What makes you think so? That's a convenient way to remove responsibility from God, but I'm not sure I follow it. For example, an atheist doesn't believe any god exists, not, "I acknowledge gods existence and know all about it, but I choose to not believe because I'm a rebel". I don't see how other religions would exist or even different denominations of Christianity, or even this very forum if people already had an inherent understanding of God.
The book of Romans makes me think so. It is quite clear there. Of course, I cannot expect you to accept waht it says, as the news is not good for you if you chose not to believe. I offered my view as a Christian response to your questions but do not expect you to necessarily share them.
As for an inherent understanding of God taking away different denominations etc. that is not the kind of knowlege we all have. We basically konw there is a God, and the difference between good and evil. We also have a ingraned sense of justice. We feel the need for evil to be repaid. These alone are enough to condemn us.
If you meant that everyone has the potential to have a non-specific spiritual experience, then I would tend to agree, even though no one is guaranteed to have one.
Not quite what I meant. THe above should clarify what I did mean.
I don't understand how anyone could have such a bleak and self-condemning outlook. Everyone deserves to suffer in hell for all eternity? For what crime? Because someone ate a fruit of knowledge when God told them not to thousands of years ago? Please help me understand this.
No, no one alive today will go to hell because Adam ate teh fruit. Those going to hell do so for their own sin. We all do deserve this. We all have sinned. Now to understand this I must briefly digress into the nature of sin.
What sin is is disobediance to God's will basically. When we are dishonest at all we sin. When we fail to place God first in our lives we sin. These sins condemn us no less than murder. This is because the act comitted is not so important as whom it is comitted against. Every time we sin, we sin not only against others, but also against God. As God is so great, even the smallest sin is dire indeed. Now we need to understand just how God views sin. I'll try to be brief and break it down into several quick points.
1. We were created for God to glorify Him.
2. God considers us as His bride. This illustration is used reapeatedly and in fact the institution of marriage has as it's main point to showcase the love between Jesus (the Groom) and His church (the bride).
3. When we turn from our Husband God to pursue the pleasures of this world (that is when we sin) we are in fact engaging in harlotry.
4. In addition to considering our sin harlotry, God sees it as an affront to His very nature and as absolute filth.
I hope that goes a small way to more clearly defining sin. The beauty of the Gospel is that Christ bore the ppunishment for our sins and we are thus made pure and clean in God's eyes.
You seem to imply that God does not want everyone to get His message, but they will suffer in hell anyway...
One of the hardest doctrines to talk about, as it is one of the most offensive. So much so that many even in the church reject it, though I can show it clearly from teh Bible.
Basically it boils down to God being Sovereign. He made everything, sustain everything and everything is under His control. No exceptions. Now He made vessels destined for grace (those people He will save) and vessels destined for wrath (those people He will not save). Both are for His glory. He will gain glory for the grace He shows to some, and He will gain glory for jusly punishing those who reject His Son. God has chosen, from before the foundations of the earth were laid, those He will save and those He will not. It's a hard truth for us to come to terms with, but a truth none the less.
