A straightforward question for christians.?

Question

to put it rather simply... does your God WANT to forgive you?

the impression I get from some, is that God more or less only forgives because he schitzophrenically exploits a loophole of himself,... or something.

I mean, if "he loves us so thats why he sent jesus so we could be forgiven" ... does this not seem inconceivably, almost psychopathically circuitous, unless he was *unable* to go about it in a more direct manner?

so the less critical version...

if God CAN forgive merely by willing it... why would he go about it instead, in such a peculiar way?

if God CANNOT forgive merely by willing it... ... why not?

and by "willing it" I mean, just by feeling like doing so, minus the ceremony of the whole jesus thing.

1) please no "god doesn't exist", its just wasting everyone's time.
2) please no "because he felt like it"
3) please no explanation with "god" and "can't" in the same sentence, (or equal meaning) unless your INTENDING to concede your God to be in fact, NOT Omnipotent.

1) ummm, I do believe in God, just one that is loving, omnipotent, just and kind.
2) what I find interesting is that so many people don't realize there are other options between "all" and "none".
wanting to forgive does not mean never punishing. it means that with heartful repentance, forgiveness comes easily. (why shouldn't it?)

Reincarnation combined with belief in God seems like the only sensible solution to me, I don't get why so many people are so reluctant to combine them.

Answer 1

Not a bad question, and I appreciate your attempt at minimizing the "spam" answers.

God has always wanted to forgive people.

Have you ever had someone lay a guilt trip on you? Try and make you feel "dirty" and "ashamed" because you made a mistake?

This is exactly what God does not want.

Life is more like working on math homework. There are people who will chastise you for making a mistake in math and there are those who will try to teach you the way to do the math.

God is in the later group. God wants to hang out with people who learn from their mistakes and does not want to hang out with people who refuse to even admit they make mistakes. This is why God gave people who refuse to admit they make mistakes a place where they can choose to go.

God's view is: Screw up, admit you screwed up, learn from your screw up, stop screwing up.

A lot of people have a different view: Screw up, be punished, feel guilty-dirty-shamed, stop screwing up.

People who believe in the later, shame policy, always seem to become "bosses". This is true and there was recently a Yahoo article about this. God did not like this idea so God came to earth as Christ.

People did their best to make God feel guilty, dirty, shamed by torturing and publicly humiliating him. God let them do their worse and then God shrugged it off and walked home.

Can you have a better example of what God thinks of public humilation and shame as a learning tool?

Answer 2

Obviously the writers weren't psychologists. They just said what works and not so much how as they didn't ask. Now, we know the problem is with us forgiving ourselves and others. The Doc prescribes. You have to ask if you want to know how the medication works out of intellectual curiosity. Sometimes the answer is either complicated or personal, hence prayer and meditation, thinking is part of meditation. Take your medicine, drink plenty of water, get plenty of water and you'll be well in two weeks. Hey, the instructions are enough to remember. Seriously, I think your questions are brilliant questions BTW. You must have a question generator I would like to borrow. Jesus' death was to show us we have the power over death. Scientists are working on that now. I think they would do better is they collaborated a little more with each other and the universe, let's say. If we worked together we might be able to get more done and learn something ourselves, I can't help but wonder if Paul wasn't saying that Christ's death had the affect like a final sacrifice rather than as one. I wonder if it isn't just how one sees an answer, depending on their perspective, like the perspective of the traditions of men might be one perspective. A sense of the context would even make up for any anticipated typos so no one will boast and we can all need and help each other. It doesn't seem anyone knows it all, but the spirit does. But there is even more to know, isn't there, if we are co-creators and Christ said he didn't "know the day or the hour." The spirit may even be learning, there is so much to know, it's even infinite and growing as, "The Father works" and Jesus keeps on working. Prophecy, outcomes, have always depended upon what we do too. As everyone doing atrocities, only a devious mind would do that and they can be helped. But that recurrent theme, working together would have to apply. Our choice again. If the answers go around in circles it may be because the question do, they have to follow depending on whose answering.

Answer 3

Because it is natural for people not to believe any thing, unless they have some prove. If God merely forgave us for our sins, how would we know, I mean what's the point. We are not going to learn not to sin,or repent. Do we just go on our merry way because God is going to will, to forgive us. God had to do a visual display so to speak, He had to sacrifice his only begotten Son that who so shall ever believe in him will have eternal life. We who believed that Jesus Died on the cross for our sins and arose on the third day, will be justified through Christ's dead, by God. whether you like the answer or not , this is the true , this is how we are saved, God
predestination us for this very thing. If this is God willing us, Praise Him.

Answer 4

You need to understand the character of God first. God is a holy God and he judges sin. Man sinned in the beginning, God could have destroyed man right there, but he did not because he loved his creation. God can not go against his character so their had to be a way to cover or forgive mans sin. The Jews used to sacrifice a perfect animal to cover sin but it was only temporary. Jesus came and died on the cross after living a perfect life to die for the sins of man. God requires a perfect blood sacrifice to forgive sin but why blood you ask, it is because life is in blood, nothing can live without blood in a body so the only way for man to be forgiven was the perfect blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Answer 5

This is a most excellent Q. A friend & I discussed this some years back. I never got it resolved. I did come to a point of contentment in the fact that Gods ways are higher than ours, and He still loves me even if i stay ignorant.

Answer 6

All I can add is that I hope God sees fit to show mercy
in the Great Day of The Lord.....our subtle carnal minds
are not capable of remotely understanding His Mighty
Purpose and our ignorant method of Questioning Him,
somehow in His Majesty, He will forgive us!

Answer 7

RW...LOL you sure put a lot of limitations on people...

Ok...so you think the perfect "god" would be one whom tells you that whatever you do is "ok" because "He loves you"...

There are billions upon billions of people here on this earth. If God was that kind of god to everyone, wouldn't that result in everyone having a clear conscience to kill, rape, abuse, destroy, etc., whenever they felt like it because it was "ok"?

He wouldn't NEED to forgive anyone...in fact, "forgive" wouldn't be a word in our world...a child could have sex with his mother...a neighbor can torture your daughter...your computer, car, and any and all possessions can be taken by anyone whom wants them...YOU could be stabbed, shot, raped, etc.,. any time you turned around...but hey...it's "ok"... after all...He IS an "equal opportunity god".

There's already a "god" of this world like that...

I prefer a God with a bit more than that. I prefer a God that teaches me to be as strong as I can in everything... including love.

Peace be with you :)

Answer 8

Yes Gods wants to forgive us. But he has to be fair. He warned us in the Garden of Eden that we would die if we ate from that tree. We chose to ignore that warning. If God were just to forgive us for that without atonement, it would not be fair to the rest of all creation. That is why Jesus came and died in our place, because he knew that he would rise again and defeat death. He did what we could not.

Answer 9

Have you ever read the entire Bible? Remember the parable Jesus told about the Shepard looking for his one lost sheep? The meaning is that God cares for everyone not just those that follow him.

Answer 10

God wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

But God also created man with free will; He never forces any decision on us.

You have a choice to make, my friend. I pray you do before it's too late.