From a Struggling Christian: How do we know that God is truly good?

The True...............
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, but you don't respond to some of the things I said, so I repeat them hoping you will.

The first death is not our physical death. The first death is our spiritual death when we kill our own soul with our own sin and if we do not turn to righteousness from wickedness, it is forever dead spiritually. Death always means the opposite of life or existence. Second death would be our spiritual death becoming permanent if we die Physically without turning to God and being recreated spiritually.

This response does not make sense. How is non existence not the opposite of existence? What are you saying about me not saying it about heaven etc.?
It is at judgment that we need grace and forgivness the most.
I agree God will not kill us. He will however allow us to kill our own soul with our own sin. Ezekiel 18 And we all, both the just and the unjust die physically.

So after we kill our own soul with our own sin, you are saying we are not human?
I don't think you really believe the physical body is what is tortured forever--the body returns to dust and the spirit, if it is alive, goes to God.

Just because you continue to repeat the same thing over and over does not make it so...

You cannot nor should not put yourself in Gods shoes. You are NOT God...
nothing could or does make God evil, Nothing, to believe that God could ever be evil is a sign that you do not believe Him OR take the Bible as the true word of God. Either you do or do not...it's not a game of pick and choose. I believe all
of God's word,not just the ones that make me feel comfortable. God is above
my earthly ,finite existence and no one can put themselves at His level,it is
arrogant to presume because *you* feel this or that, God does too. God is the
Almighty and not a mere mortal as are we!

The Bible says God's wrote His Laws for man on our hearts. It does not say the created have a right to judge the actions of the Creator or that those laws apply to Him.

I believe our Creator is not bound or limited by His Creation or the rules/laws He chooses to have in Creation. I believe it is not for us to say what He is allowed or not allowed to do or to sit in Judgment of Him for what He does, except to say in faith that it is Good things are this way. And we know this because if there was a better way to have made this world, then He would have done that and it would be that way.

The only one here talking about God being is evil is yourself in an attempt to attack the orthodox view of Hell rather address why you think that view would make God evil (the topic here). That is what I am trying to comprehend and unsuccessfully getting you to support that claim.

Needless suffering is a part of this life and yet we know God is still truly Good. I fail to see how one can say eternal suffering in the afterlife would make Him evil when the suffering right now does not. The atheist delight in saying the fact He does nothing when we say He has the power to stop it makes Him an evil god. So how can one use the same argument to claim eternal suffering would do so?

That God is evil if individuals are eternally punishsed in Hell is your (as yet unsupported) claim and not mine. So far all you can do is plead that it is wrong for us, so it must be evil (and boohoo not fair) for God to allow it in Hell.

If we believe that EVERYTHING that happens is for His Glory, then it must be true that both the suffering in this life and in the next in Hell would be the same. As such, those things can ONLY be Good, we just cannot see it now.

Am unfamiliar with any Christian view which places God anywhere near an equal plane with man such that we are able to judge His actions. I could see Mormons holding such views as we are just gods in process to them, so naturally under that view one could judge God's actions. Am pretty certain most Christians, orthodox or not, do not hold such views.

BTW if you are going to claim eternal suffering in Hell is God torturing people, then to be consistent you would logically have to view Him torturing the innocent that are suffering in this life, which under a Mormon-esque view of God would also make Him evil. Which goes back to the topic at hand and has you arguing that God is not truly Good.

You do not know for sure the suffering now is needless. You can only assume that. I agree we cannot see or understand the need for some of the suffering that goes on in this world. I do not agree that God directly causing people to suffer forever would be a loving or good thing.

Repeating them does not address the questions posed to you or the OP of this thread.

God could chose to do evil. That is part of being all powerful. Believing that God has the power and the free will to be unloving or evil does not mean I do not believe in God. What makes God lovable is God can be trusted to not be evil. You do not take all the bible equally as the word of God. No one does. Everyone picks what they want to emphasize in the bible and what they want to ignore. You chose Ezekiel 18 to ignore, but you deny doing that.

The sheep were not orthodox--the goats were. Jesus was unorthodox. The Pharisees were orthodox. I don't mind being grouped with the unorthodox.

God could chose to do evil. That is part of being all powerful. Believing that God has the power and the free will to be unloving or evil does not mean I do not believe in God. What makes God lovable is God can be trusted to not be evil. You do not take all the bible equally as the word of God. No one does. Everyone picks what they want to emphasize in the bible and what they want to ignore. You chose Ezekiel 18 to ignore, but you deny doing that.