Your "big picture" and my big picture are at odds. What can I say?
It really doesn’t matter what you say, or what I say…it only matters what God’s word says…..ALL of it….not just selected bits that you find less objectionable, whilst sweeping the other stuff under the rug as if it was never written.
God will not change who he is for you…or me, or anyone else.
You cannot love a God, you don’t even like.
The planet should NOT be lonely when God is your loving heavenly Father.
Whaoh there…..when I spoke of this “lonely planet”, I meant the planet itself, alone in a vast universe…..not the people on it.
If a Christian is lonely, it means that they have no brotherhood…..Christianity is a brotherhood of fellow believers who all accept one truth, not a gaggle of individuals arguing over which truth they will accept and which ones they won’t. (1 Cor 1:10)
He doesn't hate me. Contrary to your big picture.
I never said he hated you…..you said that.
God does not hate people…he hates the wickedness they practice, so he gives all the opportunity to repent and to stop doing what he says is wrong. Those who don’t, will not gain entry into his Kingdom…..he is done with those who want to do their own will and not his.
The well known, often quoted verse in John 3:16…..says…
“For God so loves the world that he has given his only Son, so that none who believe in him should perish, but should have everlasting life.”
Do you see a contrast here….to “perish“ OR to have “everlasting life”….these are the opposite destination….
The Greek word ”
apollymi” (perish) means….
“to destroy
- to put out of the way entirely, abolish, put an end to ruin.” (Strongs)
When Jesus said to Peter…
.”Put your sword back into its place; for all those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword.” The same word is used there….how does one “perish” by the sword? They are killed.
Can you make those words say something else?
”Perish” means just that. You are no longer alive.
You see how easy it is to find scripture that argues with Universalist beliefs? This is a clear statement…not an ambiguous verse at all.
“Perish” doesn’t mean “saved” by some other means, or “by some loophole in the contract”.…it means to be “put out of the way entirely”…..so how can you make this verse say something else? Wishful thinking?
I don't slander God by whitewashing doctrines that paint him as a sadistic tyrant.
I don’t slander God either…I present him as the scriptures do….why can’t you? No doctrine that I accept, paints God as anything other than the way he paints himself….you seem offended by the way God has acted in the past…the flood of Noah’s day….Sodom and Gomorrah…the complainers in the wilderness…..God showed us in many ways who he is…and what he will and will not tolerate….but he is not what you want to believe him to be, so you want to alter him to suit your own sensibilities. He will not change for any human…..He is who HE says he is. Like it or not….take him or leave him.
Paul does not leave us in any doubt…
”26 For if we practice sin willfully after having received the accurate knowledge of the truth, there is no longer any sacrifice for sins left, 27 but there is a certain fearful expectation of judgment and a burning indignation that is going to consume those in opposition. 28 Anyone who has disregarded the Law of Moses dies without compassion on the testimony of two or three. 29 How much greater punishment do you think a person will deserve who has trampled on the Son of God and who has regarded as of ordinary value the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and who has outraged the spirit of undeserved kindness with contempt? 30 For we know the One who said: “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again: “Jehovah will judge his people.” 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Heb 10:26-31)
We can take note of those words……or we can ignore them at our peril…..it’s our choice.