(November 12, 2020 at 12:29 pm)MilesAbbott81 Wrote: 1) Of course.
(November 12, 2020 at 1:11 pm)Angrboda Wrote: So, in other words, you think it's moral to hurt someone for doing something that they couldn't have avoided doing?
No, not in other words. You're deliberately removing a crucial part of my argument.
It is moral to hold someone responsible for an evil act they have committed. The rest of what you wrote is just an excuse. Just because God made us evil doesn't mean we're blameless. We're evil. We can't change what we are, and that much isn't our fault, but just because we were made evil doesn't mean we shouldn't be held responsible for our evil acts. How else are we supposed to understand the gravity of sin?
And you'll say that doesn't make sense, and on its own I could somewhat agree with you, but you must take context into account. It isn't as simple as you would like to paint it. God is raising up children to be made in His image, that is, knowing good from evil. The only way to know good from evil is to experience evil for ourselves. That entails necessarily committing evil acts and suffering the consequences thereof.
If God had created us as evil, with there being no purpose to that evil except freedom to commit it, then that would've been evil of Him because the evil would've existed for its own sake, and not to accomplish good. God uses evil for good, therefore subjecting us to evil is a moral act, despite the suffering it entails.
(November 12, 2020 at 12:29 pm)MilesAbbott81 Wrote: 2) Well, I've staked my life on being right about God, so if I'm wrong, then I will pay for it with my life.
(November 12, 2020 at 1:11 pm)Angrboda Wrote: That's admirable. But it doesn't answer the question. Entertain it as a hypothesis, let's assume that you're wrong for the moment -- what are you doing in your life that would eventually lead to you discovering that fact?
It's not admirable. I've done nothing worthy of praise whatsoever. God has had mercy on me because He chose to, not because I chose it or earned it. Nothing admirable about that at all, except on His part.
To answer the rest of this, the Lord would have to forsake me. He would have to abandon me in some way I couldn't possibly explain. Give me cancer, for instance, or put me through some terrible and debilitating accident. Short of taking my life or giving me over to sin, those are the only options (well, that may not be true. There can be terrible spiritual consequences as well that I won't get into here). So far, the Lord hasn't forsaken me in any way that I can make that conclusion with any certainty. I've suffered, but my suffering has been deserved and needed, and the damage not permanent, so far as I can tell anyway.