God is NOT as concerned with Individuals as people want to think

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Excaliber, do you love people as individuals?

If you love people as individuals and God does not, then your love exceeds that of God in one way. It is blasphemy to suggests that your love exceeds that of God in any way.
 
I don’t follow this argument. Bishops have been martyred for the kingdom of God. Poor people and those whov’e suffered the most often have the greatest faith of all. Lack of faith is usually a luxury of the rich.
Let me restate my point. God dose care for us. Jesus said that we are worth more then many sparows…yes we have SOME value.

The problem is that some scriptures are exagerated. And some Christians have an overly romantic view of God…then they ACT as if God loves them the way they think he dose…only to lead to disapointment when there circumstances show otherwise.

What happened to fear of GOD…yes FEAR! people talk to God like he was there buddy…he is not…he is GOD.

Remember Abraham when God was Going to destroy sodom and Gamora. Abraham thought it UNRIGHTEOUS for God to destroy righteous with wicked…Abraham did not apeal to gods Love.

Also Abraham was favored by God. And even he was fearfull about speaking to God severall times about the same subject.
He asked that Gods anger not blaze against him for pleading for sodom and gomora so many times.

We went from the Jews not even pronouncing the divine name(far from treating God like your human parent.

And even muslims who worship the God of abraham…but aparently don’t feel God is concerned with each individual…because they will blow up themselves and inocent people.

Even from the old testement, where anyone in the way of Gods Chosen nation would die…women and children.

Some how we went from that, to thinking The same God…just began Loving each individual with an infinitly great love.

Can you see the discrepancy?
 
Excaliber, do you love people as individuals?

If you love people as individuals and God does not, then your love exceeds that of God in one way. It is blasphemy to suggests that your love exceeds that of God in any way.
hehehehehe wrong question to ask. No I don’t automaticaly love everyone…just like EVERYONE else, I have different levels of love.

In my ministry as a JW…we tried to match young bible students with
young bible teachers…why?

Because the two would have something in common. The young bible teacher would care MORE for
the student that had more in common…then for a student that was very different.

We gravitate twords clicks…or groups with similar interests…or we could say, the more a person is in harmony with our will the more we like them.

I had a bible student with roaches every where…hahahaha I could not pay someone to study with her. If she was in a nice clean airconditioned house…then yes people would have cared for her.

Im sorry I laughed about the question…but humans are a bad example…we have sooooo many prejudices that govern who we do and donot care about.
 
I am not suporting JW beliefs. The Catholic Church is Gods organization…it will last…it will be protected. Individuals Are NOT Gods main concern, they are given the church and that’s it.

There are very beautifull scriptures in the bible…but to aply them to everyone makes no sence in real life.

Yes God loves people…Abraham was his friend. But there was a basis for that friendship. God was going to start a nation through him. Abraham was not gods friend just because he was abraham.

To say that God loves me with this everlasting great Love…would bring tears to anyones eyes.

The truth is that God has a plan…you eather get with the program…or go to hell. Its that simple.

However if for some reason God choses to favor an individual and answer his prayer he can do so.
But don’t think this favor is freely given to just anyone.
Dear Excaliber,

I can see I won’t get far with you with the Bible verses, but because you recognize what the Church teaches, then how about the Church on God’s love through the Catechism. Would that convince you?
**220 **God’s love is “everlasting”: “For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you.” Through Jeremiah, God declares to his people, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.”
221 But St. John goes even further when he affirms that “God is love”: God’s very being is love. By sending his only Son and the Spirit of Love in the fullness of time, God has revealed his innermost secret: God himself is an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and he has destined us to share in that exchange.
620 Our salvation flows from God’s initiative of love for us, because “he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins” (1 Jn 4:10). “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself” (2 Cor 5:19).
God loves you, Excaliber. He loves you so much that He suffered and died for you. How much more proof do you need that he loves you personally? That fact SHOULD bring tears to your eyes!

Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13
*
A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. John 13:34*

To deny that God loves people individually is to deny what the Church teaches and to call God a liar.
 
What a convenient false doctrine. If God is unconcerned with individuals (nevermind the mountain of Scriptural evidence to the contrary), then we need not worry ourselves with obedience, right? No more moral theology, confession, penance, prayer, sacraments … why bother? Because if God’s not looking at me individually, He doesn’t care what I do as an individual.

But stop right there. If God doesn’t care about ONE individual, why should He care anymore about hundreds or thousands or millions of them? What is a group, anyway, but a bunch of individuals? And if each person in the group decides to sin, then isn’t the whole group sinning? What makes a group righteous or wicked except the behavior of each person?

