Is God Really our Father?

by pettygrudger 4 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  pettygrudger

  I'm sure this one has gone round the mulberry bush a few times, yet I haven't seen it.

  As a parent, I know the level of affection & unconditional love that I have for my children. They could become serial killers, and although I would be in agreement that they must pay the consequences for their actions, I wouldn't stop loving them. If they came to believe differently than I, or if they chose a course of action that I didn't approve, my love for them would continue anyways. As a parent, I would never put my children to death for not unconditionally following me or for worshipping me.

  Everyone says that God loves us as his own children, yet the bible is filled with his actions against non-believing humans? Is there any rationale to saying that he actually truly loves any of us as his children?
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  Matty

  No, I can't comprehend it either Rhonda! It defies all logic, it just doesn't make any sense. I used to explain Jehovah's bizarre behaviour toward his "children" by quoting Isaiah 55:8-9, "For the thoughts of you people are not my thoughts, nor are my ways your ways," is the utterance of Jehovah. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." That's a very easy way of explaining it really, if God behaves badly, then it's our lack of divine intelligence that leads us to believe that God is anything but a loving father, if we were supremely intelligent then we would know that everything he does has a reason and is therefore an integral part of his will, which is perfect and beyond criticism.
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  pettygrudger

  Exactly Matty - I could never, even as a JW understand this. Here we are, made in his "image" and 6000+? years beyond perfection, and yet we seem to care more for our children.....

  And that scripture, although it may give us the "blinders" we need to follow faithfully, when you get to the fundamentals - its still hard.
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  Navigator

  Petty Grudger

  Of course God is our Father/Mother and loves us unconditionally. Your love for your own children is but a dim reflection of the love that God has for us. Your problem is that you have accepted the warped view of God presented by the writers of the old testament books. Here is a quote from A Course In Miracles (p.261, Ed 1)

  "You cannot understand how much your Father loves you, for there is no parallel in your experience of the world to help you understand it. There is nothing on earth with which it can compare, and nothing you have ever felt apart from Him resembles it ever so faintly. You cannot even give a blessing in perfect gentleness. Would you know of One Who gives forever, and Who knows of nothing except giving?"

  It is we who have blocked the awareness of God's love from our minds because we do not feel worthy to receive that love. We are like the returning prodigal son who wants to be made one of the hired hands because of his shame and guilt. Do you not remember what the Father's response was? He ordered the ring to be placed on his finger and the robe placed around his shoulders and directed that a banquet of rejoicing be prepared.
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  Blue

  Dear Petty,

  You are a person who truly loves your children. God left the people because the people wanted a "King" 2Samula 8:4&5 "all the elders gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel unto Ra'mah and said to him Behold, thou are old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways; now make us a King to judge like all the nations. But the King displeased Samual, when they said, Give us a king to judge us.; And Samuel prayed unto the Lord. And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his schariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots and the rest of the story is he will make them slaves (which he certainly has done)so without God's guidance God left us to OUR OWN WAY.Ezekiel 22:31 Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their OWN WAY HAVE I RECOMPENSED UPON THEIR HEADS, saith the Lord.God. So you see he left the people because they didn't want him. We need to pray for him to return as we certainly do need him and want him as our King. When we turn around he will return.