Is God brutally tough or a Big Softie?

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IwishIknew

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I feel like in this day and age, we are offered two different versions of God.
  1. A brutally tough God who spoke incredibly tough throughout Scripture (Old Testament, New Testament) as well as through His Saints. God is very tough on true Christian Disciples (not just extreme sinners). Padre Pio for example lived a brutally tough existence (15 hours in the confessional, 2-3 hr masses, very little food, stigmata, devilish harassment, persecution, terrible illnesses) - one that cannot by any means be imitated by the typical Christian disciple. Even modern approved visions of Mary warn of a brutal Chastisement and begs for hours of prayer and much penance. For sinners, God is like a dam that is waiting for enough sin to take place and when that hour arrives - BOOM, everything awful (but Just) that can be imagined is going to be unleashed.
  2. God is a quiet Teacher who uses inspiration to guide. He waits for true seekers to fumble their way blindly toward the truths of Christianity: obeying the Commandments & the Precepts of the Church (and patiently adjusting their lives to do so), building a habit of prayer & Communion and committing themselves to doing good deeds & offering sacrifices within their vocations. Jesus only gave us 3 years of Personal guidance in His Mission - out of thousands of years of human existence. Priests are being asked to be very soft nowadays to help encourage those who are furthest from a life following the Commandments. Rarely do priests speak about tough rules such as Birth Control from the pulpit. And God is like that too. Once God finds a true seeker, He doesn’t typically guide them “in plain English” with black and white rules. He patiently waits for the seeker to find and accept the changes needed in one’s life. God is more like a loving inspiration in the wind.
Is God more like #1, or more like #2 or somehow both/neither?
 
I want to say God deals with people differently. Padre Pio is a tough saint. It depends on which serves His purpose best.
 
IwishIknew said:
I feel like in this day and age, we are offered two different versions of God.
  1. A brutally tough God who spoke incredibly tough throughout Scripture (Old Testament, New Testament) as well as through His Saints. God is very tough on true Christian Disciples (not just extreme sinners). Padre Pio for example lived a brutally tough existence (15 hours in the confessional, 2-3 hr masses, very little food, stigmata, devilish harassment, persecution, terrible illnesses) - one that cannot by any means be imitated by the typical Christian disciple. Even modern approved visions of Mary warn of a brutal Chastisement and begs for hours of prayer and much penance. For sinners, God is like a dam that is waiting for enough sin to take place and when that hour arrives - BOOM, everything awful (but Just) that can be imagined is going to be unleashed.
  2. God is a quiet Teacher who uses inspiration to guide. He waits for true seekers to fumble their way blindly toward the truths of Christianity: obeying the Commandments & the Precepts of the Church (and patiently adjusting their lives to do so), building a habit of prayer & Communion and committing themselves to doing good deeds & offering sacrifices within their vocations. Jesus only gave us 3 years of Personal guidance in His Mission - out of thousands of years of human existence. Priests are being asked to be very soft nowadays to help encourage those who are furthest from a life following the Commandments. Rarely do priests speak about tough rules such as Birth Control from the pulpit. And God is like that too. Once God finds a true seeker, He doesn’t typically guide them “in plain English” with black and white rules. He patiently waits for the seeker to find and accept the changes needed in one’s life. God is more like a loving inspiration in the wind.
Is God more like #1, or more like #2 or somehow both/neither?
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Both. A good teacher is both prudent and wise. I know of two little girls- the first one needs severe discipline, yet if the second were to get the same displine and harshness too it would kill her spirit as that is not what she needs, but the first one does.
I don't believe you can put God ("God's ways are so far above our ways...") in select two boxes like that.
 
God is perfect justice. If you need a smack on the head or a hug, He will see to it that you get what you deserve.
 
Is God brutally tough or a Big Softie?
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A brutally tough Softie.

He got flayed alive with a Roman scourge. He had nails hammered into his hands and feet. Trust me. He’s tough.
 
Both.

He is ALL JUST and ALL MERCIFUL.

Mercy without justice has no value and justice without mercy has no love.
 
God is love.

Because God is love He hates sin. He hates it furiously, He cannot stand to look at sin. God is all holy, and He can’t stand sin, hence He kicked Adam and Eve out of the garden, but He is merciful so He did the unthinkable, He sent His Son to die to reunite us to Him. A God who would see His Son slaughtered for our sin is not softie, He is full of love, but not a softie. Like a father who would rush before bullets to save his children He is full of love, but He is tough as nails.
 
I see God the father as the father character from Jumanji.

For those who haven’t seen the movie: The father is very aloof and not the touchy-feely type. He is rich, and has a factory that gives him his wealth. When his son disappears the father is distraught, and spends his entire wealth searching for his son, and basically gave up on everything else.

The son comes back and sees the abandoned factory:
youtube.com/watch?v=Hsd-UDwEiJQ

Too bad the father NEVER showed any sign of love to his son, just provided and was aloof.

God loves me. But he doesn’t care enough to actually connect with me. He is aloof and distant.
 
