Sure you can refuse it, but unlike the Godfather you don't just sleep with the fishes, when you refuse God's offer you burn for all eternity. IS THIS LOVE?
Is this really the actions of a God? or are they the actions of a Sky Mobster? a Villain in the Sky?
How can anyone see the Christians god for anything other than a monster?
2007-03-23 14:18:50 · 9 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
To those who think that it's still Love because we have a choice. WHY HELL? Why not just say either come to Heaven where I am or just simply cease to exist? Why must the threat of torture be involved? It would be Loving without the Eternal Torture but with it, it's no better than an ultimatum.
Love me, or BURN!
2007-03-23 14:52:34 · update #1
God needing a son is like running around the barn before going inside.
An omnipotent God would know how things are and simply forgive. No son necessary. The only people who need blood sacrifice for anything are the same people who have a virgin toss themselves willingly into a volcano to appease the volcano god. It's derived from primitive superstition. Nothing more.
2007-03-23 15:13:37 · update #2
At least the Godfather in question would have the decency to prove his existence to you before making the offer. God doesn't even do that.
RB: that was the weakest defense I've ever heard! lol
2007-03-23 14:22:51 · answer #1 · answered by Skippy 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
You built a home, stocked it full of good things to eat, nice furniture in every room. Central heating and cooling systems that are unmatched in today's world.
You built this home for your bride and the children you would have together.
While you were gone on your honeymoon, someone broke in, took your foodstuffs, stolen your furniture and burnt your house.
How would you feel?
Jehovah created a Paradise for mankind, filled it with good food, pleasant sounds and delights to the eyes.
And in a brief moment in time. All was lost...but not forever!
Is this your sky monster or a loving God and Creator?
2007-03-23 21:28:58 · answer #2 · answered by Here I Am 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋
+ Free Will +
God created man a rational being, conferring on him the dignity of a person who can initiate and control his own actions.
"God willed that man should be 'left in the hand of his own counsel,' so that he might of his own accord seek his Creator and freely attain his full and blessed perfection by cleaving to him."
In other words, God has set down a law of love and He (or She) has been written this law onto our hearts.
We have been given free will and responsibility.
We can choose to follow the law of love, be happy, and be with God forever.
Or we can choose to break the law of love, be miserable, and be separated from God forever.
God will respect our free will choice.
+ God is Love +
Here are a couple of quotes about God as Love from C. S. Lewis that I really like:
"He [God] has paid us the intolerable compliment of loving us, in the deepest, most tragic, most inexorable sense. .... Love, in its own nature, demands the perfecting of the beloved; ... mere "kindness" which tolerates anything except suffering in its object is, in that respect, at the opposite pole from Love."
"You ask for a loving God; you have one ... not a senile benevolence that drowsily wishes you to be happy in your own way, not the cold philanthropy of a conscientious magistrate, not the care of a host who feels responsible for the comfort of his guests, but the CONSUMING FIRE HIMSELF, the Love that made the worlds, persistent as the artist's love for a child, jealous, inexorable, exacting as love between the sexes..."
"The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell."
+ With love in Christ.
2007-03-24 01:50:23 · answer #3 · answered by imacatholic2 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
God sent His Son Jesus Christ to take the punishment which you and I deserved. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
This is unconditional love!
It's up to you to receive the gift of salvation.
2007-03-23 21:23:21 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 3⤋
Meet Don Yahweh "Vito" Corleone
skippy: agreed, that was a very weak defense rb put forth.
2007-03-23 21:23:43 · answer #5 · answered by Armund Steel 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
It's easy. First of all you have to get your perspectives straight. We are creations and He is the Creator. He doesn't owe us anything and we owe Him everything. It is only by his mercy and grace that you have air to breathe and water to drink and food to eat and clothes to wear. He sent his beloved Son to pay our sin debt for us so that we don't have to be destroyed.
What does He ask in return? A little gratitude and acknowledgement? A little faith and trust? Is that too much?
"Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. Romans 2:4-8
2007-03-23 22:05:20 · answer #6 · answered by Martin S 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Jesus suffered soooo much for us, he shed his blood and, died on the cross and, raised up three days later for our justification .He is giving everyone a chance to be forgiven after hearing his word. He didn't have to do it either.
2007-03-23 21:28:35 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
God loves everyone. Thats why he gave us a choice of what to choose. He dosent force anything on us.
2007-03-23 21:23:43 · answer #8 · answered by PhatCat 2 · 0⤊ 3⤋
Jesus gives us a lifetime to choose.
2007-03-23 21:22:39 · answer #9 · answered by RB 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