If god is all loving....?

Question

Why did he destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, kill the Egyptians (babies killed), etc. And how does god come off as being all loving if he throws you in hell for not doing as he says? My parents love me, and I was never burned or tortured, at most I was put in my room. Are my parents more all loving than god? My parents punished me so I would learn a lesson. How can you learn a lesson if you are punished for ever? Does god let you out of hell when you can behave? Or is he just a nasty torturer, who burns you for defying him? Not a guy I would worship. If he loves you would he burn you?

Does burning people seem to be a strange way to show love, or is it just me?

slickyboy40
So god is not all loving. He lets you live if you please him? Worship or burn?

slickyboy40
So god is not all loving. He lets you live if you please him? Worship or burn?

slickyboy40
So god is not all loving. He lets you live if you please him? Worship or burn?

None of that "you made the choice". I cleared that up in other questions. Not an excuse.

Answer 1

The God of the old testament was typical of all of mankind's gods during that time in history. Religion is an invention of mankind, and mankind's thinking has changed and grown over the millennia. So as we change, our gods change with us.

The vengeful God that killed the firstborn of Egypt became the loving father that sent Jesus. But even then it kept changing. The Christian churches of the middle ages are vastly different than they are now, because humanity has continued it accumulation of knowledge, and we won't accept the religion as it used to be.

In another 100 years, if the churches are still around, they'll resemble very little of what they are today. Why, they may have all had gay divorced black women leaders by then!

Answer 2

Good questions. First of all, the Bible does not speak of a burning "hell" of eternal torment. That is a false teaching that is not found in the Bible. Sheohl or Hades is mankind's common grave. There are numerous supporting scriptures for that. As it relates to an eternal burning, the Bible says that such punishment never even came to God's mind! He doesn't punish eternally for a finite number of sins. Romans says that the punishment for sin is death. Period. That's why we die; because Adam and Eve passed on sin to their offspring, and why we have the hope for resurrection due to the sacrifice of Jesus.

As for punishments such as Sodom and Gomorrah; there are certain sins against God that are unforgiveable. Also, God never exacts any kind of punishment without sending warning after warning. If a people turn aside from their sins, then they won't reap the punishment. An example is during the time of Jonah, when the Ninevites turned around from their sins and escaped punishment at that time.

Destruction is only a last resort. If you look at ancient Israel, God gave them chance after chance to turn around before he punished them.

Therefore, just realize that according to the Bible, God IS love and he never acts unrighteously. He does not burn people in an inferno for eternity. For more info, go to www.watchtower.org.

Answer 3

On the contrary for me, it was because of this side of God that attracted him to me. When I was young, I did not believe in God and I felt that even if He was real, I will be OK with him because I was basically a "good" guy.

However, when I first read the bible, I was shocked at Sodom and Gomorrah and the story where the first-born of all Egypt were killed by the angel of death.

I was shocked because I felt that the bible was really honest. I mean if I were to start a religion or wanted people to respect me, I would hide all the things that people could use to say "against" me. But the bible did not. It said it like it is.

That made me thinking. If God was not "shy" to tell us this side of his character, what was He trying to tell me/us. I found out that God is revealing to us that He was a Holy God.

To me, that was what drew me to Him. I mean, if He was not holy, why should I worship Him? If He were not holy, how dare He judge me? I will spit in His face and say that He is not any better than any of us.

But because I realise that He is holy, I started to love Him and to worship Him for the past 20 years of my life.

