Are you as forgiving as God is?
 

Do you forgive people who offend you if they repent and are baptized in your name and love you more than anyone else and have faith in you and call you lord? Will you "hew them down" and "cast them into the fire" if they are not fruitful -- i.e. if they don't serve you well enough?

Re: Are you as forgiving as God is?
 

I want to be, but I never will be. His mercy is unlimited.

Re: Are you as forgiving as God is?
 

Do you have more conditions than God does?

Re: Are you as forgiving as God is?
 

Great questions Timmy!

Re: Are you as forgiving as God is?
 

In my flesh yes. My carnal mind works the opposite of His will. I measure everything by flawed human thinking. Unconditional love and everlasting mercy coming through me will only be the result of a supernatural act of God. Only He can love and forgive like that. It's a fruit of the Spirit, not a product of my
will.

Re: Are you as forgiving as God is?
 

Unconditional? Have you actually read the Bible? :lol

Re: Are you as forgiving as God is?
 

as soon as someone is baptized in my name and calls me Lord, I'll let you know . . .

Re: Are you as forgiving as God is?
 

:heeheehee

Re: Are you as forgiving as God is?
 

Really? Thanks! ;)

Re: Are you as forgiving as God is?
 

Trying to fit God into our human way of thinking doesn't work. It's like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. It doesn't work. God is not limited to our time budget, to our thoughts or our ways.

Reading the book of Job shows you how one man sought to ask questions of God with answers that boggled his mind and understanding, and he finally had to come to this conclusion:

Job 42:1-6
1 Then Job answered the LORD, and said,

2 I know that thou canst do every [thing], and [that] no thought can be withholden from thee.

3 Who [is] he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.

4 Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.

5 I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee.

6 Wherefore I abhor [myself], and repent in dust and ashes.

Job realized in all his questioning, and searching of God, that there are many questions and things that he couldn't understand, and too wonderful for him to know.

In all our human reasoning, thought processes, and searches, we will NEVER truly understand God, because He is the creator, and we are the created.

Job says in Job 42:5 "but now mine eye seeth thee" - this is what it takes - ultimately it boils down to FAITH. I believe he was saying, I see you now God with eyes of faith. I may not understand you, or comprehend your greatness, but I see you now with eyes of faith.

It does us all well to ponder the greatness of God, and remember the insignificance of our flesh. Puts things into perspective, and makes the tough questions you ask easier by just learning trust, and not have to know and understand it all, but just to have faith... as did Job.

Re: Are you as forgiving as God is?
 

That's convenient.

Re: Are you as forgiving as God is?
 

Why just convenient? It is a biblical answer. Job is full of God's answers to man's questions. Have you read the book lately?

What would your answer to this question be?

Re: Are you as forgiving as God is?
 

It's convenient, because it can answer any and all criticisms. Just as any religion could. Does Scientology seem wrong? Oh, that's just because of your faulty human thinking. Mormonism, Islam, you name it. Anyone can say anything they want to (and write it down), and nobody can complain.

Re: Are you as forgiving as God is?
 

Back to your original question - am I as forgiving as God is?

The answer is no. No one human being, as created by God, could ever say to the one who created him that I am better, or smarter, or wiser than you.... No matter how hard man tries, he will never outsmart, or outhink God, the creater of this universe.

As for all the religions of the world - I agree... religion stinks, and you can find as many religions possibly as stars in the sky... but religion does not change who God is, and the fact that Jesus did live and die to save us from our sins. Following the Scriptures as the closest thing we have to God's heart and mind, is what we have to do. And then from there, it takes faith....

.... which maybe you need a good dose of.... in fact.... all of us need lots of it!!

Re: Are you as forgiving as God is?
 

Are you implying the Bible does not promote unconditional love?

Re: Are you as forgiving as God is?
 

I listed a few conditions the Bible puts on forgiveness. You don't think God's forgiveness is unconditional, do you?

We could consider God's love to be unconditional, if we believe that He loves us as even as He is throwing (some of) us into hell. Those of us who don't bear good fruit (hewn down and thrown into the fire), for example.

