Will a Loving God Permit Any One be Eternally Lost?

“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36).
OUR theme is in the form of a question, and the only place that we can find an answer to that question is in the Word of God. These poor minds of ours are utterly helpless in answering such a question. Men may reason as they will, but their reasonings will not change facts.
Apart from the revelation that God has given in His Word, we know nothing about what He will do in the eternal ages. One man may come to one conclusion, and another may come to a different one. We may say, “I think,” or “I do not think,” but our thinking will not alter the facts of the case. It is in the Word of God alone that this question is answered. Even if we fall back on mere human reason, it seems to me that no thinking person could come to the conclusion that a man could live in sin and die in sin, without suffering for his sins. “Be sure your sin will find you out” is an unalterable law of nature and of God.
Any argument that might be brought against a loving God permitting men and women to suffer throughout eternity because of sin, could also be brought against a loving God permitting men and women to suffer in this life because of sin. Joseph Cook, that stalwart New England fundamentalist, who lived before the word “fundamentalist” was coined, said something like this: One might imagine two angels talking together before the creation of the world, when they learned the divine secret that God was shortly to bring a universe into existence, and saying to each other:
“You have heard that God is going to create a world?”
“Yes.”
“That He is going to have moral and intellectual beings in that world?”
“Yes.”
“Not purely spiritual beings like ourselves, but beings with material bodies, and yet with minds and wills even as we angels have minds and wills of our own?”
“Yes, I have heard that such is His purpose. But can you answer this question? Do you think that our God will lever permit unhappiness to come into that world that He is going to create?”
“Oh, He certainly will not. Our kind, loving God will never permit unhappiness to come into the world that He is about to create.”
“Do you think He will ever allow any of those creatures that He is going to bring into existence to act contrary to His holy will? Do you think He will ever permit sin to lift up its unholy head in the universe He is about to create?”
“Certainly not! Our God, our loving God, our holy God will never permit unholiness. He will never permit unrighteousness or wickedness to spoil that world that he is going to create.”
“Do you think that God will ever allow man to suffer in pain and anguish in that world?”
“Oh, no! The world that God is going to create must of necessity be forever the abode of happy beings.”
Can’t you imagine angels reasoning something like that? But what are the facts? Six thousand years of human history, according to the chronology of the Hebrews, prove that a loving God did permit sin to come into the world, did permit wickedness to enter into this fair creation, and did permit pain, suffering, sorrow, broken hearts, unspeakable anguish, and even death to mar His fair creation.