It only seems sick to you because you’re thinking in terms of how much work you think you have to do to be “good enough” for Heaven. This is the classic (Semi-)Pelagian position which the Church condemns as heretical. We are saved by grace through faith (although faith working in love, not faith alone), not by any works which we do. Our responsibility is to love and obey God.
This is a distinction without a difference. We certainly do have to be good enough for heaven! If anyone is to reject God and go to hell, there must be something different about the way they acted in comparison to those who accepted God choosing heaven. This is all I’m saying. What this difference consists of could be anything at all, but it likely involves what is willed in the deepest part of ones heart, ones true deepest desires and intentions, along with all of ones actions while they were alive. and yes this includes interior actions of the will involving faith and love, so I don’t see your point here.
Sin is wrong not because it’s against some arbitrary rule of some game you think God is playing, but because we’re doing the things which God, in His infinite Wisdom and Love for us, warned us not to do. For virtually any of them, an objective observer, with sufficient evidence, can point to the item in question and understand in what manner the individual is harmed by committing the sin. People treat sex like it’s a harmless game, for example, but if you look at the number of deaths from AIDS, abortions, etc., you see it’s perhaps the most dangerous force on Earth – and that’s not even counting the innumerable lives ruined and hearts broken in other ways.
Again, I don’t disagree. Ideally we should all never sin. I simply doubt my ability to respond to God’s grace sufficiently to avoid hell. This is partly because I am very selfish and enjoy sinning, (through recognizing that I need to seek the truth, and stop sinning all the more if the truth convicts me ), but more importantly because I do not know just how difficult it is to get to heaven, just how good we need to be, i.e. (the odds and the risk is unknowable).
With the odds unknowable, and the risk potentially
very high, it is very sensible to wish that we had not been created in the first place.
Like I said before, God could have created only people whom he knew would freely choose him, or he could have created only people whom he knew would freely reject him. He likely created a mixed bag of both kinds. The question becomes, now, what ratio was on God’s mind when he created each and every man? He could have made sure he only created those who would choose him, or he could have made sure he was creating only those who would reject him. In his omniscience, he KNEW what the radio would be, thus establishing the odds and the risk of hell.
Notice, that this risk does not conflict with the fact that we all freely choose, and could all choose heaven if we wanted to. The point is, God in his omniscience KNOWS which ones, if any, will choose hell, and you DON’T KNOW, if you are one of those who will choose hell. This is the risk you are taking, or God took on your behalf when he created you.
And I don’t appreciate it!!
I wish much that God had left me out of his mind when he created the human race. You could even say he FORCED me to exist, by loving me so much the way he did! Its just too much!
timotheos:
If God appeared and told you one day, “Zatzat, I will give you a choice. I will give you your nonexistence right now if you want; don’t worry about hell. The offer is only good for the next five minutes.” Would you take it?
Certainly! In non-existence, it would be like being asleep. You would be annihilated, and would have no thoughts or concerns ever again. You wouldn’t be able to worry your lack of heaven either, because you aren’t around to worry about it.
And you get to reduce your risk of hell to zero. As I type this I feel a joy thinking this is possible! but alas its not.
