God's love is something that is allegedly unending, and it defines the Christian people. Jesus even said that you'll know his people because they love one another. This idea sounds wonderful, but is contradicted quite a bit by God himself and by Christians throughout history.The bible speaks of God's unending love for humanity. Yet in the bible God actually murders millions of people for not believing in him. It sounds like the never-ending love of God may be reserved only for the people who love him back.
In the bible: deaths as punishment from God
This site references every single specific bible verse in which people are killed by God, or by God's direct order.
Deaths which can be counted by specific numbers in the bible: 2,301,417
Estimate deaths from events numbered and not numbered (the Great Flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, plagues, famines, first-borns smote, etc): 33,000,000
Every list I found was considerably shorter than the list of death versus, and the two ideas seem very contradictory. On one hand, God has wrath for and kills people who turn against him. God commands people to kill sinners. On the other hand, God unconditionally loves all of humanity, even those who are sinners and who turn against him. God commands people to love they neighbor as thyself, and to love sinners.
In a real attempt to understand God' s rules about love and wrath, based on what we are given in the bible and throughout history, I make this conclusion: God loves all of humanity, and he rewards those who love him back, and punishes those who do not.
The punishment from God may be regretfully given, since he still loves all sinners, but the punishment happens nonetheless. Possibly being murdered by God or by his director order, followed by eternal suffering and agony, is a suitable punishment for those who turn away from God. The killing of humans in the bible and throughout history in the name of God are not atrocities, but the proper deliverance of justice. Being punished as such is the choice of every human.The reward for those that love God is that they are spared the punishment of murder and eternal suffering in hell, and rewarded with God's infinite love, peace, and eternal life with God in heaven. However they must still suffer a human death, in whatever manner that happens to occur, either painful or not.
Doesn't God doing the killing take away the "Free Will" of the non-robots the Christians like to say they are? They use that excuse for God not showing himself more directly, and a host of other things...God killing firstborn sons, or anyone, before they could have been saved - that all sounds like anti-robot action to me.
ReplyDeleteThat's a very good point Mike. I could understand the punishment only coming after death, then you would have your whole life to make your choice. But being given free will, then asked to choose under the threat of murder as your apparent punishment isn't much of a choice. And as you pointed out, neither is it a choice of an infant killed by a plague or siege set upon by God.
ReplyDeleteJust to avoid any confusion, since it has occurred to me that there may be some:
ReplyDeleteI'm not saying I agree with this conclusion about punishment, just that it's the conclusion I came to based on the rules and examples the Christian people are given. It seems like this is what Christians are supposed to believe and accept, and I'm kinda throwing it out there because I don't think enough Christians acknowledge the "punishment" side of their faith, they only focus on the nice happy "reward" side. I'd love to hear some arguments from Christians and non-Christians.
I am having a hard time wrapping my brain around this. Don't worry, I hate genocide/infanticide/murdering/suffering in general!
Is your complaint that God doesn't live up to your definition of love?
ReplyDeleteWell, I guess I'm saying that I can't quite grasp God's definition of love. It seems very contradictory. If someone would like to share their insight, that would be wonderful.
ReplyDeleteI'm predicting the following answers:
ReplyDeleteA) We can't truly understand God's Love because we're just lowly humans. "Contradiction" just means I won't bother to think about it anymore.
B) Those babies probably deserved it.
C) The bible is always right because it's the bible, and it's always right.
I'm not expecting to hear any more about the vastly different eras the different books of the bible were written in (and how they directly reflect the ideas/ideals of monotheism), which is really what this is all about.