RJS

Thanks - hey, I'll bet I can get you a few Jesus films for free if you want. Just let me know.

RJS

Of course God can distinguish. My comment was "relative to his purity". Relative to the Empire State Building, you and I are about the same height. But relative to each other, I may be a foot taller.

MrDarwin

Let's try another one of those tired parent-child analogies, shall we?

A father has 2 children. He tells both of them, "I hope you love me, because if you don't, something very very bad will happen to you." Little Sally is good and sweet, does well in school, is kind to the neighbors, takes care of the family cat. But little Billy is a hellraiser; he tortures the pet, is mean to his sister and the neighbors, and is generally unpleasant. But Dad just looks on and smiles doesn't punish him. He says, "Let's just wait until later."

And then Dad rouses his children from bed in the middle of the night. As they rub their eyes he asks little Billy, "do you love me?" And Billy, never having been punished for all the bad things he's done, says "Daddy, you're the best daddy in the whole world, of course I love you." And he really means it, and Daddy smiles.

Then Daddy asks little Sally, "do you love me?" And Sally replies, "Daddy, you've never punished Billy for all the bad things he did. He's been mean to me. He threw rocks at me and threatened me with the scissors. He killed my pet hamster. He tripped poor Mrs. Smith so she fell down the steps and broke her hip. You're a terrible daddy. No, I don't love you."

So Daddy takes Sally by the arm and locks her in the basement. He never speaks to her again. He ignores her screams, her begging, her pleading, her whimpers as she slowly dies in the darkness of thirst and hunger.

I think most of us would consider such a father a psychopath. Now tell me, aside from the fact that little Sally finally gets some relief by dying, is this a good analogy, or a bad one? And if it's a bad one, why?

brighid

RJS,

Thank you for the generous offer, but your efforts would we wasted and those tapes would promptly go into the garbage. Unless of course I was in the mood to have a good laugh and then I might watch a few minutes of the fallacious drivel and then throw in the garbage. Although I would just prefer you didn�t because there is no good way to recycle that junk and I don�t like to throw away too many things that would harm the environment. It�s bad enough that watching that stuff harms the human brain, but to add it to a land fill that will also cause physical harm to future generations is unconscionable.

B

MrDarwin

One thing I've always wondered: will a Christian be happy (or joyous, or whatever) in heaven, knowing the truth that somebody he or she loved is at that very moment suffering in damnation, and will for all eternity? Will they feel even a little twinge of sadness about it?

RJS

I wonder that too.

ex-preacher

So, you're saying that from where God's sitting, we all look about the same.
Murder, telling a white lie, genocide, stealing bubble gum, it all looks about the same from those lofty heights.

ex-preacher

I believe it was Thomas Aquinas who said that one of the joys in heaven will be listening to the screams of infidels in hell.

Autonemesis

It is. Without you, we have no half-baked ideas to ridicule.

RJS

I would weave in somewhere that Sally does bad stuff too and continues to, and that Billy, if he really loves his Dad, will stop doing bad stuff once he realizes that. If he doesn't stop such activities, he really doesn't love his Dad and might be keeping Sally company in the basement.

[ May 17, 2002: Message edited by: RJS ]</p>