Answer 4

Your idea of God has been tainted by Satan and his lies. First off, you choose to go to Hell, God does not arbitrarily just throw in there and leave you for all eternity as Satan would have you believe. If that were true, just think, would the bible state that the sould that sins will die? That the wages of sin is DEATH? Not life eternal in Hell but DEATH. Or that you would be turned to ashes? Just as your parents would not torture you for all eternity, God does not torture you for all eternity either. He is much more loving than even your parents are. Do you think that those that would destroy Heaven should be there anyway to start the sin and destruction all over again? What would you do with them? What would you do with those that followe their path and would not be happy in your perfect world you made for those that loved you and wanted to be with you? Would you force them to be with you no matter if they were happy or not? Of course you would not!! You would do the only thing that a loving person could do, just as God does, which is let them go to Hell and be burned up with the ones they wanted to be with. It is not something that would cause you great happiness as they were created by you to serve you and have a wonderful place with you in Heaven but they chose your adversary instead of you. God destroyed Sodom and Gommorah for their great wickedness as he did the Egyptians. If the Pharoh had just let them go, God would not have had to show His power as He did to get him to finally let them go. It is not God that wants to torture and kill but it is Satan that wants you to think it is God when it is really Satan that is behind it. Check out the studies on the site below and see the truth about God and His love and I am sure you will see it in a whole different light. Satan began the lie in the Garden of Eden that you would not die but would burn through all eternity, that you would never die but live forever. See Genesis 3:3 and onward. Just think about it, if you wanted to portray God in such a way as to show HIm to be a tyrant that is not to be trusted or worshipped, how would you go about it? Same way as Satan does, show Him to be ruthless, killer, tortures you for all eternity. All lies but so many really believe them and teach others those lies. See what the bible really says by doing the studies from the site below.

Answer 5

when you are punish by god it is not 4 ever, for this life that we now live in is not the life that we should be fighting for. our true life begins when we are taken up from this sinful earth to the true everlasting world. HEAVEN , that is where our lives will be full of peace no pain no tears no proverty no hunger ect. yes its hard for some to belive in the goog lord, but that is a choice that we all have to be a counted for. no matter if u belive or do not belive, we are paying for our ancestors sins. ADAM & EVE, the snake (devil) wispered in the ear of Eve and she disobeyed what god told her not to do. just think if they would never have eaten off of that tree, how peaceful our lives on earth would be. but since they wrong god he curesed them and left us to carry on theire tribulations.god is loving , do u think if he was not how the world would realy be, you think that the devil is a mess, if god did not love we would be having pure hell as we freely type on this key board. you do not know what good god has in stored for u. my prayers and love are running the 50 yard dash just to reach ur heart.

Answer 6

God loves you so much he wants to do all your thinking for you. All you have to do is torture any heretics who foolishly try to think for themselves, and then blame it on your victims because they were "obviously" possessed by Satan (why else would they be foolish enough to turn their backs on someone who would have his own son killed to atone for everyone's sin of being born). He loves you so much--unless you're different, of course. Are you different? Do you love whomever YOU choose? Do you choose? Did God give you an opinion? What right do you have to an opinion if God didn't give it to you? That's it! You're confined to hell until you quit thinking for yourself!

By the way, I feel that people coming to my home uninvited to find out if I've been "saved" to be a mild form of torture.

Answer 7

What you have to understand is that God does not send you to hell. You, yourself, make that decision by choosing to live apart from Him. Your whole life you have the choice to live a life for God or to serve His enemy, Satan. If you reject God, then you have made the choice to continue to serve evil eternally. God is not hurrying the end of time because He wants no one to perish. He wants all to come to Him, we should all be thankful that He is so patient. "God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." If someone goes to Hell, this is against God's will. It is simply inaccurate to construe God as taking any delight in people's pain. He tells us explicitly, "I take no delight in the destruction of the wicked." It is rather the rebellious people themselves who "loved darkness instead of light." Now God, allows these people to go to hell, but He does it by giving such people their own way. God gives the self-addicted sinner who will not accept Him what he wants. God allows them to become eternalized in their self-creation.

Answer 8

Let's not forget when the Israellites went into the "Promised Land"
that was already inhabited they were told to "kill every living thing".

Sound like genocide to you??

Answer 9

And remember in Exodus the Bible (word of god they say) says that GOD "hardened Pharaohs heart" and was thus responsible for all the 187's that went down. "Free will" indeed!

Answer 10

GOD loves you sooo much that He won't force you to live... GOD loves you soooo much He will let you decide what you want to do. If you want to die in your sins, He will allow that because He loves you sooo much. God bless