Why do Christians say : God is love, but if you don't love him he will endlessly torture you?
395681
Who said He would endlessly torture you?  Someone is perverting what the Bible does say, don't believe them.
887996
It is very sad indeed that these statements hold so much truth. Just because someone says they are Christian does not mean they are Christ like although that is what the bible teaches us to be. All through out the Word of God we are taught love. I believe because of a few who are ready to condemn or judge others they are defeating the purpose of true Christianity. We are not suppose to turn any away and still there are those that do. Then again the bible says that many will knock but few will enter. I personally apologize to all who have been hurt by someone claiming to have done so for religions sake. The God I serve is a God of love and He loves each and every one of us no matter what our flaws. I'm sure that when He sees someone turning away from Him because of something said or done He is truly heartbroken and disappointed.
491552
"Just remember that if compassion, love, and unity is not in your belief, than you are a bad person no matter what your belief is." <=== That right there says it all. Christians have lost touch with that because they are so wrapped up in their image...so anything out of place to them is automactically fought against and you can't be like that--rude, uncompassionate, and un-loving. God wouldn't want that so why should you treat others indifferently because of what they believe or what they want to try. \n\nI love you for bringing that up. I'm a christian and I'm not like that at all. So it gets annoying when others are.
188977
God IS Love! But as a whole, mankind has rejected God( and His love). \n\nGod DOES NOT send people to hell. He's not willing for ANY to perish. He's simply waiting for you to ask. Is that really so hard!
996384
Christianity makes a mockery of God. At the same time that Christians claim to worship God as an omnipotent, omnipresent, omnibenevolent being, they make him out to be incompetent bumbler. Or worse. Simple forgiveness is beyond his capacities. God must "sacrifice himself to himself to change a rule he made himself!"\n\nThis is not only an absurdity, it is an essential absurdity. It is present in almost almost all forms of Christianity, and one can scarcely remove it and remain a Christian in anything but name. By definition, all Christians worship Christ - in some form - and most worship him as a saviour.\n\nBut what, exactly, is he saving us from? Though it varies from church to church, no matter what they call it, it's God himself. A hell created by God, a world fallen as a result of God's negligence, a separation from God imposed... by God.\n\n    "It is a counterfeit love that is contingent upon authority, punishment, or reward. True love is respect and admiration, compassion and kindness, freely given by a healthy, unafraid human being."\n    - Dan Barker, Losing Faith in Faith \n\nChristianity certainly isn't the first religion to promote appeasement of its gods, and if it were merely another supernatural protection racket, it would be bad enough. Unfortunately, it doesn't stop there. Christians elevate appeasement to the realm of "personal relationship", transforming their religion into a true monstrosity.\n\nThis is the type of "relationship" that abused wives have with their husbands, that brainwashed hostages have with their captors. It is known in clinical circles as Stockholm Syndrome. Should it come as any surprise that the cries of the church, "The Bride of Christ" sound much like the cries of an abused wife attempting to protect her husband?\n\n    "He must beat me."\n    "I deserve it."\n    "He has no choice."\n    "It's for my own good."\n\nThese excuses don't work for human abusers, and they work even less well for God. For if God is omnipotent, he must have a choice. And if we are flawed, we are only flawed because that is the way he made us. (No excuses that we ruined his perfect creation. A truly perfect creation does not self-destruct.)\n\nIf the Christian God does exist - and I see no reason to believe that he does - he's not worthy of the name.\n\nAnd that is the ultimate absurdity of Christianity.\n\n- Jason\nAugust 19, 1998\n\nFear is learned...created.  Religion is fear and therefore is also a creation of man.\njesusreligion.com
752543
God only put us here to be toys of amusement for him. He enjoys watching people suffer. Just think about it for a minute...supposedly he is all-powerful, all-knowing, all-...whatever. Yet he allows this world to be infested with disease, famine, war, death, and horrors beyond imagination. Now, how can you call a god who does all these things loving and expect him to do anything for you. People who always turn to god to help them in their struggles are just trying to find someone else to fix their mistakes. They can't handle the fact that their god probably doesn't like them. God allows all these atrocities on earth to occur and doesn't lift a finger. The question you should really be asking is "Why do I worship a god that does not care?" God did not give us free will. And as far as free will in the respect to god goes, if it had not been for Satan, we would all be wandering around in complete servitude without even realizing we were slaves. By tempting Eve to eat that apple, if you believe the story, he gave us the ability to realize our slavery. Furthermore, anyone who says that we have free will given by god should examine their religion further. How can it be free will when he says that to disobey him will result in a tormenting eternity of fire and brimstone? Are these really choices...slavery or fire? I will thank God for nothing. My thanks go to the god of the underworld for giving me the knowledge to know these lies as they are.
