I'm a goat then, because there is no way at all I would countenance loving anyone or anything who demanded that love with the
menaces of threat. Fortunately, my experience of God is that He is good, and loving good things needs no threat.
Best wishes, 2RM.
I mean no offense, or judgment at all, but may I ask if you have had a chance to read the entire Bible? Many, many professed Christians, and pastors for that matter, have not. It's just that it helps to take in the full extent of the story and God's purposes to better understand Him and His ways.
It sounds like maybe you don't subscribe to the concept of hell. It might surprise you that Jesus spoke of hell and the devil more than anybody else in all of scripture. I don't see God as an insecure, vengeful God at all. That is a modern perversion of who and what He is. I see Him as just, trustworthy and faithful.
He created a world that He intended to be a certain way, with morals and standards and rules that aren't just for the sake of being a control-freak, but for very specific spiritual purposes. When all of that was thwarted and "
another" injected himself into the equation, demanding that mankind follow
his ways instead, it was only proper and righteous and honorable for God to then give precise instructions, to all of those who love Him, on exactly how to get back to the salvation that He originally intended for His Beloved all along.
It is simply a natural result/outcome if one chooses to follow the ways of the one who rules this fallen world, with immeasurable hatred for God and all of His creation, that they will be ultimately rejected by God.
There is absolutely no demand that we love Him with any menace of threat if we don't. That, again, is a modern obfuscation of the facts - and a tragic one at that. God is not now, and has never been
the bad guy, but you wouldn't know it to hear the opinions of so many in this day.
Remember, Jesus was villainized as the criminal and trouble-maker in His life on earth as well. It is THE fate of any and all who choose to walk in the ways of the Eternal Creator … who is
nothing if not love and perfection.
Well, I was merely pointing out the natural conclusion of assuming God controls all, good and evil, including our 'free' decisions.
Best wishes, 2RM.
I don't believe God controls our free will at all. And that's not a contradiction to anything I have stated.