gods choice of do as i say or burn- is that the same freewill that . . .?

Question

Saddam offer the Kurds-do as i say or burn?
Or that Bush offer the people of Iraq-do as i say or burn? . . . etc,etc
Why do dictators threaten to torture and murder you if you don't do as they say and then try to pass this of as freedom of choice?

Answer 1

No, it's the kind of 'do as I say or burn' that the Roman Empire used in the first century, right when they decided to write the New Testament.

Answer 2

The difference is that God gave us life and created all things for us. He laid out His purposes and plans for us and gave us the free will to follow him or not. But just like the freedom we have in America, there is a cost to doing the wrong thing. So I find no comparison to Saddam. And that Bush comment? I'm really beginning to understand the term "Bush-hater."

Answer 3

God is just in havig standards that are right and wrong. Saddam was wrong because he tortured and killed for selfish purposes. Bush is only trying to fight terrorism and it sux that liberal boneheads like you give him a hard time and dont stand behind him in a time of war. Try adopting some patriotism.

Answer 4

You are always free to choose to burn!
don't put your hand in the fire or you will burn- DUH! there are natural laws in effect, God being the ultimate authority knows what is good for you and what is not- He does not want oyu to burn, but instructs you in the right way to live, what will give you blessing, peace and a good life, and what will cause you pain and suffering. Why should God tolerate defiance and rebellion from His own creation?
Don't compare him to fallible man.

Answer 5

No. God is offering something, not demanding that you accept it. He is offering forgiveness of sin and eternal life in Heaven. He is offering the one and only way to salvation that Jesus has won for us. We can accept this gift or reject it. No one will force you Accept the gift and live (eternally.) There is only one way to be forgiven and only one way to get to Heaven. God has provided that way. It's ours for the taking.. Look at it like this: God and the world at larger says buy food and eat it if you want to live. Don't.buy, don't eat,.and you won't live. It's about that simple.

Answer 6

You need to do some of your own research on the teaching of Hellfire..........please! However, I will get you started.
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October 1st, 1989 Article:

The Truth About Hell

OBVIOUSLY, the underlying doctrine behind belief in punishment after death is the belief that the real man does not actually die when the fleshly body dies but that something—often called a soul—survives the death of the body. This belief, as we saw in the preceding article, goes back to the early Sumerians and Babylonians in Mesopotamia. Later, it was adopted by the Greeks, whose philosophers, such as Plato, polished the theory. Their refined dualistic belief in “body and soul” became a part of apostate Jewish belief.

When did professed Christians adopt the belief in such an afterlife? Certainly not during the time of Jesus and his apostles. The French Encyclopædia Universalis states: “The [apocryphal] Apocalypse of Peter (2nd century C.E.) was the first Christian work to describe the punishment and tortures of sinners in hell.”

In fact, it appears that among the early church fathers, there was much disagreement over hell. Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, and Cyprian were for a fiery hell. Origen tried to give hell a remedial twist, claiming that sinners in hell would eventually be saved. He was followed to a greater or lesser degree by Gregory of Nazianzus and Gregory of Nyssa. But Augustine put an end to such soft views of hell. In his book Early Christian Doctrines, Oxford professor J. N. D. Kelly writes: “By the fifth century the stern doctrine that sinners will have no second chance after this life and that the fire which will devour them will never be extinguished was everywhere paramount.”

As to purgatory, the book Orpheus—A General History of Religions states: “St. Augustine had held that there was an intermediate state of probation between future felicity and damnation, that of the purification of souls by fire. This is the Orphic [pagan Greek] and Virgilian [pagan Roman] doctrine of Purgatory: there is not a word about it in the Gospels. . . . The doctrine of Purgatory . . . was formulated in the sixth century, and proclaimed a dogma of the Church by the Council of Florence (1439).” The New Catholic Encyclopedia admits: “The Catholic doctrine on purgatory is based on tradition, not Sacred Scripture.” With regard to Limbo, Rome’s Cardinal Ratzinger admits that it is “only a theological hypothesis.”

No Punishment After Death

What, though, about the Bible? Does it say that the soul survives the body at death and can therefore be punished in a fiery hell or purgatory? The New Catholic Encyclopedia states: “The notion of the soul surviving after death is not readily discernible in the Bible. . . . The soul in the O[ld] T[estament] means not a part of man, but the whole man—man as a living being. Similarly, in the N[ew] T[estament] it signifies human life: the life of an individual.”

So the underlying premise for punishment after death falls flat. The Bible states: “The soul that sins shall die.” (Ezekiel 18:4, Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition) It also declares: “The wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23, RSV) Therefore, when the Bible speaks of impenitent wicked people ending up in “Gehenna,” “everlasting fire,” or “the lake of fire,” it is merely using symbolic language to speak of their undergoing permanent death, “the second death.”—Matthew 23:33; 25:41, 46; Revelation 20:14; 21:8; compare 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9.

Hell Emptied by the Resurrection

Is hell hot, then? Not according to the Bible. Indeed, the Hebrew and Greek words translated in some Bibles as “hell” merely designate the common grave of dead humans. It is not a hot place of torment. It is, rather, a place of rest, from which the dead will come forth in the resurrection. (Ecclesiastes 9:10; Acts 24:15) Oscar Cullmann, professor at the Theological Faculty of the University of Basel, Switzerland, and of the Sorbonne, in Paris, speaks of the “radical difference between the Christian expectation of the resurrection of the dead and the Greek belief in the immortality of the soul.” Correctly, he says that “the fact that later Christianity effected a link between the two beliefs . . . is not in fact a link at all but renunciation of one [the Bible doctrine of the resurrection] in favour of the other [the pagan belief in the immortality of the human soul].”—Italics ours.

Jehovah’s Witnesses have not renounced their faith in the resurrection in favor of the idea of the immortality of the soul. They will be delighted to share with you their happy hope and prove to you from the Bible that, of a truth, hell is not hot.

Answer 7

I'd like to see how Christians weasel their way out of this one

Answer 8

Well,when God says He gives us freewill,He's saying pick your choice but there will be consequences along with it.He's practically saying,"Alright,but don't say "I" didn't warn you."

Answer 9

God wants us to honor Him. If you burn in Hell, it is because you do not want to be near God. Hell is being away from God. It is our own choice. Get it?

Answer 10

Because they understand and realize that people are generally stupid and will believe what they say.