Why Does God Care if We Worship Him?

[MarianDreams]

It seems odd to me that God would make people, and then demand that they worship Him (and, according to the Catholic Church, in very very specific ways) or else send them to the inferno… Why even make people and demand such high standards if the majority are going to burn for eternity anyway. If God is really GOD - why does he need our adoration?

 

[oneGODoneCHURCH]

It seems odd to me that God would make people, and then demand that they worship Him (and, according to the Catholic Church, in very very specific ways) or else send them to the inferno… Why even make people and demand such high standards if the majority are going to burn for eternity anyway. If God is really GOD - why does he need our adoration?

Why do parents care if their children love them and do what they tell them?

 

[_L]

It seems odd to me that God would make people, and then demand that they worship Him (and, according to the Catholic Church, in very very specific ways) or else send them to the inferno… Why even make people and demand such high standards if the majority are going to burn for eternity anyway. If God is really GOD - why does he need our adoration?

God does not need our adoration, He desires it for OUR benefit, God needs nothing, but what He wants is to share His love with others and unite them with Himself. We are not simply blank slates. We are made in the image and likeness of God, and our existence and value of our existence as creations is always seen in relation to our creator. We can choose to not worship or acknowledge God, but it will hurt us in a spiritual way, and by extension it will hurt us in every other way as sin metastasizes like a cancer and can only lead to death. Because God is Good and Life and the things which do not conform to good that is, conform to God, those things conform to Sin, and sin only leads to death.We worship God because it helps us spiritually and by extension it helps us in every other facet of our lives, and as creations made in the image and likeness of God it is our duty by nature to give God His due, just as a Child by virtue of being the offspring/under the guardianship of the parent must give the parent his/her due because of the nature of the relationship they share between them.

This shouldn’t be a depressing notion, but a celebrated one, because humanity has been raised to a level beyond any other creation in the history of the universe. We get to have an intimate and personal connection with our a creator, and this is a privilege every other creation lacks.

 

[MarianDreams]

Why do parents care if their children love them and do what they tell them?

I have kids and I sure hope they love me. But I’d certainly never say, “You will love me in this exact way or else you’re going to hell.” At the end of the day, I love my kids no matter what. I did not create them so that they would love me. I did not create them so that they would worship me or obey everything I said.

I’m not trying to be blasphemous here - I just think it’s bizarre that God would create people, then send most of them to hell for not doing exactly as He instructed. I mean, there are a lot of really good, say, Lutherans who fully believe they are going to Heaven. They do worship Jesus - are they going to Hell?

 

[Tantum_ergo]

I have kids and I sure hope they love me. But I’d certainly never say, “You will love me in this exact way or else you’re going to hell.” At the end of the day, I love my kids no matter what. I did not create them so that they would love me. I did not create them so that they would worship me or obey everything I said.

I’m not trying to be blasphemous here - I just think it’s bizarre that God would create people, then send most of them to hell for not doing exactly as He instructed. I mean, there are a lot of really good, say, Lutherans who fully believe they are going to Heaven. They do worship Jesus - are they going to Hell?

But. . .God does NOT send people to hell for ‘not doing exactly as He instructed.’

People choose to go to hell.

The Catholic Church does NOT teach that “nonCatholics are going to hell because they don’t worship God exactly the way Catholics do.” If you think that’s what the Church teaches, I wish you’d link to the teaching in the on-line Catechism that says so.

 

[Tantum_ergo]

Also, to forestall the next question as to why God would be so ‘mean’ as to ‘send to hell forever’ somebody who had ONLY sinned mortally for say 70 piddly little years. . .

First: Hell is ‘beyond’ time. It is more like an eternal ‘now’. That’s why when you choose hell, you don’t ‘change your mind’ --changing your mind involves the concept of time, that there is a time where you think A and then a passage of time and now you think not A. But if there is no time, your ‘thinking’ of A does not pass through time or change to not A. And it is perfectly ‘fair’ because you KNOW this is what happens and you still freely choose it. NOBODY is dragged off to hell, unwillingly, kicking, screaming, begging for mercy.

So if you are in a state of mortal sin as you ‘enter’ hell, you never STOP sinning. You never change to ‘not sinning’. So the ‘punishment’ (or actually the CONSEQUENCE) of eternal sin is eternal separation. Freely chosen.

(of course that also means that if you’re in a state of grace to enter heaven, you never stop being in grace either. Your will is still free but you have freely chosen to align with God in eternity. You keep on in a sense being freer and freer by conforming your will with God’s. It’s a paradox but then our minds are limited.)

 

[Cat_Herder]

It seems odd to me that God would make people, and then demand that they worship Him (and, according to the Catholic Church, in very very specific ways) or else send them to the inferno…

What determines whether one goes to the “inferno” is not the way in which one worships God but rather whether one is in God’s grace.

Why even make people and demand such high standards if the majority are going to burn for eternity anyway.

