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One more question. I'm going to be a father in November. Let's say, hypothetically, that I become a Christian before then, and I decide that I now respect God and his decisions and choices. At some point, I'm going to have to learn how to discipline my child. I decide that I'll model my behavior after the most Good person I know, God. So I say to my child, "Clean your room. If you do this, I'll buy you ice cream. If you don't, I'll bake you in the oven. I'm preheating it to 525 degrees fahrenheit right now. The choice is yours. " Is my diciplinary style good or evil?
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Sorry, this is over my head. If you'd like, feel free to say you've stumped me. I cannot express the fathoms that separate these scenarios from the real thing. There is no way to up the stakes.
God didn't say 'clean your room.' God said, 'acknowledge me for what I am and what I've done.' By nature, we aren't scrambling around trying to do good or glorify God.
God doesn't work with ultimatums as we humans view them. If we were talking about a person drowning, it is not a matter of a precocious God withholding a lifeboat or popping the only available one, when some poor guy just fell into the water. It is a matter of God in his grace and mercy reaching down to miraculously save a drowning person who jumped in the first place, bent on committing suicide.
The Bible actually compares God to the father who is awaiting his runaway son's return, upon which he rejoices and throws a huge party in spite of all the things that son has done to grieve him. The Bible compares God to a shepherd who leaves his 99 safe sheep in the fold and goes searching because he notices 1 is missing. The Bible isn't even comparing when it describes God coming down off his judge's bench and saying, here I'll take his penalty so that justice is met. It just flat out describes the scene--a cross where a sinless God-Man died to wipe out the sins of any runaway sons and lost sheep who cared to look to that divine penalty-taker.
God made your son. God made the components for ice cream and ovens and your mind and he is indeed a good model for discipline. There just is no comparison.