Does God Love or Hate You?
Further examination of Christian beliefs
Does God Love or Hate You?
Further examination of Christian beliefs
John 3:16-NASB
16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life.
Most Christians should be familiar with this verse of the New Testament, and on its surface, it seems very self-evident what it’s saying. It triggers a sense of guilt in believers, and possibly even in those toying with the idea of becoming a Christian. They are told that they are so sinful and dirty that they don’t deserve for God to send his only son to die on the cross for their sins.
He must really love humanity to have done such a thing right? How dare you not accept that gift!
To truly believe that we have to disregard just about the entire Old Testament, and portions of the New Testament as well.
In addition, we have to ignore who created all things including all the unsavory stuff. Here’s a hint, it wasn’t created by the Devil, not according to Christian theology.
Where the New Testament tries to guilt trip us into believing in this god and accepting his “gift” the Old Testament instead tries to scare you into believing with threats of violence, desolation, death, and possibly eternal torment…This last part depends on how old the particular book is and whether the Jews had begun to believe in Hell yet when it was written.
At a minimum, you’d be at least looking at destruction and non-existence.
We all know the story of Sodom and Gomorrah where this god destroyed the cities with fire from the sky, everyone…except for Lot and his two daughters that he went on to impregnate. This was the only “good man” in the city evidently. I’m guessing there weren’t any children or pregnant women in either city right? Or those must have been really evil children and fetuses right?
Genesis 19:24-NASB
24 Then the Lord rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah from the Lord out of heaven,
Then we have full-on genocide of the entire planet during the great flood, all due to his displeasure with parts of mankind. Or are we convincing ourselves the unborn and children were evil then as well?
Genesis 6:5–7-NASB
5 6 7
Don’t worry, I’m sure there weren’t any children or pregnant women killed in that flood, not any innocent ones anyway!
Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited.-Geneva Convention
Ultimately he seems big on collective punishment based on his displeasure with even a few, and has zero qualms about destroying people that aren’t his favorites. We as humans came up with a law against that which seems to be fair, and civilized…sort of surprising an omniscient being couldn’t do the same.
Exodus 32:11-NASB
11
Even though he promises Noah never to flood the Earth again, it seems he is very calculated in specifying the word “flood”, he doesn’t say anything about using fire or disease.
Zephaniah 1:2-NASB
things
Zephaniah 1:18-NASB
Zephaniah 2:2–3-NASB
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So burning people's faces off is still in the cards, you won’t get drowned, but you definitely could get incinerated.
He has to keep that threat of massive death and destruction in play or how else will he convince people to worship him? I mean Christians try for the loving forgiveness angle, but if it fails…you’ve got to have a plan B.
Amos 3:1–2-NASB
3
2
His wrath isn’t limited to his less favored children either, he also hates his “chosen”. These verses make it clear that he had only gone to bat for them though, and since they are his favored he was taking their actions as a great insult that they were going to have to pay heavily for.
This wrath isn’t limited to the Old Testament either.
Romans 9:22-NASB
22
Paul writes this verse to try to explain how God has shown such patience in not destroying certain people yet. He explains how “kind” it is that this god has waited to destroy them until later. These “objects of wrath prepared for destruction” are people who this god made to be destroyed, yes even before they were born they were destined for this end. How generous and loving!
There’s a verse in the Old Testament that backs up this idea of God’s “Sovereignty”, by sovereignty I mean you don’t have any say in the equation, so suck it up!
Psalm 2:1–6-NASB
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saying
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saying
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Basically, this god is laughing at mankind for trying to go against his plan. Even if men are all working together to free themselves of this bondage to a malevolent god, he laughs because he knows they don’t stand a chance. They are his playthings for him to destroy as he sees fit.
This is even more evident when he tortures those whom he regards as his favorites, like in the case of Job that I wrote an entire piece about.
It’s always important to blame yourself for anything he does to you, he loves you after all, why do you make him hurt you?
Ezra 5:12-NASB
12 who