LilMissFavvy:
God's children should obey God and keep His commandments. Besides, even when a child of God disobeys God, God is always ready to forgive if we run back to God. But where a Christian continues to live in sin taking God for granted, then I think such a person isn't a child of God anymore, and may end up in hell. In such case, God is not to be blamed.

I know keeping God's commandments isn't easy, but with His help and the holyspirit it is possible.

Your answer does not address the underlying question raised by the op which is: how is it just to punish the disobedience of a finite human lifetime with infinite years of torture?
God as our creator has the right to not forgive the transgressions of anyone and exact maximum punishment if He so chooses.

I think the op understand and accept that God has this right. What the op is really questioning is if everlasting torture in hellfire a just punishment? Is it compatible with God's love and mercy?

dorox:


Your answer does not address the underlying question raised by the op which is: how is it just to punish the disobedience of a finite human lifetime with infinite years of torture?
God as our creator has the right to not forgive the transgressions of anyone and exact maximum punishment if He so chooses.

I think the op understand and accept that God has this right. What the op is really questioning is if everlasting torture in hellfire a just punishment? Is it compatible with God's love and mercy?

You are right, instead of giving me good explanation most of them are quoting Bible, telling me to repent and bla bla.

dorox:


Your answer does not address the underlying question raised by the op which is: how is it just to punish the disobedience of a finite human lifetime with infinite years of torture?
God as our creator has the right to not forgive the transgressions of anyone and exact maximum punishment if He so chooses.

I think the op understand and accept that God has this right. What the op is really questioning is if everlasting torture in hellfire a just punishment? Is it compatible with God's love and mercy?

You think infinite punishment for finite crimes is just?

Stephani3e:
I have been thinking for sometime now, since we we are God's children why would he send us to hell forever for sinning?
It doesn't make any sense to me, no parent would want their children to be burnt ( unless the parent is a psychopath).
Can't he just forgive us since he is a merciful God?
Sometimes some when I use logical reasoning, some parts of the Bible doesn't make sense to me, like the killings of some tribes ( massacre in the city of Jericho) in the old testament,
weren't those people also God's children since he created every living thing ,
why was he approving their killings and saving only the isrealites ?

OP God has never sent a single soul to hell. We are born in a compromised condition which is hell-bound and God tries to save us from ourselves but since he can't force us, we have to willingly cooperate with Him. All who can fully cooperate with Him, he will be able to save completely but if we resist him as our fallen nature is bound to, we will remain in our hell-bound condition. So ask Him for the grace to fully cooperate with Him

Tosinex:
It's easy to get that question running in your head and start taking God for what he's not. The truth of the matter is that God didn't send or abandon us to hell, Adam did. Adam broke the governing rule and faced the consequence. God couldn't overlook it and had to save him, yes He did but Adam now has lots of offspring that needs to be saved and the only way to do that is through our LORD Jesus and then salvation comes through, but seems tough not because it is, but because the enemy that made Adam fall struggles with you and I that have it.

If you have a son who does wrong to you, if you have sense, you will forgive him, rather than punishing his descendants forever and ever. Jehovah your god is senseless, that is why he's selling a religious story such as that. God Almighty, the creator of Jehovah your god doesn't have anything called hell fire and it doesn't send people to any fire after death.
Now you should also be aware that Jehovah your god, Allah his friend and many other gods of religions are currently in a spiritual cage. Go and read the BOOK PF UNIVERSAL HISTORY for details.

LordReed:


You think infinite punishment for finite crimes is just?

No i do not. But after rereading my initial reply i can see how the typos i made could have led you to think i did.

Stephani3e:
I have been thinking for sometime now, since we we are God's children why would he send us to hell forever for sinning?
It doesn't make any sense to me, no parent would want their children to be burnt ( unless the parent is a psychopath).
Can't he just forgive us since he is a merciful God?
Sometimes some when I use logical reasoning, some parts of the Bible doesn't make sense to me, like the killings of some tribes ( massacre in the city of Jericho) in the old testament,
weren't those people also God's children since he created every living thing ,
why was he approving their killings and saving only the isrealites ?

Hello there.

I would love to answer your question, but would you answer one for me first? It's a similar question to what you asked:

why don't wives with cheating husbands just forgive them and stay with them?

Ihedinobi3:

Hello there.

I would love to answer your question, but would you answer one for me first? It's a similar question to what you asked:

why don't wives with cheating husbands just forgive them and stay with them?

Many wives are still living with their cheating husband's. The question should be why don't men with cheating wives forgive them and stay with them " and I don't see how your question correlate with my question.