The Bible says that these “high standards” are not so high that they cannot be known by reasonable observation of nature (Romans 1). A native in a rainforest who has no Bible can still figure out what God requires of him quite readily and can even achieve salvation, that is, union with God.

Sure, the native is not worshiping in the “right way,” but that’s not his fault; he has no idea what the right way (i.e. the true religion) is. He is doing the best he can with what he has and God, being just, will not require the impossible (baptism and Mass attendance) from him. But as for the rest of us, we have no excuses.

If God is really GOD - why does he need our adoration?

He created the Universe because He wants a bride, a people who will love Him. But because He is perfectly good, He will not use any kind of coercion against free will to accomplish this. “Worship” or “adoration” of God essentially consists of our conforming our wills to His.

 

[PattiDay]

I have kids and I sure hope they love me. But I’d certainly never say, “You will love me in this exact way or else you’re going to hell.” At the end of the day, I love my kids no matter what. I did not create them so that they would love me. I did not create them so that they would worship me or obey everything I said.

God does love you no matter what. If you didn’t believe that you couldn’t write what you’ve written here.

I’m not trying to be blasphemous here - I just think it’s bizarre that God would create people, then send most of them to hell for not doing exactly as He instructed. I mean, there are a lot of really good, say, Lutherans who fully believe they are going to Heaven. They do worship Jesus - are they going to Hell?

You should consider whether your issue is with God or the Catholic church.

 

[NeedImprovement]

You should consider whether your issue is with God or the Catholic church .

Indeed it’s all about as clear as mud . There are several things going on here:

We could note ,as already pointed out in the previous three posts by some of our members that the Catholic church described in the OP’s posts is not the Catholic Church at all.

This thread was started in the Sacred Scripture forum, yet the OP’s posts are devoid of any direct reference to or quote from Sacred Scripture…

Comments such as -

MarianDreams:

Why even make people and demand such high standards if the majority are going to burn for eternity anyway…

…I’m not trying to be blasphemous here - I just think it’s bizarre that God would create people, then send most of them to hell for not doing exactly as He instructed…

… regardless of whether or not they are intended as blasphemous, ultimately end up being reduced to the sentiment : " **If I were God … **"

The first time that sentiment resounded in a human heart was in the Garden of Eden - it preceded the Fall .The first time that sentiment resounded in the intellect of an angel of light, that angel fell from Heaven along with all his minions.

But at the very least, our first parents and those angels who fell , knew Who God was.

Judging from the descriptions given in the OP’s posts, the inkling or perception the OP would appear to have of Who God is , is hugely inaccurate. Perhaps it might come as a a consolation to the OP to discover that none of us believe in the god described in his/her posts, either ; rather, we believe in God.

Since this forum is concerned with Sacred Scripture, it would seem an appropriate time to post a quote from it, (and I would encourage other members to do the same if they feel so inclined – to provide a quote from Scripture indicating just what a loving God we really have).

If we read Sacred Scripture , we discover Who God really is, and how much He loves us. We need look no further than today’s Gospel :

John 14: 23-24

Jesus answered him, "If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

He who does not love me does not keep my words; and the word which you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.

The OP’s posts utterly misrepresent God

If we do not keep His words (– which are given because He loves us and knows what is best for us), *it does not mean He doesn’t love us *… It means we dont love Him.
God will never refuse His Mercy to a soul who sincerely seeks it. Souls, on the other hand, are free to refuse God’s Mercy…:sad_yes:

• Have one more look at this comment please everybody :

MarianDreams:

Why even make people and demand such high standards if the majority are going to burn for eternity anyway…
…

If anyone knows how to read between the lines , then they understand that the statement directly above is saying that Christ died for nothing … in vain … ; that there was no salvific power to his Holy Sacrifice offered on Calvary , because it hardly saved anyone…It says most of us would perish anyway . That would make reprobation God’s greatest attribute as opposed to His Mercy.

… not such a great thing to be claiming at CAF…

:dts:

 

[oneGODoneCHURCH]

MarianDreams;7894351]I have kids and I sure hope they love me. But I’d certainly never say, “You will love me in this exact way or else you’re going to hell.” At the end of the day, I love my kids no matter what. I did not create them so that they would love me. I did not create them so that they would worship me or obey everything I said.

But if your child is disobediant and does not show you the honor and respect that you diserve at some point you have to disipline them, You have more than likely told them what that punishment would be, They then diside to do as they are told or suffer the consequences.

I’m not trying to be blasphemous here - I just think it’s bizarre that God would create people, then send most of them to hell for not doing exactly as He instructed. I mean, there are a lot of really good, say, Lutherans who fully believe they are going to Heaven. They do worship Jesus - are they going to Hell?

The one that do end up in hell have choosen to willfully disobey. Knowing what that was what God said would await them for doing so. Does God hold you responcible for things that you do not know? I pray not and must rely on his mercy.