How to answer my son's questions

User: What is the origin of the word "Hell"?

Assistant: The origin of the word "Hell" is a fascinating linguistic story. It doesn't come directly from Greek mythology, but rather evolved from a Germanic pagan concept into a Christian theological term.

In short, the origin of "Hell" can be traced back to an ancient Germanic word meaning "to cover" or "conceal," which evolved into "the hidden place of the dead," and eventually, under Christian influence, became "the place of everlasting fire for the punishment of the wicked."

2. Evolution in Old English
In Old English (spoken from roughly the 5th to the 12th century), this word evolved into hel or hell.

The Original Norse/Germanic Concept：Before the arrival of Christianity, the Germanic and Norse peoples (like the Anglo-Saxons) had their own concepts of the afterlife. Their "hell" was a relatively neutral, underground realm of the dead, similar to Helheim in Norse mythology. Most souls, whether they had done good or evil in life, would go there.

Interesting Connection：In Norse mythology, the female being who ruled this underworld was named Hel. She is directly related to the modern English word "Hell."

livefree75 said:

Hello fellow believers,

I'm brand new to this forum. I've been a Christian for almost 40 years. I was saved at the age of 12, went to a Christian college, and have been serving in my church's worship team for the past 25 years. I've studied the Bible and had many deep discussions with my pastor and other Christians.

All My children were raised in the church, and are at various places in their walk. My second eldest son is even studying to become a pastor. However, my eldest son has said that he has deconstructed his faith. He even went so far as to go on Facebook and describe in in gruesome detail how he believes the Bible describes Hell, and says that he cannot worship a god who would allow such a place. That, along with the commands from God in the Old testament to wipe out whole civilizations: men, women and children.

I have tried to point him to to the many examples in the Bible of God's love and grace: many of the Psalms, Jesus' gentleness with people in the Gospels, not to mention his ultimate sacrifice for our sins. But I cannot deny that my son's charges carry weight. And they are starting to bother me as well. I know that God is a god of Justice as well as love. I have tried to explain it by saying that we don't ever know the whole story, and how can we logically put our own morality above God's? That is, by what standard can we possibly judge He who is eternal? He who created truth and therefore morality? But logic alone does not satisfy these heart-wrenching questions.

I would love to hear how other people have wrestled with these questions. And if there's any new perspective that I could share with my son. I know that it's not my job to save him. Only God can do that. And I know that God wants him even more than I do. But I have prayed fervently for him as well as my #3 son who is also rather agnostic but not hostile to the faith, and does go to Christmas and Easter services with us when he's home. My eldest refuses to darken the doorstep of any church.

I need God's comfort and his strength right now.

I pray God's blessing upon each of you and look forward to Resurrection Sunday.

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Knowing the truth is essential and believing in an all-powerful God gives us some hard truths. For instance, not you, nor your son loves to the degree our God loves. He loved you and your son with agape love so much He had His Own Son who embodies the Godhead, crucified the most horrible death imaginable in your place! God died for you and your son!!! And now even you are judging Him? Do you really believe you are worthy to judge God? Are you holy enough to put God to the test and willfully sin? Hell was not made for man. It was made for Satan and his angels. Satan thought the same thing as you, even though God created him to be the most beautiful and glorious of all the angels. That wasn't enough for Satan. No! He wanted to be God. Isn't that what you and your son are doing? Tell your son to get over himself. Only a fool says there is no God. He needs to choose who is his god/God. Satan who hates him, or the one and only God that died for him and wants to give him eternal life in heaven that is so beautiful, no one can describe it. It would be a stupid shame to choose hell.

26 For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. 28 Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. And again, “The Lord will judge His people.” 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

As for God killing all but eight souls in the flood, do you have any idea who those people were? Genesis 6 also said, this would happen afterwards. That described Goliath and his nation of women and children too, even their livestock. Above everything else, God is so holy He cannot allow Satan's people to exist, nor livestock they committed beastiality with. That is because He loved this world so much He gave His only begotten Son, but that isn't enough for you? Really? Jude 1:5 "But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. 6 And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day; 7 as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." This means that the "sons of God" were as in the book of Job says were angels. They were the first to be chained. But after the flood more angels corrupted themselves and created Goliath, and other nations of demonic origin. At the end of the age, a total of one-third of all the angels will choose Satan. It didn't happen all at once, otherwise, the word "afterwards" would not be true.

