Some Mistakes

I'm not sure why, but Dan seems to take pleasure here in quoting a fellow Atheist, bitter, twisted, and seemingly one who read a different Bible than the one "I've" got. Robert Ingersoll describes a completely different God, and their actions, than the God of the Christian and Jewish Bibles. I would be afraid of this God as well:

"When I speak of God, I mean that god who prevented man from putting forth his hand and taking also of the fruit of the tree of life that he might live forever; of that god who multiplied the agonies of woman, increased the toil of man, and in his anger drowned a world - of that god whose altars reeked with human blood, who butchered babes, violated maidens, enslaved men and filled the earth with cruelty and crime; of that god who made heaven for the few, hell for the many, and who will gloat forever and ever upon the writhings of the lost and damned."

Let me tear this apart for you. Those of you who have read the Bible probably did it in your head while reading the above statement already. But for those of you who haven't read the book, here it goes:

Ingersoll: "prevented man from putting forth his hand and taking also of the fruit of the tree of life that he might live forever; of that god who multiplied the agonies of woman, increased the toil of man"

The Bible: "And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil." - Gen 2:9

The Bible: "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. " - Gen 2:17

The Bible: "Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire [shall be] to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee." - Gen3:16

The Bible: "And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed [is] the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat [of] it all the days of thy life;" - Gen3:17

The Bible: "And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:" - Gen 3:22

The Bible: "So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life." - Gen 3:24

Note a few things:
Adam and Eve have chosen to be evil and separate themselves from God. They now do not have the same protection from God if He were with them, the ground does not have God's help, the woman does not have God's help, men and women lack the help from God to be selfless and help each other.

If God were to leave men and women in this state forever, allowing them to "live forever" in their bodies now unprotected from God because they have separated themselves from Him, it would be cruilty. Their power would become so great, and their harm to one another even greater.

God made a better plan. He said to humanity that He would provide a way back! That they will have the choice to be reborn and not continue in their separtion from God. They will escape total separation when time ends, when they leave their bodies that are so far from God. Their death will be a release from this world, either to be alone without external harm, or to be with God, supplied with every good thing.

Hell is simply the lack of God, just like light and darkness. Darkness is not anything in itself, it is just the lack of light.

"But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." - Mat 8:12

"There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you [yourselves] thrust out." - Luk 13:28

Those who choose to continue to be separate from God will find themselves completely separate when they die. Don't be fooled because your loved ones and your enemies are gone. They are either closer to God or further away. Where you stand now is only a place for so many years. As we all know, standing here is temporal. We will either come closer to God or go further away!

In any case, enjoy how close you are to Him now. You're reaping his distant protection, His distant help, His distant love. I implore you, hold onto it if you can. He has offered His hand out to you. You may have more.

Ingersoll: "and in his anger drowned a world"

We can all assume he's referring to the great flood of the entire earth. Well, Mr. Ingersoll, if everyone was killing each other, sacrificing their children, having orgies, raping the inocent, and committing continual acts of hatred and backstabbing against each other, would you want it to continue? There was only one man who was not contributing to this chaos, Noah. God pushed reboot. It was more of a relief to the world than a punishment.

Ingersoll: "that god whose altars reeked with human blood"

I really have no idea what he's referring to here. There is no human sacrifice in the Bible besides Jesus Christ and those human sacrifices described in the Bible and committed by ungodly people. And technically Jesus was killed. There is only the place where God asked Abraham to kill his own son as a sacrifice to God to represent Jesus' death as a sacrifice. But God is not into human sacrifice. It was only a test. He did not require Abraham to go through with it. God gave him a goat instead at the end. The point was to raise the emotional response and trust that God would still continue Abraham's line of decent even though it was physically impossible that even Isaac was born, his son, because Abraham and his wife Sarah were too old. The point is, God went through a lot more than that to allow "His" son to be torchered by His own creation and put to death, for a moment tearing Himself in two, the Son from the Father.

Ingersoll: "who butchered babes"

God had babes killed, yes. Entire nations were destroyed at his command. If you hate God enough for having babes killed because they would grow up with emotional and physical ties to their relatives' evil deeds, God respects that to a certain degree and will allow you to separate yourself from Him. It's the whole deal of free will. He does not make you like Him.

But remember we do not receive audible commands from God anymore and He does not send us to destroy nations on His command anymore. Ever since Christ came those types of scenarios were closed. The Bible is written and completed. The Crusades were an evil act by power-hungry men, not God.

Ingersoll: "violated maidens, enslaved men and filled the earth with cruelty and crime"

Here again, I have no idea where Ingersoll is getting his data! God never commanded His people to violate women, enslave men, or ever filled the earth with cruelty and crime by His own hand. Yet you may say He was pushed away by people who wanted to do these things. When human kind separated themselves from God way back with Adam and Eve they also separated themselves from a lot of God's help. We're all doing it today. Our actions, our words, and our hearts are saying to God,
"Let me do what I want. I don't care that it hurts others. It feels good to me. Go away!"

And so He does.

Ingersoll: "that god who made heaven for the few, hell for the many, and who will gloat forever and ever upon the writhings of the lost and damned"

Now come on! Ingersoll. The entire Bible is the exact opposite of this. What are you smoking, man? God invites EVERYONE, no matter their past, to be with Him. He expressed this even by death! The greatest proof there is, that He would even suffer and die to make it possible for you to be with Him again. Jesus is bitterly torn about the decision of those who choose not to have Him, not to enjoy His creation, not to be protected from harm for all eternity (this is not to say He protects us from physical harm here on earth). He has done all that is required for you to meet Him. There is no gloating mentioned in the Bible about God and those being separated. There is no mention of size or vacancy of Heaven or Hell. God says "anyone" who entrusts their life in Him will be there with Him forever. That means Heaven is big enough for all of us, but so is Hell.

To be continued...