I understand sinners going to hell, but why did God have to make it hard not to sin?
Think about this…
From passages all over the bible, mostly in Genesis, but also in Deuteronomy, Psalm, Isaiah, and a variety of others, it mentioned how God created everybody and everything.
We have a sinful nature, and since he created us, then that means that he created us with a sinful nature:
Matthew 26:41, Mark 14:38, Romans 3:23
Because of our sinful nature, lots of people won’t make it into heaven:
Matthew 7:13
But into hell:
Matthew 8:12, 13:42, 13:50, 22.13, 24.51, 25.30
And of course, God knows all this:
1 John 3:20, Daniel 2:22, Matthew 6:8, Luke 16:15
So, in short…
God created us. He made us with sinful nature. He created a world where it’s easy to sin and hard to do good. He then punishes sinners with hell.
Why did God have to give us a disadvantage of a sinful nature? Doesn’t that mean that he helps contribute to people going to hell? Why didn’t he give us a good or at least nutral nature?
Consider that perhaps God has a sinful nature. He just understands the consequences better than we, so He doesn’t do it. Either that, or He moved past it somehow.
Perhaps that is why Heaven is such a wonderful place. Once we get to the Pearly Gates, the Lord teaches us how not to sin. Therefore, nobody in Heaven does.
Actually, I believe that if everyone followed the teachings of Jesus, following the Golden Rule, Earth would be just like Heaven.
I wish that I knew the answer to this. I’m not a Christian or even a theist but I’m not impressed with the human race at all.
Perhaps if you believe in God, He did provide at the least a “neutral nature”. If that is the case, the question becomes why humans have a “sinfull nature”. Of course, my idea of a sinfull nature might be different from yours, but almost everyone believes in the Golden Rule. Why is the practice of that so rare?
Sorry for the spelling errors. My “L” key must be sticky. 
We have a sinful nature, and since he created us, then that means that he created us with a sinful nature
Adam and Eve were created perfect. It’s only after the fall that the sin nature in humans kicked in.
If they had had a child BEFORE they disobeyed God, none of this mess would have ever happened.
Its interesting to note that “evil” was present in the Garden of Eden before “the fall.” Why was that? Why did God allow the serpent there in the first place? I’ve always been under the impression that humankind was introduced into some sort of a strange metaphysical phenomenon anyway. One that we are part of but don’t directly relate to necessarily except through religious beliefs, etc. Read Psalm 23.
God gave humans free will. If he had created humans without free will, he would not have created perfect beings, since perfection requieres the capacity of flaw. If there was no way humans could err, then there would be no point to creating them, since we would already know the outcome and they would have had nothing to do with it. In other words, humans are perfect because they have the potential for being flawed, as well as the potential for not falling into sin, which makes them perfect. If the option was not even there, that being would not be perfect by himself, since that being would not have any bearing on his state of being.
We should strive to achieve perfection (avoid sin) because we can, and we know how to. That is why Jesus came to the world.
God did not create evil, evil is a consequence of free will, without which human beings would not be perfect beings.
I’m sorry for not being able to provide any quotes, cites or references, this is my appreciation.
First of all, what shows that humans have freewill (not free will)? Secondly, how is freewill compatible with omniscience? Thirdly, humans are far from perfect, no matter how you look at us.
Could you explain this slowly?
That does not follow, either. First of all, you declare that humans have freewill. Yet freewill is not the same as the ability to make mistakes. Determinism does not exclude mistakes. Secondly, determinism does not entail the ability of precognition in humans.
One can argue that God can design humans so that a person can sin but can always sin.
No so. YHWH said he created evil at least once in the OT.
I understand that “sinning” in certain ways can be considered easy and fun, but I wouldn’t say being “good” is a hard thing to do. It’s easy, either you do unto others as you would have them do unto you, or you don’t, what’s so hard about that?
God sent his son to die for sinners so we can be redeemed through his blood and thus not go to Hell.
Whoa, back up a step. Where did the sinful nature come from? Not when did it “kick in,” but where did it originate in the first place?
What if you’re a sadomasochist? Are they sinning, by doing unto others as they would have done to them?
Masochism is a (fairly rare) mental disorder in which individuals get pleasure, ususally sexual, out of having pain inflicted upon them. I wouldn’t want a masochist to “do unto me what he would have others do unto him.”
It seems to me that the world is too complex for “one size fits all” behavioral rules. As a commentator remarked, “Living life is like playing the violin and learning the instrument as you go along.” If this be labled “situational ethics,” so be it.
so who says we are all sinful? God gave us 10 commandments or rules to live by. None of them are difficult to understand or adhere to. The “'sins” the church describes often have little t do with these commandments and are often the result of a single persons influence on the church. For instance the whole celibacy issue in the catholic church is a man made set of guidelines that has no basis in the teachings of jesus. Jesus never spoke of a number of the things that catholics have devised “rules” for. Jesus never discussed, homosexuality, contraception, priestly celibacy, female ordination, or pre-marital sex, yet the catholic church has made rules about these issues with no biblical guidance at all. In fact most of these rules come from “saint” augustine about 600 years after the founding of the church. He spent about 35 years being a womanizer and attending public orgies. He spent a lot of his tme at the public bath houses. Suddenly he decided that his lifestyle was sinful and devised all kinds of guidlines for the church leaders
nd congregations to follow. Basically these rules which are nothing but this idiots attempt at easing his own guilty conscience have guided the catholic church ever since.
Personally I dont believe there is sch a thing as a “personal sin” or a “sin in the eyes of god”. A sin is an action that brings harm to yourself or another. It is that simple.
Dang! Oh well, great minds do travel along a common path.
Yeah, but surely they’d never have been tempted to fool around without that disobedience.
Lothos2002
You said
“God did not create evil, evil is a consequence of free will, without which human beings would not be perfect beings.”
Then if that’s true, then how come God doesn’t do evil since he has free will also?
If someone is a sadomasochist and they were doing what they enjoy having done to them to you, if you did not give consent for them to do it, then not only would that be against the law but harming another human being I would consider to be a sin. Now going around and doing good things for other’s could be taken the same way if it is without their consent and they do not want the help or whatever it is, but they can always not accept it. Sadomashochism is something you do to another person physically.
Because we naturally are greedy and selfish and need to be taught to think of others. If you don’t believe me, look at little kids. Parents have to teach them to hog the toys and not share them with their siblings/friends…oh wait, they have to teach them not to do that .
If you made it that it isn’t a sin unless it harms another person, you would have Christian-Libertarian Doctrine! You’re almost there, Rhapsody, just drop the part about harm to oneself.
No, because they all would have got kicked out of the garden anyway and everything would have wound up the same.
Actually I have to say that according to my religious beliefs, some of the bible is to be taken literally, and some as stories, parables, and so on. The two creation stories are examples of things I view as just stories. Although I’m not 100% sure of evolution either. But no matter how we came into being, I do beleive that God is ultimently behind it. And since the bible is a book about our relationship with God and each other, then I do beleive what it says about human nature.