From: glenne@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Neuromancer )
Subject: Re: Hear Ye Him!
Organization: Computing Services Division, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1992 20:52:18 GMT

Actually what you have said:
> It's not 
>that God will condemn us if we don't believe.  If we turn away from 
>God, then we are separated from him, and being apart from him IS hell.  
> The good news is that we don't have to remain apart from him

is what I believe, so actually I get the point. Unfortunately,
those that I call fundamentalists don't seem to get that point.
They emphasize how just God is.   The strange part is that if
the bible is read literally, they do have good ground to stand on.
There are many references to what hell is like, and that a just
and angry God is going to send us there unless we worship him. 
 
But I understand the bible differently because it says that God is
Love.   And my experiences with love in my life have made me see
the Bible in an entirely different way.  My mom was like the just
and angry God of the bible.  My grandpa was loving and compassionate 
like Christ.   
 
Common sense tells me that God will definitely be more loving than
my mom, and even though I can't fathom a love any kinder, I know God
will be even more loving than my Grandpa.   This gives me great hope.
 
It just seems that some have never experienced someone who really has
loved them with a gentle love, and so they naturally dont realize that
the Bible even comes right out and tells them of the gentleness of God.
 
"Faith, Hope, and Love, abide these three." means that if you had to 
throw out everything in the bible and keep only three things, these would 
be the three to keep.  Not Justice, Fear of the Lord, and Anger.  
"The greatest of these is Love."  Is saying if you opened the 
bible and God had put only one word in it, that word would be 
LOVE.  (Not justice, not heaven, not hell.)

When the bible says "God is Love" it is not saying "God is Loving".
Compare the meaning of the two statements:  "Michael Jordan plays
basketball."  "Michael Jordan _is_ basketball."  All these statements
are true, but two are more MEANINGFUL.
Note the bible says God is Just, not God is Justice.

It is true that every verse of the bible is true.  But that isn't
how to read the bible.  The whole point is to understand the 
MEANING of the bible.  The meaning of the bible is Love, compassion,
meekness, gentleness, and forgiveness.
 
All the bible does is point to God.... to Love.  Once a person
realizes this, he realizes the way to God is not by reading the 
bible, but to experience God!  I have felt the love in my grandpa's
heart.  That experience of God is what God is about.  The bible is
not nearly as important as the love I have experienced in my 
grandpa's heart.  For God is that.  He is not a bunch of words
in a book called the bible.  
 
Proof for the existence of God:
God is love.
I have experienced love.
Therefore I have experienced God.
While experience of something might not be proof of external existence,
I would say that considering that many others have told me that they 
have also experienced love, it is proof that God is as real as anything
that I can experience. 
 
I'd guess that you already know much of what I have said.  It's
a shame others haven't experienced love.
 
Glenn                         glenn@csd4.csd.uwm.edu
Newsgroups: talk.religion.misc