Tristan Scott

I think that God and Love have many similarities.

To a theist, God is omnipotent. To a lover, love conquers all.

Love and God are both elusive, yet their omniscience is unmistakable once they are found. A lover and a theist are utterly convinced of this and there is nothing the rest of us can do to disuade them. We cannot convince them that this god of theirs can do evil, or that their love will someday leave them devistated.

Bill Snedden

It didn't even address it...

My point was that when skeptics, et al, note that "love" seems to be incompatible with many of the behaviors attributed to God in the Bible, believers often respond by arguing some greater purpose, or the ineffable nature of God's "love" (witness the defenses attempted in this thread).

All such defenses rely upon an equivocation on the meaning of "love." The believer argues (and not necessarily without some merit), that God's "love" is not the same as our "love"; that God, with his complete knowledge of Life, The Universe and Everything, simply has a more developed notion of "love." We certainly can't expect to comprehend the Divine Mind.

If this is true, then why would God's idea of "just" necessarily correspond to ours? Perhaps to God it is perfectly just to treat serial killers and rapists to eternal paradise and burn maiden aunts with unquenchable fire. He simply has a more developed notion of "justice." We certainly can't expect to comprehend the Divine Mind.

In other words, if one is to retreat to moral skepticism in an attempt to justify "God is love", then one cannot remain consistent and not adopt the same level of skepticism toward God's other alleged attributes...

Regards,

Bill Snedden

Stormy

I read the same Bible as you, except that I read from a different perspective.

I do see God as LOVE...

but also as Holy and Just.

iversong

It’s hard to believe the simple message of the Gospel. The reason, because it's SO simple. If you don’t believe that there is a God then it would be hard to read what I am going to write next.

We all are disgusting in the sight of God. God is a pure and righteous God whose very nature separates us from Him. We are sinners that are on the path to eternal separation from God in Hell. None of us deserve to live, let alone be saved. It is only God’s mercy and grace that allows us this little window of opportunity. This life is meaningless except for those who are found by the Gospel. And that simply means that when you hear the Gospel, your stubborn, evil spirit is compelled by God to repent. In this repentance you need to ask God forgiveness and except Jesus as God. This part will be simple because once you are apprehended by the Gospel you can’t help but see how disgusting you really are.

This is the Gospel. We are sinners. The wages of sin is death. Jesus, who is without sin, came to earth do die in our place. If we confess our sins and if we truly believe in our heart that Jesus is God and that He die and rose again on the third day, then we will be saved.

Interesting to note: You will never feel you are a sinner, or that you are disgusting, or that you are a bad person unless God gets a hold of you. You will continue to do evil in the sight of God and for that you will be judged. And now you have no excuse when you see God. You can’t say, “No one ever told me. It not fair.” I just told you.

iversong

We may not be able to comprehend the Divine Mind, but I can assure you that God can understand our mind. That is why the bible contains words. God relates to us though His Word. That is how we can understand Love and Justice. We look in the scriptures.

Invader Tak

Thanks a lot.

This is such a hideous belief. I am not disgusting sinner living a meaningless life.

How low does your sense of self-worth have to be to actually *believe* this crap?

BioBeing

And this is supposed to convince me that "God is love" Why did he make us this way if he is love?

iversong

You are confusing punishment with evil. Eve’s punishment was due to sin. But that doesn’t mean that it is evil or not loving.

iversong

That is a very good question. I can't answer it. But not knowing why we fell into sin should not be an indication of God’s faultiness. All I know is what the scriptures say about what happened. Satan told Eve that she could be like God if she rebelled. She did and so did Adam. I don’t know why God let them sin. All I know is that they did.

I guess if God made us to love Him, would we really have the kind of love the God wanted. The Angels worship Him. Maybe He wanted a deeper relationship. One where He could draw us to Him. One that would allow us to find love, to find purpose, to find meaning.

I guess one day we can ask Him ourself.

Bill Snedden

I'm sorry, but this really doesn't address the issue. Perhaps you can explain to me how we can't interpret "love" to mean "love" but we can interpret "justice" to mean "justice" and still remain consistent?

And, regarding the following: "We all are disgusting in the sight of God."

I can only take solace in knowing that there any many Christians who do not believe this. I, like IT, must ask, "how low must one's self-esteem be to buy into this?"

Regards,

Bill Snedden