An answerer said that....?

Question

"Eternal torture is from Satan.

If you aren't a child of God, God will not protect you

God is not the one that tortures you"

To that I say...

"thats like saying that war is ok because it wasn't the soldiers that were killing the civilians, it was the civilians that were getting in front of the bullets."

Do you Christians seriously believe that its ok to do such a thing?

How could that ever be loving? In our society, that behavior would be morally reprehensible. It is not the person who got shots fault they got shot. Its the person with the gun that did the shooting.

afrowoman, yes it is. And very disturbing. Its no wonder the world can't solve its problems if people think that way.

VW, no, you love your child anyway. Regardless. Because they ARE your child.

Please don't preach by quoting the bible. Your bible also says that people live to 900 years old and talks about a talking snake, and says you shouldn't eat shell fish. The bible only means something to someone that believes that kind of nonsense. So try to use something REAL as an argument, not a 2000 year old book written by sheepherders that thought the earth was flat. Its not exactly a glowing endorsement.

Answer 1

I say, not to act is to act.

If the deity in question is all-powerful, or practically so, what skin off its nose is it to protect a few more, especially given the amount of confusion its messengers have created in word and deed? There is no compassion in such a being, no understanding, and therefore no goodness. If kissing its butt in just the right way is the condition of protection against eternal torture, I say, what a bastard.

Answer 2

Well, its "ok" if God decides to do anything, right? But seriously,
Your answerer is a bit zealous about Hell.
What kind of God are they painting out there? The manuscripts are quite clear on the subject of "hell", meaning the consequence of our "not making it";
This is the real deal:
When Christ returns, He ushers in a 1000 yr. period of teaching and disipline. Every
soul will have every opportunity to avoid
not making it. There will not be the problem of the flesh temptations, and the fact that
God exists will be quite clear. This is not to say that everyone gets a second chance;
its just that not everyone gets an opportunity to learn the truth, for several
different reasons, only known to the person and to their God, who reads the heart.
This is why we can't judge - we cannot read the heart of another person.
Okay: after the millinium (that 1000 yr period), Satan is loosed for a short time,
to deceive whomever he can. Then the Great White Throne Judgement occurs.
Those who do not "make it", follow Satan
into the "Lake of Fire". This Lake of Fire is a consuming fire (as God is described in
Heb2) which kills the spiritual body as well as the soul. It will exist only as long as it takes to "turn to ashes from within"; the only thing that lasts forever and ever is the smoke that will rise up (smoke does that);
thats just an idiom meaning: they are done,
finished, blotted out, kaputski. After that,
the Lake of Fire itself is done away with.
Nobody is tortured forever; in fact, not even
Satan is being tortured right now. Where is
he? He's standing behind Christ, right where Jesus put him in Matthew. He is guarded by Michael, but the fact still remains that Satan is in Heaven, awaiting
his time (on earth to deceive many). Nobody is in any firey pit. Its not written.
I hope this clears it up for you.

Jan

Answer 3

Actually, your reasoning is a bit faulty.

You equate what with what?
Being a child of God with war?
torture with killing civilians?
I'm not sure we can follow this.
I'll give you an alternative:

A man tries to kill a bunch of people. Some of them run to a police officer. The killer kills a bunch of people, but not near the police officer.

You would condemn them for going to the police officer for help because you think they are supporting the killing by the killer?

Do you seriously believe that this is a sane way to reason?

God = police officer
citizens = people in life, some going to the officer/God
killer = Satan
Killing = torture

Direct, clear correspondence. You might try it. Your arguments would be more cogent.

Oh, I'm not religious. I just hate it when people argue by analogy, and that, badly.

Answer 4

If we are all His children and there are people like Hitler in the world, don't you think there has to be some justice. Not everybody thinks and does the right things, Right ?

All will be judged before God. Revelation 20:12, NIV. "And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books."

People will be judged by what they have done. Matthew 16:27, NIV. "For the Son of Man is going to come in His Father's glory with His angels, and then He will reward each person according to what he has done."

Answer 5

Eternal torture is separation from God. No light, no love, no salvation, no hope. Your choice. Not His.

John 3:17
For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

2 Peter 3:9
The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

If God is not willing that any should perish, then why, since He can do anything, would He allow them to perish? Because of free will. If you choose to reject, again, that is your choice, not His.

Answer 6

If we want to use a metaphor then the best one would be Charles Manson who blames all his problems on the system the same way people blame all the fallout from their sins on GOD. Like the child molester who says "How can a civilized society with all this love castrate me?"

Answer 7

I suspect that's not what the answer was trying to express. God does not want anyone to spend eternity away from Him. He did, however, whether we like it or not, give us free will and the right to choose. He calls us and tries to get our attention throughout our lives. He exerts a great deal of energy and time trying to get people to see the truth. Some choose not to believe and reject Him.

Since God is a God of integrity, He honors our final choice (not happily but He has to honor it). We will stand before Him and see the truth for ourselves. If we chose Him in life we get to stay with Him in eternity. If we reject Him in life He is forced to separate us from Him. We spend eternity knowing the truth and exactly what it was we rejected. That is the torment of hell. Satan loves to remind us during that time of how we listened to him rather than God.

Answer 8

That's right, God is not the one that tortures you but He is the one to allow it to happen. He gives you the choice and the free will to do as you please. It is then up to you. God gave us Jesus and the bible to study and to be close to Him.
I'll give you another analogy:
I turn on the stove and cook something. I tell my child to not touch the stove because he will get hurt. My child choses not to listen to me and touches the stove anyway resulting in a burn on the hand. My child then comes to me and asks me to make it better, put a band aid on and kiss the hand. Because I love my child, I will do just that and not send him away because he didn't listen to me. It's the same with God. He is waiting for us to come to Him. If we don't, then we will go to hell.

Answer 9

Your analogy only works if the civilians had the absolute choice to flee to guaranteed safety or stand willingly in front of the bullets.

You have a choice to follow God or deny him and spend eternity with satan.

Answer 10

Well I don't believe in Satan or eternal torture. But the people I know who do believe in that stuff do seem to also think that God will indeed shun non-believers.