The God portrayed by Scripture is that of a loving father.
One has to wonder what kind of mentality would dream up the crucifixion for Jesus to pay for our sins and then demand that we suffer even more for our sins ourselves.
It’s no wonder so many people have doubts about their salvation and being accepted by God. He’s being portrayed as a harsh, intolerant, demanding, perfectionist task master who’s just barely holding back from zotting you for the least infraction.
Sin before you get to confession again on Saturday? Too bad for you. zzzzzzzzttttt. Hell for you. You just weren’t good enough for Him.
That’s the beauty of the freedom we have in Christ. We know that even if we sin, as we humans are so prone to do and God KNOWS that, that we’re still His children and don’t have to fear going to hell because we don’t make the grade.
It’s not freedom to sin, as some Catholics like to portray it. It’s freedom to fail; freedom to be human. Freedom in the security of a perfect God’s perfect love.
Exactly. And even looking at the Old Testament GOD poured out His mercy and forgiveness to some pretty rough persons. Abraham was one. I can't imagine a man letting someone nearly marry his wife. Let's not forget him trying to hurry GOD's plan up either as we are still paying for that one. Then there was Noah who after the flood was drunk and naked. There was King David who sent his friend into battle to die to take his wife from him. {what sort of misguided logic was he thinking}. Solomon the wisest of men ever to exist tried a life of sin and pleasures. Through David's sin came Solomon. Also because of David's sins David suffered much sorrow as well in his lifetime. Yet these men live.
By the Grace of GOD Christ found me in my early teens. My late teen to mid twenties adult life I am not in the least proud of. Many things I did {sin] I thought would make me happy made me full of regret and remorse as it should have. GOD had a plan and when I was 27 it began unfolding very quickly and started with a grief I had not known. That plan is still part of my life and only because Christ is with me can I live in that plan.
The Lord had a one on one with me one night in an intensive care unit {I was not the patient} during a laying on of hands for healing. When I surrendered my will to Thy Will Be Done amazing things began to happen. That doesn't mean pain didn't come with the things too follow. But it changed me and is changing me 27 years later. I acted in faith making some prayerful choices for my own and several others lives. Some choices in some churches would require a Priest permission {of whom was my first cousin a VG LOL} such as a marriage to a divorced person of whom the divorce was due to the other spouses adultery and abandonment as well as abuses. But there was not time for it.
My second marriage came in a Catholic Church ran hospital in the Chapel. A Baptist preacher officiated and a Priest and Nuns were in attendance as well. Their care, literally physically defending, and spiritual ministry, to my now wife I will never forget and may GOD Bless them richly for that.