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Politics : Should God be replaced? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bill Fischofer who wrote (12328)	5/15/2002 11:12:57 AM
From: Grandk	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 28931

The problem, of course, is that while a capricious and feckless God might be feared, He could never be worthy of respect, much less worship... While professing belief in a God of unconditional love every aspect of most theology is permeated to the core with a message of conditional love at every turn. Thus does man create God in his own image. Hell is an ugly term. I do not like it, but I must except it. Rejecting one part of God's word leads me down a path to where I will begin to create my own religion and fall into the trap the likes of the New Age movement. Anyway, for one to focus on hell as a means of convincing another of the benefits of Christianity seems ridiculous to me. If you perform a word search of the Bible using the word hell you will come up with perhaps 20 passages. Now perform a search for the word love and you will find at least 10x the amount of scripture. These would lead me to believe that the focus of a Christian's message should be on love and not hell. God's love is unconditional. However, salvation is not. His love is there for all. It does not lessen nor grow according to what man does. God is no respecter of persons and His love is extended to all who except it. But, right there you see that it can be conditional on our part. God's love is unconditional. However, receiving it is not because we have free will.

To: Bill Fischofer who wrote (12328)	5/15/2002 12:18:12 PM
From: Grandk	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 28931

First off, if it is "obvious" that damning those who never heard of Christ cannot be reconciled with the concept of God's goodness, then how is it that it is not equally "obvious" that an omniscient God who would ever create a soul that He knew would ultimately be eternally damned does not pose exactly the same moral dilemma? Matthew 10:28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Perhaps eternal punishment outside of the limits of time is non existent. If both body and soul is destroyed what is left? I really do not see the point of hell lasting for eternity. Then again, I do not even rightly comprehend eternity. As far as creating a soul that God knows will be condemned we come to the dilemma of predestination. God does know who is predestined to enter the kingdom. That is a fact based on scripture. However, it is also a fact that God desires everyone to be saved. God creates circumstances in everyone's life where salvation is extended and the person is left with the choice. Putting the blame on God for man's choices seems to be the popular way to go. Man always places the blame on others instead of taking it on himself. It is human nature.