Truthfully?
For us to come and know Him, and love him freely in return. And for that to happen truly, there has to be the choice and ability to reject Him too. At least that's my best understanding of His real purpose and ultimate desire for us.
So.........it's for us to come and know God.
Cool.
And, because there's a choice, that means we have free will.
Also cool.
Right, God is not a spiritual rapist. He will not force salvation on you. You must choose it for yourself, and He says the only way to Him is through Jesus. You don't have to choose Him, but he's the only way.
This is not an applicable analogy. The world is what it is.
No, I don't. You still have the free will to deny God and choose other than the way He has set for you to follow. The fact that you don't like the choice does not change the fact that you have a choice to make freely with no coersion; only consequences. You can even deny the fact the choice exists or the consequences are true. That is your choice and free will to make.
That is between God and them. He is the ultimate judge of who is saved and who isn't. This should have no bearing on your relationship with Him.
Incredibly assumptive. Christ came for all people. The rich and the poor. The sick and the healthy. The powerful and the meek. The righteous and the sinful. He spent time with those who would listen and welcome Him into their hearts and homes. Many times Jesus dined with the rich and powerful. Most often he was a thorn to them though, for they wanted Him to be an affirmation of their status and power and glorify themselves, and not learn. The Pharisees wanted Him to justify their hypocritical lives and later to entrap him in a sin but always failed.
Christ has told us to be fruitful in multiply (which can be taken many ways), to be generous with what we have, and has warned us to not be controlled by what we own. Rather, to use what we have to enrich ourselves as well as others. Never has he said we are to not have wealth, except for when it becomes a stumbling block in our walk with Him. Had not God blessed many key figures in the Bible with fabulous wealth thanks to their faith and devotion to Him?
Wealth has it's proper place, and Christ never denied that once.
He was a socialist. He went to where the COMMUNITY had the most problems and solved the ills of those who were there.
No. He went to where individuals had problems. He did not heal communities,
he healed a blind man,
a leper,
a bleeding woman,
a crippled child
a possessed man
and raised a dead friend.
All individuals whom he cared for and loved as single people, not as a group or a class. Jesus also states flatly that we will ALWAYS have poor people. He did not come to solve the world's ills, but rather save the world's souls from eternal death and damnation. The flesh is temporary and will fall away. Ashes to ashes and all that.
Socialists take care of the entire community. Capitalists only take care of themselves.
No, they don't. Socialists are more like the pharisees. They claim to have the soft heart and caring intentions. Yet they often do not take from their own purse, but rather steal from others and force them to give because they believe their intentions are so good, they supersede the evil of theft from those not touched by the same desire.
Capitalists care for others just as much as socialists do. Where they differ is often in HOW they care for them. Instead of begging others for money to feed the poor for a day, they would rather teach the poor to work, so they can feed themselves. Instead of demanding everyone give money to a cause, they see how much of their own money they can put into the cause they believe in. They do not assume they are so possessed with authority that they have the rights to other's work, property and wealth to take as they see fit to give to another against their will.
Socialists generally believe the ends justify the means, capitalists generally do not. Socialists commit many evils in the name of someone else, and call it good. (Won't somebody please think of the children!) They state that intentions are superior to those of others in reach, and cannot be judged by the results of their actual acts, if their beliefs and heart were in 'the right place'. Morality is relative to fit the desires of the day and the current state of their own hearts and minds. They deny others the free will to follow their own heart and desires, for they feel they are the more enlightened and those who do not follow their desires must be somehow... foolish... and need to be controlled. They steal from individuals the very dignity of their humanity by reducing them to groups and easily labeled populations like races, or sexes or creeds.
Jesus did none of that. He treated all who came to Him as what they were, children of God. Men, women, boys, girls, elderly and newly born. And through Him, salvation was brought. The man who never sinned, not once... the Son of God... gave His life for all of our sins for He had none of His own to pay for. Once and for all time, His sacrifice for our salvation. He didn't do this for the Jews, or the Middianites, or the Romans, or the Men, or the Farmers or the Carpenters, or the Prisoners, or the Nobility. He did it for me and you and everyone else, as individuals... so God may have a personal relationship with you.
This is why you are precious to Him. Not only is He your creator, but because He sacrificed so much to save you from the wages of sin and to never be apart from Him again. But He will not force you to accept Him. What love could ever be true if He did? It would always be coerced. All He can do in this is show you the way to Him. After that, it is up to you to pick up your own cross and follow Him.
Maybe that will help you understand more.