Hello,

The best answers that we can give anybody are truthful answers. If you do not know the answer to anybody's question, then tell them that you do not know the answer and then invite them on a journey with you to discover the right answer to their question.

livefree75 said:

Hello fellow believers,

I'm brand new to this forum. I've been a Christian for almost 40 years. I was saved at the age of 12, went to a Christian college, and have been serving in my church's worship team for the past 25 years. I've studied the Bible and had many deep discussions with my pastor and other Christians.

All My children were raised in the church, and are at various places in their walk. My second eldest son is even studying to become a pastor. However, my eldest son has said that he has deconstructed his faith. He even went so far as to go on Facebook and describe in in gruesome detail how he believes the Bible describes Hell, and says that he cannot worship a god who would allow such a place. That, along with the commands from God in the Old testament to wipe out whole civilizations: men, women and children.

I have tried to point him to to the many examples in the Bible of God's love and grace: many of the Psalms, Jesus' gentleness with people in the Gospels, not to mention his ultimate sacrifice for our sins. But I cannot deny that my son's charges carry weight. And they are starting to bother me as well. I know that God is a god of Justice as well as love. I have tried to explain it by saying that we don't ever know the whole story, and how can we logically put our own morality above God's? That is, by what standard can we possibly judge He who is eternal? He who created truth and therefore morality? But logic alone does not satisfy these heart-wrenching questions.

I would love to hear how other people have wrestled with these questions. And if there's any new perspective that I could share with my son. I know that it's not my job to save him. Only God can do that. And I know that God wants him even more than I do. But I have prayed fervently for him as well as my #3 son who is also rather agnostic but not hostile to the faith, and does go to Christmas and Easter services with us when he's home. My eldest refuses to darken the doorstep of any church.

I need God's comfort and his strength right now.

I pray God's blessing upon each of you and look forward to Resurrection Sunday.

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Well yes, honest people will ask such questions. I certainly have. Here are my two cents' worth....

We are, first of all, victim to our sin inheritance--we want to go our own way, and not submit to the righteousness of God, no matter how much that may seem contradictory. We have no real excuse to deny the holiness and purity of God, whose love transcends all of humanity's problems.

That being said, we can look at these questions through the eyes of faith. God allowed there to be free agents who can choose to work with Him or who can work apart from Him. The results from those who choose to live their own independent lives is chaotic, with a steady stream of consequences.

Allowing those consequences is part of God letting there be free agents. Some of it He can mitigate--some of it He can't. But there must be consequences. Whatsoever a man sows he will reap.

When we suffer as a consequence of those who were before us or from those around us, we are part of God's plan to let people be free agents. As such, we suffer like Christ did--the innocent for the guilty. And we are then also an opportunity for either judgment or forgiveness.

I should add this. When God ordered Israel to destroy all of the Canaanite nations, aged and young, men, women, children, and even animals at times, He was facing many, many years of cultures resisting His word. If we look at children raised up in terrorist camps, we realize that the children have been ruined from the start. God may forgive them, but it was likely best to end their lives rather than let them indulge in ever greater sin, due to their environment. And it is certainly best to end their lives before they can grow up and murder others they have been trained to hate.

If anything I've learned in recent times it is that some cultures will not submit nor surrender until a good portion of the population are destroyed, along with their wealth. It is the result of human sin and its consequences, and certainly was not God's original plan for these cultures.

Hello and welcome....

livefree75 said:

My second eldest son is even studying to become a pastor. However, my eldest son has said that he has deconstructed his faith. He even went so far as to go on Facebook and describe in in gruesome detail how he believes the Bible describes Hell, and says that he cannot worship a god who would allow such a place. That, along with the commands from God in the Old testament to wipe out whole civilizations: men, women and children.

