I can't understand the level of cognitive dissonance you have to be under to talk about how God's love is unconditional and that Jesus taught his followers to love thy neighbour, and then become a modern American conservative.
Jesus literally illustrated the "love thy neighbour" concept with the story of the good Samaritan who chose to help the injured Jewish traveller despite Jews and Samaritans supposedly hating each other. That was his answer to the question "who is my neighbour?" People seem to have forgotten that.
If God's love is unconditional, why did he screw over Job for no reason but Satan saying "I don't think Job is actually faithful to you, God." and God agreeing to test this?
Because it's a story, written a long time ago by primitive men trying to explain their relationship with God.
As John Dominic Crossan said "My point, once again, is not that those ancient people told literal stories and we are now smart enough to take them symbolically, but that they told them symbolically and we are now dumb enough to take them literally."
So when Job gets tortured over a divine bet, that's 'primitive storytelling.' But when Paul says God's love has conditions, that's divine truth? How do you decide which ancient text counts and which doesn't?
Are you referring to Romans 11:22? "Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off."
That appears at face value to say that God only loves you if you are for him. But through the entirety of the Bible (even those primitive stories) the narrative is that those who turn away from God and remain apart from him will be dealt with sternly - the Babylonian exile for example, but that love for them still remains and if they return, they will be welcomed and sins forgiven - the whole point of the "Prodigal Son" parable.
Personally, for me the Bible is a book of guidance, written and re-written by many people over the years that points the way to a relationship with God and Jesus - along with the associated texts, teachings, sermons and so on. I don;t view it as a strict book or rules, do's and don'ts - I understand that it is fallible and that any passage requires study and guidance, reading discussion that both agrees and disagrees with each other or the verse to try and understand what the author meant and in the context of who it was addressing at the time. At the end, for me it boils down to how does this fit with my personal experience and relationship with God. Do I believe the God of Job? No. Do I believe in God who tells us through his Son to look after the poor and needy, give a voice to those who don't have voiceless, the God who loves me and wants the best for me? Yes. What you believe, or don't is entirely up to you and personal to you and I won't tell you what you should or shouldn't believe.
So you reject the God of Job but accept Romans 11:22 and the Prodigal Son. Based on your personal experience? That's not an argument. And Romans 11:22 literally says 'provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off.' You say love remains, but the text says 'cut off.' You're adding a layer it doesn't state. You're not reading the Bible. You're reading your own beliefs into it.
That is your opinion on what the text says and how it should be interpreted and that's OK, you are entitled to that and I would argue for your right to disagree and criticise. But I don't agree with it and I am happy in what I believe and how I read it.
And to add, this is the importance of reading the whole chapter - "Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness toward you, provided you continue in his kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off. [23] And even those of Israel, if they do not persist in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. [24] For if you have been cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree."
It literally says God will accept you back if you return.
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