522747
Good did not create suffering but believe that he is there waiting to carry your loved one home. As long as they believe in HIM he will carry them into eternity. The Lord works in mysterious ways  but i believe and u should too
897387
Because, He says it rains on the just and unjust alike.  He also tells us He allows us to feel everything we do for a reason.  Also it says in the Bible He will not turn a child away with a contrite spirit.  Sometimes the Lord lets us feel things to teach us and draw us closer to Him.  \n  I know that heartbreak is an awful emotion, but ever emotion serves a purpose no matter how painful they may be.  Just look at it like this :  God is working on you, right now you are a diamond in the rough.....but when you come through this situation, you will be a better person, and He will have drawn you that much closer to Him.\n  All things work together for the good of those that love Him.  (an actual scripture)\n  Trust God, and put your faith in Him.  We aren't supposed to understand the things He does.  But I promise you, He knows what He is doing.  "And He may not be there when I want Him to, but He's always there right on time"  - a verse from a song we sing at my church.  \n  hugs!  It gets better, I promise! \n:)
633154
If God is all knowing and all loving, why did He create Satan and allow evil in the world? A good question, to be sure. One that I’m not sure we can ever fully understand, not being omniscient ourselves. While I do believe that a large part of the answer lies in the fact that God decided to give us (i.e. men and angels) freedom of choice, I also believe that is used by most Christians as a pat answer to avoid the discussion (and personal contemplation) in the first place. To examine this question fully we must try to get a handle on many difficult concepts: freedom of choice, the nature of God, the nature of love, the nature of omniscience, and the nature of evil being the primary concerns. None of these are easy topics, and many of them will have to be looked at simultaneously.\n\nOne of the first questions I believe we need to ask is this: Why did God create us in the first place? The answer lies in what He calls us… His children. Why does any parent want to have children? While there may be a few who will answer that they want an heir to their estate or kingdom, and others who might answer that it is their way to immortality, I believe almost everyone would admit that the reason they want to have children is they want to have a child to love, and to be loved by that child. It is no different with God. He wants to (and does) love us. He wants to be loved by us. He wants all the joys of parenthood. With this understood, we now can explore the idea of freedom of choice.\n\nGiving freedom of choice comes both from the desire to love, and to be loved. Let’s look at a couple of examples we can relate to. If someone is trying to completely control his or her spouse or significant other, the relationship is almost always a bad one. No one likes to be controlled. A husband who tells his wife what friends she can or cannot have, when she can go out of the house, when to have dinner on the table, etc., is usually described as abusive. Not always physically, but that often goes hand in hand. Giving someone freedom of choice is also giving them trust and respect. Love cannot exist without it.\n\nI think it is even easier to see the necessity of freedom of choice when we look at the desire to be loved. God is described as a Father, so I am going to explore this aspect by looking at fathers. A father could make his six year old daughter climb into his lap every night and say, “I love you, daddy,” right before going to bed. He could, but I don’t believe most fathers would want to. While most fathers would want very much for their six year old daughter to do just that, if it was forced, it would not mean anything. A father wants his daughter to climb into his lap and say, “I love you,” out of her heart, not out of command. God wants the same thing. Yes, He could have decided not to give us any freedom of choice, but He created us because He wanted to be loved by us. If we did not have freedom of choice, than we could not truly love. Love must be a choice.\n\nNow that we have touched on the nature of love and freedom of choice, I believe it would be good to look at the nature of God. We will also discover much about the nature of evil while examining this topic. While God is called the creator of all, there is one thing that God did not create: evil. God did create Satan, the author of evil, but God did not create evil. Evil is the absence of God. This is why God is described as light, and evil as darkness. Darkness only exists where light does not. They are not true opposites. The only way to have darkness is to block out all light. There is no such thing as a “darkbulb” or “flashdark.” Only light can be created. God is also described as a consuming fire. I like to take these two concepts together and liken God to our sun. If you get too close to the sun you burn up; you become part of it. This is why in the Old Testament it is stated that if you see God’s face you will die. You would be consumed. When Moses was al
771005
Good question -- the same can be said about this business of torturing people FOREVER in hell just because they could not believe the gospel.  (It is rather hard to believe in invisible things, or in things that one is told and for which there is no proof.)  But if God loves to hate the people he supposedly loves, then that's the way it goes.
192310
God does not love one person more than another. It doesn't really matter if what the person did was a million times worst than what the other person did. God is no respector of persons. Once your sins are wiped away by the blood of Jesus, then you don't have to feel any kind of fear or guilt. Take care.
257917
Yes, this is how it feels. I am right now managing a sore throat and a congested nose. Yet, would all these come to heal without God? No, we are all punished for our actions,thoughts,and words. Are not we all evil in a way? We have all somehow harmed a creature... by stepping on it or eating it. God is not punishing us as bad as the bad. The truly evil are the ones with no love for anything. Those are the ones who are suffering. Even though I am not Christian, did Jesus not suffer? He did it for us. Does God not suffer?... seeing our pain and misery. Yet, throguh this darkness a light shines through. God is beautiful as anything. He is helping us. God sees misery in our hearts and shines light through. Think for a moment...How had God helped you?
