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Monday, April 21, 2008
Is God of love also a God of Judgment?
Last week Fred stated in one of our blogs: “Don’t terrify children with (Hell and Damn-nation) religious teaching. Teach God’s love….not judgment. Simply teach them right and wrong.” DKF added: “First and foremost, God is love, and that is what Jesus always preached. “For God so loved the world”, “love the Lord your God, love thy neighbor”, etc. No one should be terrified of God. Just love him and respect His judgment. He is Truth.”
It seems as though people today want to talk about God’s love, peace, joy, and blessings but do not want to know the other side of God- the God who judges us according to the principles of his word. If I remember correctly, God said: “I lay before you life and death, blessings and a curse- CHOOSE LIFE! This principle would lead one to believe that God indeed will stand in judgment of our choices according to this principle stated in his word. The bible also teaches us that we should: “train up a child in the way they should go, and when they are old, they will not depart from it.” Would we fail in our training if we were to teach children that God was a God of love, without ever teaching that child that there is another side to God? Even the Apostle Paul said: “Since grace abounds-should sin abound more? GOD FORBID! Not to be left out, even Jesus stood in judgment of the Pharisees when he called them: “cups that were clean on the outside, but dirty on the inside”. That sounds to me like he judged their christianity!
So, let’s have some lively discussion! What do you fellow bloggers think? Should we teach the entire word and not just the parts we like to our children when they are of appropriate age? If not, why not? If so, what would be the appropriate age?
