Valo;
Your particular expressed viewpoint or puzzlement as well as other doctrinal traditions posed by different christian factions is what initially turned me aside to christianity in general, but thru investigation I found not all segments of christianity have this illogical viewpoint of our loving God as a wrathful tyranical dictator type. Through reading and research IMO I found these to be somewhat of fear type factor doctrines geared to get people to church.
So, first off, God is not willing that any be lost, the fire and brimstone is reserved for the devil and his minions who have no desire for goodness. But, because He is a loving God, He won't force us either, He stands at your heart and knocks, but you have to let Him in, He won't force Himself on anybody.
And about God can't touch sin, I believe that may be a little misinterpreted cause I don't think there's anything God can't do, just that He chooses not to. I believe it states something like sin can't exist in the presence of God, and darkness can't exist where there's light. This is why when Moses wanted to see God it wasn't possible, not because God was rude, haughty, or arrogant, but because His goodness would have destroyed Moses due to our everpresence of sin in us. Like with Jesus in the garden where He took on the sins of the world He had to divorce Himself from the Father, and He sweated and cried tears of blood. You have to understand They were One and never separated before and its unimagainable how hollow and alone Jesus probably felt and why He thought He was forsaken and aabandoned, all for us, I might add.
OK, heres where I kinda part company with some christian doctrinal teaching. Where the Bible and Jesus say we sleep in the grave, then thats who I believe. We sleep in the grave until the resurrection, Martha and Mary believed that and even stated that to Jesus and He never corrected them when He brought back Lazarus, who if he was in heaven for that period of time would seem to have a lot to say about it, yet said nothing?
I realize each of these comments could be a whole topic in and of themselves, but thats what I believe. Plus, the way words are used need to be researched as to history, traditions, and customs like forever, eternal, etc. cause your right, eternal punishment and torture is not the intention nor is it in the very nature and character of our loving God.
The operative word here is "punishment", not punishing! Punishing is soemthing continual, punishment is something that has a begining and an end. God is not horrific, He's a loving God not willing that any should suffer, but even if you chose to, He's merciful and puts an end to suffering in sin. I don't know if I've worded or explained this succinctly enough but basicly if something, verse or doctrine dosen't line up with God's charater then that's what needs to be investigated, not God, He won't let you down. Hope somehow this helps.
doc8645
