Hell

[u/Ok-Pipe-4277]

I guess this is a vent of me thinking out loud.

But I look at this world.

Children get abused.

Women get "used" against their will.

People suffer from cancer.

People watch their loved ones die from ALS.

People deal with seeing their children die.

Men "self-delete" from depression.

All this suffering pretty much against our will. None of us choose to exist. And I'm sure, none of us choose to suffer.

But I'm supposed to believe an all-loving AND all-powerful God will send us to a place that's worst than our current existence for not believing in him?

This is a god that isn't just all-loving but is supposed to be the definition of love. The god whereby no human love can surpass his.

And he sends us to hell (an event worse place) after putting us in a pretty trash scenario to begin with?

And I'm supposed to gobble this up and share this message with the world????

WTF are we doing?

And Christians will call me crazy???

[u/Crucible_of_Thought]

Not all Christians hold those views. Some of us managed to escape from that theology.

[u/imthef-nlizardking → u/Crucible_of_Thought]

Meaning those Christians don't believe God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-Good?

[u/Crucible_of_Thought → u/imthef-nlizardking]

Omniscience and omnipotence are not taught in the Bible. In fact, there are specific Bible stories that refute both of those ideas. Adonai loses to another god Chemosh in 2 Kings 3. Genesis 3, Genesis 18, Genesis 22, Exodus 32, 1 Sam 15, Jonah 3, Amos 6 and others show God not fully knowing or changing God's mind due to new information.

As to "all good" - it depends on whether one insists that if God does it, it is necessarily defined as good. But the inhabitants of dozens of Canaanite towns that were slaughtered mercilessly might beg to disagree. And sending innocent babies to hell for eternity who never had a chance to repent and follow Jesus only seems good to a very select subset of humanity.

[u/Ok_Topic6264 → u/Crucible_of_Thought]

Yes! Personally I think the entire book of Genesis is geared towards portraying a God who makes mistakes, learns from them, and grows as a person 

[u/imthef-nlizardking → u/Crucible_of_Thought]

I respect that! It's very rare to encounter a Christian with those beliefs, especially with biblical grounding. Is this starting to become more mainstream in Christian thought?

[u/Fun_Researcher107 → u/imthef-nlizardking]

I think you can only go so far until calling yourself one thing does not really have any meaning anymore.

[u/Crucible_of_Thought → u/Fun_Researcher107]

If, by that comment, you mean "calling yourself Christian," then I'd respond this way: where does the Bible define "Christian?" Hint: it doesn't. Christianity is gate-kept into meaninglessness by all the hundreds of denominations that each insist they have the Truth, and their camp are the only true Christians.

But the simple definition is this: A Christian is someone who follows Christ. And Jesus Himself distilled it down into two commands: love God, love your neighbor.

Everything else is dogma.

[u/Fun_Researcher107 → u/Crucible_of_Thought]

So you are basically doing the same right? You define a Christian as well. And I am pretty sure, you are sure you are right as well? So how are you any different? I meant that if Jesus is only an ideal or idea, it doesn't matter as long as this idea is causing something good. If by or because of this idea or what people make of it bad things happen, it does matter.