Love me or else (Part Two) (Where is it now?)

by Balance_Maintained , U.S.A., Thursday, December 20, 2012, 05:57 (4358 days ago) @ Balance_Maintained

One last post and then I will stop, as apparently it is rude for me to discuss the bible in a thread that centers on a biblical topic.. o_O-The OP asked how one could be commanded to love God. In my last post, I referenced 1 John 5:3 "For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.(KJV)"-YHWH is often depicted as a father or husband figure. I would like to give an analogy here that might make some of this make more sense. -Say you are a husband to a woman, and a father to a house full of children. You married the woman in good faith and remained faithful to her throughout your marriage. The children, you provided with all that they needed: a beautiful home, guidance for how to live a healthy and prosperous life, food, and near complete freedom. However, you also provided them with some basic rules which you expected them to follow, so long as they live under your roof. Nothing to hard, just how to treat each other in order to ensure peace and tranquility and health in the home. Now, at some point your wife becomes unfaithful, sleeping around on you, talking trash, not taking care of her portion in regards to the house, lying to her kids etc. She continues this despite you calling her on it multiple times, and giving her many chances over the years to change. Would you divorce her? Would you do it if you knew that it would, in the end, end up poisoning the minds of your children? What if some, not all, of your children started behaving like their mother, breaking all of the rules that you had laid out for your household. In fact, those kids were so bad that they threatened the safety of the other children in your home. Would you continue to allow them to live in your home, or would you kick them out in order to keep the household from crumbling?-This is the story of YHWH, according to the OT/NT. Except for him, the universe is his house. There is only one exit door, death. You are either in the house, or not. The wages sin pays is death; justice demands it. Yet, even in this he provided a way back home, contingent upon a probationary period during which you could demonstrate your ability to live by the house rules. Loving him is following the house rules. The house rules are there to make life pleasant for everyone.-Religion was his wife, specifically the religion of the Israelite nation. But, she screwed around with Baal, had a lesbionic fling with Athtart, and on and on with multiple partners. The older she got the more corrupt she became, until she was shacking up with damn near every deity on the block.(This still goes on today... Have a look at the origins of the dates and practices of Christmas, Easter, Halloween, etc. etc. etc. Apollo, Ishtar, the dead, and a whole slew of pagan religions kicked in by the early 'Christian' church when they became the state religion of Rome.)-His children were mankind. Some followed the rules, others at least tried to follow the rules, others still held them in complete contempt and scorn and tried to influence the other kids to do the same. They had to be kicked out of the house or things would have gotten so much worse that they can scarcely be imagined. Could you think of what the world would be like if Baal worship had rose to become the predominant religion? Now, there were times that he was harder on his kids than others. In fact, one time he kicked damn near all of them out of the house, but he was regretful at what he had to do that he promised that he would not do it again, not because he shouldn't, but because he knew that from then on, his kids would all be corrupt to some extent or another. So, he resigned himself to be patient until such a time as he could set things right. -Before Noah:-The Lord saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. 6The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. 7So the Lord said, "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them." -
After the Flood:-"Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.-22"As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night
will never cease."-How is it that it can be said that his is a vicious, angry, bitter tyrant? He made a promise not to wipe out all the earth no matter how fucked up we behaved, no matter how much we destroyed, no matter how much pain we caused each other or him. That is akin to giving your house to a man, watching him destroy to the point where it is better off to evict him, demolish the house, and rebuild, then showing mercy and giving him the keys again and saying you won't evict him no matter how bad he screws up all of your hard work. Yet, you sit here and call him a vicious tyrant and act as though he would have no reason to be bitter or angry!-
Side Note to David: Religion, much like Science, does have a form of proof. The proof is in the accuracy of prophecies made, just as it is in science. The bible is full of prophecies.. can you count how many have come true?

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What is the purpose of living? How about, 'to reduce needless suffering. It seems to me to be a worthy purpose.