ღAmayAღ (Pond)
Favorite Answer
Because otherwise, you'll be tortured forever!!!!11
LOL. Except that's not actual love. It's just FEAR.
Anyway... I watched this very interesting movie on Netflix yesterday. Called The Endless. Do recommend!! Methinks all Christians and Muslims should watch it, especially... Briefly speaking, in that movie, there IS an invisible, supernatural, extremely powerful force, that interacts with human beings and makes its will known! BUT..? It's not altogether benign. It f*cks with people, and exerts its will on them, and basically plays games with them. It traps people in infinite loops, for its own amusement. And.. people in the movie have different takes on it! Different subcultures make different symbols, statues, drawings, etc, representing it! Some people that are stuck in the loop it has created adore it, and worship it, due to the sheer power of the thing. While others hate it, and resent it, and see it as a sadistic torturer, and want nothing more than to get away from it!
Basically, the message of the movie, it seems..? Is: It just is what it IS! It is powerful as sh*t, but that does not automatically make it GOOD! You can love it, or hate it, or represent it and approach it in any way you like... But it still is what it is, and does what it does, regardless! Same too with what Christians call "God". If it exists as described in the Bible, (I don't think it does, personally), then just the fact that it is powerful, and beyond human understanding..? Does not make it GOOD, by default! That's just Christians' take on it, when faced with something they do not understand. Which is no more inherently valid than the take of a dystheist, who might say it's evil! And the protagonists of the movie, for one thing..? Decided they wanted nothing to do with it, whatsoever!! And in the end, did their utmost to escape it.
..Not saying that movie is the gospel truth, or anything. But it was just very, very interesting! And had a lot of important messages in it, that I think the average Christian on here currently does not understand. Perhaps because they don't actually WANT to understand it. Because they're WAY too caught up and invested in this whole idea that: "Yahweh = good! We WORSHIP thee!"
Questioner
According to the Bible, the motivation comes from three main sources (or directions):
1) The fear of hell:
Matthew 10:28, “Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”
Hebrews 10:26-27, “For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries.”
2) The desire for heaven:
Matthew 5:12, “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
Colossians 1:3-5, “We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints; because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel.”
3) The love of God:
2 Corinthians 5:14-15, “For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.”
2 Thessalonians 3:5, “May the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the steadfastness of Christ.”
And I’ve heard that those are the normal stages children go through when it comes to obeying their parents. First, they simply do it to avoid punishment, then to receive the rewards, and finally, they get to the point where they do it because they love their parents.
nineteenthly
Because of love.
keyjona
OBEDIENCE is what GOD prefers. Many sacrifices of human and other animals to God took place for thousands of years, though God the Father never required, or desired, it. This was man's ignorant superstition; God accepts worship as an alternative to man's worser superstitions.
Anonymous
“We shall not have a tortured Jew as our Messiah!”
So don’t have Him.
He will treat you EXACTLY the same way you treat Him. You have dismissed Him, and He has dismissed you. No problem. God can raise children for Abraham from the stones if He wants. He surely doesn’t need you.
A Christ-less eternity awaits.