Wow,what a wonderful deity.
2007-10-15 13:51:59 · 20 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
You made a good point.
As a Christian and a seventh day Adventist I will tell you what we believe. I say this with respect to everyone else beliefs.
We believe you are punished according to your sin. Your not burned for eternity.
God is a God of Mercy. If He loved us so much to send his only son, why would he let the ones that we loved on earth who chose not to honor Him be tortured for all eternity?
would not that be contrary to the character of God.?
I speak only for myself and with no disrespect to any other beliefs, but I would have a hard time loving and honoring a God that allowed that to happen..
There are so many people with so many interpretations of what the Bible says and since there is not definitive scripture saying your going to burn for all eternity it kind of leaves that open to interpretation.
So if it is open to interpretation then take a look at the character of God. What he represents, what he asks of us, what mercy he shows and the examples he set forth.
If He says love thy neighbor and turn the other cheek why then would he contradict Him self and cause someone to burn forever.
As for serving him slavishly ... Think of it like this. When you get married you make a choice. You have groomed a relationship with another person to the point that now you want to share your life with that person. Many will take a vow to love honor and cherish that other person? Right? well you love that person and you don't want to knowingly cause hurt or pain to them. You want your relationship with that person to stay preserved. What happens if your tempted to cheat on that person or lie to that person? For some people the thought of the hurt that our actions would cause our spouse would keep us from cheating. For a lot of people they would go against what is their human nature and walk away from the situation.
That in some ways is like our relationship with God. He gave us all we have. I don't want to hurt Him. Lots of times I face situations where I have to make a choice.... between doing something that would honor my relationship with God or doing what seems like a lot more fun at the time. What stops me from my human nature ? Hurting someone who loves me enough to give their life for me. He has taken care of me so many times when I thought how am I going to survive this situation.
Don't get me wrong. I cant count the times I have done something wrong and felt so bad abut it. I am only human, I am not a super perfect Christian I never have claim to be. Thankfully I am forgiven and I work towards not committing that same actions that hurt my relationship with God
God doesn't sit in heaven and force us to obey him. We get to choose that. Its just that the devil doesn't offer the benefit and reward of eternity..
Kourtnie
Prosperity Financial, Inc
2007-10-15 14:59:59 · answer #1 · answered by Kourtnie D 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Somewhere along my quest for spiritual enlightenment, I came across this and it made sense to me. If nothing else, God always makes sense. When we cross over we have to review our life, along with the sensations of it. When we have deliberately caused another pain, we feel their pain. We also feel the pain that their pain caused others. Like a ripple in water, we feel all that pain. Now think of someone like Hitler. That’s a kind of pain I would not wish on anyone. However, it’s not just pain to punish, it is pain that teaches. Kinda like walking a mile in another’s shoes so to speak. After this we can choose to if we want to be reincarnated and return to the school we call earth. Here we work off our bad karma, and learn more quickly than while in spirit. I believe we all need to learn, and work off karma in order to work our way through the hierarchy in heaven. The God you're talking about is the one in the Old Testament, this part of the Bible passed away when all the prophecies were fulfilled with the birth of Christ. There are only two commandments which apply today, and these are: To love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. The second is like the first as it says: You must love your neighbor as you love yourself. All Christ ever taught was unconditional love. Not torture for an eternity. There's more, but I'll bet you won't even buy this much.
Peace
2007-10-15 20:59:39 · answer #2 · answered by Linda B 6 · 2⤊ 1⤋
I don't claim to know the right view of God, but the essential concept is not "loving" God in the sense that you love a king or a master. Instead "serving God" is more like remaining loyal to the highest degree possible to the ingrained morals of loyalty and common good that are instinctively present in mankind. You cannot deny that man is born with a conscience. I believe serving God means to be humble and open and kind. And I don't believe any human could understand what heaven or hell actually are. Essentially, hell is bad and heaven is good. They are divine simplifications to symbolize the fruits of our goodness.
2007-10-15 22:00:29 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
I was born and raised Christian. The Christians I knew always seemed intelligent, devoted, like they Really knew God and the Bible, like it really had all the answers. So I grew up with a faith, not only in God, but that my questions of spirituality would be answered once I figured out how to ask them.
Boy was I wrong.
Upon becoming old and intelligent enough to properly start seeking and understanding spiritual truth, I did just that: sought spiritual truth. I started asking questions. And lo and behold... there were no answers. Questions like yours, only more kindly stated, of course :P Questions to which there are no good answers. I do feel that God exists, in some form or another.. I do believe s/he is a loving, caring, God... but if that is so, then s/he cannot be the God of Christianity.
And that is one of the main reasons I am now pagan. One of the rare monothiestic types :P **shakes head** But, the Biblical answer to your question, it seems, is yes... no matter how they try to rephrase it, twist it, sugar coat it... according to Christian doctrine, if you for any conceivable reason not a Christian (except for dying a newborn, no/few Christians say newborns go to hell), then you are doomed to suffer for all eternity.
To me? That is wrong.
2007-10-15 21:10:38 · answer #4 · answered by Ruby 1 · 1⤊ 1⤋
its not that he tortures you , if you choose to live your life the other way then YOU are turning your back on him and his home ... put it this way would you want to keep ppl who hate you and constantly hurt you in your home or life ? as far as serving him as a slave i think your seriously mislead he asks one thing of everyone and things that go along with it he wants you to love him , hes given you the ability to make that choice on your own and he asks you to love others the way he does ...not that hard actually . so yes Father is a wonderful deity :) so is Mother :) Blessings Be All !!
2007-10-15 21:09:55 · answer #5 · answered by Silver 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
God wants you to serve and honor Him but he isn't asking for you to drop everything else your doing jsut to serve Him. he is just saying make sure whatever your doing or whatever you have don't put it in front of Him. The only way he will torture you is to send you to hell with satan and if your for satan your living a pretty tough life.
2007-10-15 20:57:30 · answer #6 · answered by amy s 2 · 4⤊ 1⤋
That's what most Christians will tell you. I would suggest that the real truth of the matter as described in the bible is much different. The wages of sin is death, it is not eternal life in torment.
2007-10-15 20:59:06 · answer #7 · answered by Mr. E 7 · 3⤊ 1⤋
God love,s us so much he gave us a choice to make
a Heaven to gain and life eternal,do not blame God if you
choose to go to HELL.
2007-10-15 21:04:32 · answer #8 · answered by elaine 30705 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Yes He is. why must you non-believers focus on one or two aspects of Christianity, instead of the whole gist of it. live right worship god believe in his son. spend eternal life in heaven, choose not to and and be damned to eternal torment.
You can choose to believe and worship him (not be a slave) and live a life according to his commandants or go the other route do what is wrong in his eyes, not repent and don't believe his son died for our sins, and go to hell.
Its not slavery no whips, no bondage no forced labor. we are free to believe or not.
2007-10-15 21:01:11 · answer #9 · answered by R B 4 · 2⤊ 1⤋
God loves you more than you can imagine, and He paid the price for your sin. So, what's the problem here?
I Cr 13;8a
2007-10-16 01:50:12 · answer #10 · answered by ? 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