Well, here's my take...
It is written that that which we do unto the least of God, we do unto Him. Our God has a wonderful way of reciprocating love. I believe that it is possible that Ghandi could have seen an angel in his last moments and accepted Christ before passing on. Simple.
I believe that could be possible too
This would only be just if, before I was born, I was given a choice between being perfect, and being human, and chose to be human.
None of us chose to be created human, but, being human, none of us has the option of being perfect, because GOD MADE US THIS WAY.
It is pure sadism for God to create us imperfect and then decide to punish us for it. There is NOTHING of justice in this.
You can choose to have such a God, if you prefer, but I do not. I have a God who has reconciled mankind to himself out of love, not simply to avoid having to punish everyone for a choice that HE made.
Catherineanne, us having original sin doesn't mean that God made us with original sin. He made Adam and Eve perfect. It was they who decided to leave Him. It's because of their sin that we have original sin... not because of God. God gave them free will.
God makes us in His image, but our souls are tainted with original sin, not through God's fault but through humanity's fault.
If you think that is unfair... people don't go to hell just because of original sin, but because they later on choose to not repent of their sins. If they repent, God readily forgives them. The problem is when God is trying to lead a person to repentance, and they're resisting... and that IS their own choice.
I am a Christian. I have served my Lord all my life, and with his Grace hope to always do so.
If I reach eternity and find that a literal lake of hellfire exists, I will happily bow to my Lord, thank him for everything, and then jump into it.
A God who can create an eternal punishment for finite sin is not worth worshipping, and an eternity spent worshipping him is far worse than any lake of hellfire. I will not worship an immoral God.
Fortunately for me, God is not immoral.
I think that is a very dangerous thing to say. How do you know that your (our, human) understanding is perfect? what if there is a lake of fire but God is also just? would you reject God because you don't understand Him? that is very sad to me
God is love because He is a relationship, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. He made the world to share in His love and to be in relationship with Him.. He gave us consciousness so we can freely return love back, just as He does.
God made us (humans - Adam and Eve) perfect, immortal, and in communion with Him. But people were also given free will, and through temptation of the enemy, sinned. They became proud, wanting to be like God. And left Him.
God doesn't owe us anything. He gave us Himself, the whole world, and we rejected Him. But....in His love, He came down to earth.. became one of us.. (think how small we are compared to the universe!).. and then LET His own creation murder Him.
Jesus watched the soldiers drive nails into His hands (the hands that made them), felt the pain they were inflicting on Him.... and all He said was, "Father forgive them.."
and now, after God showed us this GREATEST love, He offers us a way back to Himself. We are free to take it or leave it.
If a person rejects it... freely, knowingly rejects it.... when they'll meet God in eternity, they wouldn't be ABLE to be with Him. They would hate Him, they would undestand their sin, but not be ABLE to repent of it.. because they have closed themselves to repentance. They would flee from His presence. Where? God is everywhere! The love of God, which is the delight and joy of the Saints, would be torture to them. They would go to the one place they can - hell, where there is no God. They would get what they wanted... no need to repent, no need to humble themselves, no need to give up their pride by asking for forgiveness.
But since there's no God there.... there is no goodness, no love, no happiness either. Because He is the source of these things. So they would suffer, because they're torn away from the one thing they were created for.... they would suffer, knowing that they have rejected the whole purpose of their existence, but would not be willing to repent. And this would last forever because God made our souls this way - our souls can't cease to exist.
Since they would be in the same place as the demons (fallen angels, who also rejected God) - they'd share in the hellfire meant for them.
God didn't CREATE hell (even if hell is a lake of fire). It exists because men and angels have chosen to leave Him... and the place they went, away from His presence, is called hell. If lucifer had chosen to stay with God, if Adam and Eve had chosen to stay with God, or if we had all chosen to repent of our sins now, in our present condition, there would be no need for hell....
I don't understand what is unjust about this.
Some people have the question... "is it worth it to give people free will, if this is one of the possible outcomes?" yes I believe it is worth it. If God made it this way, then it is worth it. He gave us free will because love does not exist without choice.. and He created us to love and to know His love. In taking away our free will, He would take away the very reason for our existence... so it is better for God not to create? no.. and we have no authority to judge God. HE decides what is good and evil. Not us. Our understanding is not always correct...we only know so little.
You are correct, but not in the way you think.
If even one single person on God's earth can see that eternal damnation and hellfire for unbelievers is immoral, then it is totally impossible for God to believe it to be acceptable or just. And the Anglican Church has judged that there is not a literal hellfire, so that is more than one person. (Some Anglicans may still believe it, of course; that is their choice.)
what do Anglicans believe? (just wondering, I don't know )
I still think that it's not up to us to judge God. If someone thinks that hell is unjust, that doesn't mean it is. It means that their understanding is perhaps wrong, or misinformed, or incomplete. It is proud to think that our understanding matches God's.
Man cannot outdo God in love, mercy and compassion. Descriptions of hell are allegorical, representing the pain of being separated from God either in this life or eternity. It cannot be literal, because a literal hell denotes a psychopathic and sadistic God, and God is neither of these.
when you say literal, what do you mean? do you mean the fire? what if there is fire? we don't know... it can be either.
I tend to think that the fire is meant for the demons... but since the souls would be in the same place, they'd have to share in that fire. In ANY case, there would be suffering, because there can't be happiness or peace away from God.
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