Why would a loving god need to threaten his or her creations into worship or belief?

Question

Why do the gods of the mainstream religions need to threaten people with damnation? I'm not talking about free will; I'm talking about why a god would have an oddly human-like need to be worshipped.

Christians: Yes, your god DOES threaten you. If you don't accept him and do as he wants you to do, you go to hell. Why should a god want or need to so such a thing? How can you justify worship of such a spiteful, vindictive deity?

Answers that quote the Bible - which I have read several times, thank you very much - will be ignored. The Bible is not a valid source of information.

Answer 1

God actually does not ever threaten anyone with hell (THAT WOULD BE HIS WORSHIPPERS, NOT HIM).

Occurrences of Hell in the Bible

#1. Hades mentioned in the Bible 10X by Name
#2. Gehenna mentioned in the Bible 12X by Name
#3. Sheol mentioned in the Bible 66X by Name
#4. Tartarus mentioned in the Bible 1X by Name
#5. The Lake of Fire


#1 HADES
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/hades

The unseen world, translated hell in A.V., Matt. 11:23; 16:18; Luke 10:15; 16:23; Acts 2:27,31; Rev. 1:18; 6:8; 20:13,14. See Hell. Eventually, came to designate the abode of the dead.


#2 GEHENNA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/gehenna

Gehenna' is a word tracing to Greek, ultimately from Hebrew: Gêhinnôm also Gei ben-Hinnom (Hebrew: גיא בן הינום) meaning the Valley of Hinnom. The valley, which forms the southern border of ancient Jerusalem, is first mentioned in Joshua 15:8. Originally it referred to a garbage dump in a deep narrow valley right outside the walls of Jerusalem (in modern-day Israel) where fires were kept burning to consume the refuse and keep down the stench. It is also the location where bodies of executed criminals, or individuals denied a proper burial, would be dumped. Today, "Gehenna" is often used as a synonym for Hell.


#3. SHEOL
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheol

Sheol (שאול) is the Hebrew language word denoting the "abode of the dead"; the "underworld", "the common grave of mankind" or "pit". It is also transliterated Sheh-ole, in Strong's Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries and Strong's Concordances. In the Hebrew Bible it is portrayed as a comfortless place beneath the earth, beyond gates, where both the bad and the good, slave and king, pious and wicked must go after death to sleep in silence and oblivion in the dust. In some sources, for example in Deuteronomy 32:22, Sheol seems to be synonymous with the "depths of the earth". Sheol is sometimes compared to the gloomy, twilight afterlife of Hades or Tartarus from Greek mythology. Sheol is the common destination of both the righteous and the unrighteous dead; the righteous Job sees it as his destination (Job 3). In the Book of Job, while Satan is portrayed as tormenting and testing the living, he does not appear to have any particular presidency over Sheol, or to dwell in Sheol.


#4 TARTARUS
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/tartarus

Christianity's Tartarus: In the Bible, 2 Peter 2:4, Tartarus is designated as a section of Hades that the fallen angels who had produced the Nephilim of Genesis 6 were cast into to await judgment by God. It does not figure promeninently into the doctrines of Christianity; many translations of the Bible insert Hell in the place of Tartarus. No other specific use of the word Tartarus is in the Bible, however, Jude 6 describes the abode of the same fallen angels mentioned in 2 Peter as 'total darkness'.


#5 THE LAKE OF FIRE (which means the 2nd death, the lake of fire)

See (The Book of Revelation 20:14) and also Acts Ch. 5, the story of Ananias & Sapphira sinning against the Holy Spirit.

Here we see in The Book of Revelation Ch. 20:14 where "Death & Hades" or both DEATH AND HELL are thrown into the Lake of Fire, THE 2ND DEATH, to be destroyed eternally it says HERE! So, we see that the Lake of Fire is Symbolic for ETERNAL DESTRUCTION. Much the same way Gehenna was for the destruction it caused! Nothing that goes in comes out. Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5 are both eternally destroyed for sinning against the "holy ghost/spirit" for lying to it. So, much like before they were born, they are now, neither knowing anything nor suffering.


There IS NO ETERNAL BURNING HELL. This is YET ANOTHER (OF MANY, MANY) apostasies brought INTO THE EARLY Christian church from pagan origins. As many have wondered, God is NOT so unkind to make someone suffer eternally for "simply" not accepting him or his son's sacrifice. Sooner or later anyone's sins would have been paid in that kind of hell according to a "righteous" God.

Again, God doesn't do any of this, this is "his follower's work."

Answer 2

The problem with people like you ( and I truly do not say that with an angry tone ) is you spend more time talking then listening when someone tries to answer your questions. If you have not been taught that God is Love, then you will see things differently. God has rules and can not change them just to make you or me happy or make us more willing to believe in Him and accept Him. If He was truly egotistical as you suggest, why would He allow His son Jesus to come to this earth and be abused even to death? Do you think it did not break His heart when Jesus died on the cross ( for you and me )? God does not and does not need to threaten us with damnation; He does not get a kick out of showing people the results of turning away from Him ( sin ); just as He finds great joy in seeing His creatures love Him because He first loved us ( God is "Love" ). You, as well as I and all people, have the "free choice" to study and learn the truths taught in the Bible. If you would like to know of a web site that teaches ( not preaches ) truth in a way that intelligent people can understand and accept and fully believe the teachings of the Scripture ( even unto death should that be necessary ), feel free to email me and I will share it with you. I hope you are sincerely searching and not just trying to put down Christianity! We are not promised tomorrow and this could be your last chance to take a step in the right direction. God Bless You!!!