Christ said he laid down his life for his … what … his hoards? His masses? No. He laid down his life for his FRIENDS. We are sons and daughters of the living God. We are joint-heirs with Christ. And if we are to call God “Father,” it is only because we are his beloved children. No father overlooks his sons and daughters. “I have called you by name,” the Lord said. “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,” the Lord said. “God is not willing that any man should perish,” the Lord said. What about the powerful parables of the lost talent and the lost sheep? Our Lord said the Good Shepherd leaves the 99 to go look for the ONE who has gone astray!! Praise God he cares about that one!!! :bowdown2:

Reject this lie of Satan, Excalibur. If you wish to be Catholic, surrender your own interpretation and embrace the infallible teaching of the Church. Otherwise, the title “Catholic” is utterly meaningless.
 
’ Only in heaven we will know how much we owe to the poor’ were propehtic words of Bl. Mo.Teresa , who dealt with lot of human misery …, experienced poverty , even of the spirit , of being not able to experience God’s Love at an emotional level …and had to go on , on the strenght of human will …that she will do God’s will, the best way she knew how …trusting that God is revealing His will for her …through a life of prayer and fidelity …suffering

thus showing the very pleasing virtue of trust …an act of love from us … that we trust our Father is good and loves us …as His very own child …

Adam had everything in a very good world …except fruit of one tree …and that is all it took for him, to listen to someone else’s voice …who was speaking through the wife God had given him …

Unlike that Son, who listened toThe Father , in The Garden … … trusting that The Father is going to make good out of it all …at the most magnificent level that The Father can …

Even for our first parents - who had to deal with the shame of their choice and all that came with it , The Father chose to show His mercy …the earth had become rebellious but struggling to deal with that rebellious earth , Adam could regain some of his manly character again …Eve, who wanted to get wisdom in the easy cheap way and to become godlike - knowing good and evil …would know what it is to suffer … may be a requirememt for fallen nature to truly be able to overcome selfishness , of wanting to use others and instead , truly care for the other , even when it hurts …
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   And , how every such act of trust somehow can be an occasion of tremendous good for all of human kind ...
He showed us that through Moses…Noah …modern day saints and saintly popes …

Some of these saints , who in their life times were considered as little persons by all …but now through their miraculous intervention , letting us know how their times of trying to trust helps them to participate in the Life of the Triune God … participating in the reversal of the Fall …

May we be blessed to trust in our Lord …and be able to do our share , even when it seems ineffective …and in spite of the voice of the enemy …till that day when we would no longer have any questions !
I don’t understand all you are saying…the acount about adam and eve is for teaching…not literal.

I am not fully aware of what Mother teresa went through…so I can’t coment on that.

I have heard some speak of “The dark night of the soul”
It sounds like they had no evidence God was concerned with them individualy…they probably even had evidence to suport the fact that God was just not interested in reasuring them.

Would you let your wife or husband go through a period where they did not think you cared? NO…mariage can be hard enuff…the least you would do would be to say you love them…or express apreciation some how.

Now are we showing more love then God would…NO…that’s blasphemous.
We are simply not on the same level with God…as a husband or wife would be with us. We are far lower.

We are more like pets, some of us are realy good pets and get treats.
The sheap are not of the same value as a wife to a sheapherd.
 
Let me restate my point. God dose care for us. Jesus said that we are worth more then many sparows…yes we have SOME value.

The problem is that some scriptures are exagerated. And some Christians have an overly romantic view of God…then they ACT as if God loves them the way they think he dose…only to lead to disapointment when there circumstances show otherwise.

What happened to fear of GOD…yes FEAR! people talk to God like he was there buddy…he is not…he is GOD.

Remember Abraham when God was Going to destroy sodom and Gamora. Abraham thought it UNRIGHTEOUS for God to destroy righteous with wicked…Abraham did not apeal to gods Love.

Also Abraham was favored by God. And even he was fearfull about speaking to God severall times about the same subject.
He asked that Gods anger not blaze against him for pleading for sodom and gomora so many times.

We went from the Jews not even pronouncing the divine name(far from treating God like your human parent.

And even muslims who worship the God of abraham…but aparently don’t feel God is concerned with each individual…because they will blow up themselves and inocent people.

Even from the old testement, where anyone in the way of Gods Chosen nation would die…women and children.

Some how we went from that, to thinking The same God…just began Loving each individual with an infinitly great love.

