I don't think by love I mean what you mean by pure form. I understand your pure form to mean: in the abscence of other emotions/motivations. Would you say that is accurate? If that is the case, your reasoning stands.
My issue (which was the point of how emotions result in actions) is that all we know about God's character is not just his love, but also that he is just, he desires his own glory, etc..
First I would say that emotions (I want a better word to suggest the more deep-felt emotions which make up our character, rather the fickle emotions which vary from day to day) can easily appear contradictory without being so. The obvious example being how it is possible to both love and hate someone. (Has often been said how the opposite of love is indifference, not hate).
I would then think about how these result in action. I would say God's intellect works from these complex motivations to form actions. He uses his wisdom to harmonize these motivations and form effective choices, his actions.
This is my model of how a mind works. So I would agree you contradiction stands if we have love by itself, in its "pure form". But I would say this is not the case with God. He does have a genuine, universal, love. And also has a desire for justice, amongst other things, which is why what we don't get the actions we would expect if he had just that love.
God does not have that right, or at least not an unqualified right.
!!! On what basis would you qualify God's right about anything?
If he stands in relation to us as a parent to a child,
I should probably say that I don't think he does stand in relation to you as a parent to a child. That's the relationship between God, the Father, and the Christian.
As I said, it's about proportionality. We recognise that some people escape punishment for their crimes in this life, and so some kind of court in an afterlife is not necessarily immoral. However, evangelical Christianity posits that we are all guilty, another point I'd disagree with.
Hummmm. Depends what the crime being punished is. I'm guessing you're not too bothered about sins against God?
So if God appears to you (or sends an angel, perhaps) and tells you to go on a killing spree or similar, in an old fashioned OT style, would you do it?
I'm reluctant to say what I would do in situations I've never been even vagualy close to. But what I can do is affirm that when God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son, Abraham was right to obey. I would like to say my faith was strong enough for me to have done the same, but as I said I am reluctant to do so, never having had it be tested in such a way.
Re: This year's CICCU Main Event - DIRECTION
I don't think by love I mean what you mean by pure form. I understand your pure form to mean: in the abscence of other emotions/motivations. Would you say that is accurate? If that is the case, your reasoning stands.
My issue (which was the point of how emotions result in actions) is that all we know about God's character is not just his love, but also that he is just, he desires his own glory, etc..
First I would say that emotions (I want a better word to suggest the more deep-felt emotions which make up our character, rather the fickle emotions which vary from day to day) can easily appear contradictory without being so. The obvious example being how it is possible to both love and hate someone. (Has often been said how the opposite of love is indifference, not hate).
I would then think about how these result in action. I would say God's intellect works from these complex motivations to form actions. He uses his wisdom to harmonize these motivations and form effective choices, his actions.
This is my model of how a mind works. So I would agree you contradiction stands if we have love by itself, in its "pure form". But I would say this is not the case with God. He does have a genuine, universal, love. And also has a desire for justice, amongst other things, which is why what we don't get the actions we would expect if he had just that love.
God does not have that right, or at least not an unqualified right.
!!! On what basis would you qualify God's right about anything?
If he stands in relation to us as a parent to a child,
I should probably say that I don't think he does stand in relation to you as a parent to a child. That's the relationship between God, the Father, and the Christian.
As I said, it's about proportionality. We recognise that some people escape punishment for their crimes in this life, and so some kind of court in an afterlife is not necessarily immoral. However, evangelical Christianity posits that we are all guilty, another point I'd disagree with.
Hummmm. Depends what the crime being punished is. I'm guessing you're not too bothered about sins against God?
So if God appears to you (or sends an angel, perhaps) and tells you to go on a killing spree or similar, in an old fashioned OT style, would you do it?
I'm reluctant to say what I would do in situations I've never been even vagualy close to. But what I can do is affirm that when God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son, Abraham was right to obey. I would like to say my faith was strong enough for me to have done the same, but as I said I am reluctant to do so, never having had it be tested in such a way.