Is God a loving god?

[evomax01]

Hello. I was born in China and spent most of my life there until I came to college in the United States. My family and community were not religious at all. I've never even seen a church before coming to the United States. I also found out about Christianity and had some questions. I've been going to church from time to time with some friends.

One of the sermons explained how the Judeo-Christian God was a loving god, in contrast to the Islamic Allah, with one of hte points being that there's many titles for Allah, such as Allah the Mighty, Allah the Punisher, etc but not Allah the Loving or Allah the Forgiver. Indeed today, Christianity is a relatively peaceful religion, a positive turn of events from the crusades. However, there are some aspects of the Christian faith that I really cannot fathom.

I think around 68% of the world population is not Christian. In the scriptures, it says that those who do not accept the Judeo-Christian god as their savior will be punished by being sent to hell for all eternity. i know that in addition to believing in the judeo-christian god, one must live a morally just life and do good deeds. However, most religions converge on this point, saying that in order for a person to have a good afterlife, one must be a good person and believe in whatever God or values the religion emphasizes. In essence, it seems like being sent to Heaven or achieving Nirvana or a positive form of afterlife is more contingent on whichever god you happen to believe in, because one has to be a good person overall.

Now, my question is if the Judeo-Christian god is deemed to be loving and merciful, why would he punish the 68% of the world population just because they won't praise his name and accept him as the one god? Indeed, a portion of the 68% won't be going to heaven regardless due to their immoral ways, but for those who have had a moral life and a life devoted to service and humanitarian causes it would be really unfair.

For example, had Mother Theresa had been a Muslim or a Buddhist, she would be sent to hell. Also, somewhere in hell would be Gandhi, an important Indian leader who practiced compassion and non-violence.

I'm not sure what happens to those who have never had a chance to accept God, such as babies who die within days of their birth due to poor medical/sanitary conditions. What happens to them?

Why is it this way? If I'm mistaken in some ways, please correct me as I only have very basic understandings of the Christian faith.

 

[faithfulservant]

Can I speak to you very frankly? I used to be an atheist most of my young life (until around 23 years of age). Then, I cried out to God to show me He was real, and He did. But I didn't want to look into His ways, so I kept doing whatever I wanted and selfishly assumed God is like I want Him to be: Anyone can get to heaven as long as they believe in some god and as long as we try to be our best we will all make it there, because surely God is good like I think goodness is. I was basically a deist with a god of my own creation. That was convenient.

Then... Do I have your attention still? Then... One day... After 17 years of wandering around acting like I knew what God was about... The Holy Spirit of God broke through my hard heart and showed me the truth.

What was that truth? I was evil. Wait, please listen. Mind you, I was a super-liberal, do-gooder type. I have a bachelor's degree in social work. I have a master's degree in elementary education. I had dedicated my life, so I thought, to social justice.

And yet... When God finally broke through my hard heart, I was able to see the truth: I'm evil. This is not an easy thing to come to terms with for us humans. We think we're decent enough, but usually only when we compare ourselves to people who do awful things openly.

Ultimately, however, the LORD showed me all the wrong reasons I did so many good things for others. I wasn't really helping people for the sake of helping them, I was doing it to make myself feel like I was something special. Once we see we're evil, however, it's quite natural to then feel the need for a Savior. That's where Jesus comes in. He died for our sins, and He will cover our sins with His blood if we want Him to.

All those years, I was avoiding God's plan for my life. All those years wasted. God's a revelation, you know. I couldn't explain Him to you. No person can "reason" God out.

He will, however, reveal Himself to those who humble themselves. It's supernatural.

Can you consider calling out to Him? When His Spirit comes upon you and shows you that His way is better than your way, will you have an open mind to consider this truth? If so, you will know the Living God. And Jesus will become your Savior.

There really is a battle going on for souls. There really is a heaven and hell. There really is a God who loves you so much you could never really understand.

Start praying to Him. Ask Him to reveal Himself to you. You won't have to ask questions to others about Him, you can go straight to Him. He will show you.

