A loving God that instills fear of punishment as His "love"?

No, salvation is not bestowed upon anyone that is not born into God's eternal family. God is Spirit and in order to be with God you must be born into spirit.

 

A person doesn't go to hell for being or doing anything. Any more than a person is saved by being or doing anything. A person goes to hell because they reject Christ. There is only one way to salvation...if you reject it, well that's your choice.

 

How convenient. Murder your family, accept Christ, eternal salvation. Profit!

 

many jews did accept him. all of the apostles and jesus himself were jewish as i recall. it was the established leaders of judaism like the pharisees that rejected him as well as many of their people.

i compare this to what i see in organized religion today. many of them dont really follow the words jesus said and it's all about going to church singing songs and feeling good. jesus wasn't a fan of the organized establishment of religion. in fact he hung around the fornicators, the theives, the sinners etc because there is no reward in saving the righteous.

the whole talk of the only way to the father is through me boils down to everyone will have to accept jesus as the messiah in this life or during the resurrection. rejecting him is the only unforgivable sin. i dont believe your condemned to hell because you never knew him. god establishes different covenants with different people and their decedents. adam and eve to not eat the forbidden fruit, noah with his 7 noahide codes, abraham with circumsion, moses with his 600 some laws and now jesus's new covenant.

some are more strict than others which is why i believe on one hand the jews have been blessed with great wealth, but on the other hand have received terrible persecution possibly for straying from their covenant.

just my 2 cents.

 

You do realize that this condensed version of what is required to enter the kingdom is a very new concept, don't you? Created for the modern man and woman who are too busy to take the more difficult path, as Jesus did. If I remember correctly, it was brought to market at around the same time as the microwave oven.

 

The Messiah has already been to earth. He performed miracles, he raised people from the dead, he healed the sick, he turned water into wine, he walked on water. The main problem that the Jewish people have is their addiction to the law. The law was provided by God to the Jews as a means to live until the coming of the Messiah. Everything in the Old Testament was a build-up to the coming of Jesus.

But when the messiah came, the Jews didn't want to let go of their precious law. See, it was priests(pharisees and saducees) who had the biggest issue with Jesus. These priests, the keepers of the law, didn't want to let go of their power. Even though Jesus had fulfilled every single sign that had been given by God to the Jews, they still rejected him. Their arrogance and pride is their downfall.

And once again, I don't believe that all Jews are going to hell. I believe that all people who reject Jesus are going to hell.

 

Even Ghandi? Even Buddah? Even those who do amazing things every day for their families and communities?

 

Doing good things doesn't get you into heaven, anymore than doing bad things sends you to hell.

 

So your God is so insecure that he needs worship in order to let people into Heaven? He also doesn't care how much good (or bad) we do in the world so long as we worship HIM?

Doesn't sound like a God that deserves my attention

 

God doesn't need anything. He is perfect.

 

Then why does he care what we do?

 

The law is dead. It died with Jesus on the Cross.
The Old Testament is just that...Old, expired.
Romans 7:6 "But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code."
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He doesn't.

 

God is the ultimate bureaucrat. It doesn't matter what you did in life. If you don't have your "I believe in the Jesus" documentation filled out in triplicate, you're burning in hell forever and ever.

 

God has his own documentation.

Revelation 20:15 "And anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire."
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The Old Testament is 100% true. And the Jesus wasn't sent to defy the law, he was sent to fulfill it and by fulfilling it, ending it.

 

so he DOESN'T care if we accept Jesus?