Sure..but I wouldn't keep it alive just so I could keep hurting it every day (i.e punishment). Christians are telling me God is exactly like this for the 'unrepentant sinners'.
Scripture never says it is God who does the torture. Rather, it is the lack of God.
Consider the cat metaphor. For the sake of this exercise, imagine that everything it could eat, drink, or breathe originated from its master. Now it scratches and bites that master every day, utterly rejecting its owner.
When the owner gives the cat up, it also takes with it all the things it had provided. The cat has nothing to eat, nothing to parch its tongue, and nothing to fill it's aching lungs. This is torture. But is it the master's fault, when he pleaded with the cat every day? When all of those things were originally gifts from the master himself?
Or is it the fault of the cat who despised its kind master, and fought to escape him?
This is where we humans are with God. If we reject Him, revile Him, and try to escape from Him... he accepts our proposal. Hell is a terrible place, but it's not because God is down there actively torturing people. All the pain and suffering stems from the exact opposite problem - the absence of God.
The good news - the literal Good News - is that God desires for all to be saved from this. He will keep inviting you to accept Him, every single day of your life. God is waiting to throw His arms wide open and pull you into a cosmic bear hug. All you - all anyone has to do - is acknowledge your rebellion, and accept that Christ paid the price for your transgressions.
Sure..but I wouldn't keep it alive just so I could keep hurting it every day (i.e punishment). Christians are telling me God is exactly like this for the 'unrepentant sinners'.
Would you kill the cat?
Yep. But I wouldn't torture it.
Scripture never says it is God who does the torture. Rather, it is the lack of God.
Consider the cat metaphor. For the sake of this exercise, imagine that everything it could eat, drink, or breathe originated from its master. Now it scratches and bites that master every day, utterly rejecting its owner.
When the owner gives the cat up, it also takes with it all the things it had provided. The cat has nothing to eat, nothing to parch its tongue, and nothing to fill it's aching lungs. This is torture. But is it the master's fault, when he pleaded with the cat every day? When all of those things were originally gifts from the master himself?
Or is it the fault of the cat who despised its kind master, and fought to escape him?
This is where we humans are with God. If we reject Him, revile Him, and try to escape from Him... he accepts our proposal. Hell is a terrible place, but it's not because God is down there actively torturing people. All the pain and suffering stems from the exact opposite problem - the absence of God.
The good news - the literal Good News - is that God desires for all to be saved from this. He will keep inviting you to accept Him, every single day of your life. God is waiting to throw His arms wide open and pull you into a cosmic bear hug. All you - all anyone has to do - is acknowledge your rebellion, and accept that Christ paid the price for your transgressions.