Stephani3e:
Many wives are still living with their cheating husband's. The question should be why don't men with cheating wives forgive them and stay with them " and I don't see how your question correlate with my question.

Both questions are the same for my purposes.

You asked why God doesn't just forgive His children and take them back. But you think that it is more sensible for women who are being cheated on by their husbands to leave them than for them to stay with them. I refer to this post of yours: https://www.nairaland.com/5254171/women-should-careful-cheating-husbands#79483427. If you don't counsel forgiveness in that situation, why do you demand it of God?

Sin is treason against God. That is, it is rebellion against His Authority, a rejection of His Right to rule and be obeyed in the creation that He Himself has made. In fact, atheism carries sin to its logical conclusion by pretending to the ability to actually "kill God" by pretending that He doesn't exist. Of course, God cannot be killed. But that is the aim of all rebellion against authorities: to eliminate the authority in question.

If this is what sin is - and it is - why should God "just forgive and forget?" In what way is that even sensible?

The fact that sin cannot actually succeed at hurting or harming God in any way is beside the point because the issue is more about rights, both God's and His creatures'. By your possession of the Image of God, you have the right to rebel against God, if you want to, but you also have the responsibility to accept the consequences - which are made abundantly clear through the testimony of Creation around you and the Gospel - as well. But, just as you have the right to rebel, so I, for example, have the right to choose to quit rebelling and submit to God.

Now, since God is beyond the reach of those who rebel against Him, that is, sinners cannot actually succeed at hurting or harming God in any way, what do you think is the natural alternative to expressing their rejection of His Authority? It is actually to attack those who, like me, choose to be or remain loyal to Him. Now, such attacks may include bodily harm up to the point of death, just as believers in God's Messiah have been murdered throughout the history of man beginning from Abel until now (for example, witness the massacres in atheistic Russia and China, and to a less extent Japan in the last couple of centuries or so). But they are not limited to such attacks. They include economic exclusion, social ostracism, mockery, and constant emotional and intellectual harassment.

This is actually normal. It is precisely how wars are fought. Africa, for example, is littered with recent examples of struggles for power between warlords whose followers are constantly at each other's throats. That is precisely what happens when someone who is rebelling against a given authority decides to do the next best thing to actually killing or eliminating that authority: attack its loyalists.

Granted that many people who label themselves Christians have behaved in similar manner, attacking atheists, Muslims, etc because they will not tolerate any dissent in beliefs, that is not the biblical way. The Bible teaches Christians to mind their own business, so unless someone is actually willing to hear the Gospel or someone is challenging us about what we believe, we really are not supposed to be poking into other people's lives. There are plenty enough believers who know this and live that way, but atheists and others don't leave them alone, because while the Bible teaches Christians to leave other people alone, atheism and other tenets tend to have some unwritten rule to cow other people into joining them.

Given this state of things, how would it be fair of God to "just forgive" the rebels and ignore all the harm and pain that they cause those who choose to be loyal to Him? That is not justice by any stretch of the imagination. Even if it were just for God to "just forgive" if all of us were rebelling against Him, it wouldn't be just at all for Him to forgive those who are active rebels while ignoring what they do to His loyalists.

This is why there must be atonement. Someone has to pay for the crimes that sinners (including all humans) commit. Without that payment, God cannot justly forgive. He would have to punish every sinner, and the punishment is steep: it is the Second Death, a permanent removal of the sinner from God's Creation into a place where they will only know God's unrelenting enmity against all challenges to His Authority.

Because God loves all of us and does not want even one sinner to suffer this punishment, He Himself paid the price for our treason against Him. The Lord Jesus, Who is God the Word, a Member of the Eternal Trinity, elected - in agreement with the Other Two Members - to become human like us, so that He could pay that price for our sakes, and make it unnecessary for any human sinner to suffer the Second Death. This Plan was made before God even created the Universe. God was going to create creatures with free will, and He knew exactly what we would do with our free will. This Sacrifice was planned to respond to that abuse so that we could all be saved from our own insanity.

So, God has already forgiven every human sinner in Jesus Christ. By His spiritual Death while He still physically lived on the Cross at Calvary, He paid for every sin that every human being has ever committed, is committing, or will ever commit. If anyone believes in Him, then that forgiveness becomes theirs and they never have to worry about the Lake of Fire anymore. If they don't, then what else can God do? God will not force us to turn around from rebelling against Him. He does not want a family of robots. Those who will be part of God's Eternal Family are only those who willingly choose to be. No one who is unwilling to be will be. So, forgiveness is now available, but we must actually want it in order to have it. It is madness to insist on having it when you never want to quit rebelling against God. It's like insisting that your wife remain with you while you go out and sleep with everything and keep bringing home diseases to her. That is wickedness. If you don't want to be at peace with God, God is not obliged then to be at peace with you.

