5:44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
5:45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
5:46 For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?I don't tend to associate damning your enemy eternally with love, nor do I consider eternal damnation a blessing. And I certainly don't consider it doing good to those that hate you. See, it's a really nice thought. We are commanded to live by that principle. But God? Oh no. He gets to SLAUGHTER His enemy. He gets to exact some GOOD, RIGHTEOUS PAYBACK on those who curse him or hate him... as opposed to doing exactly what we're supposed to do to those who hate us or curse us. That's what I mean when I say God is playing by His own set of rules. And if He gets to hate and damn where we must forgive and turn the other cheek... it's not equitable, not fair.
As for 5:46 - Most Bible believers will claim that God DOES love the souls He casts into Hell, but we both know that wrath and the imposition of eternal torture as punishment for disobedience are the very antithesis of love. So if we are to believe this verse, Jesus ironically demonstrates that God is no better than the 'fallen' publicans when it comes to love and forgiveness.
So that's the problem. These are good notions to which the turn and burn God does not ascribe, despite demanding that we do.
pianist
Ahhh, I see what you're saying.
Well, I don't believe that the Bible, in its original form, said that God sends people to eternal damnation... but yeah, those who do certainly would have to justify such a thing, although you've given precisely the argument that one tends to use.
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