• pinball_wizard@lemmy.zip
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    8
    ·
    edit-2
    6 days ago

    But at the end of my lifetime, it’s someone I loved, but that God doesn’t love (not enough to bring them to heaven, anyway…), and so my feelings about them get updated with God’s perspective?

    So I learn why I was wrong to love them?

    Edit: I’m just saying that Hell as a concept, alongside an all-loving God, doesn’t compute, to me.

    Whereas Hell as a concept, introduced by human church leaders, to keep tithes up, makes perfect sense, to me.

    So it feels like an Occam’s Razor situation, to me.

    • sfu@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      5 days ago

      This isn’t preaching, I’m just going to explain it so maybe you can understand it better.

      As far as God only bringing people to heaven if He loves them, there’s more to it. If God created everything (humans, animals, earth, stars, etc.) then He has authority over it. He has laws we are to follow, and if we break any of them then we are guilty of sin. Just like in human society, when someone breaks a law, they get punished either by paying a fine, going to jail, etc. Hell is jail; everyone has committed a sin against God, and deserves to go there. The bible without much detail, tells us there are varying degrees of punishment in hell.

      In response to your edit, think of God as a judge. If a human judge has a child trafficker in his court, and the judge just lets him go free, would he be considered a good, just judge? No, we’d say he is a corrupt judge. Apply that concept to God, crimes must have a punishment. If God just brought people to heaven, then God wouldn’t be just. So you’re saying a loving God wouldn’t send people to hell. Well, God is loving, and had His son Jesus who never sinned crucified (willingly), paying for the punishment of the sins of anyone who puts their faith in Him as Lord. So, because God is loving, it’s very easy to avoid going to Hell. Which is why it’s also very easy to go to hell, we already deserve to go, so if we reject His offer of forgiveness, that’s on us.

      Purgatory, I would say was an invention of church leaders since it’s not in the bible. They used the threat of purgatory to get people to pay for indulgences.