Let's say your child made a stupid mistake (they murdered someone.) As a parent, how long would you stand by and watch your child be tortured and punished for this crime? If you were given the power to do ANYTHING you wanted, would you save them after 20 years of being whipped and burned daily? Would you rescue them after 30 years? How about 50 years? A thousand years? A million?
Would you watch them get punished forever?
Would you... could you, stand by idly while your child screamed in pain, begging forgiveness, apologizing for their mistake over and over, when you had it within your power to free them?
What parent would do this to a child?
2007-08-28 12:24:37 · 22 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Interesting - people keep inserting god into this scenario. I wonder why?
2007-08-28 12:36:37 · update #1
I think you're confusing the issue here. No, as a parent, I would not stand by and let my child be tortured daily for murdering someone. The punishment does not fit the crime. But, yes, I would stand by and say, honey, I love you, but you're still going to jail because that's what you deserve.
I know you're trying to prove a point with this, saying that God is unjust, unfair, and unloving because He lets people go to Hell. Well, I have news for you. God does not send people to Hell because He hates them, doesn't like them, or because they messed up in any way, shape or form. God lets people go to Hell because that's where they choose to go. There are only two choices after you die: you can choose to go to Heaven or to Hell. It's your choice, and you make it here on Earth. Heaven is eternity with God and everything that's good in the world: warmth, light, love, comfort, healing, friendship, etc. Hell is eternity without God, so it's filled with the leftovers: darkness, dispair, lonliness, pain, etc. God never created Hell for us: He created it as a prison for Satan and his minions after time ceases and eternity begins. But we can choose to go there if we want to, and God lets us go because He loves us. Sure, it hurts Him when people choose to go there. After all, God created us to spend eternity with Him. He even sent Jesus show us how to get to Heaven and to die in our place so that we can choose not to go to Hell. But He gave us free will and He won't take it away from us. Hell is not filled with innocent bystanders who made one mistake and got zapped for it. It's filled with people who told God to buzz off their entire lives. Do you think those people want to live with God? Of course not. So they don't. They live in Hell instead. Heaven is not filled with perfect people, either. They are plain people like you and me who are just human. They messed up, they sinned, they broke God's laws. But they asked God for forgiveness, and God forgave them because He loves them and He is merciful. All of us deserve to go to Hell because we messed up; however, we can choose not to because Jesus died on the cross in our place.
2007-08-28 13:44:13 · answer #1 · answered by The SuburbanCat 4 · 0⤊ 3⤋
That's tough, murder is a serious crime, either way my child would suffer terribly, having to live with what they have done, really for that severe of a crime I would have to say, I don't think I could stand by a watch them be tortured, as much as I love my child, I would probably take that punishment for her, then she would have to live with that as well, so she is being punished regardless. Thank goodness they don't punish with the kind of torture you have in mind.
2007-08-28 19:46:38 · answer #2 · answered by robink71668 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
This is the follow up question to your previous one. To first answer your question. I will not be able to live a second to watch my own child suffer like that. I will gladly go to hell with him and live in eternity. I really mean that. That's what love is.
Yet all the forgiveness will not change the fact. What is done is done. What the child must do from here on is to change their ways and work hard to do things to redeem himself. In time the wounds will heal and all the great deeds will help not only others but yourself. But you have to dedicate yourself to that and not half-heartedly. You cannot change the past but you can change the future.
Thank you for a soul-searching question
2007-08-28 19:46:02 · answer #3 · answered by Just me 2 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
This is a thinly veiled reference to the mistaken belief that all mankind are children of God and that hell is torture. Being without love is the only torture that God can enact, a banishment, not torture. Your following the Constitine beliefs, not what Jesus teaches. Of course there is torture in Constitines Bible, how else could he control the masses? God never wanted such control, he only desires responsible people.
2007-08-28 19:41:04 · answer #4 · answered by Marcus R. 6 · 0⤊ 2⤋
We insert God into it because that's where your headed with your claim.
First of all God is not a parent even though He is referred to as father.
He is a judge of sinners and saints, and the bible clearly states that if we continue in a life of sin that we are not His children. And by Christ dying on the cross He has rescued us from hell, if only we accept Him, its that easy.
2007-08-28 20:06:05 · answer #5 · answered by JaimeM 5 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Why are you so angry with God?
You want to ascribe human motivations to someone who cannot be measured by human standards.
We get it. You think God is a big, bad wolf. Why do you keep asking questions you already know the answer to...are you trying to get someone to say "Sure, God loves you SO much that He will no doubt want to reach into hell and pull you out if you go there, but He will not because He also respects the fact that you made a CHOICE down while asking pointless questions."
But remember.....A GOD WHO DIDN'T LOVE YOU would not have sent His own son down to give you the chance to go to heaven instead....He would have just left it, and let us rot.
2007-08-28 19:33:24 · answer #6 · answered by lady_phoenix39 6 · 1⤊ 4⤋
The only parent that would do such a thing is a horrible parent.
So it goes to say that maybe, just maybe, all you haters, that GOD is not all loving, all forgiving and all that crap.
God is not my father.
2007-08-28 19:28:43 · answer #7 · answered by nik named mom 5 · 5⤊ 1⤋
You're sick. Nobody would be punished in this way for any crime. Anybody who thinks torture is an acceptable punishment for any crime is mad.
2007-08-28 19:32:10 · answer #8 · answered by Louise 6 · 1⤊ 2⤋
If they murdered someone it would be an unnatural interruption of justice and causality to prevent punishment. It would be difficult to accept but I'd have to let them serve their sentence.
2007-08-28 19:29:39 · answer #9 · answered by scheidemann2007 3 · 2⤊ 2⤋
As a loving parent, I wouldn't have them burned in a lake of fire at all.
Ever.
2007-08-28 19:28:49 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 6⤊ 0⤋
A loving God did die in our place. A righteous God can not overlook sin so he in his love and mercy paid the penalty for us.
Edit The scenerio is obvious and it shows a misundestanding of God..thought I would clear that up for you as if you were interested in the truth.
2007-08-28 19:31:06 · answer #11 · answered by djmantx 7 · 2⤊ 3⤋