Christianity

This is sort of a part two, so please check here for the "part one" along with the other links. :)

This one is going to focus on the quote in the third link. "I find it hard to believe that God created 7 billion humans if he intended to condemn 5 billion of them to hell."

I don't know who said it, if they claim to be a Christian, or anything else about it. But let's assume, since it appeared on a post about Christianity that it was, in fact, a professing Christian who said it. Within this post we see some very dangerous, non-Biblical thinking.

The first problem is this, "I find it hard to believe...." Don't get me wrong, you have to be able to actually believe the Bible for it to have any impact on you. However, if you DO believe the Bible, you can't go about putting restraints on it, and how you FEEL about something is not the test. The test is, does the Bible teach it? Either you believe it, all of it, or you don't. So if God SAYS that that's what He did, it doesn't matter if it's "hard to believe." Either you choose to believe it, or you choose to say, "Eh, that's too hard. That's too far." If you take that to the logical end, you will find you have a god that is partly like the God of the Bible and partly reflects your own take on things.

This kind of thinking (though I don't think most people take it to the logical end) is a major problem behind the disagreements about the doctrines of grace (also known as Calvinism). People don't LIKE certain things, and they think that because THEY are uncomfortable with it that GOD is uncomfortable with it. That's a silly assumption.

The second problem is that the author of this quote doesn't seem to take Biblical history into account. I kind of wonder if they've read Exodus. Why did Pharaoh not let the people of Israel go sooner? Because God wanted to show His power. It's also because Pharaoh was wicked and didn't want to lose his slave force and was too proud to yield; but the Bible says that Pharaoh didn't let them go so that God could exercise His might and show wonders in the land of Egypt.

It isn't God's wrath or lack of goodness that causes there to be so many people going to Hell; it's God's attribute of long-suffering, of patience. You can look and say, "Wow, God is mean to send all those people to Hell" or you can look at it from the other side and say, "Wow, God is so good to let those people live on His Earth for so long, even though they're ruining pretty much everything." Why were there so many people who died in the Flood? Because God gave them sooooo long to turn around and worship Him; but they didn't. They just kept getting worse.

Over and over we see this in the Bible. With the Flood, there was just Noah. With Sodom, there was just Lot. God doesn't deal out His judgment prematurely. He waits, He gives LOTS of "second chances." It's one thing to be patient with someone you know is going to come around; it's quite another to be patient with someone you know is never going to change. God is patient with the wicked every day; God is good to them every day by means of the natural order of the world He made. He sends HIS rain on the just and the unjust. Every day, God gives people a reason to turn and seek Him; and every day, they ignore Him. It's not cruel of God to eventually STOP exercising patience with them.