Can you see the discrepancy?
I see both extremes on the forums. I hear from people whose main motivation for faith seems to be fear-and often not so much fear as in awe of God, but rather fear of hell. And while an awareness of Gods’ justice is important, our faith should ripen into a genuine trust in and love for Him if it’s growing and we’re changing at all in the way our Church teaches-or should teach-some teachers don’t stress the love of God enough.

But if you’re mainly concerned with the irreverence of a “God is my buddy” attitude, I agree with that. But it’s also true that we love God because He’s revealed Himself to be love and because He lowered Himself to mix it up with us here on earth and showed Himself to be accessible. I’m not so much interested in a vague and distant, barely knowable autocrat in the sky either, especially if I may spend eternity with Him. God has made Himself more fully known and the God that the NT speaks of and that the mystics proclaim is a God of love for His creation to a degree which is very difficult for us to even begin to wrap our heads around…
 
Dear Excaliber,

I can see I won’t get far with you with the Bible verses, but because you recognize what the Church teaches, then how about the Church on God’s love through the Catechism. Would that convince you?

God loves you, Excaliber. He loves you so much that He suffered and died for you. How much more proof do you need that he loves you personally? That fact SHOULD bring tears to your eyes!

Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13
*
A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you*, so you must love one another. John 13:34

To deny that God loves people individually is to deny what the Church teaches and to call God a liar.
WHOOAA NELLY!!!

I did not Call God a liar!!
And I have NOT gone against the teachings of the Church…at least not to my knowledge.

Give me a second to read and think on what you say before making such acusations.

I will post on what you say as soon as I have meditated on it.
 
We are more like pets, some of us are realy good pets and get treats.
The sheap are not of the same value as a wife to a sheapherd.
What surf(name removed by moderator)ure says in post #23 is absolutely true. I hope you’ll re-read that and really let what she is saying sink in.

Now to this business about being pets and sheep. When God became Man, He raised the dignity of human beings above that of the angels. We are not animals being trained for a celestial circus, given treats for good behavior. Sounds like you are projecting onto God a perception of self that is common in depression - a feeling of hopelessness and worthlessness.

You are precious to God and he loves you madly and deeply, even when you find it hard or even impossible to love yourself.
 
hehehehehe wrong question to ask. No I don’t automaticaly love everyone…just like EVERYONE else, I have different levels of love.
I didn’t ask, “do you automatically love everyone,” though I can see how you misinterpreted my question that way. I was trying to ask if you love anyone as an individual.
In my ministry as a JW…we tried to match young bible students with
young bible teachers…why?

Because the two would have something in common. The young bible teacher would care MORE for
the student that had more in common…then for a student that was very different.

We gravitate twords clicks…or groups with similar interests…or we could say, the more a person is in harmony with our will the more we like them.

I had a bible student with roaches every where…hahahaha I could not pay someone to study with her. If she was in a nice clean airconditioned house…then yes people would have cared for her.

Im sorry I laughed about the question…but humans are a bad example…we have sooooo many prejudices that govern who we do and donot care about.
Don’t you love anyone as an individual? Don’t you feel deep love for any of your family members? Brothers, sisters, mother, father? If you are married, do you love your spouse? I hope you do- in the scripture, Paul tells us “Husbands, love your wives.”

If you are capable of loving any individual greatly, and God does not love that individual at least as greatly, than in this part of your love, you are more loving than God. That is blasphemy.
 
What a convenient false doctrine. If God is unconcerned with individuals (nevermind the mountain of Scriptural evidence to the contrary), then we need not worry ourselves with obedience, right? No more moral theology, confession, penance, prayer, sacraments … why bother? Because if God’s not looking at me individually, He doesn’t care what I do as an individual.

But stop right there. If God doesn’t care about ONE individual, why should He care anymore about hundreds or thousands or millions of them? What is a group, anyway, but a bunch of individuals? And if each person in the group decides to sin, then isn’t the whole group sinning? What makes a group righteous or wicked except the behavior of each person?

Christ said he laid down his life for his … what … his hoards? His masses? No. He laid down his life for his FRIENDS. We are sons and daughters of the living God. We are joint-heirs with Christ. And if we are to call God “Father,” it is only because we are his beloved children. No father overlooks his sons and daughters. “I have called you by name,” the Lord said. “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,” the Lord said. “God is not willing that any man should perish,” the Lord said. What about the powerful parables of the lost talent and the lost sheep? Our Lord said the Good Shepherd leaves the 99 to go look for the ONE who has gone astray!! Praise God he cares about that one!!! :bowdown2:

Reject this lie of Satan, Excalibur. If you wish to be Catholic, surrender your own interpretation and embrace the infallible teaching of the Church. Otherwise, the title “Catholic” is utterly meaningless.
What you say “sounds Good” and I would like to believe it.