I pray the LORD will grant you repentance, and that He will penetrate your heart with His Holy Spirit and baptize you with His Spirit. In Jesus' name I pray...

 

[Donnie Ducati]

God’s Word tells us that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin (Heb. 9:22). Fallen humanity’s only choice then, is find blood that is pure, untainted by sin, and, thereby, able to take our place in death. Thank the Lord, that Blood has been provided! We must ever let it be known that it was the Lord Jesus Christ who was the Only One Worthy, the Only One whose Blood can wash clean the souls of men! Death was the price for sin, and it was Jesus, Hallelujah, who paid this price and died in the place of those who would come to Him! “For the wages of sin is death; but the Gift of God is Eternal Life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6:23). Jesus is without question the One and Only Way to God! Revelation 13:8 says that Jesus was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. None can be rescued from Hell who refuse the Blood of God’s Only Son.

The reason human beings experience a sense of distance or disconnect with God is because of our sin. God’s Holiness prevents Him from fellowshipping with unrighteousness. You see, man cannot save himself, because all men have inherited a sin nature. Neither can one man die for another. Not even the death of an innocent animal is enough. In the Old Testament, the Lord instituted the animal sacrifices, but this only served as a temporary covering for sin until Christ would completely take sin away. “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins” (Heb 10:4). Yet, even in this temporary situation, God always only had one specific place, one Tabernacle, and/or one Brazen Altar in which He would accept the sacrifices. His Conditions were designed to typify the Sacrifice of Christ which was to come. Some depraved individuals throughout history even tried sacrificing babies upon evil heathen altars in a desperate attempt to atone for sin. But, Christ Alone was spotless, making Him the only suitable Sacrifice for our sin. Eternal Life and Salvation is only available to those who identify with His substitutionary Death at Calvary! “Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the Glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:4).

Tragically, however, we have many in both the church and the world today who are teaching that there is more than one way to God. These say that as long as you sincerely pursue goodness in your life and follow your conscience to the best of your ability, whatever path you take will ultimately lead you to God and bring you to Heaven one day. These individuals could make no greater mistake! It may be hard in this modern age, with all our creature comforts, entertainments, and distractions to comprehend the dire consequences of sin. Yet, it is the actual reason our physical bodies die, and spiritually-speaking we are already “. . . dead in trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2:1). But, unlike the Jews, we do not have to watch the fires consume the flesh of the animal sacrifices. Nor do we have to physically apply the blood of an innocent lamb across the doorposts of our homes to escape an Angel of Death like the Jews did in Egypt (Ex., Chpt. 12). And, we did not see God strike dead the priests who offered up “strange fire” to Him (Lev.10:1-2), meaning their offering failed to typify Christ’s Sacrifice. The Lord allowed such vivid events, however, to try to show man the spiritual magnitude that Christ’s Death on the Cross would have. It was, in fact, the Only Way God could have ever reached us!

 

[Thiscrosshurts]

In the scriptures, it says that those who do not accept the Judeo-Christian god as their savior will be punished by being sent to hell for all eternity.

Actually as Donnie Ducati pointed out the wages of sin is death not eternal punishment.
Rom. 6:23“For the wages of sin is death; but the Gift of God is Eternal Life through Jesus Christ our Lord”.

Hell is actually Greek mythology and since the new testament was written in Greek they used the word Hades in place of the Hebrew word Sheol.The King James Bible translators chose hell as a translation and that stuck in the minds of the common folk.
Hades is not the same as Sheol or "the grave" there is no torment or knowledge of anything,it is just like the atheist heaven,nothing.
Hades and hell are from Greek mythology and the stories about hell are from mythology not the bible.
Jesus also spoke of Gehenna,which is the garbage dump outside Jerusalem where the worm dieth not and the fire never ceases.
Gehenna was also translated as hell.
Jesus said we sleep when we die,there is a resurrection that the dead are awaiting but there is much debate on how exactly that will look.
In fact when someone mentioned the resurrection to Jesus he said "I am the resurrection".
It wasn't easy to research these things 20 years ago(before the internet) so most Christians are unaware of the misconceptions caused by translating from translations.
Wikipedia examines the origins of the words Hell,Hades and Sheol.

