And there are none so blind as those who will not see....it is a special kind of blindness....ya know....? (2 Corinthians 4:3-4)
Who is "everyone" McF...those who believe as you do? You aren't "everyone"....and I guess there are those who see how weak your responses are...what have you addressed? I have given you many opportunities to defend your beliefs and what do I get.....? Mindless posts of nothing relevant.
Seriously....why are you in a debate forum when you cannot support any of your arguments?
It is very apparent that you have no idea who God is yourself if you torturing living souls forever is part of his personality.....that would be something the devil would relish.
Please read post #90 for an explanation of why Jesus never taught that his Father was a cruel torturer.
There is no "hell" of eternal torment.
It goes against God's perfect justice.
“He remembers that we are dust”, which acknowledges that our sinful condition is not due to our own will but due to the sin of Adam. Christ came to rescue us from that enslavement by giving his life for those who fought their sinful tendencies to follow his teachings. The penalty for not doing so was death....just death....why would God need to keep the wicked alive simply to torment them? Only the righteous were promised everlasting life.....the wicked are consigned to everlasting death...that is justice.
Death is the opposite of life...part of the perfect balance of creation.
Yes, the consequences are to live or to die....in order to suffer, one must be alive and conscious...the wicked are said to be in gehenna...a place where no one is conscious and from which no one returns.
I have no idea what you think Paul's correction of a fellow apostle means? Peter was doing the wrong thing and had the humility to accept Paul's correction. Peter was part of the "top" but never did he dictate to the body. Neither did Paul. This is why there was always a body of appointed men....never a single individual calling the shots. Its why we also have a governing body, so that no single individual gets carried away with power. We have no positions of power...only positions of service and responsibility, just as they did in the first century.
You ignore the fact that the first century Christians had their "headquarters" in Jerusalem.....these older men and apostles,
as a body, directed the whole of the Christian brotherhood.....so I'm sorry you are rather legless in your assertions that individuals directed any Christian activities. Paul correcting Peter was to correct all who carried on a pretense on that occasion. It was enough to pull them into line.
Now that just makes me smile
.....what do you think produces unity? It is the thing that identifies true Christianity....not the mish-mash out there who pretend to know what the Bible teaches but who all disagree with one another.....what if you are all wrong? Ever thought of that? Deception is not recognized as such until you feel the sting....remember Jesus' words at Matthew 7:21-23? Right up until the judgment, the ones performing all the tricks and miracles still had no idea that what they were doing was not what Christ commanded.
They are shocked at his rejection....
If all those who put great store by their doctrines and manifestations of the spirit were
really guided by God's spirit.....they would all be
united in what they believe.....but is that what we see? Does God dictate different ideas to different people? That is not the way he operates.....sorry.