But lets see this Mountain of scritural evidence…and lets see it as it is…NOT EXAGERATED.

Remember what happens when a person builds his house on sand.

Lets build our beliefs on solid proof. So they don’t come tumbling down on us.

Show me scriptures and parts of the catechism that deal with me…excaliber.

And not Gods people as a whole.

Also don’t be over dramatic…and change what I say…as if I said God did not care at all…because as youu read my posts you will see that I did not say that.
 
At the last judgement, each one of us will be called to give an account of our deeds while alive. We will no longer be husband, wife, father, mother, brother, sister. We will not be able to say “I didn’t know.” Because if we did know, we needed to respond. If we did know that each one of carries Original Sin and that the body and blood of Jesus Christ was given for all as a sacrifice. To remove our Sin and allow us to be in communion with God.

The Body of Christ on earth consists of many parts and each of us as Christians are given particular gifts by the Holy Spirit that we are to use. We are all one body in Christ but we are all known by name to Him, even the hairs on our head are numbered.

God bless,
Ed
 
What you say “sounds Good” and I would like to believe it.

But lets see this Mountain of scritural evidence…and lets see it as it is…NOT EXAGERATED.
Well here’s the problem, Excaliber. Every time I’ve pointed out verses in scripture to you, you’ve essentially come back with “it doesn’t apply to me.”

Here’s my question for you. How is it benefiting you to believe that God doesn’t care for you personally? Dr. Phil would say “How’s that workin’ for ya?”

Why is it that you are holding so tight onto the belief that God wouldn’t be concerned about you personally? What do you have to lose by believing what the Church says, what the Bible says, over and over, that GOD LOVES YOU PERSONALLY?

Basically you are clutching so tightly onto a bag of rocks, that you are missing out on the gold that God would give you if you would allow Him in. 😦

Why is it so important to you to keep God at arms length and out of your heart?
 
What you say “sounds Good” and I would like to believe it.
To be a Catholic, you have to believe it, for that is the teaching of the Church.
But lets see this Mountain of scritural evidence…and lets see it as it is…NOT EXAGERATED.
About the scriptural evidence, I’d first like to point out that passages that say, “For God so loved the world,” or that God loves Israel, do not negate that God loves everyone personally. A patriot can love America and simultaneously love his parents, who are individuals, without having these two loves contradict one another. Therefore no passage that says God loves a nation or group of people, or that he is angry at a nation or group of people, contradicts the idea that he has personal feelings toward each individual.

I can list you countless scriptures that refer to his love for individuals. Noah, for instance, and his family. Rahab and her family, out of all Jericho, are saved. The Book of Ruth, from the scripture, is about some very ordinary people, and the fact that God chose to devote a book out of his Word to describe the lives of a completely ordinary human family reveals his love for everyone. In the story of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18), Abraham argues with God, and God says that if even 50 righteous people are found in the city, he will spare it. He then says if even 45, then if only 30, then 20, then 10 righteous people existed in the city, he would spare it all. So great was his love for these individuals that he would spare their entire city because of the existence of a handful of righteous individuals. However, ultimately only one righteous person was found, so that person and his family (because of Lot’s righteousness, his wicked family were spared) were spared out of the city, and everyone else destroyed. So great was God’s love for these individuals. Countless others have experienced God’s love in this way. Jesus said to his disciples that he called them friends rather than servants, and he taught them to pray “Abba Father,” which means the same thing as “Daddy,” in the Hebrew language. That is as intimately personal as it gets.

There was one case where God said that if Israel was entirely corrupt except for two of his great prophets who were in it, he would destroy the country and save those prophets. God cares so much for his children. Indeed, he calls us “children of God,” and “children,” too, is deeply intimate, as is the term “Father,” which, as well as “Daddy,” we are encouraged to call God. These terms are intimate, as they reflect the personal relationships of the human family, which are deeply intimate.

There are countless scriptures referring to God’s love for individuals, and you’ll see it all over the Bible. There are also passages referring to his concern for groups or nations. There are both. It’s not an either/or.
Remember what happens when a person builds his house on sand.

Lets build our beliefs on solid proof. So they don’t come tumbling down on us.

