Gravity said:
That is completely off topic thought. The question was one of the a creator always being justified destroying their creation. You compared your ''loving'' god slaughtering billions of lives to an artist destroying their artwork. This is a far cry from a policeman having to kill a threat to society.
Hi...I'm all butting in and shit, but just to say that, don't you think you're being a little melodramatic? I mean, another way to say "God slaughtering billions of lives" is to say "people die". Yep, people die...yep.
Why do people die? Because of sin in the world. Why does God hate sin? Cause it kills people, and He wants us to live forever. Soooooo, why is He going to bring this world to an end? So we don't have to live in sin and die anymore, but live eternally without it in His Kingdom instead. An eternal Kingdom of love, peace, and purity. Sounds much better yes????
I think that the reason many people see death as such a horrible thing too is because this flesh is all that they know. Some think that when this flesh dies, that's all there is, and the person ceases to exist. But that is not true, as we are eternal spirits. We don't cease to exist once our flesh dies. This flesh is just a step along the way. People wanting to cling to this flesh as their only hope...their only life....this is what is deadly to their spirit....this belief is what will lead people to take the mark of the beast.
You know, it says in the Bible that those people who have taken the mark will then turn around and seek death, but will not be able to achieve it because of taking the mark. They will seek death for relief, but will not find it. You know, this world is such that many today and in history have also sought death as a source of relief. They hated this world enough, and had felt emptiness and pain and loneliness to the point where death was more attractive than life to them....a relief. And that's why God would never want us to live in a world such as this for forever, and will not have us to do so.
I went to visit my grandpa in the hospital the other day. He's 85 years old, and he has pageant's disease, which affects your bones somehow, and he had fractured his leg a while back, and was using crutches to get around until it healed. Well, he fell on his crutches and broke the bone even worse, so they surgically implanted a steel rod in his leg. This happened the day before Thanksgiving, so he is still in the hospital recovering and getting therapy. So anyway, I was visiting him the other night and he was in so much pain. Not just his leg, but his back hurt, and apparently he hadn't pooped in like a week, and he had contracted a slight case of pnuemonia, and he wouldn't eat...hadn't all day because his stomach was upset, and then there's the effects of the pain killers that they had him on....he was just so sick and tired and depressed. He's always, always been such an upbeat guy. A real whipper-snapper...that's what he'd say. And he's always been in such great health too, despite himself...lol...until now. And when I was sitting there with him, he said "I think I'm gonna die". And then the nurse came in to give him more morphine, and she asked him something....something like if there was anything she could do to make him feel better....and he made a motion of putting a gun to his head and firing. I was so disturbed by this....I've never ever seen him this depressed. But I don't blame him at all. He's miserable. I've felt that way myself, with less pain than he's in right now. When I was leaving I looked at him and said "Cheer up, would ya?" And then I laughed and told him I was kidding...and that I wished I could do something to make him feel better.
Then there's my grandma, who's had a series of strokes and now doesn't do much of anything except give him a bunch of grief. She's confused and has really bad memory problems and is depressed and scared because of it. To the point where she doesn't want to leave the house, and she can hardly function anymore mentally...won't cook or clean or shop, and certainly can't take care of grandpa now that he's hurt. She won't eat, and then she resents it when people do things for her, and acts like a baby about it. My mom had just cooked them dinner, and my aunt had gone to the grocery for them, but grandma, being stubborn wouldn't eat anything but a Frisch's cheeseburger and cole slaw. Grandpa was on his way to get them for her when he fell on his crutches and ended up in the hospital.
Anyway, I don't want them to suffer. To see them suffering is unbearable because I love them so much. And there comes a point in someone's suffering where if it is not going to cease or diminish, and the person's quality of life is so horrible and painful...like being tortured by life...that death would become merciful.
And it's all relative you know? I think that if we ever experienced what Heaven or His Kingdom were like, that we would then consider even the most comfortable and happy life here in this flawed world to be unbearable torture in comparison.
God loves us...and it hurts Him to see us suffer. We are His children, and He wants something so much better for us. I would never want to live in this world for forever. To have an eternal life in this world...in this body...no way. If this world and this body were the best that God could do, and the best that He could give, I think that I would have a hard time serving Him. And that's what you don't understand Gravity, is that this is not it. This was not meant to be forever. This is just a step along the way. This step has a divine purpose, and it's perfect in it's purpose, but it's purpose is not to be forever. Death is not only the consequence of sin, but a relief from it. Why? Because God is benevolent.
Love,
Lori