Answer 3

You are right there is no need at all for God to threaten anyone, his true followers know him as a loving caring God and not one who tortures people through damning them to everlasting fiery hell!
Most religions teach that bad people will go to a fiery Hell of eternal torture Hell Do you know that even Good people go to Hell when they die? Hell is really just the common grave of mankind,
Have you ever seen someone tortured? Hopefully not! Deliberate torture is sickening and abhorrent. What, though, of torture inflicted by God?Can you imagine such a thing? Yet this is exactly what is implied by the teaching of Hell an official doctrine of many religions.
Imagine for a moment,the following horrific scene:A person being roasted on a hot iron plate. In his agony he screams for mercy, but nobody listens. The torture goes on and on, hour by hour, day by daywithout any pause!Whatever chrime the victim may have committed, would not your heart go out to him? What of the one who ordered the torture? Could he be a loving person? In no way!Love is mercyfull and shows pity. A loving father may punish his children, but he would never torture them!
Nevertheless, many religions teach that God tortures sinners in endlesshellfire. This is claimed, is devine justice. If thatis true,who created that terrible place of eternal torment? And who is responsible for the excruciating agonies inflicted there? The answer would seem obvious. If such a place really exists, then God would have to be the creator of it, and he would be responsible for what happens there.
Can you accept that? The Bible says:"God is Love"(1John4:8)Would a God of love inflict torture that even humans with any measure of decency find revolting? Surely not! Still, many believe that the wicked will go to a fiery hell and be tormented for ever. Is this teaching logical? The human life span is limited to 70 or 80 years. Even if someone perpetrated Extreme wickedness for his entire lifetime, would everlasting torment be a just punishment? No it would be grossly unjust to torment a person forever for the limited number of sins that he can commit in a lifetime.
Who knows the truth about what happens after we die?
Only God can reveal this information, and he has done so, in his written word the Bible.Here is what the Bible says:"As the[beast]dies, so the[man]dies; and they all have but one spirit......All are goingto one place.They have allcome from the dust, and they are all returning to the dust

Answer 4

Can you give me any verse in Scripture to back up your statements? God is a loving God. Why do you say it is odd. Even culture on the planet has its forms of worship, bizarre as they may seem to us. In the Biblical writings, I believe that the first recorded worship was that of Cain and Abel. Abel offered his best, Cain was jealous. End result. The first homicide or fratricide if you want to be technical.

Whether early man worshiped the sun or the moon, trees, frogs or whatever. Worship has been a part of his existence.

God accepts our worship, even though He does not need it.

It should be understood that Scripture declares that there is a right worship and a profane one as well.

Jesus said in John 4:23; " God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." Both elements must be present for a worship to be pleasing to God, "spirit and truth."

I do not see any chapter or verse, where Jesus forced or threatened anyone to worship Him of the Father. Some religions do that, but that is not true religion, that's the profane aspect of it.

Answer 5

He doesn't threaten... nor does He Force us into submission. That characteristic of God is made up by man. Organized religion is man-made - according to the opinions of man- not God. He is not a vengeful, judgmental Spirit, but many religions want us to believe that - control the masses through fear. God is a loving, accepting, being - in the fact that He allows us to make our own choices and pay the consequences for them.... yet He still loves us and wants to comfort and heal us, even when the choices we've made are not the best ones. I don't believe the same can be said for some of the man-made religious groups

Answer 6

Why would God bother with threatening us if we are already guilty? Adam has long since plunged the entire human race into sin, no need to threaten us, He only needs to carry out the sentence. God doesn't need, want, wish, hope, wring his hands over whether we will worship Him. He is Lord, and brings His own unto Himself. We do not have the capability to throw off our own guilt, this can only be done through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

Answer 7

The short answer is that "God" (of the Judeo-Christian myth) was created by humans, and therefore exhibits human-like flaws, weaknesses and inconsistencies.

The long answer is still being formulated... and has been "in production" since "God" came about in the first place.

Here's a great collection of conversations regarding just this very topic: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/questionofgod/nineconv/suffering.html

*xors

Answer 8

don't forget the ones usually going to hell, are childmellesters, gays, killers,and ones that curse god to his face, where do U expect a righteous God to put them. all he really asks us is to obey him, or really love the cross cuss I'm such a sinner. hes a righteous God if we knew his righteousness we would love him naturally, and desire to worship him.

Answer 9

The real God is not what people have thought him/her to be.

The revelation that "God is love" has only just begun to penetrate the human heart.

Ideas like Hell are remnants of our barbaric prehistory.

Answer 10

Why ask question if you never read the word. God don't need to be worshiped he wants our love. It is a honer to worship God my Savior