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“The great Rabbi Meir said that any interpretation of Scripture which led to hatred and disdain, or contempt of other people — any people whatsoever — was illegitimate…Saint Augustine made exactly the same point. Scripture, he says, “teaches nothing but charity, and we must not leave an interpretation of Scripture until we have found a compassionate interpretation of it.” And this struggle to find compassion in some of these rather rebarbative texts is a good dress rehearsal for doing the same in ordinary life.” – Karen Armstrong
God did everything He could do to save all people. He paid the penalty for every single person using the death of His Son. He does not force people against their will into a relationship with Him. So while He desires all to be saved, some will not choose Him. There were many people living in Jesus' day - saw Him do miracles, and refuse Him.
Read the bold. Read it again. If you really believe that the "penalty" has been "paid", then what are people going to be punished for? You think God needs to be paid twice? *
*The whole penalty/payment thing is nonsensical to begin with, imo, so I'm speaking hypothetically.
“The great Rabbi Meir said that any interpretation of Scripture which led to hatred and disdain, or contempt of other people — any people whatsoever — was illegitimate…Saint Augustine made exactly the same point. Scripture, he says, “teaches nothing but charity, and we must not leave an interpretation of Scripture until we have found a compassionate interpretation of it.” And this struggle to find compassion in some of these rather rebarbative texts is a good dress rehearsal for doing the same in ordinary life.” – Karen Armstrong
Yeah, if that video shows the practice in action, I've got to watch it. I'm having a hard time understanding how one finds a "compassionate interpretation" of those sorts of texts.
If God desires all to be saved then why are not all saved?
Can humans thwart God?
That reminded me of Job, had to look it up:“I know that you can do all things,
and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. (stopped)'', 42:2.
This is how i see it...
If you think of it as, 'If God desires all our love then why do we not love Him?'
It helps to understand why it takes so long to come around...neither can be forced...
and the whole world is here and God has all eternity to nudge us in the right direction...
for us to think we came around all by ourselves.
Funny, as if we do anything at all to be drawn to Him.
God, the Orchestrator of Everything...the Lurer of Souls...what is up His sleeve next to bring me even closer...what a Dance!
I can't tell God who He should be just like I can't tell you who you should be.
What you posted is what YOU do, not me. You demand God to be love. You reject God's character of holiness.
God is who God is...completely independent of the church's interpretation and anyone's demands..therefore you nor i have the correct answers, we only have faith and that does not give anyone the right to teach FEAR or OPPRESSION
My theory is because it was a murderous psychopath.
Yours, I suspect, may differ.
But I doubt it'll convince me.
Try.
(Well, I don't go along with the Garden story of us being 'condemned', first...)
But, this might be a start to alter the angle in which you see things...not through the
Biblical lens...maybe not.
This understanding came from a now deceased teacher...to me is pure logic.
God is love. And Love must love.
And to love there must be a Beloved.
But since God is Existence infinite and eternal there is no one for Him to love but Himself.
And in order to love Himself, He must imagine Himself as the Beloved whom He as the lover imagines He loves.
...when union is attained, the Lover knows that he himself was all along the Beloved, whom he loved and desired union with;
and that all the impossible situations that he overcame were obstacles which he himself had placed in the path to himself.
To attain union is so impossibly difficult because it is impossible to become what you already are!
Union is nothing other than knowledge of oneself as the Only One.
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