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Your son’s response to these things resonates with me because I too had those feelings and could never equate a “hell of eternal torment” with a God of love....
OT accounts too were troubling, but it wasn’t until I actually studied the Bible, rather than church theology, that I came to understand where the concept of “hell” came from....and it wasn’t from the Bible. It was an adoption from paganism that was incorporated into Scripture by a corrupted church system that wanted total control over its members...and did so through fear, not love.

There is no “hell”.....”Gehenna” is a symbolic place, not a literal place.....it’s the “lake of fire” and God will send the devil and his cronies there, as well as the “goats” who fail the final test. The fire is not literal either.
Revelation 20:13-14 says that “death and hades” are cast into this place. Yet “hades” is translated as “hell” in many English Bibles. That is “hell” being cast into “hell”, which doesn’t make sense.

The Bible does not contrast “heaven and hell” as opposite destinations for the human race....it contrasts “life and death”....these are what are opposites.
Eternal life is contrasted with eternal death. There are no immortal souls to go anywhere after death....just life and inevitable death, with a resurrection in view. (John 5:28-29)
Resurrection is a restoration of life....not a continuation of it.
What is a resurrection? Jesus demonstrated it with his friend Lazarus. Where did Jesus say Lazarus was? (John 11:11-14)

Those sent to “Gehenna” will simply remain in death...as if they never existed.

livefree75 said:

I cannot deny that my son's charges carry weight. And they are starting to bother me as well. I know that God is a god of Justice as well as love. I have tried to explain it by saying that we don't ever know the whole story, and how can we logically put our own morality above God's? That is, by what standard can we possibly judge He who is eternal? He who created truth and therefore morality? But logic alone does not satisfy these heart-wrenching questions.

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When we understand why we are living in this world, where the knowledge of evil (taken in disobedience) resulted in the practice of it, (in so many heinous ways) and we try to fit this God of love into a world that he handed over to the devil, we are moved to ask questions. (Luke 4:5-7; 1 John 5:19) We deserve answers.

In Bible times when people were engaged in evil activity that went beyond a certain natural line of demarcation, it usually carried the adjective, “inhuman”, which basically means something that is beyond normal human behaviour....or behaviour that originates outside of human minds.

Handing the world over to the devil had a purpose, which was to demonstrate what happens to human life under the influence of the one that the first humans chose to obey....we are living a life lesson...one designed to show us the opposite of a life obedient to our Creator.

When God destroyed the pre-flood population....it was because of demonic interference and a level of violence and immorality that was leading the humans down a very dark path way too early.....the flood reset things, to start again......and his removing the Canaanites from the land God promised to his people, archeologists actually say that the level of wickedness they discovered there was such that it was a wonder that God did not destroy them sooner.....Sodom and Gomorrah too went way beyond what God tolerated morally....and there was only one way to stop them....their complete removal.

As Creator, God has full right over life and death, and his justice is perfect because it is solidly based on the penalty fitting the severity of the crime...not on sentimentality but on evidence and pure justice. Mercy was at times offered, but it had to be merited, circumstantially.

God’s laws were not negotiable.....his laws were clearly stated and so were the penalties....man being made in God’s image, were endowed with a conscience that did not allow them to go beyond what was morally right and wrong, without feeling it in their consciousness. The Bible says that if you ignore your conscience, it will become hardened, and then fail to alert you....a gradual decline in your behaviour will follow.

So I have a very different story to the one taught in Christendom......not the same God at all....the Bible tells us about the one Jesus called his God and Father.

After his resurrection, he told Mary Magdalene....“Stop clinging to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father and to my God and your God.’”

At Rev 3:12, Jesus calls his Father “my God” four times in that one verse.....this is long after his return to heaven. Can anyone explain that?

livefree75 said:

I would love to hear how other people have wrestled with these questions.

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Hi LF! You are sounding pretty strong in the faith concerning what any believer should do about their Family. Once we establish that God is first in everything we can proceed onward in Him guiding and enabling us to be the Christian He wants us to be through "pleasing" Him," which is what He is constantly "working in you" (Phl 2:13).

As you have already established, God will always be first in the life of the believes: "Whosoever that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me" (Mat 10:37).