The revelation of the new testament is that God IS Love so you have the main part right.If something does not sound like love,I found it's worth researching to see if popular opinion is actually correct.

 

[evomax01]

@ByGraceAlone Hello. Yes I've been going to church, as most of my friends are Christian. It's very new to me, this religion, but after going to some meetings for newcomers and going to bible study, I just had a lot of questions. I'll keep my heart and mind open and see what god is trying to say.

@DonnieDucati: I also learned about the original sin of Adam and Eve, and according to the Judeo-Christian scripture, we're all descendants of A&E, so we inherited the sin. The sin is only able to be washed away through the body and blood of Jesus, accepting God, and living a good life.

@Thiscrosshurts: I'm a bit confused. My idea was that everyone dies at a certain point, but good Christians who accept Christ and do good deeds are accepted into heaven, Christians who claim to believe in God but still do evil acts are sent to hell, and those who do not accept the Judeo-Christian god are sent to hell regardless of how they lived.

I think the pastor at my local church mentioned 'living forever' as in after the bodily death, one continues 'living' per-se in heaven. But there is a hell where sinners are punished, is there not?

 

[Donnie Ducati]

But there is a hell where sinners are punished, is there not?

Yes.


Revelation 20:15
And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
:shock:

 

[Thiscrosshurts]

Lets look at the whole thing in context,there is much to consider here.

Revelation 20:13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
Revelation 20:14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

If there is a hell it can't be eternal because it gets tossed into the lake of fire.Doesn't it seem odd that inanimate objects would be thrown into a place for bad people.
Revelation 20:15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
Verse 15 is the end of chapter 20, so Chapter 21:1 is the next verse in the context.

Revelation 21:1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
Here it claims that the first heaven passed away,so what happened to all those who should have been there?The sea gave up it's dead and hell gave up it's dead.

Revelation 21:2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
Revelation 21:3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

Read these carefully,God does away with Heaven and earth #1
Makes a new heaven and earth then makes a new holy city and comes down and dwells with men.
Scripture just does not line up with popular belief.All Christians desire to be with God but many do not know he wants to come and live with us.

Please don't listen to me, research these things yourself.

 

[David777]

Dear Evomax01.

You asked some very difficult questions. These questions are very old questions indeed.

Did the crusades and the actions of the Roman Catholic Church down thru the centuries constitute Christian behaviour? No. Jesus said to judge a tree by its fruit. The fruit of the Roman Catholic Church is not joy and peace, rather World domination, akin to Islam.

Salvation is a gift from God, implemented through His Son Jesus Christ.
We are saved by our faith in Jesus Christ. Our works are a response to this Love shown to us by God. We are not saved on the basis of our works.

Is Jesus the only way to be saved??

Acts 4:10-12 (NKJV)

10 let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole.

11 This is the ‘stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.12 Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

It does not matter how good a person is, salvation is impossible except through Jesus Christ.

This is the true revelation from God, make no mistake Evomax01.

The World is the way it is primarily due to the actions of mankind.
Mankind has deep problems the evidence is available in human history.
Jesus Christ is love and the source of love my friend.

 

[eddieb]

the 68 percent or so thats not christian will not recieve mercy from a loving God because....

