God can display love in common grace to the lost even though they are under the sentence of his wrath while showing a greater kind of love to those who are saved. Common grace is the universal love of God as demonstrated in creation and providence. He is kind to all and shows mercy to his enemies who only deserve his justice (Ps 145:9; Matt 5:43-48).
Yet God’s love for the church is greater in degree and kind than his love of common grace. It is the love marriage was created to reflect (Eph 5:25). Husbands do not love their wives the same way they love all other women. There is a special kind of love God only has for believers (John 14:21; 15:9-10; Jude 1:21). John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was more loved by Jesus than the other disciples. God can show degrees of love to his saints while loving them equally in Christ. God’s love displayed in election is a unique and special love given only to his people (Eph 1:4-5). God loves the people of Israel more than any other people group because of his sovereign choice of them (Deut 10:15).
Those who are among the unevangelized are loved by God through common grace, but since those who die as sinners among them are not among his elect, they are not loved with the same kind of love that Christ has for his church. Arminianism refuses to allow any distinctions or degrees in God’s love: he must love all people equally or else he is not loving at all. But this is not how Scripture speaks of God’s love. It is also the same type of argument that universalists use: if God loves everyone, then there can be no hell of eternal conscious torment because a loving God would never send those he loves to hell. The mistake in the argument is failing to grasp that God is both loving and just. He must punish sinners for their sins because he is a holy and righteous God. Likewise, Arminians fail to grasp that God is both loving and sovereign. He has the freedom to display his love as he chooses and we as sinners do not deserve his love. If we did, then salvation would no longer be by grace alone.
[i]Pinnock, A Wideness in God’s Mercy, 157.
James Attebury 
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