Posted on 04/15/2008 6:56:21 PM PDT by Victory111
It doesn’t take a team of scientist and a ten year study to understand the basics of cause and effect. Whether it’s a sociological explanation or a scriptural tenant the same rule along with its associative principles appear as the immutable law of reciprocation.
Some call it karma while others use the more folksy phrase “what goes around, comes around” but by any other name it is still best summarized by the words of the Apostle Paul who said “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. (Gal 6:7)
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If you want to boil it all down, the moral law addressed to an intelligent, free man says: Nothing is forbidden; but not all things are fruitful. Eschew the unfruitful.
The Ten Commandments are a reliable guide to avoiding unfruitful acts. The Two Great Laws of the Christian Dispensation take a more positive direction: Love God and Love your neighbor. These two laws -- and especially the first -- are the source of everything fruitful in human life.
Where on earth did you ever get the idea that God legitimately could be compared to a human dictator? He leaves us so free that we are even free to destroy ourselves. And He will respect our free decision -- that's what the Judgment is all about.
First, God is a dictator by definition. Second, human dictators also do not interfere with free will except to punish those that disobey with torture and death. Dictators rule using behaviorist principles, reward and punishment..Heaven and Hell in God’s case.
Soliton followed up with a comment that indicates to me that his question was about morality, not physics.
In order to carry your point above, though, you'd have to claim that morality is a created thing, rather than an expression of the essence of God's character. Created things can be made this way and that, as the creator wishes, but some things are not subject to change. Even moral relativists believe that, otherwise they would not act so offended when somebody "imposes morality" on them, as if they thought they had just been morally wronged and everybody ought to understand it.
I don't think moral law is a created thing, but as you say is an expression of the essence of God's character, or better, of His divine nature. (Perhaps we could say as much WRT the physical laws.)
But just as with the case of Michelangelo's creation David, God's creation cannot express His character in the fullest, but only as an "image" of Himself. If God were "in" the creation alongside of man -- i.e., equally bound by space and time as we are -- then you could say there should be a one-size-fits-all moral law binding God and man alike. But then God wouldn't be God. And if He weren't, neither could man be man.
An image is a reflection, not the original of which it is the reflection. Therefore, the reflection not only is not the original of which it is a reflection, but it cannot "bind" the original in any way. We have two different categorical orders (if you will) going on here; and IMHO it is a logical mistake to conflate them.
Apparently you're not familiar with the Immaculate Conception.
Those commandments were directed towards man for his benefit and protection. Man is prohibited from taking another man’s physical life.
God does not kill, as in putting an end to life. While the physical life may end, that’s only one aspect of life and not even the most important one. God is spirit so for Him to *kill* He would have to kill the spirit and soul, and HE doesn’t do that. They live on forever, once created. So God does not kill, because He does not end a person’s life for good.
And where do you get that God commits adultery and lusts after His neighbor’s wife?
If you want to discredit God, try picking something more plausible to argue against Him with. Choosing something like that only makes you look like a fool.
That is presuming that God actually had sex with Mary.
That's pretty shaky ground.
Creating Jesus does not equate to adultery.
Whose, besides yours?
Second, human dictators also do not interfere with free will ...
Not true. They most certainly do.
What kind of free will did people have over their lives in Stalin's collectivization and industrialization campaigns?
What kind of free will do people in China have to choose jobs and bear children?
What kind of free will did people have under Saddam? Pol Pot? Any other petty dictator?
Under earthly dictators you can flee or revolt, even kill the dictator. Human dictators die and things get better. They can only torture you for a while and kill you once.
God is a dictator because He appointed Himself, rules by fiat, is above the law and kills and tortures those who disobey Him. He tortures for all eternity.
God is not a dictator. He is not capricious, nor does He torture people.
God is good, totally. The greater the capacity for good, the greater the capacity for evil. If God, being omnipotent, were not totally good, He would be totally evil. Being totally evil, He would not be capable of any good at all, nor could He create it, nor would He allow it. As a matter of fact, He would not allow anything that was not Himself. Evil beings like dictators tolerate no dissent or challenge to their authority. That being the case, if God became evil, it would result in the instant annihilation of anything not Himself.
God does not torture, as you like to imagine. Pain is the consequence of certain behavior, not inflicted on someone for perverted enjoyment. If you burn yourself on the stove, the stove is not torturing you for touching it.
If you’re going to label God a dictator because He punishes sin, you have effectively just labeled every parent on the planet a dictator, attributing to them also, evil motives, torturing their children for disobedience.
God has given us free will, something no dictator would ever do, because they cannot tolerate the challenge to their authority. Yes, there are consequences to actions. God does not inflict pain to punish, He warns us of the natural consequences of our actions. That is not torturing.
God knew that we could not meet His standards, so from the beginning, when Adam and Eve disobeyed, He promised a redeemer, someone who would reconcile mankind to Himself. God Himself, took on a body and came to earth and lived and died among us,(a horrible death at that) for the purpose of providing a way of being delivered from the consequences of our sin. He did for us, what we could not do for ourselves, hardly the actions of a dictator to provide a way to escape those consequences.
That, combined with free will, provides us an escape from the consequences of sin. The choice is ours. If someone ends up in hell, it’s their own doing. They rejected God’s plan; something so simple that a child and understand and do.
It isn’t like God hasn’t warned us. He has, over and over. One thing He will not do, however, is override someone’s free will and force the decision on them. So people end up where they want. They may not like it very much, but they got their choice and knew of the consequences.
Are Jewish Holocaust victims who kept their faith doomed to Hell?
Is it right and just that they suffer forever in Hell?
Thank you so very much for all of your outstanding posts!
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