For me it was the fundamental contradiction between God being both good & all powerful. If (S)he created everybody exactly the way they are, how are they to condemn anyone to hell? Some people are born incapable of communicating or understanding anything, some people are born with their wires crossed and are just evil, some are born in a time/place where they never hear “the good news”. Why would a good and loving God condemn them forever for being exactly what (S)he designed them to be?
The Christian Bible I grew up with was rife with examples of people God created and designed specifically to be antagonists so they could be punished: Cain, Pharoah, Ahab & Jezebel, Judas Iscariot, Ananias & Sapphira, The Beast & Antichrist, etc.
Why would a good and loving God condemn them forever for being exactly what (S)he designed them to be?
This is it exactly. Why even have a “chosen people” in the Israelites during the Old Testament? Why create those other people at all? Just to give random people for the Israelites to genocide like they did the Midianites/Canaanites/Hittites/10 other -ites?
And what of the world before Noah? God realizes he messed up and needs to cull all but a small handful of humans? I thought God was supposed to be unerring. Same for Sodom and Gomorrah, why allow cities to become dens of sin? Or why fear the hubris of humanity constructing the Tower of Babel (or create them with motivation to do so in the first place) if divinity remains safely unreachable to mortals?
God doesnt condemn you to Hell
its you
you have a choice
walk the narrow path
or the wide, easy one
all of us are sinners, due to Adam and Eve eating the apple.
and I could argue the same for history
Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot, Kim Il Sung
Pharoah had multiple chances to let the Israelites go, yet he didnt
Cain chose to kill Abel
Judas chose the silver coins
The brast isnt a human, and he was created by God but pride corrupted him
A) you don’t have a choice. Christianity teaches that our lives are deterministic, God chose who will and won’t make it into heaven. If he decided to design you to be a sinner who won’t accept him then that’s your fate.
B) Pharoah never had a chance. It wasn’t himself or the devil who made him reject God, the Bible itself that God hardened his heart and made him act the way he did. Same with Judas, he was chosen to fulfill prophesy. Sure, a different follower could have betrayed him, but it had to be someone because God decided that someone had to take the fall. He wasn’t even able to repent afterwards, even though he tried.
C) Almost everyone ever born won’t make it to heaven according to Christianity. Many are called but few are chosen—as you mentioned narrow is the path according to scripture. It also states that “many” (interpreted majority of) Christians will stand before him in judgment and be rejected because they didn’t believe in him the right way. Performing miracles and healing the sick isn’t enough if you weren’t the right denomination with the right version of the Bible.
D) the beast and antichrist are both human, one a politician and one a religious leader who team up to deceive the world
A. God made us rational beings, but our minds cannot comprehend omnipotence fully
B. Judas couldve repented, but he just committed suicide
C. Many are called, but few will respond. Many “christians” will claim to have followed Christ, but didnt. And the Bibles translations are based on literalness and how its said
for example “Libera nos a malo, Domine” can be translated as “Save us from evil, Lord” and “Please save us from Evil, Lord”
For me it was the fundamental contradiction between God being both good & all powerful. If (S)he created everybody exactly the way they are, how are they to condemn anyone to hell? Some people are born incapable of communicating or understanding anything, some people are born with their wires crossed and are just evil, some are born in a time/place where they never hear “the good news”. Why would a good and loving God condemn them forever for being exactly what (S)he designed them to be?
The Christian Bible I grew up with was rife with examples of people God created and designed specifically to be antagonists so they could be punished: Cain, Pharoah, Ahab & Jezebel, Judas Iscariot, Ananias & Sapphira, The Beast & Antichrist, etc.
This is it exactly. Why even have a “chosen people” in the Israelites during the Old Testament? Why create those other people at all? Just to give random people for the Israelites to genocide like they did the Midianites/Canaanites/Hittites/10 other -ites?
And what of the world before Noah? God realizes he messed up and needs to cull all but a small handful of humans? I thought God was supposed to be unerring. Same for Sodom and Gomorrah, why allow cities to become dens of sin? Or why fear the hubris of humanity constructing the Tower of Babel (or create them with motivation to do so in the first place) if divinity remains safely unreachable to mortals?
Just way too much that doesn’t make sense.
God doesnt condemn you to Hell its you you have a choice walk the narrow path or the wide, easy one all of us are sinners, due to Adam and Eve eating the apple.
and I could argue the same for history Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot, Kim Il Sung
Pharoah had multiple chances to let the Israelites go, yet he didnt Cain chose to kill Abel Judas chose the silver coins The brast isnt a human, and he was created by God but pride corrupted him
A) you don’t have a choice. Christianity teaches that our lives are deterministic, God chose who will and won’t make it into heaven. If he decided to design you to be a sinner who won’t accept him then that’s your fate.
B) Pharoah never had a chance. It wasn’t himself or the devil who made him reject God, the Bible itself that God hardened his heart and made him act the way he did. Same with Judas, he was chosen to fulfill prophesy. Sure, a different follower could have betrayed him, but it had to be someone because God decided that someone had to take the fall. He wasn’t even able to repent afterwards, even though he tried.
C) Almost everyone ever born won’t make it to heaven according to Christianity. Many are called but few are chosen—as you mentioned narrow is the path according to scripture. It also states that “many” (interpreted majority of) Christians will stand before him in judgment and be rejected because they didn’t believe in him the right way. Performing miracles and healing the sick isn’t enough if you weren’t the right denomination with the right version of the Bible.
D) the beast and antichrist are both human, one a politician and one a religious leader who team up to deceive the world
A. God made us rational beings, but our minds cannot comprehend omnipotence fully
B. Judas couldve repented, but he just committed suicide
C. Many are called, but few will respond. Many “christians” will claim to have followed Christ, but didnt. And the Bibles translations are based on literalness and how its said
for example “Libera nos a malo, Domine” can be translated as “Save us from evil, Lord” and “Please save us from Evil, Lord”
D. I thought by beast you meant Satan