Doing this will be the most difficult thing we can do concerning our love to God, and it helps me to grow in the faith, knowing that this causes or faith to grow the most; and "faith works by love" (Gal 5:6).

God bless!

livefree75 said:

Hello fellow believers,

However, my eldest son has said that he has deconstructed his faith. He even went so far as to go on Facebook and describe in in gruesome detail how he believes the Bible describes Hell, and says that he cannot worship a god who would allow such a place.

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Difficult and Trying circumstance you are facing.

Worship follows Belief.
I would focus on that first.
Straight out…Does he Believe IN our heavenly God?
Only he can Answer.

If yes or no…
No?
If there were such a Power that created and made… Kinds of being and their habitats…

Would he /son… be most favorable to having a creator and maker…
That Allowed him / son FREEWILL ?
Or
A creator and maker that FORCED him / son preprogrammed him/son …
TO Believe, TO Worship, TO DO the creator and makers WILL?

It is the same concept…
Would he/son like to have the Power to FORCE…( a potiental mate ) to Love him /son?

And if he/son, had such power, “used”, such power…
How would he/son “determine, conclude, her/ mate, love for him/ son was Genuine”?

God “determines” angel kinds of beings, man kind of beings LOVE For Him (God), by what “they” Freely Choose.

God LOVES all of His Creations.
Every Angel. Every man…. Can Freely choose to Love Him…. or Not.

The Worshiping of God, has to do with exalting God, His Power Above All other Things and Power… and Thanking Him for the Offerings and Giving of Gods Promises and Blessings and Gifts to Those that Do Love Him.

So…son… what is YOUR point?
You think you qualified to counsel God…on Justice?
That He should Give Gifts to men WHO “Reject Knowing Him, Believing in Him”?

And son, do you understand…an Offering, stands on its Own…
The one Offered the Offering, MUST TAKE the Offering, before the Offering is that mans possession?

God IS JUST… FREEWILL is your choice.
MEN, who TAKE Gods Offering …
And
MEN who REJECT Gods Offering…
EACH Get what they Wanted…!!
* Without God while mortally Alive!
* Mortally Dead Forever Without God!
Or
* With God forever while Mortally Alive.
* With God forever after Spiritually Quickened. ( spirit born again).

Hell is simply a temporary place for Living Souls (departed out of mortally dead Bodys)…
That chose to Reject God, and Not be With Him.
Hell, is the Temporary distance place From God, for departed Living souls.

Heaven, is a Temporary close place with God, for departed Living souls, that chose to take Gods Offering to be With Him.

Both, are simply WAITING for Judgement Day…
They who freely chose to be With God, will remain With God
Those who chose to be Without God…
Shall have all Life in them, Removed…
And their whole, LIFELESS body, soul, spirit (not tortured, not pleaded with to believe) but their Rejection honored…and they Destroyed and Forgotten.

“son”… your family, your loved ones, who are With God Now, who love you NOW, will not be Sad and Sorrowful, for not being able to be with you forever… they Like God, will have all memory of you “erased”….
Since the New World God has promised…
Has NO sadness, sorrow, malice, disease, mysteries…

You FREEWILL is a grand Gift all angels and men are given…
What YOU chose Will determine… your forever Status…

Per your son…

If you think Gods “IS” harsh to reject those who Reject Him…remember your own outlook, when a female is interested in you… and you Reject her….

No you can not send her to Hell…
But you do have the power to ridicule her, make fun of her, ignore her, make her sad, gossip about her, hang up on her, etc.
An unpleasant circumstance for her…
Same as it is an unpleasant circumstance for men who reject God.

Glory to God,
Taken

Tagging our @resident deconstructionist.

livefree75 said:

Hello fellow believers,

I'm brand new to this forum. I've been a Christian for almost 40 years. I was saved at the age of 12, went to a Christian college, and have been serving in my church's worship team for the past 25 years. I've studied the Bible and had many deep discussions with my pastor and other Christians.

