I'm not sure that the journalist is right to call Locke's views extremist. They seem honest and very much conforming to Christian principles.
Well, we have capital punishment. Life for life. People killed God when He came to earth. People have the capability of murder. Not everyone is a murderer, of course, but you only have to look at the current Russia/Ukraine war and it becomes apparent that a single human being has the capability to do a very large amount of harm to others. Evil is dangerous. Added to that is the fact that evil will be being judged by God, not humans. We are not Him and have a hard time understanding things from His perspective, but the Scriptures explain Him and they have this to say about it: Every sin is offensive to God: “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight…” Psalm 51:4 "for if the word being spoken through messengers did become stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience did receive a just recompense, how shall we escape, having neglected so great salvation?" Hebrews 2:2,3 Young's Literal Translation "You refused to answer when I called out; you paid no attention to my instructions. Instead, you did what I hated, knowing it was wrong. Now I will punish you in a way you dread the most." Isaiah 66:4 "Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrongdoing." Hab 1:13 NIV Christianity.com also gives a couple reasons for why hell is an eternal place of judgment: Why Hell is Eternal 1. Sin is more serious than we realize. First, the revolt against God is more serious than we think it is. An insurrection against an infinitely worthy Creator is an infinitely heinous offense. We know something of this intuitively. This is why, in our human sentences of justice, we sentence a man to one punishment for threatening to kill his co-worker and another man to a much more severe punishment for threatening to kill the nation’s president. 2. Sin does not disappear. Second, and more important, is the nature of the punishment itself. The sinner in hell does not become morally neutral upon his sentence to hell. We must not imagine the damned displaying gospel repentance and longing for the presence of Christ. They do indeed, as in the story of the rich man and Lazarus, seek for an escape from punishment, but they are not new creations. They do not in hell love the Lord their God with heart, mind, soul, and strength. Instead, in hell, one is now handed over to the full display of his nature apart from grace. And this nature is seen to be satanic (John 8:44). The condemnation continues forever and ever, because the sin does too. Hell is the final “handing over” (Romans 1) of the rebel to who he wants to be, and it’s awful. https://www.christianity.com/wiki/heaven-and-hell/why-is-hell-eternal.html The following article deals with the topic of why God permits evil, if anyone is interested in further reading. It ends with this: Although we sometimes wish God had made us in a way that we would never have fallen into sin, God did not create us that way according to His purpose. God’s wisdom is beyond our comprehension, and we will never be able to fully understand His will and the ways in which He works. We do know that God created mankind as marvelous creatures to be in relationship with Him. He gave us free will–the ability to reason and act un-coerced according to our own desires. We chose to rebel against God, and therefore, have fallen into sin. Sin and evil permeate our world and our daily lives. Even the free will that we had at creation has been corrupted by sin, leaving us unable to believe, to repent or to obey Him without the Holy Spirit’s help. The question now becomes how are we as Christians, with the help of the Holy Spirit, going to respond to the reality of sin. Will we repent of our sins and turn to God’s forgiveness and grace through Jesus Christ? Will we strive to do His will and demonstrate His mercy and love in a broken and hurting world? Will we tell others of the salvation and restoration offered in Jesus’ death and resurrection? Conclusion We pray that God would continue to work good in the world for His purpose and for His glory despite sin and evil. We pray that He would forgive us of our sins and make us holy through the work of His Holy Spirit in our lives. We pray that He would use us, His Church, to be witnesses to those around us, both in our words and actions. Amen.
Strange how 70 odd years after the so called resurrection the disciples who were not the original disciples, decided to write about it.
What does that mean? We ask things from God, but always following the example of Jesus' prayer in the Garden before He died: “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” Luke 22:42 Jesus wanted to save us. In other places of the Bible it becomes clear that He said He was willingly laying down His life for us. But in the moment, the suffering, and some say the temporary forsaking of the Son by the Father was worse for Jesus to bear than the physical pain, was not what Jesus felt like going through. Submitting to the Father's will was partly how He managed to endure. This is actually a good lesson for Christians when it comes to realizing that God is trustworthy when we have suffering we are going through. Jesus trusted God, and Jesus would know God more thoroughly than anyone, since He is "One with the Father." Suffering and pain is very hard but knowing that God is not evil, God will bring us through it, even if it isn't until we escape from this "body of death," in otherwords, die, someday a believer will be with Him and never be in pain again. We can trust God to bring us through death to Himself, just as Jesus entrusted Himself to God and was resurrected.
