Uhhhh, when did God become answerable to you? And when did you become the one to decide what’s just or not?
31 Nevertheless for thy great mercies’ sake thou didst not utterly consume them, nor forsake them; for thou art a gracious and merciful God. 32 Now therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the terrible God, who keepest covenant and mercy, let not all the trouble F39 seem little before thee, that hath come upon us, on our kings, on our princes, and on our priests, and on our prophets, and on our fathers, and on all thy people, since the time of the kings of Assyria unto this day. 33 Howbeit thou art just in all that is brought upon us; for thou hast done right, but we have done wickedly:
This thought has gone through my head more than a few times. I suppose it is entirely possible that fundamentalists are being deceived by a demon (or even the Devil himself). This demon knows full well the power of corrupting a manuscript that is supposedly incorruptable (ie the bible) and riddling it with mistranslations, thus making the fundamentalists easy pawns for the Devil. It would certainly explain alot of things.
vanilla,
I thought you were talking about the ultimate judge. I apologize for my misunderstanding.
Anyone who is capable of loving other people is worthy of Heaven. Anyone who is not capable can be healed by an omnipotent, all-loving God and be made worthy of Heaven. I don’t believe that repentance is a requirement for such a healing, or else God would not be omnipotent.
People who cannot love on Earth are already in Hell. It is not their fault if they cannot love. They may do evil things, but they do it because they are suffering. God knows why they do what they do. God knows their agony. God’s love can heal them whether they seek it out or not.
This does not mean that should not be subject to human justice. They should be, and they are, but human justice is a product of human passion. God is not ruled by human passion. Don’t insult God by saying that he has some need to cause eternal physical pain in order to be just. The fiery pit was invented for the gratification of man, not God.
I never thought of this before, but it makes perfect sense!! I myself was turned away from Christianity by fundamentalists. I think fundamentalism does more to turn people away from God than it does to convert.
-Because one assumes that time, in some form, passes. Perhaps not the day/night schedule we’re used to here, or a period of 24 hours via a clock, but if time does not pass, then it’s a condition of stasis, nothing can happen.
In other words, we’re given that those souls in Heaven can, indeed, interact- join the choir, play the harp, check out God’s new color of the day, “Shpluprle”- so at least the sense of time passing must occur.
Go ahead and assume that there will be some sort of paradox-solving abstract metaphysical concept of heavenly Time, if that assuages your mind, but as it is, time is an abstract metaphysical concept right here on Earth.
The joke goes, time is what keeps everything from happening all at once. There must be a similar concept at work in Heaven, else either you have no interaction (stasis) or “everything” is trying to occur at once. There must be some form of linear sequence to events- we call this “Time”.
Postulated that time, in some form, does pass, then by definition “eternity” is time without end. My snippets of trillions of millennia are, again, mere drops in the ocean of eternity.
So again, what do these poor displaced souls do for a hundred thousand million centuries? Then what do they do after that?
Lib, we are not bound by the OT law. I have already went over that so many times. VOID…
Yes, Zoe, He speaks to me in prayers too, not just through the Bible.
Consensus??? I am not sure what you mean. I don’t recall saying anything like that.
Anyway, I am not sure if all fundamentalists believe the same thing.
To be honest, I didn’t know I was a “Fundamentalist” until I started on SD.
For a long part of my life, I did even know that there are some “christians” that don’t follow the Bible. I thought that Christian and Bible went hand and hand.
To me, as long as you follow the Bible and don’t add or take away from it, we probably agree.
Haha Vanilla…Ribbit…I was going to change it, but I couldn’t be bothered.
You are not bound by any laws except those that you make up for yourself and others. Whoever believes in the law is a slave to the law. God judges no one. Neither does His Son.
Congratulations. That’s one of the best arguments against your version of Christianity that I’ve heard, and keep in mind, I’m someone who’d agree with you on the basic notion that we shouldn’t think God just lets us do whatever we want.
I have no idea why people always say this. There is no necessary contradiction in believing that (1) Jesus’ death is the only thing that makes salvation possible for humans, and (2) it makes salvation possible for everyone, or for everyone who loves, or whatever, not just for everyone who calls themself a Christian.
Now don’t go pulling out John 3:16 on me, I’m not trying to start a debate on universalism in general or its Biblical validity. I’m just saying that the belief that non-Christians can be saved does not necessarily imply that “Jesus died in vain.”
So God is right just because He’s all-powerful? Might makes right, in your religion? If not, then what are you trying to say? Because I’m not getting it.
Jersey Diamond, since you believe, as do I, that God judges people, why are you trying to do His job for Him? He’s a big Deity, with a few thousand years experience at a minimum. I’m sure He can handle the job on His own by now.
I know that there is a tremendous paradox in the idea that a serial killer who has practiced unspeakable cruelty yet accepted Christ as his Saviour and repented of his sin is, according to most Christian doctrine, guaranteed admission to heaven while an ordinary, decent person who has not accepted Christ as his Saviour has no such guarantee. I also know full well who I would prefer to share eternity with. I trust God’s wisdom, knowledge, justice, and mercy in this case because, unlike man’s, they are perfect. This is why I cannot condemn an individual or a group of individuals. It’s not my job. Just as well – I’m really not up to it.
Keep doing what you’re doing, Jersey! Someone may become aware of the truth through your words, perhaps someone who never decides to post, just read. You’re telling people the truth. They’ll never be able to say that they weren’t told. I too will pray.
