But frequently all you have to do to deserve punishment is fail to worship God. For such a powerful being, his ego's pretty fragile.
Hermanos! The devil has built a robot!
Numero Cinco ,'The Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinco'
Natter 46: The FIGHTIN' 46
Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.
Strega - Aug 03, 2006 6:53:15 am PDT #269 of 10001
Frankenbuddha - Aug 03, 2006 6:53:32 am PDT #270 of 10001
"We are the Goon Squad and we're coming to town...Beep! Beep!" - David Bowie, "Fashion"
Because he's a just God, he punishes those who deserve it.
Lot's wife? I guess because she was told not to look back? Still seems overly harsh.
Rick - Aug 03, 2006 6:55:27 am PDT #271 of 10001
God's nature in the OT -- which is exactly the same as his nature in the NT -- is both merciful *and* just.
Did I mention all of the dead children, killed because of their relatives or their rulers or just because they live down the street from some jerk? How is this just?
tommyrot - Aug 03, 2006 6:56:51 am PDT #272 of 10001
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.
Lot's wife? I guess because she was told not to look back? Still seems overly harsh.
What's often overlooked is that in those times there was a severe salt shortage, so there was much rejoicing....
Steph L. - Aug 03, 2006 6:59:23 am PDT #273 of 10001
Unusually and exceedingly peculiar and altogether quite impossible to describe
Because he's a just God, he punishes those who deserve it.
I don't think I deserve an infinitely long punishment just because I don't believe in Jesus...
Honestly, *I* can't really address the issue of any person's salvation. Or even my own, really. All I can say about it is that God is mind-blowingly vast, far beyond humans' ability to comprehend.
What one book -- which was written by human beings, and then translated and re-translated and re-translated -- says about salvation (and how a person is "saved") is very very very likely not the whole picture.
God is infinite; I think it's safe to say that he has an infinite number of ways that he can work out with a given person how that person spends eternity.
Zenkitty - Aug 03, 2006 7:04:35 am PDT #274 of 10001
Every now and then, I think I might actually be a little odd.
He doesn't just punish those who deserve it, he punishes their families, thier children, their whole communities, sometimes. And his punishments are, to my mortal mind, often both extreme and arbitrary.
What I find most interesting about this whole conversation, Steph, is that an intelligent educated person like you - someone whose opinions and ideas I can respect - read the Bible the same way I did - "in context, both historical/cultural AND in terms of language" - and came to the completely opposite conclusion.
Steph L. - Aug 03, 2006 7:04:49 am PDT #275 of 10001
Unusually and exceedingly peculiar and altogether quite impossible to describe
God's nature in the OT -- which is exactly the same as his nature in the NT -- is both merciful *and* just.
Did I mention all of the dead children, killed because of their relatives or their rulers or just because they live down the street from some jerk? How is this just?
Free will means free will for everyone. God can't give free will to some people but not to others. Shitty people do shitty things.
tommyrot - Aug 03, 2006 7:05:55 am PDT #276 of 10001
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.
God is infinite; I think it's safe to say that he has an infinite number of ways that he can work out with a given person how that person spends eternity.
Well, I suspect that when I die my consciousness will cease to exist forever, but hey - if there's a God who wants to grant me eternal life that could be cool....
Cashmere - Aug 03, 2006 7:07:38 am PDT #277 of 10001
Now tagless for your comfort.
I don't really relish the idea of eternal life. It sounds sort of boring to me. But then, I'm hard to please.
Rick - Aug 03, 2006 7:08:04 am PDT #278 of 10001
Free will means free will for everyone. God can't give free will to some people but not to others. Shitty people do shitty things.
What does this have to do with murdering children?