(January 24, 2016 at 4:09 pm)downbeatplumb Wrote:(January 24, 2016 at 3:55 pm)athrock Wrote: <sigh>
No, Cecelia, that isn't exactly what happened.
God chose to reboot the planet because mankind had gone astray. It's His computer, He wrote the program, and He can ctrl-alt-del if He wants to. The fact that He wanted to shows just how bad things had become. Later, He used a different plan - sending His son - to redeem sinners. Why no second flood? Clearly, He thought the situation was salvageable.
Now, you ask why Jesus didn't give more specific instructions. Well, this would have required that he provide a clear guideline for every conceivable issue that mankind had or would ever face. Abortion? What did Jesus say? Gay marriage? What did Jesus say? Stem cell research? What did Jesus say? A gospel the size of a set of encyclopedias wouldn't have been sufficient to hold all the possible rules and regulations we'd need to cover every eventuality. And we'd still be arguing over what a particular verse meant, how it should be applied in modern society, and whether we could really be sure that the terabyte-length scriptures weren't just a bunch of corrupted fairy tales told by "bronze-age goat herders" anyway.
Instead, He gave us two rules to focus on:
It's a good thing that Jesus didn't bury us with more specific rules as you demand.
- Love God.
- Love your neighbor as yourself.
We seem to be having enough trouble following these two.
Enforced love, coz that always works[/sarcasm]
BINGO!
THAT is why God respects your free will, downbeat! He doesn't coerce your love or force you to believe that he exists.
Man, I love it when things come together like this!
