Board Thread:Bible Questions/@comment-35576995-20180513184349/@comment-35576995-20180531184127

SouthWriter wrote: Metal-Magic wrote ''Well to say ANYBODY deserves death is pretty harsh. (I'm anti-death penalty)''

Well belief isn't a choice, it's a compulsion beyond the realm of choice.

That's not my intent at all. The point was, it's harsh to punish people for not believing you exist.

Death is the natural end to all life in this world. As a punishment it is harsh, and left to man it is often misused. However, if there is a God, then he doesn't answer to man.

What you trust, or believe, to be true is not definitive. This is because you are not a god, but human. There are things beyond our understanding. On the other hand, we know enough so that we should "know better", but we chose to remain ignorant, denying the obvious.

God does not punish people with hell, for it is the natural destination for mankind. The terms used in the Biblical languages, Sheol and Hades, are general terms for the grave. The survival of the soul after death gives a new meaning in context.

The good news is that the destination for the soul is determined by God. It is by His grace that He chooses a huge number to save from Hell. Those whom He has saved accept Him as Savior, trusting Him to be Who He says He is, and to do what He says He will do.

An atheist chooses to disbelieve, trusting his own judgment over against that of God and theists. Logically, an atheist rejects the idea of "life after death". It then becomes an idle charge against someone thought not to exist.

Thank you for coming by. Please read these articles: Jesus Christ, Sin and Salvation, and feel free to contact me at any time.

SouthWriter (talk) 17:09, May 31, 2018 (UTC) It's one thing to die of old age, it's another thing ENTIRELY to outright kill somebody.

And by the way, why shouldn't God answer to us? Why should we just trust him to the fullest?

What exactly is it that we "know"? You can't just expect people from several years into the future to know something that happened YEARS before their time. That's not how it works.

See right there, that's another thing I'm talking about. People like to compare God to a parent, and say that we should respect him to the fullest, but why should we have to respect somebody if they don't respect us back?

We don't choose what we believe because we perceive it as the more "attractive" option, we're compelled to believe what we think is true, whether we like it or not, because desirability is not a requisite of the truth. This takes honest introspection, to truly make a choice, we must clearly be given the option. If we can doubt whether or not the option even exists, then the option hasn't been clearly presented to us, thereby preventing us from being able to make a choice.

Skepitcism and rejection aren't the same thing. As stated above, belief isn't a choice, it's a compulsion BEYOND the realm of choice, acheived through convincing arguments, evidence, and trust.