Catholic Scientist writes:
The god of the Old Testament is obviously not perfect, and I don't recall Jesus talking about god being perfect. Paul might have said it though.
And based on what do you conclude that the OT God is imperfect?
CS writes:
I believe that if god proved he exists then we'd effectively be turned into automatons that believe in him by default. For some reason he saw it important for us to be able to not know that he exists and be able to not believe that he exists. I guess that way, those that do believe will be special.
This is why evolutionists seem full of themselves, neither wanting to know truth nor can stop ridiculing those who share with them, the truth. How do you support your nonsensical belief? And what attribute of God can your belief be reconciled to? His love? His Compassion? His Righteousness? I’m really interested. Because what the Bible says is in absolute contradiction to your belief: Romans 1
Juc writes:
But something the Bible is undoubtedly clear on is that people should believe in God, should worship God, should obey God. Those points are rammed home again and again. How, then, is does a "better" or "perfect" God allow his existence and his doctrine to be disputable? If he thinks it is better for us not to believe in him, not to worship him, not to obey him, why does he keep telling us to believe in him, worship him and obey him? That doesn't make any logical, objective sense!
You assume that he exists and his way is perfect if you want. I won't for the reasons stated above. A better creator would not have made it difficult to understand things if it were important to understand them.
So, you seem to have a definition of perfect God (even though you might not admit it) And that definition is : Perfect God would have a perfect way of revealing Himself to people so that they could easily believe in Him, be saved and no one would suffer.
Since you aim at the God if the Bible’s so-called imperfections, let’s look at the God of the Bible specifically. Reading the Bible, we understand that three major attributes of God are love, righteousness and justice:
Love:
God is love- 1 John 4:8
"Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins."1 John 4:10
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. --- John 3:16
Righteousness and Justice:
I am the LORD, who exercises kindness,
justice and righteousness on earth,
for in these I delight,"
declares the LORD. ---Jer 9:24
O righteous God, who searches minds and hearts, bring to an end the violence of the wicked and make the righteous secure.-- Psalm 7:9
Psalm 11:7 For the LORD is righteous, he loves justice; upright men will see his face.
Because God loves human beings, He sent His Son Jesus Christ to earth to die in our place, as a propitiation for our sin so that Christ’s righteousness can be attributed to those who confess that He is God.
John 3:16 :"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
1 Peter 3:18: For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit.
Because God is truth, He cannot claim to be perfect and show only one of His attributes. God’s holiness is the sum of all His attributes. To say that God shows love but does not punish wickedness is to say that God is a liar. However, the God of the Bible proves that He is not a liar, by saying that He will judge men who disbelieve/disobey:
Biblical passages on God’s judgement
Romans 3:23: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, (meaning, have lost the privilege of eternal life)
Rom 6:23: For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
So, here we have God showing love and judgment. If God made it easy for everyone to believe Him, that would contradict His nature. However, the Bible says,
that creation clearly testifies to God (mind you, does not testify to Christ, but God in general):
Rom 1: 20: For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualitieshis eternal power and divine naturehave been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
But some unbelieving men reject Him:
21For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
Therefore God:
28since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
chose that they receive the due reward for their sins: eternal damnation
Obviously, some accept Christ as God. They receive eternal life. This way, God’s shows love and justice to the world. If you are looking for God to make things easy for this world, sorry, but this world is not about you or me. According to the bible, all things were created by Him and for Him Col 1:16. So ultimately what happens is for God’s glory. God takes delight in being Himself and bringing glory to Himself. Going back to the maim point, this is not to say that everyone who looks at nature and understands that there is a God will eventually believe in Christ. Even though God makes it difficult for all men to know Him, He makes it crystal clear to all men that He exists. Period. Whether He gives them the ability to believe in Him is in His hands (Salvation is the work of the Holy Spirit, the third person in the Trinity and happens to only some people.)
Onifre writes:
If god loves us, why does he allow men to lead his children blindly into Hell by the millions? What does that say about god?
Simply that the God of the Bible is one who doesn’t lie.
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