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Or they manage to somehow maintain the cognitive discord of believing that God loves everyone but allows them to be tortured for eternity. Maybe by just not thinking too deeply about it.
Only a created god can love you one moment, and will accept you if you accept him; then next moment burn you if you did not accept him and get ran over by a truck on the way home. That is what is called bipolar.
Do Believers in Eternal Torment Have An Underlying Sadistic Streak?
I suppose some may. But I think most just suffer from insecurity and a poor self image.
Yes I would agree. The insecurity of separation and loss of identity, I'm a poor old miserable sinner saved by grace, is not our identity, how possibly can you see yourself like this, when scripture says many things like this.......But you, LORD, are a shield around me, my glory, the One who lifts my head high.?, how possibly can your head be held high when you have a poor self image?.
Or they manage to somehow maintain the cognitive discord of believing that God loves everyone but allows them to be tortured for eternity. Maybe by just not thinking too deeply about it.
Only a created god can love you one moment, and will accept you if you accept him; then next moment burn you if you did not accept him and get ran over by a truck on the way home. That is what is called bipolar.
Only a person who would ask such a question could be so wrong. It's what we call Hubris.
(I'm assuming if the new standard is not discussion, but presumption I could have some fun as well!)
Have you considered that it is those who promoted and twisted the bible to support eternal torment are really those who have sown the tares and are the bad fruit?
What?!! A Popular Christian Tradition that just happens to be a great way to scare people into the faith and infinitely extreme/insane beyond any known standard of justice couldn't possibly be wrong!!.....
While there may be some with an underlying desire to see others suffer, I can't believe that is true of most. I tend to think that fear, in some form or another, must be at the base for most. Fear of questioning God, for one. And who wouldn't be afraid of a God they've been told will fry them for eternity if they don't believe the right things?
I know fear was a huge factor for myself. I was an ET believer for most of my life and when I was presented with the alternative, I fought against the idea that ET was untrue tooth and nail. And that in spite of the fact that I suffered a lot of mental/emotional anguish over believing ET. I didn't hold onto ET because I wanted to see others suffer, but because I thought that ET was integral to my entire belief system. Any time my mind would try to extricate the ET doctrine from the rest of the things I believed, it seemed like the whole system must certainly come crashing down around me, the rug pulled out from under me. I was totally fearful of that possibility.
Yes, Pleroo, I think apart from this mean/sadistic streak I find in many traditional Christians the most logical alternative to it has to be fear---cold-sweats, heart-pounding, gut-wrenching terror of getting up in front of God at death and somehow finding themselves on God's bad side, like He got up out of bed on the wrong side that morning and is in the mood to torture a few billion people today. I'm familiar with this fear; I have a pang of it every now and then due to my Catholic upbringing when nuns would pound into our heads that every wrong step we took would result in untold torment in hell and coming back to earth to move a grain of sand from the earth every billion years till the earth was cleared away and then looking up at God and asking, "Is eternity almost over?" and having Him respond with not a drop of mercy, "Baby, it hasn't even begun." Imagine telling that kind of stuff to 9 and 10 YO'ers. Boy if you don't think that baloney will mess up your psyche to a degree, I have a bridge....
Fortunately, I took the time to educate myself on what the scriptures really declare. But let's analyze what plain and simple "really says" in his posts:
1. He declares I, instead, am the one that has a sadistic streak. What sadistic about saying that God loves everyone enough to save everyone from the pains of hell?
2. He declares I am not a Christian. If I believe Christ died for my sins and that His death is what insures that everyone will eventually get to heaven, does that make me a heretic non-Christian?
3. He declares my sole purpose for coming here is to sow strife and discord. Because I, along with several here, believe in the absolute mercy, wisdom and loving judgments of an all-loving God?
4. He declares I am a tare among wheat (wheat like him, I suppose--that one made me laugh out loud )
5. He declares he will not waste his time arguing because it pointless. Yet he continues to come back to declare he's not going to debate the points, just continue to mock and accuse, I assume. Is all this beginning to sound:
Quote:
Originally Posted by TroutDude
Fascinating.
Creepy, but fascinating.
The simple truth (and it IS truth) is that plain and simple would rather make accusations and call names and obfuscate and dodge all day rather than just face the question head on like any rational-minded person would. This is the typical game-plan straight out of the strategy manual that ET'ers resort to when faced with the blinding truth of universalism. I've found in life that those who call you certain things can usually be found guilty of the exact same things they accuse others of. But, of course, to address all this is a waste of plain and simple's time and is pointless.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Xian Catalyst
I like this thrillobyte guy.
You're a pretty nice guy/gal yourself, Xtian Catalyst. Pleased to make your acquaintance.
I'd like to comment on lego's points in my next post.
It does not matter what one believes if it is true. Even if I were to believe different, it does not matter in the event it is true.
GOD has declared what is a JUST sentence for our rebellion against Him. Part of the gospel is JESUS spending three days and three nights in Sheol for OUR sake with the promise of the Father that He would not let His soul remain in Hell or let His Holy One see corruption (Bible paraphrase). Jesus was made a curse so WE don't have to bear this JUST punishment that HE received not only suffering physical death but spiritual death as well.
JESUS saves sinners from ETERNAL DAMNATION, What GOD has deemed as a Just punishment for our rebellion. He loved the World so much that He sent His only begotten Son to DIE both Physically and Spiritually for You and Me.
There is nothing sadistic about it. The Gospel is God's display of His love for mankind, which is why rejecting it has ETERNAL consequences.
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