The God of the bible puts me off believing in him. On one hand he's all loving and forgiving, and on the other hand he's vengeful and ruthless.
He enjoys crushing his enemies, and exacts pleasure from destroying those who stand in his way.
I can't reconcile these opposites, and killing in the name of a god is not something that appeals to my better nature. I certainly do not like this character, but mostly what I disagree with is compulsory love.
Love Jesus or go to hell is a sickly concept made by a sick mind.
So why do you believe when you are faced with this outcome?
Why exactly.
Hello and welcome to CF!
I know a wise priest who if confronted by an atheist likes to invite him, "Tell me about this God you don't believe in. I probably don't believe in him either."
The truth is that the early Christians would never have recognized the God that is often presented today. Israel kept God at arm's length, not wanting to come near to Him, because they did not fully know Him. But Christ is God revealed to us, in the flesh. He lived among us, taught us Who the Father really is. So the early Christians developed a right understanding, and the Gospel they shared was really rightly called "good news".
A right understanding of God, salvation, everything - can only be gotten by reading ALL of the Scripture through the lens of the Gospels.
Unfortunately, much of Christianity has strayed in certain understandings, being influenced by different kinds of thought in history. And then very sincere people who love God have tried to do their best to understand Scripture, but without the proper context, and with the influence of those same thoughts in history, continue to inherit some of the same mistakes.
Specifically, the idea that God somehow had a problem, and can't possibly forgive people because there is a legal constraint on Him, and further that He satisfies that requirement by pounding His own Son to a bloody pulp (which somehow gives Him pleasure, because He REALLY wants to pound US to a bloody pulp) ... the story gets worse and worse! The Apostles would be horrified!
No, no, and no. That was not "the Good News". I do believe people are sincere, and love God in spite of this belief, and desire others to be saved and so they share this. But it has been misunderstood.
God created man and all things good. He is a good and loving God, and loves creation, and desires it return to that state. (And all things WILL be restored, though human persons have free will, so God does give them a choice to accept His forgiveness - but it was always His desire and intent that all do so).
Man's sin was like choosing to take on a cancer, or infection, that spread to all of his descendants and infected all of creation (because we were made responsible for the created material cosmos). The "curse of death" resulting from sin is not punishment, but a natural consequence of cutting oneself off from Life/God.
Like a cancer, the sickness spreads, and all die. Terrible things happen as a result. Through it all, God looks forward to restoring all things. Christ came to be God's revelation to us, to take on the flesh of man so it could be united with God, giving us a source of healing, and being a sacrifice, yes, but more importantly defeating death by dying, because death cannot contain God Himself.
His terrible death was a testimony to His humility, and a demonstration of His great love for us. But His suffering was not pleasing to the Father. God takes no pleasure in any suffering or death, but death is an enemy, destroying God's beloved creation.
The word for "save" and the word for "heal" in the New Testament is the same word. God desires to save/heal us from our sins. It is medicine for healing that He offers us, and the power of His grace to be transformed to be like Christ, as He created mankind to be, along with free forgiveness of sins. THAT is the Good News.
Everyone is going to be resurrected into new bodies that cannot die, or else changed into those bodies if they are still living at the end of this age, whenever that happens. And God's Presence will be with men. Those who have cooperated with His grace, and become like Christ, will be overjoyed to see Him, and experience His glory as paradise. Those who refused the medicine to heal, preferring evil, hating God, are not going to be able to get away from His Presence, and because they are so opposite Him, they will experience Him as a consuming fire. It is not the pleasure of God to "punish" or torment anyone. But some, by their own choices, will create their own torment.
God is not schizophrenic, bloodthirsty, or opposed to Himself or hating His creation. God is perfect love. He doesn't change. But we, in our darkened understanding, sometimes fail to understand, and place human traits on God, rather like some of the pagan deities created out of man's imagination. It is a normal human tendency to do so. But it does not reflect Truth. This has sometimes resulted in poor translations of Scripture too, so when God warns something will happen - like a loving parent might say, "don't touch the stove - it's hot and you will burn yourself" - with our notions of an angry, bloodthirsty God, we hear instead "don't touch the stove, or I'm going to punish you by holding you against it and burning you!"
Our wrong understanding doesn't make a thing true.
Truth is Jesus Christ.
God be with you and have mercy on you.