I, like most christians and non-christians, have long had a problem to one degree or another with the seemingly wrathful God of the old testament. I've always come to the conclusion of God being a God of justice as well as of love. Because of the sins of mankind, our lives here on this imperfect world involve suffering. It's a consequence that stems from our sins. Even innocent children often suffer consequences of the sins of others because they live in the resulting world. I don't see the directly effected people in God's violent acts in the old testament, such as the flood, as necessarily having to suffer any more that anyone else. I myself would rather drown or be run through with a sword than die a slow, excruciating death from disease.
This morning as I was walking I was listening to a christian radio talk show and they were discussing various views of hell that have been held by christians since the beginning of the church. The view of hell as a place of everlasting punishment became almost universally accepted after the catholic embraced it around the 4th or 5th century AD, but there have been other views, also based on scripture, that have been held by christians all along, including a significant number of early church fathers. One view would be that those who refuse to accept Christ would be sent to hell after the final judgement where they would receive proper punishment for their sins and then would be annihilated. They would then no longer exist. Another view, which I see the most biblical evidence for, is that hell is remedial. Those who fail to believe go to hell after the final judgement, where they experience existence without God, which is extremely unpleasant, and eventually realize that they want to be with him and are then taken to him. This really bears out the belief that God loves us ALL and that Jesus paid the price for the sins of ALL. I see more biblical support for the latter two views than for the traditional view of everlasting damnation.
Anyway, the way that I link my view of universal reconciliation with the supposedly unloving and unfair God of the old testament is that, though we must all suffer the consequences of a sinful world, the punishment aspect has been overridden by God through the atonement of those sins by Jesus Christ. We no longer need to suffer the punishment for our sins, which is eternal death, but we must suffer the suffer consequences of a sinful world, even as an innocent child must suffer consequences of a parent who screwed up the child's life. For eternity, though, we will be with our creator sharing in his love in a perfect existence. This is whether we had an easy death from drowning or being run through with a sword, as the did the victims of the old testament catastrophes, or whether we died a slow and painful death, as did so many others who were not victims of those. To me, this really brings together the loving, yet just, God of both the old and the new testaments.
I invite comment from christians and non-christians alike.
This morning as I was walking I was listening to a christian radio talk show and they were discussing various views of hell that have been held by christians since the beginning of the church. The view of hell as a place of everlasting punishment became almost universally accepted after the catholic embraced it around the 4th or 5th century AD, but there have been other views, also based on scripture, that have been held by christians all along, including a significant number of early church fathers. One view would be that those who refuse to accept Christ would be sent to hell after the final judgement where they would receive proper punishment for their sins and then would be annihilated. They would then no longer exist. Another view, which I see the most biblical evidence for, is that hell is remedial. Those who fail to believe go to hell after the final judgement, where they experience existence without God, which is extremely unpleasant, and eventually realize that they want to be with him and are then taken to him. This really bears out the belief that God loves us ALL and that Jesus paid the price for the sins of ALL. I see more biblical support for the latter two views than for the traditional view of everlasting damnation.
Anyway, the way that I link my view of universal reconciliation with the supposedly unloving and unfair God of the old testament is that, though we must all suffer the consequences of a sinful world, the punishment aspect has been overridden by God through the atonement of those sins by Jesus Christ. We no longer need to suffer the punishment for our sins, which is eternal death, but we must suffer the suffer consequences of a sinful world, even as an innocent child must suffer consequences of a parent who screwed up the child's life. For eternity, though, we will be with our creator sharing in his love in a perfect existence. This is whether we had an easy death from drowning or being run through with a sword, as the did the victims of the old testament catastrophes, or whether we died a slow and painful death, as did so many others who were not victims of those. To me, this really brings together the loving, yet just, God of both the old and the new testaments.
I invite comment from christians and non-christians alike.
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