God was love?

Question

I hear some say he IS love, but after years of study, I am not so certain any more!

How can a God of love, punish people who sin because:

-) He gave them free will
-) He told them to do as they wish
-) They were created imperfect, incapable of being perfect
-) They sin through lack of knowledge (born dumb)
-) They have no desire to live forever (this is a sin?)

If he truly is God, why:

-) Create hell to burn them with
-) Demand repentance
-) Give free will then rescind it
-) Create them in the first place?

Why couldn't he just let those that will, enter heaven, & leave the rest alone to blow themselves up or whatever. I am sure if they wanted eternal life, they would ask for it?

How is forcing eternity on ANYONE showing love (not all want it!)

Sure, there are those who say this is free will.

But if a gun were held to your head & U were told U had the option NOT to do as the gunman said, how much choice is there?

It is the same with God. No-one can debate his orders.

Answer 1

if you want to believe in God .. dont ask too many rational questions


religeon is about faith ... not truth

Answer 2

I would need to know what your years of study were based on? God does not hold a gun to our heads, instead He holds out His Son to us to take our place for all the sins of the world. Throughout the Old Testament God constantly forgave and provided for a complaining unruly bunch of people, who experienced Him in ways we don't today, but they refused to follow Him. Still He kept His covenant with them. No one knows what Hell will be like, each has his/her own interruptation, but if a person goes there it was of their own chosing, by rejecting a God of love. We tend to forget that God is the designer and creator of all things and place no importance on Him, until we think about the afterlife. So, we need to remember that,yes, there is free will to do as you please, there are consequences of going against the creator. God is slow to anger and wants none to perish, so every chance is given to man. But God is also the Judge, He will be fair but God did make this world and it is His to rule. So no we cannot debate His orders. Do you debate with your boss at work or say the President of the USA? We should appreciate and love God, all that is good in your life comes from Him, we just fail to acknowledge this and pat ourselves on the back. God created people to love and to love Him back. Imagine a world where people gave God first place, no more Hitlers, Saddams, etc. I as a Christian find the thought of eternal life with God to be a joyful thought, because it will be far more beautiful than anything experienced on earth. Plus, your loved ones are there. Hope this helped you a bit. It is odd to me how people only focus on the Judgement of God and not the Love of God which is offered so freely.

Answer 3

There are so many flaws and misinterpretations in your argument that it's not even funny. God did NOT tell them to do as they wished:

Gen 2:16-17 "And Jehovah God commanded the man, saying, You may freely eat of every tree in the garden,
but you shall not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. For in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."

And they were perfect because sin had not yet entered into the world. Sin became a reality after they disobeyed God's commandment, not before.

Romans 5:12-13 "Therefore, even as through one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed on all men inasmuch as all sinned: for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law."

Adam was born with incredible intelligence: after all, he was the one who named the animals and took care of the Garden -- which he couldn't have done if he was "dumb."

And it was precisely the unholy desire to "be as God" and live forever that got them into trouble in the first place:

Gen 3:2-5 "And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden. But of the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.

"And the serpent said to the woman, You shall not surely die, for God knows that in the day you eat of it, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as God, knowing good and evil."

God wants what's best for us, and if you'll take a look around you, I think you'll see that all of our so-called 'wisdom' hasn't done us much good. We've brought down wars, famines, plagues, and a lot of other nasty things on ourselves by thinking that we know better than He does.

He doesn't force Himself or His offer of eternal life on anyone. We have to choose to follow His ways and trust in His wisdom, not our own.

Answer 4

You go to hell because of lack of faith. Its your pride that keeps you from Gods love. He has not told us to do as we wish. He has told us to follow him and love. why play the victim, be thankful he gives you faith and does require you to meet a standard of goodness that no one could reach.

Answer 5

God loves you so much he is giving you the choice. That is walking with god or walking against God he is love and he will be forever love and all you have to do to get that love it to ask him into your heart.

Answer 6

So what is your question? Is god love? YES. Does god punish? YES. No one can debate his orders? NO. Thats the price for getting into his house. Take it or leave it, if you take it you are promised enternal happyness. If you don't you are promised enternal seperation from him.

Answer 7

Its all BS!!!! and that proves that people who follow are only doing so out of fear and greed.

