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my brother told me the other day that God will not force man to believe in Him, that He wanted man to come of his own free will, i asked my brother that since the message of mainstream churchianity is the message of "love me or burn" is that not force?
It is coercion, and it is force by intimidation.....................i have yet to get a response
Love me or burn does not go together in a statement. Parents do not punish or threat to punish a child to get a child to love them but to keep the child from harming themselves or others. God created the earth and people to experiance love and joy and all good things but without God it is imposible to have these things in full measure because He is the source of it all. The wicked hinder the righteous from enjoying Gods gifts and in the end when all mercy and goodness has been given but not responded to, then God will judge.
Because He can not judge before hand and after all mercy has been shown, He can only forewarn. It is His earth after all even as in your house if people will not eventually respect your rights, steal from you, destroy willfully your property and agrevate you to no end, you can kick them out. You many times told them to respect you and the rules of your home or they would have to leave. You showed them love by sharing your house and your food but they would have none of your kindness with recepricating respect.
Telling them the consequences of bad behavior was not to coherce them into loving you but to remind them that they should know better and also you need to protect your home for the enjoyment of others. They had free will to respect you but would not. In similar manner as it is written, "The earth is the Lords and the fullness thereof and all they that dwell in it." It is His house and we are His quests.
Love me or burn does not go together in a statement. Parents do not punish or threat to punish a child to get a child to love them but to keep the child from harming themselves or others. God created the earth and people to experiance love and joy and all good things but without God it is imposible to have these things in full measure because He is the source of it all. The wicked hinder the righteous from enjoying Gods gifts and in the end when all mercy and goodness has been given but not responded to, then God will judge.
Because He can not judge before hand and after all mercy has been shown, He can only forewarn. It is His earth after all even as in your house if people will not eventually respect your rights, steal from you, destroy willfully your property and agrevate you to no end, you can kick them out. You many times told them to respect you and the rules of your home or they would have to leave. You showed them love by sharing your house and your food but they would have none of your kindness with recepricating respect.
Telling them the consequences of bad behavior was not to coherce them into loving you but to remind them that they should know better and also you need to protect your home for the enjoyment of others. They had free will to respect you but would not. In similar manner as it is written, "The earth is the Lords and the fullness thereof and all they that dwell in it." It is His house and we are His quests.
If you have children, do you consider your children guests?
No. The example of children and the example of guests are seperate lessons that I was pointing out. One example does not have all the elements to teach everything. Isn't that clear?
my brother told me the other day that God will not force man to believe in Him, that He wanted man to come of his own free will, i asked my brother that since the message of mainstream churchianity is the message of "love me or burn" is that not force?
It is coercion, and it is force by intimidation.....................
I agree, a type of influence and force. I have heard many say that they have come to God because of the fear of an eternal hell. God bless and peace.
It is His earth after all even as in your house if people will not eventually respect your rights, steal from you, destroy willfully your property and agrevate you to no end, you can kick them out. You many times told them to respect you and the rules of your home or they would have to leave. You showed them love by sharing your house and your food but they would have none of your kindness with recepricating respect.
Hi, we are more than His guests here on the earth, Garya. We were created for Him and to glorify Him. He will eventually subject all things to Himself, so He will not be bowing to our "free will". His will is the will that is Sovereign and which is to be accomplished in His creation. The "guests" are also said to be blinded and enslaved.
Zephaniah 3:
8“Therefore wait for Me,” declares the Lord,
“For the day when I rise up as a witness.
Indeed, My decision is to gather nations,
To assemble kingdoms,
To pour out on them My indignation,
All My burning anger;
For all the earth will be devoured
By the fire of My zeal.
9 “For then I will [a]give to the peoples purified lips,
That all of them may call on the name of the Lord,
To serve Him [b]shoulder to shoulder
He will not bow to the will of the kingdoms and nations or kick them out, but dealing with them in a way which will cause them to return to Him. God bless and peace.
my brother told me the other day that God will not force man to believe in Him, that He wanted man to come of his own free will, i asked my brother that since the message of mainstream churchianity is the message of "love me or burn" is that not force?
It is coercion, and it is force by intimidation.....................i have yet to get a response
Your brother figures there is no point in arguing with someone who doesn't have the fear of God or faith. If you don't have either, there is no point in even talking to you about anything of the spirit. You will never understand.
I agree, a type of influence and force. I have heard many say that they have come to God because of the fear of an eternal hell. God bless and peace.
I don't know about anyone else but it's true for me. I had the fear of God in me from a very young age. I didn't care whether I ever came to the notion that Hell was real or not. All I knew was that I was deathly afraid of going there after I died. Unlike other foolish people, I wasn't about to take the chance of "If Hell isn't real..." WTH. And what if it was real?! I didn't want to go there! And I clinged to God ever since. That same fear has carried me to the person I am today and kept me from doing crazy BS that other teens were doing.
Now granted, I'm not going to say that I never had questions. There has been a time I thought to myself omg, why would God send people to an eternal Hellfire for this/that? But then I thought to myself, even if he was that cruel (which he's not), there is no way in Hell I'm joining them. I have a relationship with the Lord so strong now that I wouldn't care if my whole family or the whole entire world was sentenced to Hell. I wouldn't join them. I love my family and I have friends that I love. But I don't love them more than Jesus. As long as I am saved and make it to Heaven to be with him, that's all that matters to me. Anyway, God revealed to me ALL the answers to the questions I had. I'm just not going to reveal them to anyone here. It's useless because if they don't have the fear of God or faith, their not going to believe anything that I'm telling them. So that's my $0.02.
Hi, we are more than His guests here on the earth, Garya. We were created for Him and to glorify Him. He will eventually subject all things to Himself, so He will not be bowing to our "free will". His will is the will that is Sovereign and which is to be accomplished in His creation. The "guests" are also said to be blinded and enslaved.
Zephaniah 3:
8“Therefore wait for Me,” declares the Lord,
“For the day when I rise up as a witness.
Indeed, My decision is to gather nations,
To assemble kingdoms,
To pour out on them My indignation,
All My burning anger;
For all the earth will be devoured
By the fire of My zeal.
9 “For then I will [a]give to the peoples purified lips,
That all of them may call on the name of the Lord,
To serve Him [b]shoulder to shoulder
He will not bow to the will of the kingdoms and nations or kick them out, but dealing with them in a way which will cause them to return to Him. God bless and peace.
God bless and peace.
MT 7:21 "Not every one that says unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of Heaven; but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven."
MT 13:47-50 "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind: Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away. So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth."
You can try all that you want to change the obvious meaning of these Scriptures to your humanist view of God but they are what they are. God is Divine in judgement, not human and we are to partake of His Divine nature and give up human philosophy.
"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the fear of the Lord is clean converting the soul."
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