All My children were raised in the church, and are at various places in their walk. My second eldest son is even studying to become a pastor. However, my eldest son has said that he has deconstructed his faith. He even went so far as to go on Facebook and describe in in gruesome detail how he believes the Bible describes Hell, and says that he cannot worship a god who would allow such a place. That, along with the commands from God in the Old testament to wipe out whole civilizations: men, women and children.

I have tried to point him to to the many examples in the Bible of God's love and grace: many of the Psalms, Jesus' gentleness with people in the Gospels, not to mention his ultimate sacrifice for our sins. But I cannot deny that my son's charges carry weight. And they are starting to bother me as well. I know that God is a god of Justice as well as love. I have tried to explain it by saying that we don't ever know the whole story, and how can we logically put our own morality above God's? That is, by what standard can we possibly judge He who is eternal? He who created truth and therefore morality? But logic alone does not satisfy these heart-wrenching questions.

I would love to hear how other people have wrestled with these questions. And if there's any new perspective that I could share with my son. I know that it's not my job to save him. Only God can do that. And I know that God wants him even more than I do. But I have prayed fervently for him as well as my #3 son who is also rather agnostic but not hostile to the faith, and does go to Christmas and Easter services with us when he's home. My eldest refuses to darken the doorstep of any church.

I need God's comfort and his strength right now.

I pray God's blessing upon each of you and look forward to Resurrection Sunday.

Click to expand...

Hello,

I was called in to assist. @resident deconstructionist.

I consider myself to be a recovering evangelical. Like your son, I have been deconstructing the faith I was raised on.
I'll post a testimony below that may sound familiar, but shows how I ended up here. I have much more to say.


"We had a family situation. My sister-in-law informed my mother-in-law
that she couldn't believe in a God that would put people in hell.
Mom was pretty upset. She was afraid of losing a child to unbelief.
The church had taught her that those who succumb to unbelief will be lost for all eternity.
Mom was devastated. Understandably.

The family had been raised evangelical, as had I. Which left me with nothing to offer but the standard apologetics about hell.
This left me with a hollow feeling inside. My "biblical" defense did nothing to help the situation. Mom was still sobbing.
There was really nothing we could say to my sister-in-law to help the situation. I thought she was at least half right.

The hell doctrine bothered me too. Although the church was backing away from the hellfire and brimstone message...
It was still there. Now softened to "Eternal separation from God." (whatever that means)

I did some research to see if I could bolster my hell belief enough to hang onto it. Again, the empty rhetoric prevailed.
What was hell and why did God create it the way the church described it? Such pointless and sadistic horror.
What kind of a...? (sigh)

Then a forum friend whose biblical knowledge I trusted said that he didn't believe in a forever burning hell. Say what?
I responded by saying, "Tell me more." He directed me to a forum topic where Universalism was being discussed.
So, I did some research in that direction. My eyes were opened to something I had never seen before when I read this verse.
I had seen the verse before but never noticed the words, "not only for ours". Say what? That's where it began."

1 John 2:2 NIV
He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

St. SteVen said:

I have much more to say.

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As I went into this I emailed another forum friend that was/is a Pastor.

I said that at my current trajectory I might be an atheist in five years.
He made a good observation. Some deconstructionists go too far. (became atheist)
No need to have such an extreme reaction.

And to be clear, my issues aren't with God; my issues are with the church.
I love the people at my home church and am still supportive of their ministry in the community.
But I don't want to be "fixed". I just want to be accepted for who I am.

livefree75 said:

I would love to hear how other people have wrestled with these questions. And if there's any new perspective that I could share with my son. I know that it's not my job to save him. Only God can do that. And I know that God wants him even more than I do. But I have prayed fervently for him as well as my #3 son who is also rather agnostic but not hostile to the faith, and does go to Christmas and Easter services with us when he's home. My eldest refuses to darken the doorstep of any church.

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What is the basis for salvation? No one is saved by doctrine.

Fact IS Every mortal Body, Must, Shall Die. God requires the Life (blood)of a mans body to Die.

Fact IS Every mortal body has opportunity to Believe in their Heart… or Not.

