Hi subbie,
subbie writes:
But wish him to suffer? No. I love him too much to ever want to see him suffer for anything. His well being is more important to me than my own. So the very idea of wanting him to suffer because he offended me is ludicrous beyond words.
So please, someone, explain to me how the god of the bible can be considered all-loving and still allow anyone to suffer forever, much less impose the suffering on them himself? I don't know what you call that kind of a being, but it sure isn't a father.
And just as you wouldn't want him to suffer, God did not want you to suffer.
You seem to be under the impression that a person has to do something in order to be condemned to the lake of fire. When the truth is all mankind was condemned to the lake of fire when the man formed from the dust of the ground disobeyed God in the Garden.
John writes:
3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
3:17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
3:18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Mankind is condemned already. He has to do nothing to be cast into the lake of fire that is his final resting place.
But God loved mankind so much He was willing to take on the form of a man we call Jesus and come down to Earth and live and go to the cross and die so you and I and anyone else who would trust Him and take Him at His Word could have a right relationship with Him. Just like the man in the Garden had before he disobeyed God.
Do you deserve to go to Heaven? No
Do I even though I have trusted God to give me eternal life by accepting His full pardon deserve to go to Heaven? No
No one deserves to go to Heaven.
That is the reason we go to Heaven by the grace of Almighty God.
So quit blaming God for your problems and all the problems in the world. He did not make the mess we find ourselves in, we did.
He simply made a way we can escape the slavery and the bondage of sin brought on by the disobedience of one man.
Romans 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
5:13 (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
5:14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.
5:15 But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.
5:16 And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.
You can read the entire chapter and chapter 6 if you want a fuller explanation.
Everyone is condemned to the lake of fire. ALREADY
To escape one must believe God, take Him at His Word and accept the free full pardon He paid for on the cross of Calvary.
You probably won't like the answer to your question, but you did ask the question.
So if you spend eternity in the lake of fire it won't be God's fault. You will have no one to blame but yourself.
God did love you and died for you to be able to spend eternity in Heaven.
All you have to do is receive the gift He has offered to you in the form of a free full pardon.
The ball is in your court. It is your choice.
God Bless,
"John 5:39 (KJS) Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me."
™ Version 4.2
