why dont you try this with your woman. tell her you want her to love you. tell her she has a choice. accept or reject. then tell her by the way if she rejects you will throw her into a fire and torture her forever. see how far you get.
First, I'm sure I deserve throwing in the fire more than she does, and second, she's pretty fiesty...and would put up too much of a fight. But I understand where you're coming from. This is how God says to treat her..... Ephesians5:25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; There's another story, in the Bible, where God told a prophet (Hosea) to marry a harlot.... to demonstrate God's great love. Well, this woman slept around on him and it must have been pretty hard on him but, as time went on, she ended up being sold as a slave. This man then bought her from the slave market, forgave her, took her back home, and loved her anyway. Ok, back on track.... God does not want anyone to go to Hell.... He wants all to be saved 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But we are all desperately wicked Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? Romans 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; But God is pure and holy This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. ...and I believe, so holy that.... Exodus 33:20 And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live. ...But He revealed Himself in Jesus Christ...the Light of the world John 3:19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. The root of sin, is basically selfishness. Jesus is holy and righteous...and unselfish; He is Love personified. He proved it when He freely gave Himself to die for you and me. He died in our place. In the final showdown, he is going to do away all wickedness, the Devil and all who choose to follow him. God made Hell for the Devil..(title of this thread)...not man. We choose the light or the darkness ourselves. I've done alot of things I deeply regret, but I never regretted trusting Jesus. He extends His love to you now, after you die, it's too late.
Ok, you didn't fall for the bait Vhehn. Good for you! My intention was not to make things complicated. I was trying to change the subject in an elliptical way and move the discussion from the Christian God and Satan to the Islamic God and Satan. Why? The Christian God, Jesus, by belief i.e., to draw a distinction from the historical Jesus for which there is no proof that one ever existed and is the position I hold as you probably know due to the reasons explained in Jim Walker's well written article on this subject "Did a historical Jesus exist?" (at http://nobeliefs.com/exist.htm) -- never intended to destroy the infidels. In other words, I am not aware of anything in the Christian Testament which fans of replacement theology or ignorant people like to call the New Testament that calls for the destruction of the infidels that don't accept Christianity by its followers nor do the leaders of the 2 billion plus Christians that include and resemble forms of traditional Christianity (Catholicism and Orthodox) now call for anything resembling the destruction of infidels especially after the Holocaust, and the Vatican Council II pronounciations. This is in stark contrast to what the Qur'an and major mainstream leaders of both the Sunni and Shia sects advocate. Per mainstream Islamic Thelogy as represented by the Qur'an, the Hadiths, and the accepted spiritual leaders of Islam now as one can easily verify from texts and religious lectures and discussions both verbal and visual the infidels must convert to Islam or be destroyed by the Muslim's (Allah's army and police). Even the People of the Book, both Jews and Christians, have become fair game now for forcible conversion or face death -- traditionally even accepting humiliation (2nd class status to Muslims in sharia law) and paying the Jizya tax to avoid conversion won't satisfy many Islamic leaders practically that hold sway on the Islamic Street even with the People of the Book. So in my opinion if one wants to focus on God and the Devil in this discussion, and relate it to something that is real and relevant to all of us like the immediate destruction of the world with nuclear weapons from Pakistan or Iran. One should discuss the Islamic God and Devil. Epicurus makes a good point that pleasure is the highest good. Sounds like I am a Hedonist. I am greedy though because I don't just want pleasure but the highest pleasure all the time so one may say I am an Extreme Hedonist. What is the highest pleasure leads us to a discussion of the Prime Mover which will lead one to a sound apprehension of rational monotheism if and only if one can solve The Prime Mover Disconnect Problem (very few can solve it even after many years of trying). Don't bother trying to find the solution of this problem stated anywhere. Been there done that! That's how I developed severe headaches, IBS, an old appearance, and various other physical and mental maladies by trying to solve problems that others of the so called enlightened said can't be solved. But I hold with Nietzsche that what doesn't kill us makes or stronger or simply put no pain no gain, or better yet as my Chi Kung teacher said "correct pain much gain." Aristotle is still the King of the Philosophers after 2,400 years! I would not bring in Epicurus on a methaphysical discussion of good and evil Vhehn. Start talking Aristotle and then we will be talking good and evil.
Right, so your idea is, that somthing called God , sick enough in the Bible Stories to cheat, steal, envy, murder, slander, curse, hate, start wars, kill babies and puff Itself up with pride, is supposed to have created humans in It's own image, to be sick also. Then It commands them to be well!! To be "well", the same genocidal pathological egotist wants to be worshipped and so in an extreme state of attention-seeking personality disorder, decides to kill Itself on a cross then humans can be forgiven for doing things It created them to do in the first place. You are right to say there is a choice. A choice to place any credence in the psychotic imagery of insane immoral God grossly incompatible with any decent basic standards of humanity; Or not to.
Quote from stu: "humans can be forgiven for doing things It created them to do in the first place." No one can explain this to make sense. And no one have to study a bible, koran or any religion to make sense of this. Why does a god who is not human, and have ALL power create a world with crime, disease, evil... (in the first place?)
God's standard in a nutshell... Matthew 22:39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. You see, if you do what God really wants, and love your neighbor, you won't lie to him, cheat him, slander him, sleep with his wife, or hate him and want to kill him. On the other hand, if you do rape or murder someone, you deserve justice for it, right? So who provides the justice? The one in charge, who said 'don't do it'...right? Why did God create everything? For His Pleasure Revelation 4:11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. What is His pleasure? Luke 12:32 Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. ...and what kind Kingdom does He desire to give? Romans 14:17 For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. ...and what did He do to provide that? Hebrews 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. He loves us so much that His greatest joy is in giving US immeasureable joy.
Why did god make sex so overwhelmingly enjoyable over any other human activity.... and then add a bunch of restrictions such as how to have sex, number of partners, can't pay for it, etc...