Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: jrossi@jato.jpl.nasa.gov (The Electric Sol) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Why Does God Hate Me? Message-ID: Date: 11 Dec 89 08:44:40 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Jet Propelled Lab - Pasadena CA Lines: 65 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article jrossi@jato.jpl.nasa.gov (The Electric Sol) writes: >[This is an area in which Christians vary. We've had discussions in ah, but Mr. Moderator, why the variance? I don't object to a diffence of opinion, in fact, it adds variety to life, however, for me, when the stakes are eternal damnation, why isn't there consistency within His Church? >the past about whether God hates people or not. While there are >certainly Biblical grounds for saying that God hates sinners, my >impression is that most Christians prefer the formulation that he >hates the sin and loves the sinner. If this is so, it's not entirely But is this formulation scriptural? If God truely loves the sinner, then He fails miserably. For the road is wide that leads to destruction, and narrow, that leads to life. So life was set up so that the majority of sinners would go to "hell" along with their sin. Either it was his intention that most of us would go to hell, or again, He has failed miserably. >accurate to say that he hates you because you reject him. Rather, he >is simply unwilling to override your choice, since that would negate >your existence as an independent being. I object. First, I don't consider myself an independent being, rather I feel wholly interdependent, and connected to a world which He created. I'm not sure what you mean by independent being, and I really don't think you mean = to God, rather perhaps you mean in the traditional sense that I have been given Free Will, however, any choices, or decisions I make using free will are influenced by both the software God programmed me with, and the situation I been placed into. By giving man free will, but placing him within the natural order, and subject to natural laws, and then giving him a moral code only a supernatural being could follow, is setting him up to fail, IMHO. >Again, there are varying >concepts of hell. A common concept these days is that God doesn't >intentionally create torments for those that reject him. Rather, its >nature follows from the fact that it is a place filled with people who >reject God. Why the varying concepts? Again, I have a hard time fathoming an almighty loving God UNintentionally creating a place of eternal torment. And for the record I don't hate God, nor reject Him, but rather I reject Christianity in its ongoing forms, and that the Bible is inerrant, and that this is the Only way. If anyone wants to suggest that this is tantamount to rejecting God, please explain why this particular path is so difficult for honest seekers such as myself to accept. -- -jrossi@jato.jpl.nasa.gov "Constantly choosing the lesser of two evils -ames!elroy!jato!jrossi is still choosing evil." -Cptn. Trips **********************STANDARD DISCLAIMER****************************** [The question of why variation exists in the Church is an interesting one. There is of course variation in people's answer to that question as well... I can only conclude that God does not care as much about doctrinal conformity as some Christians do. The main purpose of my comments was to suggest that you look around the Church a bit more carefully. I think there are many people whose position is similar to yours. --clh]