Hello, I have a question that has been nagging at my faith for years. I am currently not a Christian, but did spend many years as a believer and I have been married to one for 18 years. I won't go into the long history of my faith or lack of, but to say I do still pray frequently, I'm just not sure who I'm praying to.
Here is my question. I have heard many different opinions on free will from many different churches I have attended and they can boil down to two main ideas. 1 God chooses who he will save as he has a plan for each of us. 2 God is waiting for us to make the choice, accept his son and receive eternal salvation , don't and spend an eternity in hell. All agree that God is all powerful and all knowing.
Here is where my faith gets challenged.
God created me, and when he did he knew all there will ever be to know about me. He knows me better than I know myself. Before he even created me he knew that I would not chose his son and therefor spend an eternity in hell. He knows all, the beginning, the end, and everything between. He created me knowing he was going to damn me.
Now my wife says HE is not damning me, it's my choice. I am damning myself by not accepting him as he gave me the freedom to chose him or not.
Yes, but he made me who I am. As he breathed life into me he knew upon my death that he would condemn me to hell and all of its fury until the end of time. If God came to me before the conception of any of my children and showed me their full happy lives, all the grand children I will have, all of the happiness they would give others, and then all of the agony they would suffer as at the time of their death they too did not believe in Jesus and would be sent to hell.. And then gave me a choice for them to live that life or not, I would have to chose not. My children make me happier then life itself, my unconditional and absolute love for my children would keep me from making the selfish choice of life. I would forego the true happiness I receive from their existence if it meant they would not suffer an eternity in hell.
I have been told God is the purest love and he loves each of us beyond our understanding of the word. Yet, for me and millions of others, the bible says he has made me knowing he would be the one to send me to hell and an eternity of horror. I have the free will to accept him, yet he knew I would not. He may have a plan for my life, but that plan ends in hell.
How is that love? Does the bible have anything to say on this that I have missed or have not found?
Here is my question. I have heard many different opinions on free will from many different churches I have attended and they can boil down to two main ideas. 1 God chooses who he will save as he has a plan for each of us. 2 God is waiting for us to make the choice, accept his son and receive eternal salvation , don't and spend an eternity in hell. All agree that God is all powerful and all knowing.
Here is where my faith gets challenged.
God created me, and when he did he knew all there will ever be to know about me. He knows me better than I know myself. Before he even created me he knew that I would not chose his son and therefor spend an eternity in hell. He knows all, the beginning, the end, and everything between. He created me knowing he was going to damn me.
Now my wife says HE is not damning me, it's my choice. I am damning myself by not accepting him as he gave me the freedom to chose him or not.
Yes, but he made me who I am. As he breathed life into me he knew upon my death that he would condemn me to hell and all of its fury until the end of time. If God came to me before the conception of any of my children and showed me their full happy lives, all the grand children I will have, all of the happiness they would give others, and then all of the agony they would suffer as at the time of their death they too did not believe in Jesus and would be sent to hell.. And then gave me a choice for them to live that life or not, I would have to chose not. My children make me happier then life itself, my unconditional and absolute love for my children would keep me from making the selfish choice of life. I would forego the true happiness I receive from their existence if it meant they would not suffer an eternity in hell.
I have been told God is the purest love and he loves each of us beyond our understanding of the word. Yet, for me and millions of others, the bible says he has made me knowing he would be the one to send me to hell and an eternity of horror. I have the free will to accept him, yet he knew I would not. He may have a plan for my life, but that plan ends in hell.
How is that love? Does the bible have anything to say on this that I have missed or have not found?