Show me scriptures and parts of the catechism that deal with me…excaliber.
First of all, let’s build our opinions not so much on our views of what the evidence suggests, but on what the Church teaches. That is where the rock is found. When we rely on our own opinions of the evidence instead, everything becomes subjective and then we are building on the sand.

By the way, I sent another response to you on the previous page.
 
Well here’s the problem, Excaliber. Every time I’ve pointed out verses in scripture to you, you’ve essentially come back with “it doesn’t apply to me.”

Here’s my question for you. How is it benefiting you to believe that God doesn’t care for you personally? Dr. Phil would say “How’s that workin’ for ya?”

Why is it that you are holding so tight onto the belief that God wouldn’t be concerned about you personally? What do you have to lose by believing what the Church says, what the Bible says, over and over, that GOD LOVES YOU PERSONALLY.

Basically you are clutching so tightly onto a bag of rocks, that you are missing out on the gold that God would give you if you would allow Him in. 😦

Why is it so important to you to keep God at arms length and out of your heart?
No I did not say scripture dose not apply…but some stretch the aplication…then assume that its church teaching.

For example limbo was a populare belief until the church said it was false.

Lets also not change the thread…I did not say God did not care at all.
Just not as much as people would think.

I can easily explain my stand.
What’s it do for me?
Well Im trying to build my belief on solid ground…and not on sand.
 
I can easily explain my stand.
What’s it do for me?
Well Im trying to build my belief on solid ground…and not on sand.
Good! Then listen to what the Church is saying, otherwise you are doing just that - building on sand - by creating your own belief system by stubbornly resisting the message in scripture, the catechism, what informed Catholics like myself and several others who’ve posted in your thread have said, Fr. Serpa’s posts. . .

God is passionately in love with you and cares so much about every detail of your life that He even knows the number of hairs on your head. (Luke 12:7) ❤️

A little reading for you, written by a convert to Catholicism:
I have found obedience to be a salvation. Two examples:
  1. My Conversion to the Catholic Church: When I finally sat down and took a look at Scripture honestly (and literally) I found that it was the Catholic Church, not the Baptist Church who truly interpreted Scripture literally. (i.e., the Real Presence, the Chair of Peter). When I looked at history I found that, too, the Catholics were right after all. When confronted with these Truths, I had a decision to make. Either obey Truth, or follow delusion—either become Catholic, or remain Protestant. I obeyed the Truth even though I didn’t understand it all.
  1. My devotion to Mary: Although I was convinced of the authority of the Church, the Real Presence, and all, I was not so convinced about the communion of the saints and the doctrine on Mary. That took a little while longer. But since I knew that the Church had the AUTHORITY to declare these doctrines, I simply OBEYED.
Was my “belief” from the heart? No. Did I “feel” the devotion to Mary? No. I merely obeyed the Church and believed in the doctrine of Mary and the communion of the saints out of shear cold obedience.
But then something odd happened. Almost immediately after I obeyed the Church on this and submitted my mind and will to the Church’s teachings, all of a sudden, I began to understand the doctrine. It was almost like magic. I began to “know” what these doctrines were about. In short order I found myself no longer obeying in cold submission, but in understanding also. I had come to understand and to agree with the doctrine through the reason of my mind.
Still, something was missing—the devotion of my heart. Within one month after the cold obedience, followed by the revelation of intellect given to me to understand (only after the obedience), finally came an understanding of the heart.
Within five months of confirmation I had joined the Lay Carmelite Order and now I am a professed brother (in private vows) in the Order of the Legion of St. Michael working with Mary in spiritual warfare.
I can give other examples of this, but the chronology is always the same:
  1. shear cold obedience
  2. understanding of intellect
  3. understanding and application of heart and spirit
Without the obedience, the undersanding and application of heart would not have happened. Now, most of the time, my obedience is warm, not cold, but I do sometimes come up against some things that I want to resist. It is then that the cold obedience must happen.
God tells us in Scripture that obedience is greater than sacrifice.
 
I am driving to work…and not ignoring posts…keep posting…I will catch up.

I posted about the parable of the sparow and numbering hairs on head…very early in the thread.

Yes God knows every detail of us…down to the number of hairs on owr head. Ofcourse God is all knowing. It seems however that you have added to scripture when you say that it means God is madly
in love with everyone.

what do you have directly from the
church that you don’t need to add to the end of it.

I am simply being carful before I go around saying that The Supreme Deity is madly in love with every one.
despite all evidence and scripture
which IS from the church that says otherwise.

but I will get back to your posts…Im just heading for work.
 