It is not God then about Whom we need to worry. His Mercy endures forever. It is our own selves that are the problem. If we are not going to accept this Peace Offering, this Olive Branch, this White Flag that God is so graciously and incredibly generously handing to us in Jesus Christ, then we deserve everything that is coming to us.

Finally, if you are concerned that God is going to torture all rebels in the Lake of Fire forever (that is, the "why doesn't He just kill them forever rather than torture them forever?" challenge), note that everything God has made is made to last. God is God. He is Perfect in all that He does. He does not build things that fail. The entire universe was designed to last forever, so are we. The question is only where we choose to spend our "forever" and under what conditions. And the options are very clear.

Also, how would it be just if God just killed off all rebels after they have spent their lives causing so much pain to those who love Him? There is no fairness in that. That is why God actually offers it as a promise and a blessing to those who love Him that in eternity, they will be able to "go out and look at the corpses of those who rebelled against [Him] (that is, not their unconscious bodies, but their very conscious selves that are completely lacking of anything good or pleasant that could be called "life" )" (Isaiah 66:24). Today, in this world, is the day of the rebel. This is their time to enjoy being wicked. But the time of the King will also come and it will last for all eternity.

Edited.

Stephani3e:
I have been thinking for sometime now, since we we are God's children why would he send us to hell forever for sinning?
It doesn't make any sense to me, no parent would want their children to be burnt ( unless the parent is a psychopath).
Can't he just forgive us since he is a merciful God?
Sometimes some when I use logical reasoning, some parts of the Bible doesn't make sense to me, like the killings of some tribes ( massacre in the city of Jericho) in the old testament,
weren't those people also God's children since he created every living thing ,
why was he approving their killings and saving only the isrealites ?

Op, i think this guy's answer is most logical. Although from your replies you even seem to be sarcastic about your question rather than wanting to learn. I see you even avoided responding to him

OP God has never sent a single soul to hell. We are born in a compromised condition which is hell-bound and God tries to save us from ourselves but since he can't force us, we have to willingly cooperate with Him. All who can fully cooperate with Him, he will be able to save completely but if we resist him as our fallen nature is bound to, we will remain in our hell-bound condition. So ask Him for the grace to fully cooperate with Him

Stephani3e:
I have been thinking for sometime now, since we we are God's children why would he send us to hell forever for sinning?
It doesn't make any sense to me, no parent would want their children to be burnt ( unless the parent is a psychopath).
Can't he just forgive us since he is a merciful God?
Sometimes some when I use logical reasoning, some parts of the Bible doesn't make sense to me, like the killings of some tribes ( massacre in the city of Jericho) in the old testament,
weren't those people also God's children since he created every living thing ,
why was he approving their killings and saving only the isrealites ?

God never intended sending anyone to a place called hellfire Sir!

The REAL meaning of the text mistranslated to hell is grave!

However the grave means where people are buried after death, so logically if you're not dead you can't go there. That's why God told Adam (the first man) that if he remains obedient to God's guidance Adam won't die which means the idea of been buried won't even come up in the first place! Genesis 2:16-17

What most misinformed translators typed in their translation of the Bible as HELL simply means GRAVE! Job 14:13, Psalms 16:10

That's why everyone both good and bad even Jesus went to HELL because he died and was buried in the GRAVE (HELL)! Act 2:31 compared to Psalms 16:10

God is pleading with his children to have a change of heart because he has enough creatures that are living on instinct and he want humans to be different {Genesis 1:26-30}, he is not going to turn us into robots.

So those who refuses to change their bad habits he will return them to nonexistence (they will die) and those who have died as evil people he will forget them (in the graves) when he is ready to bring back his faithful ones to give them the ANTIDOTE of death! Revelations 22:1-2

That's why the Bible talks about the book of life {Revelations 20:15}, this means those who took no note { Matthew 24:38-39} when others were busy discussing with their neighbours about how to live with Godly principles, God instructed his angels to start WRITING DOWN THE NAMES OF SUCH OBSERVANT AND RIGHTEOUS PERSONS {Malachi 3:16}, that's how their names got into the book of life!

God will not permit evil to continue on this planet forever {Psalms 37:9-12, Proverbs 2:20-22}, those who heed his counsel will be given the opportunity to live FOREVER {Romans 6:23} while the evildoers will return to dust FOREVER! Genesis 3:19

Thanks for this beautiful thought provoking question, may God bless you!

I have been thinking for sometime now, since we we are God's children ...

First deal with the bloody lie that we are all God's children. There is no truth to that lie.