Originally Posted by
gromitt82
Freeman,
In the first place we must assume the fact that the O.T was written 4 to 5.000 years ago by a number of writers who were trying to explain to their contemporaries (most of whom could not even read or write) in a way they could assimilate the stories or legends which have been orally transmitted to them by their ancestors.
It was, therefore, simply to tell their listeners the world had been created in 7 days than in 13 billion years. To start with they did not even know such a figure nor would have undesrtood it.
It was also necessary to describe Yahve as a vindictive god to make those somewhat wild and greedy citizens of old Israel walk the line. Therefore, Hell and Heaven had to be explained as places of eternal fire and eternal hapiness, sitting next to God.
Then, Jesus was sent by His Father to redeem ALL of us. And His message was entirely different. It was a message of love and it was not meant only for His coevals but for all generations to come for, as God Himself, He knew the past, the present and the future.
And He spoke of Eternal Life and Eternal death. And it was clear that denying being overwhelmed by the Glory of God was enough punishment for us mortals. However, we must realize that some concepts cannot be grasped or comprehended by our very limited intelligence.
We cannot start to imagine what eternal means. Our earthly idea of a very long, long lapse of time means nothing. Eternal should rather mean with no end. Can we imagine that?
And denying the vision of God is also another idea that we cannot assume. Because, to start with, how can we imagine the Creator of our Universe, the Creator of trillions of celestial bodies, of which, our Earth is just a minuscule speck of dust?
Furthermore, is we try to judge God's ways with our own words, like justice, fairness, forgiveness, etc., we may also be making a mistake, because, who said that we think the way God does, assuming that God thinks at all?
The mistery of God is just too big for us to understand. But we were given a clue by Jesus to follow if we want to see on day what God is like. "Love each other as I have loved you"
Gromitt82