I would love to believe in the God that other people believe in. As Tom Jones sings in his song to his child ‘Counting on You’ saying, “So may there be millions who feel like you do, oh my love.” It would just be easier to have a big group of people around you who continuously affirm and confirm your views. I think that it is harder to constantly have people challenge your view, but perhaps by the end of it all your own faith is stronger. I am not sure. What I am sure about is that I have most often, by fate or by choice ‘taken the road less travelled.’ As to whether it has ‘made all the difference’, I think the jury is still out. Still there are times I look at that other road, the one that everyone takes and wish that I was walking with everyone else. So this is my God less travelled.
I struggle with people feeling they have the right to tell others how to live their lives. No one knows the background of the other. What right have I got to tell someone else how they should live their lives. Now I am happy with laws and athough I break than my fair share of speeding laws, I think that laws as a whole help society work more seamlessly. But if someone chooses to break the law, then they suffer society’s consequences. But I can still understand why that law and any law really was broken and I can feel compassion for both the victim and the criminal.
There are a few things that I refuse to believe. I refuse to believe that God loves some people more than others (which I will address in another ranting post) and I also refuse to believe that God is cruel. If I have a God, it is a loving forgiving one. I mean that truly. I don’t think that you can apply the reasoning of free will and the reasoning that ‘God knows what you are going to do before you do it’. How is that free will? If God knew that I was going to choose and fail or choose incorrectly, then it is just cruel to continue the scenario. A loving God could not be so cruel. Seriously, if you knew that your child was going to choose the wrong path, would you close your eyes and let them take the path that will ruin them?
I feel that I don’t know enough to judge, well, ever. Do I know what is in that person’s past? Do I know what tools they bought with them to the table? Just because they look like they are coping, are they? I can only believe that if there is a God then that God does in fact know, not just what they bring to the table but also Why they have chosen such a path. I think that Thomas Mores’ Utopia should be required reading along with bible studies. Thomas More, or more correctly Saint Thomas More was a man who wrote controversially in Henry VIII’s time. Now that takes a brave man, sainted for taking the Catholic Church’s side against the formation of the Church of England, an act for which he also (fairly typically for HenryVIII), lost his head. But if you read into it, it wasn’t the Church of England he had a problem with; it was the acceptance of the king as Supreme Head of the Church of England.
In Utopia, Thomas More says:
“For if you suffer your people to be ill-educated, and their manners to be corrupted from their infancy, and then punish them for those crimes to which their first education disposed them, what else is to be concluded from this, but that you first make thieves and then punish them.”
Is that not what we are saying God does? That he makes sinners and then punishes us for that. I refuse to believe that God would be so cruel. That he creates someone homosexual, but then punishes them for that. Can you really believe that God would hate his creations as much as you fear them? That he has someone born in the Ghettos and then punishes them for swearing. Can you really believe that God would punish his creations when, by virtue of their birthplace alone, they have not learned any other language? That he has someone born beautiful, but disrespected, so that she chooses to use sex as a way out. Would he really punish her for that, even when she has never been taught self respect and knows no other option? That he would have a child born in a place where life is worth nothing and then punish him for taking a life, that to him was worthless?
When did we get given the right to say that this person deserves compassion but not that one? I think the beginning of grace is the ability to forgive people their choices. The beginning is being able to see that there may be another side to the story, a belief that just because your life is completely blessed, that perhaps there are others out there who were not blessed enough to want to or be able to ‘walk the one more travelled”. Compassion is about knowing that though the path may be clear for you, that for another through no fault of their own the path may be hidden in vines and quicksand. God could not be cruel enough to hide the path, booby trap it and then punish them for not finding the path. I can only hope that your God is not as cruel and judgmental as his representatives on earth are.
God isn't cruel. A person who has never heard about Jesus Christ and how He died to make a way for humans to have an everlasting relationship with God will NOT be held accountable for not following/obeying God. So no, a person born in the ghetto who swears because that's the language they've grown up with isn't going to be sent to hell for swearing. A Christian who swears isn't going to be sent to hell for swearing, either.