adam (in the book of genisis) sinned against God by eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil which God commanded adam not to eat. this brought sin into his body and the world. adam is the "dad" of all humans and when a man or woman is born they are born from his seed or lineage. thus they are born into sin. adams sin basicly killed his spirit. people today are born with a "dead spirit" they are born without connection or fellowship with God.
now because God is loving and cares for us he sends his only son to die on a cross for our sins. in the law in the old testament it says bloodshed must occur for attonement of sin(payment of sin) Jesus becomes our way. He takes our punishment. then we must accept him into our life to lead and guide us because we have lost our way(adam) in revelations it says behold i stand at the door and knock and if any man hear and open the door unto me i will come into him and sup with him.
so one cannot say God doesent love the 68 percent (or so) that dont recieve eternal life. not only did he make us and put us in a paradise, when we messed up he made a way by sending his only son to pay the penalty. a penalty which we cannot pay because we are sinful. and even more he didnt pay for just our sin. he paid for diseases. the bible says by his stripes we are healed. stripes are lashes with a cat-o-nine. he was lashed either 29 or 39 times something like that im not good with numbers. guess how many types of categories of diseases are in the world today? the same exact amount. keep in mind this was written thousands of years prior to knowledge of what a germs is. dont believe it? your on the internet, google is your friend.
the truth is God dosent send you to hell. we send us to hell by not accepting him. by choosing what adam did. to disobey. God has provided every means in every way to shower us with his love. but he wont force you.

 

[Furious_Love]

Is God a loving god?

I love Him because He first loved me (1 John 4:19).

(John 3:16) For God so loved the world...

Jesus declaring He is God (John 8:58) Jesus said to them, "Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham came to be, I AM."

(1 John 4:8) Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love.

And yet we find here in (Exodus 20:5) that He is a jealous God. Only are we to give our worship to Him and Him alone through Jesus.

God is a loving God through His actions 2000 years ago sending His Son to the cross to atone for our sins that allows us to have a relationship with the Father through Jesus. Jesus is specific stating in (John 10:30) “The Father and I are one."

I choose to have an eternity with Jesus accepting what He says. We are in a New Covenant (Heb 8:13) ‘When he speaks of a "new" covenant, he declares the first one obsolete. And what has become obsolete and has grown old is close to disappearing.with God that has freed us from shedding blood to cleanse us of our sins that would lead to a final death in eternal punishment

We are each given a choice to accept Jesus or deny Him. Denying Him is denying God. (Matt 7:14) How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few.

(John 14:6) Jesus said to him, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

I know God loves me because He has written my name on the palm of His hand (Isaiah 49:16) My name is written in the book of life (Rev 20:15) and believing in Jesus guarantees my salvation and eternal destiny. (Romans 6:23)

God Loves you too.

 

[gdemoss]

Hello. I was born in China and spent most of my life there until I came to college in the United States. My family and community were not religious at all. I've never even seen a church before coming to the United States. I also found out about Christianity and had some questions. I've been going to church from time to time with some friends.

Great, God has brought you here.

One of the sermons explained how the Judeo-Christian God was a loving god, in contrast to the Islamic Allah, with one of hte points being that there's many titles for Allah, such as Allah the Mighty, Allah the Punisher, etc but not Allah the Loving or Allah the Forgiver. Indeed today, Christianity is a relatively peaceful religion, a positive turn of events from the crusades. However, there are some aspects of the Christian faith that I really cannot fathom.

Interesting. I have been ignorant that Allah has no name as Loving or Forgiving.

I think around 68% of the world population is not Christian. In the scriptures, it says that those who do not accept the Judeo-Christian god as their savior will be punished by being sent to hell for all eternity. i know that in addition to believing in the judeo-christian god, one must live a morally just life and do good deeds. However, most religions converge on this point, saying that in order for a person to have a good afterlife, one must be a good person and believe in whatever God or values the religion emphasizes. In essence, it seems like being sent to Heaven or achieving Nirvana or a positive form of afterlife is more contingent on whichever god you happen to believe in, because one has to be a good person overall.

Being created in the image of God means that we are moral beings. It is no surprise that all religions and their deities require one to be moral and do good. The error can be understood in what happened in Eden, the garden of God. Before the fall man solely depended upon God for the understanding of what is evil and what is good as he did not possess the ability to discern or decide for himself. After eating the fruit his 'eyes' were opened and he now had the ability to be independent from God to make his judgments about good and evil. His first judgment call was that being naked was evil and he chose to sew fig leaves together to cover himself. Had not God created them naked and said everything including their nakedness was 'very good'? Why did man deem it to be evil then? Because he could and he was now doing what was right in his own eyes and not Gods. Mans nakedness was now the picture of his sin against God and God would then do that which is good and cover mans sin for him by an animal sacrifice and give him coats of skins to wear.

