God doesn't "send" anyone to hell. Nor do you get into Heaven simply through good works or merely saying the right things. We don't know another's mind or motives, but we can't fool God. With Christ's death, we were given a choice.
It is for us to decide what that choice will be.
Personally, I lean more towards the deist view of God. God does not intervene with the affairs of human life and the natural laws of the universe. He created it, but he does not manipulate it as if we were just puppets. It just is.
Otherwise, how do you figure that some people die from cancer because they angered God, but other people die from cancer just because [insert your answer here].
I thought God was principled and consistent, but this interpretation presents God as unprincipled and inconsistent. Something for these preachers to think about.
God's greatest gift to humanity is not religion (a human creation), but the ability to reason. There is a reason why God gave us a brain in addition to a moral center.
Using practical means to demonstrate the love of Christ is important because it gives us an opportunity to relate to non-believers in the struggle for liberty and human rights. If we are to be Christ like and if we love the nature of God, which is liberty, we HAVE to get beyond religion, the rules and legalism and get beyond using worldly means to “spread the Gospel”.
Friday, July 11, 2008
Does God send people to hell?
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3 comments:
A nice reply to "God is Not a Scarecrow." I'm right there with ya!
I don't agree with you on the greatest gift thing...true religion is not the greatest gift of God (It has cause a lot of problems actually), but neither is reason...somethings don't make sense and no amount of resoning will ever make them...I also know that when I put to much stock into reasoning then I am relying on myself far to much and am often far from God's will...
...instead I want to point towards the end of your post where you mention the opportunity to relate to non-believers...I think the relationship that God gives us through His Son's death and the gift of the Holy Spirit is that greatest gift and we should seek His will, which the Holy Spirit will make clear. And when you have a relationship with Christ sometimes He looks at the natural laws of the universe and overrides them...not always, not even normally...and we should think we deserve that from Him because we don't...
...I do like your starting point and conclusion here, but the middle I couldn't agree with...
We'll never totally understand why God does the things he does. For one, I will never understand why He created life to begin with especially knowing the grief that would come from us disobeying His Word. But it is what it is.
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