Sometimes I am linked to an opinion on Facebook to which my daughter has responded. She has liberal views, claims to be agnostic, and is rebelling against the Christianity with which she grew up. Thankfully because of her views, I get a chance to have insight onto the views of that world. Although none of those people are on my friends list and will probably never see these comments, I am inclined to express them anyway.
They criticize a God who punishes people who do not do what He says. But in fact that is not true. First of all, what He requests of us is based on how He, the Creator of the Universe and all of life, created us to be. His commands are not arbitrary but ways of living that will be the best for us. When we go against them, our own lives are not as full and satisfying, as they would be if we did things the way He designed us. The Ten Commandments are not arbitrary rules, but things that will make our lives better if we do them. He created us male and female for a reason. Accepting that fact is best for us. But when the current society goes against what He prescribed, it only makes life here worse. Man’s ways of dealing with a problem are never better than His ways. But most of the time He is never consulted and people decide in their own ignorance what is best. We also know from science that life begins when a sperm enters an ovum and combines its half DNA with that of the ovum. The combined complete DNA then enables the cell to begin the process of cell division, which will happen in the body for the rest of that person’s life. Again, God is not consulted when people formulate their own views. Furthermore, He does not punish us, we reap the natural consequences of our actions.
But much of this criticism is directed to the idea that God is going to send us into eternal punishment when we die. But that is not true either. My daughter claims we don’t need to be obsessed with our “sins” because we are loved unconditionally. She never says by whom we are loved unconditionally. But in fact, it is our Creator God who loves us unconditionally. That love is so great He took it upon Himself to meet all the requirements of His life for us since we couldn’t do it. That unconditional love is offered to all of us all the time. It is embodied in Jesus and his sacrifice for us. We must accept what Jesus did for us to accept God’s unconditional love. Jesus embodies that unconditional love. But God does not force it upon us; we have to choose to accept it. Jesus was God’s way of extending that unconditional love to us. If we reject Him, we are rejecting God’s love. If we are still rejecting His love when we die, He does not force us against our will to receive His love. So we choose of our own freewill to be separated from God’s love forever. We choose hell over being in God’s presence. We choose to be separated from Him and Heaven, which is all about God’s overwhelming love and presence in everything. We end up with all the beings who have ever rejected God and that would be Satan and all the angels that rebelled with him. The punishment of hell is merely Satan taking out his evil wrath against people created in God’s image. He hates us more than you can imagine! God created Heaven for all those He created in His image. He does not want anyone to choose not to receive His love, but it is because of His love He allows people to choose to reject Him. We choose to go to hell, He does not send us there. Unfortunately, the people rejecting God’s love do not realize what they are accepting instead.
See Heaven Is Beyond Imagination for a more extensive description from eyewitnesses of the kingdom of love God has created to those who love Him and the domain of Satan for those who choose to reject God’s love.