RE: On Hell and Forgiveness
August 30, 2018 at 3:44 pm
(This post was last modified: August 30, 2018 at 3:44 pm by Catholic_Lady.)
(August 30, 2018 at 3:00 pm)Aroura Wrote:(August 30, 2018 at 2:56 pm)Catholic_Lady Wrote: Ok. It's not a trick.Oh, I didn't think you were actually trying to trick anyone. It's just that your question contains a redefiniton inside of it.
But k anyway, I'll try.
Can you please rephrase the question one more time for me and I'll promise to give a serious yes or no answer.
Yes, you are correct that it is a redefinition in the sense that God isn't who you thought He was. As in, He isn't evil or a tyrant, as you imagined He would be. Just as the person who hypothetically asks me what I'd do if God was evil is redefining God from what I believe Him to be.
So basically, at the moment of your death you find out you misunderstood God... perhaps some stuff in the Bible did not happen the way it was literally written like you would have imagined. Perhaps His motives and reasons for certain things make sense once you understand them. Bottom line is everything is made clear. And you can see that God is indeed completely good and all loving, at His very core and by His very nature. You understand at that point that the only reason love exists in the first place is because God exists. So in other words, love exists because of/through God's existence. Since love wouldn't exist otherwise, God and love are not independent of each other. (this is essentially what I mean when I say God is love)
He wants to share His love with you, wants you to accept it and embrace it because it is good and it is the true source of joy and fulfillment... and He wants you to be joyful because He loves you. However, He gives you the option of rejecting it if you do not want it. Because He is good, He won't force you to accept something you don't want, and allows you to make your own decision. Just as the prodigal son's father wanted him to stay but allowed him to leave when he chose to. He wasn't going to keep his son prisoner, against his will.
Choosing to accept God's love would mean complete fulfillment and joy. In accepting love, you would simultaneously be rejecting greed... as greed is the opposite of love. This means you would strive to leave behind any greed filled intentions or desires, in order to truly desire goodness and love going forward. Admitting past wrong doings and having remorse for them.
Here is again how it was originally written:
Quote:At the moment of your death God appears before you and you realize at that moment that you were wrong about Him. He isn't an evil monster, or a tyrant like you always thought He would be if He were real. Things that you misunderstood about Him would be made clear. You see that He is good and loving. And you see that not only is He good and loving, but that He is literally goodness and love itself. And you understand at that moment that choosing to accept His love would mean complete fulfillment. It wouldn't be boring or bad, like you thought. It would be the ultimate fulfillment - complete joy and love.
Furthermore, choosing to "accepting His love" wouldn't be of any cost to you. All it means is that you reject greed (which is the opposite of love), admit/feel remorse for your wrongdoings and mistakes, and desire true goodness and love going forward. That is all accepting God's love would imply. (Think The Prodigal Son)
...Hopefully maybe my rephrasing helped clarify certain things.
(August 30, 2018 at 3:08 pm)Tizheruk Wrote:Quote:I would still enjoy flying, so long as I wouldn't have to eat the cheese (which would make sense if I don't like cheese in the hypothetical).That answer does not cancel the absurdity of his hypothetical
That is fine.
"Of course, everyone will claim they respect someone who tries to speak the truth, but in reality, this is a rare quality. Most respect those who speak truths they agree with, and their respect for the speaking only extends as far as their realm of personal agreement. It is less common, almost to the point of becoming a saintly virtue, that someone truly respects and loves the truth seeker, even when their conclusions differ wildly."
-walsh
-walsh