288111
I was wondering the same thing.\n\nThe evil lord is using his bag of tricks, disguises, deceit\netc... to get a rise out of GOD's children and he is using\n(as usual) those who are blind to his coup of garbage.\n\nThe e*** one always goes after the hurt, lonely etc...\n\nThis world and time are the e*** one's plate and you can\nbe sure that he or it will fill every millimeter on that\nplate so that he or it won't suffer with the gas, acid\nreflux alone.\n\nPray. \nPray for all the people even with the angry or vile statements and yes, we are to shake our feet so to \nspeak and walk off. If you feel that you can show\nsomeone Christ's love, then keep at it with love.\n\nChoose who to answer to when you see questions and see\nif they are repeatedly antagonizing christians, if they\nare do not respond anymore to that individual.\n\nIt hurts me too when I see hurting souls that the e***\none has captured. Remember Jesus can save even the most\ndisgruntled person. I wouldn't say that a person who\nblasphemes could be in a posistion to listen, but many,\nmany people can be saved and will be saved.\n\nStay strong StephenAlan and I too will be standing along with you.\n\nIsa:40:28: Hast thou not known?  hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary?  there is no searching of his understanding.\nIsa:40:30: Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:\nIsa:40:31: But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.(KJV)
994907
Hi, Slee, you've definitely thought through this and come up with a really good question. I guess you mean to tie "slavery" into this because if God forces people to suffer ramifications for a situation they didn't ask for, that would be slavery....\n\nWell, there are different ways to approach it.\n\nYou could say that God isn't "punishing" people per se, unlike the vindictive nature many people have attributed to Him. \n\nLet's talk about the "parent" example you brought up. You didn't ask to be conceived and born, but you were. And now you have parents, whether you wanted the ones you got or not. \n\nLike it or not, your parents are foundational in your growth as a person, who you do and do not become, where you end up, and whatever else -- a bad parent can damage you, a missing parent (who doesn't interact with you) still damages you, and a good parent shapes you in good ways.\n\nYou don't get a choice. You're stuck with parents and their influence, or you're stuck with their absence and that impact on you. It's simply part of reality: Relationships matter, and relationships impact who you become.\n\nThe situation with God is similar. You didn't ask to be created, but you were, and God happens to be who He is, and you happen to be who you are. You are free to choose to love God or to reject Him -- and depending on what you choose, that will impact who you become and what happens to you. There's nothing that can be done about it, it's simply part of existing.\n\nAnd it's not even like God himself is "punishing" you for rejecting Him. There are natural ramifications to denying the Definer of the Universe. Since he's defined everything, anything you choose that is different will ultimately be a lie. It will also be harmful and detrimental to your growth as a spiritual being. He will let you reject him, but there are simply natural consequences towards rejecting the most "healthy" way to live spiritually.\n\n(With your physical body, you are free to eat poison, for example. The poison, however, will kill you. You can't avoid that outcome. Your only choice is not whether poison kills, but whether you will eat it.)\n\nSo God permits people to choose. The sign of his goodness is that he allows people to do things and believe things that will ultimately be destructive to themselves and their relationships with other people -- and yet he refuses to make the choice FOR them. (And he can't change the impact of their choices; the impact is built into the fabric of how people interrelate. )\n\nSo he's given us a lot of power to choose our own outcome, at least in terms of spiritually who we become. \n\nTo me, that is not slavery, it's the opposite: Empowerment. \n\nMy choices matter. \n\nI know that's probably not satisfying yet, but good questions always reverberate and must be grappled with for a long time. You asked a very honest and deep question, and I think that level of honesty is important to God and will take you very far.
553434
well I like this potion in the bible Jeremaiah 29:11 For I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts and plans for welfare and peace and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome. and also Rom 8:31-\n31What can we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? 32Since God did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won't God, who gave us Christ, also give us everything else?\n    33Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? Will God? No! He is the one who has given us right standing with himself. 34Who then will condemn us? Will Christ Jesus? No, for he is the one who died for us and was raised to life for us and is sitting at the place of highest honor next to God, pleading for us.\n\n    35Can anything ever separate us from Christ's love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or are hungry or cold or in danger or threatened with death? 36(Even the Scriptures say, "For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep."[l]) 37No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.\n\n    38And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from his love. Death can't, and life can't. The angels can't, and the demons can't. Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, and even the powers of hell can't keep God's love away. 39Whether we are high above the sky or in the deepest ocean, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.\n\nI love this passages it keeps me going knowing that the Lord has something good for me and He is always there for me also no matter what I am going thru be it as a result of my mistake or something I have to go thru, I know it that nothing can separet mew from The Love of God and I mean nothing
508919
Absolutely wrong!  God designed us to be loved.  Satan doesn't love you, and by participating in it, you can actually become possessed.  It is very dangerous, and if you want my opinion, it is the deadliest thing you will EVER do in your life!
496868
God is love, if you are one of His children, He chastizes you if you do not obey His Word, same as an earthly father.\n\nGod's love is not the same as the way we love, we can love money, material wealth, love of self. there are many different kinds of love.