I’ve seen Jumanji before. That’s unfair, that He doesn’t show any love to us, or that He is somehow aloof. That’s just how we feel sometimes. But we’re still alive, aren’t we? Most of us are still in one piece. On the other hand, He was the one who took His beating on the cross. But we have free will. Free will to decide whether we’re going to love Him back in the same way.
 
IwishIknew said:
I feel like in this day and age, we are offered two different versions of God.
  1. A brutally tough God who spoke incredibly tough throughout Scripture (Old Testament, New Testament) as well as through His Saints. God is very tough on true Christian Disciples (not just extreme sinners). Padre Pio for example lived a brutally tough existence (15 hours in the confessional, 2-3 hr masses, very little food, stigmata, devilish harassment, persecution, terrible illnesses) - one that cannot by any means be imitated by the typical Christian disciple. Even modern approved visions of Mary warn of a brutal Chastisement and begs for hours of prayer and much penance. For sinners, God is like a dam that is waiting for enough sin to take place and when that hour arrives - BOOM, everything awful (but Just) that can be imagined is going to be unleashed.
  2. God is a quiet Teacher who uses inspiration to guide. He waits for true seekers to fumble their way blindly toward the truths of Christianity: obeying the Commandments & the Precepts of the Church (and patiently adjusting their lives to do so), building a habit of prayer & Communion and committing themselves to doing good deeds & offering sacrifices within their vocations. Jesus only gave us 3 years of Personal guidance in His Mission - out of thousands of years of human existence. Priests are being asked to be very soft nowadays to help encourage those who are furthest from a life following the Commandments. Rarely do priests speak about tough rules such as Birth Control from the pulpit. And God is like that too. Once God finds a true seeker, He doesn’t typically guide them “in plain English” with black and white rules. He patiently waits for the seeker to find and accept the changes needed in one’s life. God is more like a loving inspiration in the wind.
Is God more like #1, or more like #2 or somehow both/neither?
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Cardinal Kasper proposes that God’s greatest attribute is mercy. In his recent book of the same name, he shows how the mercy of God is evident in both the Old and the New Testament, despite the apparent brutality of the Old Testament. With this understanding, and considering what we truly deserve as transgressors of God’s law, I would say He is more like a Big Softie (although I would not choose that exact phrase, which casts the Almighty in an almost disparaging or dismissive light). But I would not expect mercy from One who is brutally tough.
 
multitude said:
I’ve seen Jumanji before. That’s unfair, that He doesn’t show any love to us, or that He is somehow aloof. That’s just how we feel sometimes. But we’re still alive, aren’t we? Most of us are still in one piece. On the other hand, He was the one who took His beating on the cross. But we have free will. Free will to decide whether we’re going to love Him back in the same way.
Click to expand...
Well, God doesn’t talk to me, and all my prayers are monologues.

I wrote about the most depressing thing about Catholicism is that we have almost no mystics. If there are mystics, they’re hiding because they’d be swamped with people begging for information from God and would never get any sleep. This does not mean I’m going to leave the Church.

Yes, I get it. I’m alive (but why?). God provides things. But he won’t talk to me. He won’t huge me. He won’t communicate with me.

The only thing life has is the cross. Nothing else.

It is hard to love someone who is so far away that he does not want to talk to me.

Seriously. I just want hug from my Daddy. But the answer is no.
 
You can always get a hug from Mommy. I don’t expect hugs from Daddy. I know I don’t love Him enough to expect one.
 
BobCatholic said:
Well, God doesn’t talk to me, and all my prayers are monologues.

I wrote about the most depressing thing about Catholicism is that we have almost no mystics. If there are mystics, they’re hiding because they’d be swamped with people begging for information from God and would never get any sleep. This does not mean I’m going to leave the Church.

Yes, I get it. I’m alive (but why?). God provides things. But he won’t talk to me. He won’t huge me. He won’t communicate with me.

The only thing life has is the cross. Nothing else.

It is hard to love someone who is so far away that he does not want to talk to me.

Seriously. I just want hug from my Daddy. But the answer is no.
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It may or may not help, but of course you’re not the only person to experience this. Consider this book, When God Is Silent (originally titled When Jesus Sleeps) by Archbishop Martinez of Mexico City, written over 60 years ago, which addresses some of the concerns you raise:

amazon.com/When-God-Silent-Luis-Martinez/dp/162282220X

My spoken prayer also seems like a monologue to me, and my silent prayer swarms with my own thoughts. Don’t give up trying!
 
christofirst said:
It may or may not help, but of course you’re not the only person to experience this. Consider this book, When God Is Silent (originally titled When Jesus Sleeps) by Archbishop Martinez of Mexico City, written over 60 years ago, which addresses some of the concerns you raise:

amazon.com/When-God-Silent-Luis-Martinez/dp/162282220X

My spoken prayer also seems like a monologue to me, and my silent prayer swarms with my own thoughts. Don’t give up trying!
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Well, I’d rather try and fail (which I am doing) than not try at all. I’m a failure and useless to God. I’m going to hell, but it is not without a fight! I hate the devil and am fighting the losing fight against him.

I want to be with God not because he’s so attractive (he’s distant and aloof) but rather that the other guy is horrible. I don’t want to be with him! My choice is between a cold, distant God, or a horribly evil devil.
 
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