Since that time it is the same. Man does what is right in his own eyes. Until the day he is faced with the truth of God and his Word, man just continues on building his tower unto heaven that he might have his own way. Everyone on this planet is following some way to achieve the end goal of living forever or else hoping that death is the end of everything. The decisions you made as an individual in hearing the call of God and seeking him in return are why you are here being exposed to Christianity. How you respond to the things God reveals to you will determine whether or not you end your life in a close relationship with him having escaped judgment or whether you be judged and condemned.

The 68% you spoke of all have that same opportunity. God is sovereign and in control of all things. He first calls everyone on the planet to acknowledge him through the creation of the world, where the evidence of him can clearly be seen. Righteousness = Revelation. When we respond to God in a right way, he reveals more unto us and we grow in faith and knowledge of him.

Now, my question is if the Judeo-Christian god is deemed to be loving and merciful, why would he punish the 68% of the world population just because they won't praise his name and accept him as the one god? Indeed, a portion of the 68% won't be going to heaven regardless due to their immoral ways, but for those who have had a moral life and a life devoted to service and humanitarian causes it would be really unfair.

As I stated above, God reveals himself to people. People choose how to respond. Everyone on the planet is guilty of their choice in how to respond to the revelation given unto them. If they follow the path he has made to him, they will live. In our 'age' of the Gentiles, God is leading anyone and everyone who is heeding the call unto Jesus his Son. Those who respond to the invitation have the opportunity to make their calling and election sure by submitting unto God the Father and adding certain qualities to their faith, which are found in Peters letter. No one will have an excuse for rejecting the revelation of God to them, Christian or not. It may be simply that a man has done what is right in his own eyes and built a multi-billion dollar corporation that feeds and clothes the poor, educates the ignorant and makes homes for the orphans. If this man has neglected to heed the call of God to turn to him from creation and has only done things his own way, he will be judged as a man who wanted to be God instead of letting God be God and he a follower of him as a created being. He will end up in the lake of fire.

For example, had Mother Theresa had been a Muslim or a Buddhist, she would be sent to hell. Also, somewhere in hell would be Gandhi, an important Indian leader who practiced compassion and non-violence.

Those who ignore God and his ways that have been shown unto them in exchange for doing what is right in their own eyes will be denied access to the new heaven and earth, but instead will dwell in the lake of fire.

I'm not sure what happens to those who have never had a chance to accept God, such as babies who die within days of their birth due to poor medical/sanitary conditions. What happens to them?

To whom much is given, much is expected. To whom little is given little is expected. Even King David said by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that his son, the one who died because of Davids sin, would not come to him but that David himself would go to be with his son. He believed that God who is righteous would save him.

Why is it this way? If I'm mistaken in some ways, please correct me as I only have very basic understandings of the Christian faith.

What you are experiencing is a purification of the Creation of God. He created everything 'very good' not 'perfect' if it had been created 'perfect' then Satan could not have fallen. The creation was made by him and for him. Jesus Christ was the planned living God amongst his creation. God saw the end from the beginning. He saw a new heaven and earth wherein righteousness dwells and his Son, Jesus, is ruler and he, the Father, is God with his people.

Right now, the Kingdom of God is being preached and everyone who wills is striving to enter into it. All who receive Jesus as King are given the power to become the sons of God. Those who receive Christ become part of his visible body here on earth and are ambassadors sojourning in this world, spreading the Gospel of his Kingdom, inviting everyone to receive and follow him by becoming a disciple of Christ. We are to beseech all to be reconciled unto God through the body and blood of Jesus his Son.

You have been invited by God to enter into the kingdom of his dear Son. But always remember that many are invited but few are actually chosen because the choose rather to reject God and destroy themselves instead through sin and wickedness.

In Jesus Name,

Gary