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Originally Posted by davem
But I'm not asking for 'full' justice here & now, only a little intervention to stop the really bad stuff.
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Ah. Thanks for your persistence. God has put something in place to stop the really bad stuff, or at least when it happens, to be right there and fix or heal it. However, this 'something' has done by and large a deplorable job. No excuse. It's called the Church. That means us folks who say we follow Jesus. We've failed God and our fellow humans a lot over the last 2,000 years, and it's something we ought to be very remoresful about.
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If God feels the need to 'punish' those who refuse to acknowledge him he seems a little tetchy to say the least.
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but he doesn't. He has been very merciful. And I still think that there is some way in which Christ's redemptive act works backwards into the past such that many who were believed to have never had a chance, will be numbered amongst God's people. There are references to this same kind of thing in the NT here and there: we will be surprised who's there and who isn't ... largely because we look at the outside while God looks at the heart.
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I also have to point out that God actually made us (if you believe that) so He should take some responsibility for the way we turned out.
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That's one way of thinking about why he sent Jesus.
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If I paint a picture that looks nothing like the subject I'd blame myself for my lack of talent, not seek to punish the painting.
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But the picture isn't nothing like the subject, to use your analogy. All humans still bear the image of God, however blemished it may be. Again, why do you think He reached out in the person of Jesus?
[quote=Nogrod]Hell is a medieval invention[/b] That would mean that Matthew 25 was written sometime after 450 A.D.? Not to mention the lake of fire in Revelation? I could have sworn those documents had been around before 450 A.D.
davem's concerns about power are apt. However, the Church should not seek earthly power. It's not what Jesus put it here for.
I'm surprised,
davem, that you didn't add one more phrase: One God
must run......