Once Accounted in (Gods Books), bodily Dead….then is their Offered Salvation …
for the Saved…Given
for the UnSaved…Withheld.

Body’s of the Dead, go Neither to Heaven or Hell.

Departed Unsaved living souls go to Hell.
Departed Saved living souls go to Heaven.

Presently…all living souls IN their bodies ON Earth…Believer or Not…all enjoy the Beauty of This World…
Beautiful…
Sunrise, Sunshine, Sunsets, The Sky, Stars, Majestic mountains, waterfalls, Forrest’s, Abundance of Flowers, Aromas of flowers and cooking meat, glistening metals, soft linen, silk, music, entertainment, games, competitions, books, videos, rain, crops, comfortable homes one did not build, food to eat one did not grow, majestic animals, pet animal companions….
On and on…
Regardless of Belief all can enjoy…

A Saved man attributes such Beauty and Enjoyment to God…

An unsaved man, can attribute, his good circumstances to Luck, wealth, whatever.

An unsaved mans soul, discarding, Gods beauty a wonderment being attributed TO Him…Stems from their freely chosen Rejection of Him.

Their unsaved Living Soul being sent to Hell is expressly for them to “temporarily” Experience a soul living experience Void of God and all the beauty He provided, They enjoyed, and Denied it was He (God) who provided those things.

They ARE “learning”, what God freely gave, and They rejected acknowledging His Gifts…can and will be taken away.

Not a mystery…it is clearly taught.

God is Just
God is Gracious.
The unsaved Souls DO NOT continue to Live forever, Experiencing such unpleasant conditions.
The life of their body is blood.
Body’s die, blood dead, lifeless.
The life of souls is Gods breath.
Unsaved, breath life returns to God, soul dead, lifeless.
They shall be destroyed, forgotten…

They lived enjoying Gods “things”… and then they can’t enjoy His Things.

They wanted nothing to do with God, they got what they wanted.


So what’s the problem?

Glory to God,
Taken

livefree75 said:

I would love to hear how other people have wrestled with these questions.

Click to expand...

I hear the weight in what you’re saying. This isn’t just theology for you. This is your son. That changes everything.

But let’s get one thing settled right out of the gate. God does not get adjusted to fit our comfort. We get corrected to fit His truth. Scripture says, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” ~Genesis 18:25. That’s not a suggestion. That’s a settled fact. God is right, even when He’s hard for us to understand. “All his ways are judgment… just and right is he” ~Deuteronomy 32:4.

Now your son is struggling with hell. But listen carefully. Jesus didn’t avoid that subject. He leaned into it. He said, “these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal” ~Matthew 25:46. Same verse, same duration. If heaven is forever, so is hell. You can’t keep one and throw out the other without rejecting what Jesus actually said.

The reason hell feels offensive is because sin has been shrunk down in people’s minds. But God hasn’t changed His definition. “All have sinned” ~Romans 3:23, and “the wages of sin is death” ~Romans 6:23. Sin is not a mistake. It’s rebellion against a holy God. And when you see sin rightly, judgment stops looking cruel and starts looking righteous.

But here’s where it turns. The same God who judges is the God who stepped in. “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” ~Romans 5:8. That cross is not decoration. That cross is where justice fell. Jesus took what sinners deserve. If there’s no real judgment, then the cross makes no sense. Why would the Son of God suffer if there was nothing to be saved from?

Now about those Old Testament judgments. People read those and think God lost control. No. God was executing judgment after long patience. He said the sin of those nations had to reach fullness first ~Genesis 15:16. And what kind of sin are we talking about? “They burnt their sons and their daughters in the fire” ~Deuteronomy 12:31. That’s not cultural difference. That’s deep wickedness.

So when God judged, He wasn’t being unjust. He was being holy. And we have to remember something we don’t like to admit. God has authority over life that we do not. “I kill, and I make alive” ~Deuteronomy 32:39. We don’t sit in the judge’s seat. We stand before it.

Now let me bring this down where it really matters. A lot of people say they reject God because of hell. But that’s not the root. The root is they don’t want a God who has authority over them. Scripture says, “Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself” ~Psalm 50:21. That’s it. They want God to agree with them, not rule over them.