Answer 8

You ask a good question. As a Christian, I will try to explain why I believe that God IS love. He did create us all with a free will. He also gave us boundaries/rules to live by & consequences of disobeying those rules. Because God doesn't want to force us to love & obey Him, He does give us free will. Sure, it would be easier if He just made us all robots with the inability to do anything bad. Where would the joy in living be in that? Not only did God create us for His own joy, but He created us with the ability to live our own lives as we see fit. He didn't make any unreasonable restrictions of us. He only laid out rules that had to do with our own good. If we follow those rules, He promises an abundant & joyous life. If we don't, we can still have an abundant life, but we won't have God there to guide & protect us during the hard times & He WILL allow us to fall on our faces & get hurt in order to help us to see that His way really does work best.

I get what you are trying to say & it does make sense. Still, God desires for us to have a relationship with Him. He wants to be a part of our lives, just as we want to be a part of the lives of our own children. When our kids make mistakes and/or disobey, are we just supposed to say, "that's okay dear child - I love you & would never want to force you to do something you don't want to do because I love you". Of course we wouldn't do that. That would be excessively permissive of us as parents. Our children would be running around as spoiled, unruly brats who wreak havoc everywhere they go.

Now there is the other extreme. We could be the type of parent who either smothers their child & is very controlling or dictatorial. The smothering type is too doting on their child & doesn't allow their child to experience life on his/her own & make mistakes because "they might get hurt". These kids grow up to be socially dependent/crippled because they cannot stand on their own two feet. They are overly dependent upon their parent. The dictatorial parent is the one who has to dictate everything their child does. This type of parent won't allow their child to think for themselves. If the child breaks a rule, punishment is swift and severe. My own ex-husband was this type of parent. He would often tell my son "I OWN you - you will do what I say, PERIOD.". Needless to say, my son is no longer close with his father.

Thankfully, God is neither permissive, nor smothering or dictatorial with us, HIS children. Just as a good parent will allow their child to make their own choices, but will set boundaries & will allow their child to LEARN from the consequences, good or bad, of the choice their child makes, God does the same thing with us. He didn't create us to be robots in His image, to do His bidding. He created us to have a relationship with Him & to serve Him. Serving Him doesn't mean that we have to suffer or go without. God offers untold blessings to those who follow Him. I have been through a lot of trials in my life & I honestly don't know how I would have had the strength to go on without God's help. My father, brother & mother all died within an 8-month time period. During this time, I was going through a very difficult divorce from someone who kidnapped my daughter & kept her from me for a year & brainwashed her against me. BECAUSE I refused to abandon my faith in God & I chose to handle my divorce with integrity despite the ugly lies my ex was saying about me, God stood by me & helped me through it. Not only did I get custody of both children, but my life has been abundantly blessed since then. Because my ex chose to lie, cheat, manipulate, abuse, slander & deliberately & vindictively choose vengeance, he has lost his wife, his kids, several jobs & therefore his home. He now lives with his new wife's mother in a tiny apartment. He has lost friends, there is a restraining order against him from me, & a police report against him from someone else. His life, in short, is going down the toilet. He had a free choice. God DOES love him. God is simply allowing him however, to reap the consequences of his actions. I am confident that IF he ever gets a clue & learns how to treat people, then God will start pouring out His blessings upon him. God WANTS us to be happy. He created this earth for our enjoyment & pleasure. He just wants us to use the sense He created us with & to make right choices. As I said, He doesn't want us to be robots. Would you want your kid to love & obey you out of being a robot, or because they made the choice to? A good parent doesn't instill obedience out of fear, but out of trust that the parent knows what's best. Same with God. I don't obey & serve Him out of a fear of hell. I serve God out of faith & trust that He, my Creator, knows what's best for me.

As for heaven & hell, well again, God DOES give us the choice to go to either place. He's not beating us over the head with a stick to say "I want you in Heaven!". On the contrary, He patiently waits for us to come to Him. He has all the time in the world. He's in no hurry. He is also the God of many chances. He could allow us to die when there may have been many random chances of it that we have been unaware of (i.e., the drunk driver that we didn't see on the side-street & if we would have left the house 20 seconds later, we would have been killed, but God manipulated circumstances to save our life.......). Instead, He continues to allow us to wake up to a new day. Each day we are still here is God saying to us that He is giving us another chance to serve Him. He doesn't want us to go to hell. If it's apparent to Him that our hearts will never change, then He may just allow us to die the next time an opportunity arises. I believe that truly makes Him sad. So, nobody is forcing eternal life on anyone. God gives us eternal life as a GIFT. He doesn't MAKE us take it. We DO have a choice. Also, we CAN debate God. God will listen, but He still knows what's best & will do what HE chooses.