Who was "he" talking to?

[Tonus]

I think you mean not all of them, there are many Jewish Christians.

That... can't really be a thing, can it?

They had to modify the Bible so they could say Jesus isn't Jesus. There only two denominations that do not believe Jesus is not God. I noticed you did not supply any of the many verses you say are in the Bible that shows Jesus sin't God. I'll give you a reference that will put an end to the nonsense that Jesus is not God, John 1:1-5.

Yes, the JWs decided to take the bizarre step of modifying the Bible to fit their beliefs.  But they're not alone in their belief regarding Jesus and God.  I didn't provide the verses because I am sure that you know of them.  To save the time I'll just link to a couple of sites: One example. Another example.  As expected, there are a lot of sites describing how Jesus is or is not God or the Father, and they have differing explanations using various Bible texts to support their view.

Keep in mind that I am not invested in proving one or the other, since I don't believe that any of the characters are real.  It's just an example of how the Bible being so open to interpretation muddles things for those who seek the Christian God, and how the confusion over so many beliefs and ideas implies that there is no guiding hand.

In the past (ie before Jesus) only a few chosen people had direct access to God and only a chosen few ever received the Holy Spirit. The every day Israelis never saw God, heard from God or experienced the Holy Spirit.Actually no one has ever seen God, God revealed himself through  His prophets.

The Israelites saw plagues visited on their slave masters, and a sea split open, and food fall from the sky, and water pour forth from rocks, and city walls collapse, and fire swallow up offerings and many other miraculous things that made it clear to them that there was a great force acting on their behalf.

Then God revealed himself in the person of Jesus and once Jesus ascended into heaven the Holy Spirit was sent to convict and show people who God is. God now works with us individually, God says He will reveal himself through knowledge to those who truly seek and accept Jesus. You can't fool God, He knows that no matter what He did those who do not want Him will make every excuse they can. An omnipresent being knows all the excuses that will be.

I think it's more like "God" cannot fool those people who searched and found nothing.  You may not be able to fool God, but you can fool people.  It's just that, as the saying goes, you can't fool all of them all of the time.

They disobeyed God, He never abandoned them, on the contrary He saved them from their sin. Satan wasn't their god, though he wished he could be. He had a fatal flaw he could not create anything except lies. Disobedience is not total rejection, I disobey God yet I haven't rejected Him, I would think this is quite evident by my comments on this forum, disobedience is sin, rejection is disbelief

The price they paid for their disobedience was death, so I'd say it was total rejection in their case.  They knew what eating from the fruit meant.  As perfect beings, they had no need for a redemptive sacrifice because they had control over their actions.  It was a willful act that they knew would separate them from God forever.  That sounds like rejection to me.

How do you think you could ever find God when you reject the very beginning of His book. Adam and Eve knew the punishment for their disobedience and for God not to carry out His providential judgment would be for Him to deny His providence, justice, who He is. The sinful couple could not be allowed to reach the Tree of Life, that would have doomed them to live in sin for eternity, this is what hell is, God saved them from this torment.

But that's what shows that they rejected him.  They had a way to die without rejecting God-- they could have stopped eating from the Tree of Life.  They took a route that forced God to act on his promise.  It was a direct shot at him.

As for finding God, I was a devout believer for many years.  I didn't reject anything until I took the time to try and make sense of it.

They rejected his authority, not quite as severe but, when someone speeds on the highway you have rejected the speed limit law but not the law as a whole.

Yes, rejected his authority is a good way to put it.

I can't say you, but many on this forum would make every excuse they could. Many of the Jews rejected who Jesus was and especially the religious leaders, Jesus said this himself, "you have seen yet you reject what your eyes have shown you."

I think this shows how difficult it is to know that we have found the right God or the right religion.  If even the people who saw miracles firsthand were sufficiently unimpressed that they would not accept Jesus --or in the case of the Pharisees, conspired to murder him-- then there is little hope for those who seek now.  Jesus himself admitted that the gateway to salvation was long and narrow and few would find it.  Most would only walk the path to destruction.  That is a far cry from someone who wants everyone to be saved.

I do not know who taught you you couldn't think for yourself as a Christian,

In my experience, most Christians claim to be open-minded and free-thinkers while rejecting any ideas that would challenge their beliefs.  The JWs are no different, they insist that they teach one to "think for yourself" while dealing harshly with anyone who comes up with ideas that are not endorsed by the leadership.  If you are convinced that you have found the truth of God, you will want to safeguard it from attempts to undermine it.  Taken to an extreme, it's not surprising when people completely close their minds to anything that challenges it.

If God was this terrible being people here want to make Him out to be, He could and would make life hell for all people all the time but, that is not who He is.

But that is who he could be, if he so wished.  And none of his actions would be terrible since he was the one doing it.  For example-- tormenting people for an eternity seems like a very terrible thing to do, but apologists rationalize it in many ways in order to excuse God for doing it.  If God really is above human morals and judgment, no explanations are necessary.  Tormenting people is only bad if it's other people doing it without God's express permission.  God is doing no wrong.

You left out perfect, perfection has no judge, it can't be improved on, this is more than reasonable, it's absolute truth. God being perfect can't have a legitimate judge, thus He by default is the ultimate judge.

But he would still not be upset if I judged his actions.  Such as creating a perfect universe that went wrong very quickly.  This can't possibly be the best he is capable of, is it?

Rejecting His Son will get people the eternal punishment. God is our morals our morals come from who God is.

I'm not sure what that means.  How do our morals come from "who God is"?

Our moral laws come from who God is and God must be who He is because He does not lie.

This presumes that lying is wicked, yes?  But it's not wicked if God does it because God is perfect and good.  Since he is perfect and good, everything he does is perfect and good.  If he lied, it would be a perfect and good act.  So he can lie and not go against his nature.  He can curse his most loyal follower and it would not be out of character.  God could only act against his nature if he was bound by behavioral rules and moral laws. He is not.

I get where you're coming from with this, but my point is that when we define God in a manner that excuses any moral lapses or questionable behavior by putting him above judgment and outside of our notions of right and wrong... that's where you end up. With a God that can do no wrong, regardless of how many wrong things he does.