Great topic!
Make them think!
Let me pick Hitler, the supreme bad guy of history! One evil dude for sure! Partly responsible for untold millions of deaths. I say partly, because it can not be done alone, he needed help! Help from the willing converts and help from those willing to look the other way, pretending all is well.
So what's shall YOU do with Hitler? What is an appropriate punishment? Perhaps burning in Hell for eternity? Seems kinda over board don't you think? Many of his victims only suffered for a moment, while others suffered for years or again others their entire life!
What say ye, 1000 years for each life lost? Hummm, :think:
Yea, baby that would put him there for a few thousand million years to say the least! Burn baby burn! However, nothing even close to eternity! Like a blink of an eye in comparison!
Hey, don't forget, that Mayan kid 1500 years earlier who (HAD NEVER BEEN EXPOSED TO SCRIPTURE, EVER! ) stoled a chicken to feed his sick mom, will burn right along next to Hitler.
Indeed! Burn that chicken stealing, never hearing of Jesus fool! He is with out excuse, just like that Hitler dude! They sooo deserve to fry together! God is Just right!
So, all of you who brought the lighter fluid and matches better listen to Jesus...
Thomas Talbott, in the book “Universal Salvation? The Current Debate”, states, The whole thrust of Jesus’s teaching, moreover, pointed in the same direction. He categorically rejected the prevailing understanding of the retaliatory justice.”
Mat 5:38 "You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' 39 But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40 And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. 41 And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. 42 Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.
, the prevailing understanding of limited forgiveness…
Mat 18:21 Then Peter came up and said to him, "Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?" 22 Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.
and the prevailing understanding of a limited obligation to love
Mat 5:43 "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Why, according to Jesus, are we to love our enemies as well as our friends? So that we might be perfect even as our Father in heaven is perfect. Why should there be no limit to our forgiveness? So that we might be perfect as even our Father in heaven is perfect. Why must we forsake retaliation of a retributivist kind? So that we might be perfect for even as our Father in heaven is perfect.
As I see it, then, we have here overwhelming evidence that God, as Jesus understood him, never ceases to love his own enemies, never ceases forgiving them, and sees no ultimate justice in punishment of the retributivist kind. The idea that we are expected to be better than God is unthinkable.
Don't judge the servant of another!
Rom 14:4 Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls; and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
Rom 11:32 For God has shut up all in disobedience so that He may show mercy to all.
Paul