ReplyDeleteWhat determines whether or not a person goes to hell is whether or not they have made a choice for God or a choice for the devil. IF you have heard the message of the Gospel ~ that Jesus died so that we could be forgiven of our sins & that if we accept that as truth & admit to God that we know we are sinners who need a Savior & we ask Him to come into our life & be our Lord ~ and accept it, then your name is written in God's book of life & you will not go to hell. If you hear the message of the Gospel & reject it, never making a choice to accept Christ, then on Judgment Day, you will be sent to hell. It's not because God is cruel that people will go to hell. It is because people have free will to choose what they want & who they will serve. If you don't choose God, you are choosing satan, by default. This isn't something you can sit on the fence about. You're either on one team or the other. So... people who heard the message of salvation and never accepted Jesus won't be in heaven. People who either never heard the salvation message or do not have the cognitive ability to make a choice either for or against God will go to heaven ~ that is why children are not held accountable in the same way adults (of normal cognitive ability) are. People who die without ever hearing about Jesus obviously could not have made a decision for or against Him, so they will not be held accountable, either, and they will be in heaven.
Christians are allowed to judge the actions of OTHER CHRISTIANS. The Bible says that Christians need to hold other Christians accountable for their behavior & correct them when they screw up. But we are NOT to judge everyone and we are not supposed to hold people who do not profess to follow Christ to the standards that God specifies. Unfortunately, many (many) Christians get that totally wrong & really do a disservice to Christianity with their judgmental attitudes.
ReplyDeleteGod doesn't play favorites & the pathway to heaven & Him is not hidden or booby-trapped. I think many struggle to accept Him and follow His rules because it means sacrificing what WE want in order to do it HIS way & our very nature rebels against that. The bible is clear about how to get to heaven ~ accept Christ for who He is and what He did on the cross & ask Him to be the Lord of your life & to forgive your sins/mistakes. Yes, I know that different religions tout that all paths lead to God, but the bible is specific that there really IS just one way to eternal life, and that is through Jesus Christ. It is up to each cognitively-able person to decide whether they want to accept that as truth or not. But if a person decides to reject God's offer of eternal life with Him, that doesn't mean that He is cruel or unjust when He enforces the consequence for the choice that was made, especially since the bible is very specific about what will happen to those who reject Him.
Last thing ~ regarding your question of whether a parent would knowingly let their child do something that they knew would ruin their life? No, of course not, but parents can't always stop their kids from doing stupid things. Sometimes you can spell everything out and your kids will STILL make horrible choices. That doesn't make the parents cruel when their children encounter consequences for those stupid choices (it also doesn't reduce their grief at wishing their kids didn't do such stupid things). God's the same way. He has spelled out what we should and shouldn't do. He has outlined consequences should we choose to go down the wrong paths. But he allows us to make the decision we're going to make because He loves us and doesn't want to FORCE us to love Him back or to obey us out of force or fear. He wants us to choose to love & obey Him and to trust Him & to make good choices, but He isn't going to protect us from the consequences if we reject Him & choose to go our own way. That doesn't make Him cruel. That makes us hard-hearted, self-centered people who want what we want when we want it & will do what we want regardless of whether it's what God wants us to do or not. Why, then, should be surprised and why should we blame God and say He's cruel when we face the consequences for our choices? That's kind of silly, isn't it? If Levi chose to sneak out of the house & take your car for a joyride with some of his buddies when he's 16 years old and he crashed the car & got a broken leg, would YOU be considered cruel for not stopping him & for him getting a broken leg? Of course not! So how is God cruel for not stopping you from doing something stupid & getting hurt because of it? That is what free will IS ~ it's letting you make the choices you want to make to do what you want to do. God can know what choices we are going to make but because of free will, He doesn't intervene. If He did, it wouldn't be free will anymore.
Oh well... I could go on & on, but I'll shut up for now. You know I'm happy to discuss this with you any time you want. Love you!!!