While this may not apply to O.P , part of the reason for posting here is to share our own faith with the hope to strengthen same and for the joy of being able to share same , with other readers who might be dealing with some similar issues ,with an open attitude .

Often fear of having to deal with a ’ personal God ’ may be there at varying levels for each of us …after all, we know what our Lord Himself chose to undergo , in doing God’s will … yet , esp. nonChritians may not focus on the part of the infinite love for the Father and for each of us that made it possible for our Lord, in His human nature …and the peace that came with it , the peace He likes His children too to have …

saints too talk about that peace in the midst of sufferings … from already having accepted a personal God …

Yet, it is possible , like Adam, after the fall , to keep the the false hope that if one could hide oneself, with the pretext of being as a ‘no body’ then may be one can stay as ones own god …

And since we are not , trusting in a merciful Father , His personal , eternal plan for each … helps us , to deal with diffiuclties …to be merciful …with ones own shortcomings, those of others …and for the peace it brings …

These sites also talks about these difficulties of the fallen human nature, at a psychological level and the tough work needed for healings …

guidetopsychology.com/index.html

chastitysf.com/

Peace !
 
Excaliber,
Let me explain God’s immense love for all of us this way.

First, have you ever wondered why God did not simply create us perfect? Why did God create us with the possibility of sinning? It was because God made man in His own image. In other words, he gave us a HUGE gift… a gift greater than that of anything else he created… the gift of free will. He wants us to love Him not because He is forcing us to, but because we do so out of our own choosing. So, Adam and Eve are created, but they sin, and so incur God’s penalty for it. As time goes on, God sees the world become wicked, and so decides to actively intervene. He decides to destroy everyone except Noah and his family, because they are just. It causes God great pain to do this, but the people have rejected Him of their own free will. So, the great flood occurs, and Noah survives to repopulate the earth. And so, that fixes everything, right? NOPE! It shows that evil will always be with us because we have free will. Even if he were to directly intervene and stop things, there would continue to be evil in the world. (In the same way, why is it that some people rejected Jesus, even when they PHYSICALLY SAW him performing miracles? It’s because there will always be those that reject Him out of free will.) Nevertheless, it does not change the fact that God loves ALL of us equally. When I teach at my school, I WANT all of my students to do well. I do not play favorites. Nevertheless, despite my best efforts, there will always be a few people that fail my class, even when I go out of my way to help them.

So, God has another plan. He will try to train us slowly, over time, about how to come closer to him. First, he finds Abraham and teaches him about God. This one small tribe of Hebrews, among many branches of Hebrews, learns about God’s love for them. God makes them better stewards. Then, at the time of the Exodus, Moses is sent by God to save his people and extend belief in him to ALL of the Hebrews, not just Abraham’s tribe. Some still have problems and are polytheistic, like those that worshiped the golden calf. But through this, God extends his belief and blessing to a larger part of the world. However, since people are slowly discovering how to properly follow Him, He has to be tougher on them. He has rigid rules that must be obeyed, and intervenes more frequently. Like a parent teaching their children (and with that precise kind of love), He protects them, but also must occasionally punish them, not because He hates them, but to protect them from themselves.

Finally, we get to the New Testament era. God’s covenant changes, because Jesus comes incarnate to earth because God loves us all and desires ALL to be saved. And so, Jesus, as a perfect example of humanity, is sacrificed for ALL so that we may be saved. God has now extended his protection to the whole world. The preparation that has occurred through the Old Testament has readied the world (and provided the prophecies to prove it) for a new message. In the same way that children eventually grow into adults, humans finally grow enough spiritually so that they are ready for the more advanced and compassionate message of Jesus, to love EVERYONE as He had loved them. Gentiles can now be saved too.

God indeed loves us all the same. He doesn’t create some people as the elect and others simply to be damned (as Calvinists might suggest). As they say, “God doesn’t create junk”! God has sent you to this board, and to the Catholic Community Forums for help, and we have provided it to you. HE has led you here. What you are going through now with your conversion is difficult, but how much MORE difficult was it for those in the early years of Christianity? Even when you do enter RCIA and convert, it will not be the end of your journey. I’ve been Catholic since birth, and in 37 years, I still feel like there’s a LOT that I have yet to learn about the faith. The process is one of self-discovery and it is gradual, but don’t mistake the difficulties you face for a lack of love on the part of God. He lifted the veil off of your eyes about the Watchtower. He led you to us for help. He is actively nudging you in the right direction, and things will get better.
 
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