Quote:
Originally Posted by Orangey
And notjeffgoldblum, I don't think any Christian would say that their conception of God is one of conditional love. It's just that God's love doesn't stop him from punishing those who don't believe in him (or her, whichever). Actually, framing it as an act of punishment may be wrong, since the free-will-ers will undoubtedly say that God doesn't punish anyone, but the individual chooses his/her fate by choosing to believe or not. I don't buy it (for several reasons that I won't get into now), but I think that it preserves the idea of a benevolent God while also including eternal damnation.
The point: God still loves you even if he knows you're going to burn. Sort of like (to draw from your parenting analogy) when a parent knows that their child is going down a path of destruction by their choices in life, but continues to love them anyway. Their love, however, doesn't stop the consequences of the child's choices from happening.
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I like to compare the concept of people condemning themselves to hell to idea of criminals sending themselves to jail. It just doesn't happen. Criminals commit crimes and they may well know that they are acting in contradiction with the wishes of the vast majority of society, but the fact remains that it takes something besides their crime to actually put them in jail. God sends people to hell, not people. (then again I don't consider the concept of heaven to be all that appealing but that's a whole 'nother thread)