In Reply to: cringing at love posted by porceleindoll on April 14, 2004 at 18:24:38:
I wrote that once and everyone was horrified that I could say that about 'love'.
Actually it's funny, I was just asking Miguel the same questions.
But no I don't quite agree, my slant on it, is from the OT we see God's agape, despite how sinful men were. Time they repented (truly) He was there, sending angels, or plagues, or whatever to save them. Did He demand perfection? It doesn't seem so, when you had these mass repentances, do you suppose that all of the sudden peoples heart were perfected? No, I think their willingness to do right in the sight of the Lord was the key.
this of course should not lead you to conclusion (as it did Berg) that God loves sinners so much that they can live like hell and expect heaven in the end.
To me that although we see men with the capacity to do good, they still had the same capacity to do evil.
This did not mean God hated people for being sinners. God hates the evil (isn't that a good thing? ). Hated it enough to destroy the whole world (minus Noah and friends) But through out this OT period, what kept coming out was that God kept promising to somehow find a way to truly and lastingly help. Not because He wanted mindless perfect puppets screaming out their love for him. But a way to come to God that would complete us as individuals.
Do we need God? A God? Something to lean on? Is He a crutch?
I have puzzled over these questions, and I think it isn't reasonable to feel or logically suppose, that we create a need for God. Maybe it's in our genes, but the fact is, if we don't worship a god, we create one, or make one of ourselves.