And here’s the part you can’t miss as a parent. This is not just an intellectual issue. There is spiritual blindness involved. “The god of this world hath blinded the minds” ~2 Corinthians 4:4. That means you can explain truth perfectly and still not see change unless God opens the eyes.

So what do you do?

You stand on the Word, not your emotions. “I am the LORD, I change not” ~Malachi 3:6. God hasn’t shifted just because your son is struggling.

You speak truth clearly, but you don’t chase arguments. The Word does the cutting. “The word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword” ~Hebrews 4:12.

And you pray like this is war, because it is. Ask God to “give them repentance” ~2 Timothy 2:25 and to shine light into darkness ~2 Corinthians 4:6.

And hear this, because you need it. Don’t carry guilt that doesn’t belong to you. You can raise a child in truth and still watch them walk away. The prodigal did. But when he came to himself, he knew exactly where to return.

So here’s the truth you hold onto and, when the moment is right, you give to your son straight:

God is not less loving because He judges, and not less just because He loves. The cross proves both. “That he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus” ~Romans 3:26.

Your son doesn’t need a softer version of God. He needs the real one. The One who saves, the One who judges, and the One who still calls sinners to come.

So you hold the line. Stay in the Word. Keep praying. And don’t forget, God is still able to reach him.

bdavidc said:

Your son doesn’t need a softer version of God. He needs the real one. The One who saves, the One who judges, and the One who still calls sinners to come.

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That's terrible advice.

Her son has pulled away from the view of God presented by the church and those like you.
The view that makes God appear as a cosmic tyrant, capable of the most sadist acts imaginable.
Worse than any human that has ever lived. Is that your God? No thanks!

And you suggest that she cram that down his throat AGAIN! ???

livefree75 said:

Hello fellow believers,

I'm brand new to this forum. I've been a Christian for almost 40 years. I was saved at the age of 12, went to a Christian college, and have been serving in my church's worship team for the past 25 years. I've studied the Bible and had many deep discussions with my pastor and other Christians.

All My children were raised in the church, and are at various places in their walk. My second eldest son is even studying to become a pastor. However, my eldest son has said that he has deconstructed his faith. He even went so far as to go on Facebook and describe in in gruesome detail how he believes the Bible describes Hell, and says that he cannot worship a god who would allow such a place. That, along with the commands from God in the Old testament to wipe out whole civilizations: men, women and children.

I have tried to point him to to the many examples in the Bible of God's love and grace: many of the Psalms, Jesus' gentleness with people in the Gospels, not to mention his ultimate sacrifice for our sins. But I cannot deny that my son's charges carry weight. And they are starting to bother me as well. I know that God is a god of Justice as well as love. I have tried to explain it by saying that we don't ever know the whole story, and how can we logically put our own morality above God's? That is, by what standard can we possibly judge He who is eternal? He who created truth and therefore morality? But logic alone does not satisfy these heart-wrenching questions.

I would love to hear how other people have wrestled with these questions. And if there's any new perspective that I could share with my son. I know that it's not my job to save him. Only God can do that. And I know that God wants him even more than I do. But I have prayed fervently for him as well as my #3 son who is also rather agnostic but not hostile to the faith, and does go to Christmas and Easter services with us when he's home. My eldest refuses to darken the doorstep of any church.

I need God's comfort and his strength right now.

I pray God's blessing upon each of you and look forward to Resurrection Sunday.

Click to expand...

It's a busy time to go into detail--but short answer is: The world is not what it seems. It is the manifestation of all that was before the world began ("before the foundation of the world")--complete with special effects, like the sun, moon and stars as signs showing the tragedy of all that was. These are the stories of One man--the revelation of Jesus Christ.
But broken down into the detail of many, putting feet to the war in heaven between good and evil--in sibling rivalry.

God made it all manifest with salvation as the plan--but we were the cause--each of us part of the detail, in a more numerous display than the sand on the seashore, like many Adams...or atoms.

But as manifestations go, much of it is illusion. Therefore, do not take the ways of this created world to heart--just do your part...and God will clean up.