Re: Are you as forgiving as God is?
 

God hasn't thrown anyone into hell, as hell does not exist yet. Most of your angst is, I believe, due to our death-centric approach in the West.

Re: Are you as forgiving as God is?
 

Timmy, tell us how to bear good fruit and measure it in thirty-fold, sixty-fold and hundred-fold.

Re: Are you as forgiving as God is?
 

I forgive easily and don't hold a grudge.

Re: Are you as forgiving as God is?
 

So replace present tense verbs with future tense. ;) Do you think God will send some people to hell and allow others into heaven, or not?

Re: Are you as forgiving as God is?
 

:couch (You sure?)

Re: Are you as forgiving as God is?
 

For the first part, live unselfishly, loving your neighbor, giving, helping. For the measure part, :blink?

Re: Are you as forgiving as God is?
 

God's love is unconditional. His conditions for forgiveness were met in Jesus Christ. Faith in Jesus imputes His righteousness to those who believe, the only condition that is required.

Re: Are you as forgiving as God is?
 

So it's my flawed human thinking. Reading things for what they say. Taking Jesus (as quoted in the Bible) at His word. When Jesus puts conditions on God's forgiveness, He doesn't actually mean there are conditions for us. :thumbsup

Re: Are you as forgiving as God is?
 

And God will (in the future!) love us, even as He is throwing us into the lake of fire. Cool.

(Don't even try to say He won't do that; that we will send ourselves to hell. That is utterly absurd, and it isn't even in the Bible!)

Re: Are you as forgiving as God is?
 

Timmy,

He went way of OSAS... or so it looks. :dogpat

Re: Are you as forgiving as God is?
 

Did Jesus meet God's conditions for holiness and perfection?

Re: Are you as forgiving as God is?
 

God is holy and God is love. Every judgment He makes is righteous. There will be no injustice in His casting the wicked into the lake of fire. If a human being was doing it, it would be evil. Our Holy God can and will do it, and it will not be a contradiction to either His holiness or His love for humanity. He is not willing that any should perish but that all would come to repentance. But many will perish.

Re: Are you as forgiving as God is?
 

I believe a person can backslide. I dont believe one saved always saved. But I don't believe in a God who gives up easy either.

Re: Are you as forgiving as God is?
 

Likewise

Re: Are you as forgiving as God is?
 

Reading an interesting book that might just be for you Timmy.

It is called Love Wins. I'm at work and the book is at home so I can't give you the authors name but I am liking it so far and it seems to answer some of your questions. :)

Re: Are you as forgiving as God is?
 

Nothing and no one is going to answer Timmy's questions to his own satisfaction. He will get all the answers when he leaves this life for the next.

He can't get no... satisfaction....
When he's sittin' at his desk
and a man comes on the net
he's tellin' him more and more
about some useless information
supposed to fire his imagination.
He can't get no, oh no no no.
Hey hey hey, that's what he say.

Re: Are you as forgiving as God is?
 

Rob Bell is the author and he's promoting universalism. That isn a teaching that no one will be lost, no one goes to hell. It's a false doctrine and Bell has fallen out of favor with many.

Re: Are you as forgiving as God is?
 

In your opinion. :thumbsup

Re: Are you as forgiving as God is?
 

You didn't like the song?? :foottap

Re: Are you as forgiving as God is?
 

If I knew the end from the beginning and if my very presence could lead someone to repentance, and if I had all of the other attributes that GOD has, then maybe I would be as forgiving and forgetting as HE is.

Re: Are you as forgiving as God is?
 

Oh, sorry, yes I did. It's awesome, but I had to reply to the first part, so, well, snip snip.

Re: Are you as forgiving as God is?
 

um

Re: Are you as forgiving as God is?
 

but, you know the end from the beginning? and, your very presence can lead people to repentance-that's how it works, I would say. The only way it works.

Re: Are you as forgiving as God is?
 

OK, OK, it's unsnipped! Happy? :lol