RE: Proverbs 16:4
May 20, 2011 at 3:53 pm
(This post was last modified: May 20, 2011 at 4:01 pm by Statler Waldorf.)
Wait wait, so you are using concepts of justice, fairness, and love that people have determined and you are trying to apply them to God? That seems a bit backwards. I would think that God would determine what was just, fair, and loving.
(May 20, 2011 at 3:48 pm)Doubting Thomas Wrote:(May 20, 2011 at 3:18 pm)Statler Waldorf Wrote: You keep appealing to a sense of justice, fairness, and love and saying God is not practicing these. Where are you getting these from? How are you determining what is just, fair, and loving?
What's fair and just about a system of "Love and worship me or else I'll torture you for all eternity?" How is that fair to those of us who just want to live our lives without any religion, and when we die just enter into a state of oblivion? I never signed up for the "love me or be tortured" deal. And according to Christians, there is no opt-out option. Everyone is subject to the rules simply through the process of being born. What's fair about a "gift" being offered which has such strings attached? How can that be a gift at all?
If God were just, fair, & loving, he wouldn't torture people for eternity for simply not believing in him or worshiping him while they were alive, especially since he never gives anyone any evidence that he actually exists. Nor is his holy book specifically clear on what it exactly is that he wants us to do. So it's not fair of God not only to force everyone to accept the conditions of "worship me or be tortured" deal, but to "worship me EXACTLY the way I want to be worshiped or be tortured, and you have to figure out the details of exactly how I want to be worshiped. Even if you think you're doing it right, if you do it wrong you lose."
Where in scripture does it say God sends people to hell for worshipping Him the wrong way? He passes judgment on his creatures for crimes against Him, sin. Even one crime against Him is enough to justly warrant eternal punishment because He holds infinite authority over His creatures. All of us could wake up in hell and it would be a just punishment because of original sin. However, we are given better than this. So God gives everyone a form of grace, and gives His chosen people saving grace. So everyone gets better than they actually deserve. So in fact, it is you who is being unfair by complaining about a system that gives you better than you really deserve. If I committed a crime that deserved the death penalty and I was only given life in prison, I would not sit around in my cell complaining about how unfair life in prison was. Rather, I would be very grateful to the judge who gave me the gracious sentence.
