Why would a loving God send people to hell??
Video:
Sin: disordering your beliefs; loving something more than another, when that something is less important
-Keller argues that hell is the epitome of living for yourself; it is your self-centeredness going to the extreme.
-God has both love and judgment. He loves us enough to try to correct our wrong actions; if he really didn't care, he would just let us live our lives and let us have whatever we wanted.
-Would God condemn someone just because they didn't arrive at the conclusion that there is a God, even if they earnestly sought for one? What if they arrived at the conclusion that some other entity was God?
Judgment Day:
1) only for people who need someone to look over their shoulder and make sure they are doing "good" things. Threat: you will face God.
2) you should maximize your satisfaction now and not speak out against wrong-doers because on judgment day God will take care of them. Threat: they will face God.
3) we shouldn't despair over injustice because God will take care of it all. But, we need to work on God's side in this life, so we should fight injustice. No judgment day: retaliation NOW; judgment day: peace-making.
Discussion:
-Hell is perhaps not the fire and brimstone we were raised to believe. Perhaps it is eternal separation from God and the end result of self-centeredness: our worst qualities let run out of control. [see Luke 16:24-31]
-Does the above passage lead us to believe that God can withhold evidence about himself because there is already enough out there? Can he justify leaving blanks in our perceptions?
-we cannot disprove God because science cannot test for something outside of nature. It can test for feelings, emotions, thoughts and ideas but not a spirit.
-Will God punish people for their sincerely held beliefs if they turn out to be wrong? Yes.
-Hell is a monument to human freedom, it is the result of us having our way.
-Are people generally good or generally bad?
What happens when we die?
1) We either go to heaven or hell.
2) We enter back into the circle of life, our body gets adsorbed into the earth and the essence we call ourselves ceases to exist. We live on only in the people we effected, the ideas we created and the thoughts we left behind.
Why isn't everyone evil?
1) religion steers people away from evil
2) education steers people away from evil
NOTE: we spent a great deal of time discussing free will as it is seen or not seen biologically. However, I decided not to address it in this post because it was outside of the discussion of this chapter.
People have issues with this because well, it doesn't make sense. I have 2 sons whom I love to the moon and back. They are precious sweet little boys. And in all of my love for them I know that there are consequences for their actions and that sometimes I have to deal them out to them. BUT I would never separate my children from myself forever because they are evil/bad/unrepentant sinners or for any other reason that I can think of. And I sincerely believe that this is as simple as that. A God who created us, knit us together in our mother's womb, loves us, is Abba Father... would damn people to hell to be eternally separated from Himself. It is pretty unbelievable for most people. For me some days too.
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