Mik Laid
1 Corinthians 13:4-8
Love is patient, love is
kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not
easily angered, it keeps
no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It
always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
To set up the context of the passage (1 Corinthians 13:1-3) This is talking about the characteristics of true love that humans are supposed to show. Paul mentions that you can do many great and righteous thing, but if you don't have love (if someone gives everything to the poor to look righteous, but don't care about them) than those actions are worthless. In the context it is how we are to act. Paul notes that love is the most important thing.
To address your issue, I don't really see any problems with the bold points. As I said before, we have an incorrect view on goodness (that we are good). Christians believe in total depravity, which says that everyone is a sinner. An attribute of God is holiness, and he demands judgment for sinners. Often times we have the view that "If God is a God of love, how can he do these things?" The real perspective is "It is because of God's mercy that we are still alive." That is a frightening fact to many but theologically sound.
There is a thing called righteous anger, and I underlined a part of the verses you posted. Jesus loved everyone, yet he still got mad at people who were selling things in the temple. Was that wrong? Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. If you see something that is evil, or unjust than it is acceptable to get angry. Also, God does protect people. In fact, if he was devoid of love and operated purely out of his holiness, than all sinners would die. It is because of God's love for humanity that he withholds judgment and gives people time to repent.
Finally, for the keeps no records of wrong point, the fact of the matter is that an attribute of God is holiness. He detests sin and evil and is a judge as well. People don't like to focus on that aspect of God, but it is true. The fact is, we are not supposed to keep tally of right and wrong (like I said with Paul addressing how we are to act) but one who is blameless and pure, devoid of sin can keep count of right and wrong (God). God is the only one blameless and the only one justified to keep a record of right and wrong. It is in his nature to judge sinners, yet it is only because of God's love for humanity that everyone is given more time to repent.
To quote Johnathan Edwards, "There is nothing that keeps wicked men at any one moment out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God"
My point is that it's popular to go around saying that God is all about love, and that it doesn't matter how we act because in the end everything will work itself out. God is love. But he is also a holy being.
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Let's see. Job, God SENT the Devil to kill his family, kill his animals, cover him in sores (btw, all to see if he would continue to worship him, a little egotistical if I say so myself). Job did NOTHING to provoke this. This was a BET between God and the Devil. God sent bears to maul children for laughing at a blind man. He destroyed entire cities, armies, places, all because "they didn't worship him". In fact, in Sodom and Gormorrah, he had to be CONVINCED to let a city not burn by finding like 100 "good people" totally IGNORING that if there had been only 99 and those 99 "good people" would've died to smite the others.
YEAH, TOTALLY ******** LOVING.
God sent a Satan, or an accuser. It could have been the devil, or it could not have been. It was some sort of accuser who was summoned to the presence of God .
The story of Job gives a lot of insights into the matter of good and evil. Job constantly notes that the wicked seem to be prospering and that there is no justice in the world. Why do bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people? What is clear is that ultimate justice won't be enacted until the end times (the world we are living in now is full of injustices, such as evil people getting away with things).
A lesson to be learned from Job is that there are things going on the the spiritual realm that one cannot possibly comprehend, just like Satan was sent to test him. The point is that God was testing Job. Job was looking at the injustices in the world and wondering why, and God was saying that he ultimately knows and is taking into account everything that is happening. It could be a test, or that God is giving some people a time to prosper (just like the Devil is allowed to roam the earth). But in the end judgment will pas. God ultimately has more knowledge of the situation than we can see in the physical and spiritual realms, and the point of Job is to trust in God, regardless of the circumstances.
Back to the loving thing. Yes, God is merciful, but even God's mercy does run out (you can't just go around doing what you want forever without consequences). In the context of God being a holy God, as I explained above, it is an act of mercy that the whole world right now isn't being treated like Soddom and Gommorah were. If God truly had no love and no mercy for people, and was just going off of his holy character, than the world would burn.
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IF your god was real and IF your God was indeed "loving", why would he put 1.) a
fallible man 2.) in a garden with the Tree of Knowledge ('cause let's get real here; it didn't HAVE to ******** be there, the whole damn planet and he puts it within walking distance, uh huh) 3.) knowing that Satan was around & would convince them. If he is actually "all-knowing" as y'all would say, why did he have to call out for Adam and Eve to find them? He should've known where they were the entire time. And I don't wanna hear, "he left for a bit, the book tells you so", that's bull. If he is "everywhere at once" or omnipotent, he would've still been there.
This also relates to the nature of God. It can be argued that the reason that God would allow man to sin in the first place was for the story of redemption to take place and for a deeper love. After all, if everything was perfect Adam and Eve would have loved God, but because everything was perfect. That could have been a superficial love (loving because everything is going good) or even a robotic response. God saw it fit and worthy to take the risk of allowing humans to disobey in him the first place, for arguably a more fulfilling love. He saw it fit to give them a choice (after all, if they had no choice how real would the love have been?). This is a difficult question and one I've thought a lot about as well, and one I've had tons of questions about. Was it worth the risk of potential damnation for people? Apparently God thought so.
Also, God is omnipresent. He knew what was going on and what had happened. I think he asked more to see their reaction. They didn't know that God knew already, and how were they going to react to God's approach? He wanted to see their reaction and whether they would confess, but the blame game started (Adam blames Eve, Eve blames the serpent).
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Agnostic atheist = not real. You are either agnostic, believing there could be something. Or you are atheist, you do not believe in a god. An agnostic atheist is just an agnostic. Where did legendary even say what her religious preference was? Assumptions are bad, bro.
I actually had a discussion with legendary about those terms, and she said that agnostic atheist is a position. And it was a discussion about agnostics seeing themselves as a middle ground between atheism and theism, but she was telling me that atheism and theism relate to belief while agnosticism relates to knowledge, and that it actually isn't a middle ground.
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