Sharing thoughts

Once again, it seems there is a repeat. It happened because the previous blog on the subject, on April 23, didn't show up when I checked. No matter. Some things bear repeating, and it would seem that this is one of those thoughts. Something else I have been reading really struck me about what God is like. To me, He is a loving Father; there are times when He disciplines, but it is always in love, and is always redemptive. Some people tell me that God, who is love, would never put illness, or such, on anyone. How could we even imagine that He is responsible for such. However, it is interesting to me that these same people have no trouble believing He has arranged for eternal torment for those who do not "accept" Him. Hmmm. They say that God has given us "free will," and so those who do not "choose" Him has willed their own fate. In a book, "Something To Believe In" [on pgs 250-252], Robert Short makes these observations concerning such thoughts (beliefs): "...The last enemy of belief in God and/or Christ is finally one of two types of "Monster Gods": He is either the weak God of unlimited love but limited power, or else He is the cruel God of unlimited power but limited love. On the one hand, God is the poor, weak, pitiful God who, in His unlimited "love," has chosen to limit His own power in order to give people "free will." (To attribute free will to people is to attribute divinity to them, which, of course, is why the idea of free will appeals so much. We become our own Lords, and we create and control our own destinies.) Out of His great love, God reduces Himself to an innocent bystander...standing by and watching helplessly. On the other hand, we may suppose that God is the mysterious God of unlimited power but apparently limited love. This God, for reasons known only to Himself, predestines the great majority of people, through no fault of their own, to eternal damnation, while saving only a chosen few. But history has all ready shown us that no one can live very long with this kind of Monster God. Thus, the teaching of a literal hell makes a mockery of a God who is supposedly all-loving or all-powerful or both."