That is just wrong. The Old Testament foretold of Jesus' death and resurrection (though the resurrection isn't super clear, it is there). I already fact checked you and there is evidence accepted by most scholars, that writings about the resurrection were already in existence as early as about 18 years after Jesus' death. Also, the writings were to churches that had already been in existence before the letters were written, and that a large number of Christians were alive who had seen the resurrected Christ. Just because the original 11 disciples were evangelists and shared verbally instead of writing down everything the day after the resurrection or so, has NOTHING whatsoever, to do with the validity of the matter. I ALREADY mentioned to you that if they had written things down right away, then your argument would have been that they collaborated and came up with this story. Either way, you will not beieve.
So, why pray, if we are asking for God's will to be done? Because God does listen to us. He does delight in giving to us what we ask for. Prayer isn't a means to make life wonderful on earth, it's a way to build a relationship with God. When He gives us the things we ask for, we are excited that the God of the Universe would pay attention to such a tiny request. We have the joy of answered prayer. I mentioned that occasionally I used to fast and pray. Some of my requests were long term, such as salvation for others, etc., but I always thought it was interesting that even if the things I prayed for didn't happen right away, God always seemed to reward me. I would have smaller answers to prayer or something very unusual happen around those times, much more than I would normally have. It became so reliable that I began to expect it. I would go into my time of prayer and fasting wondering what unusual thing would happen, and I do not recall a time of being disappointed. I do recall some very unusual things happening, especially the times I was praying with others. Many of those unusual interventions by God involve circumstances that are too personal to share, but I will try to share this one without giving too many details. One time I was very concerned about a get together involving other people because there was one person in particular who I knew would be there that had a history of violence. This person concerned me and I prayed much about it and even asked someone at church that morning to please pray as I was afraid there could be some physical violence that could occur. On the way over my vehicle broke down, yet I was able, in the midst of heavy traffic (3 lanes), to coast safely to the side and actually, there happened to be a fire station right there that I coasted right into the parking lot of. We were unable to have the get together as planned. The location was changed to the fire station for a quick transfer of something and no further interactions. My vehicle was not in the habit of breaking down. Apparently there was a belt that broke. I feel pretty confident that God intervened to protect not just me but a few others as well that day, but as is usual, with answers to prayer, it is difficult to prove. I prayed and another prayed and the situation went well. Was it God? I believe so, but can't prove it.
Here's a question. Imagine for a moment someone on ET reading this stuff decides they want to try christianity. What's stopping them joining the wrong cult? What's stopping them being brainwashed by fairy tales and head full of nonsense? How do they prevent themselves being led down the garden path by con artists? (Just think 4437 churches in Oklahoma). Now we're not talking about your church, as your church is the only one which has got it right, so ignore that.
A quick interlude in the thread and a word from our sponsors hehehe, thanks (genuinely) studentofthemarkets for your efforts in your replies.
Ok, am going to ramble on a bit here, but I think I can answer my own question. Point#1 When I'm in a crowd and look around, the people are very diverse, all shapes, sizes, colours. And I think, sheesh, some strange looking people here I could not probably relate to. Point#2 When I trade, it's frequent, those positions I have not much faith in excel, while those showing most promise to me are duds. Gold being a good example, gold has hurt me the most which I thought would be a flyer, but there are many others, it is very difficult to know which will and wont work out because I'm constantly surprised. Point#3 My trading is unique to me, I know no one who trades my methods. Point#4 Religion should be imo a unique experience, this mass church indoctrination is not for me. I'm a loner, I don't follow crowds much, averse to group think. I'm not one to follow the party line like in politics where one needs conform. Knowing an outcome on christianity is like my trades, who knows the outcome. I'm not one to be a fundamentalist and believing 100% in 'the book', although the book does have some very good content (morals etc) which I accept.