re: Christians Can Learn tolerance from Muslim Migrants per German Finance Minister

I love watching liberals white knight for fricking Muslims.

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First of all, thank you for responding to my hypothetical question. Most of the time around here all you get is a smart arse answer I don't mean to be disrespectful it's just something I think about

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It's no problem at all. I actually enjoyed thinking through this one because I hadn't done it before. It helped me to appreciate all that is connected to God's justice which I hadn't considered from that perspective.

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I just don't understand why God would create me to seek out evidence and science to justify things in the world, but then punish me for eternity for not excepting things on faith.

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My understanding is that God created the world and upholds it through what we see as the natural laws and He gave us our senses and our reason so that we could understand the world and know that it points to a creator, allowing us to know of God even without special revelation (the Bible).

It's with this general understanding that no man is innocent for not acknowledging God, but even so, faith is required as an evidence of trust in a relationship with God. In our human interactions and relationships, we have varying degrees of faith. My wife puts her faith in me to not kill her and our children when I drive them around. I put my faith in my wife to not bankrupt us by having her control our finances. Likewise God requires faith as an evidence of our love for Him. God wants us to love, honor, and worship Him, and that relationship requires faith in Him. Those who are rejected by God first reject Him, so that it's not unfair that anyone who rejects Him should be punished for not taking Him on faith as faith is a necessary component of being human and living our daily lives, no matter how scientific we want to be.

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If man was created as an imperfect version of god (in his image and likeness) why does it seem so obvious to me that this is a cruel and unusual experiment? Why can I easily think of a more fair system?

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Everyone thinks they've got a fair system: works. The assumption is that if we do enough good things (who defines what is "good", by the way, if not God?), God will reward us and not punish us, but that assumes that God doesn't require perfect obedience due to His holiness and it also assumes that our good deeds can cancel out our bad deeds.

For example, I can live an upright life, obeying all the laws of the land with excruciating exactitude, but if I steal, murder, or rape one time, I have to pay the price for that; the judge won't let me off the hook because it was my first murder after an entire lifetime of being good. Justice demands a price be paid for my actions, and the same holds true with God. When we sin against an infinitely holy God, the punishment has to match the offense. The only way God can be a just God is to punish people for their sin. Even His mercy has to be based on justice, which is why He shows mercy by forgiving the sins of those who trust Him through faith in His Son's sacrificial death. Jesus did not deserve death because He didn't sin, yet He died to take the place of sinners like you and me because that is what is owed to God for what we've done.

Usually when the topic of fairness pops up, it's because we either have too high a view of ourselves (we think we're owed something by God) or too low a view of God (He isn't really the holy King of the universe that is owed perfect obedience). Because of one or both of those things, we tend to think it's unfair for God to punish us for not obeying His law, or by not meeting any other requirements He sets forth. We don't really believe that God is God and we are His creation, so we set ourselves up as equals to or ones superior to God wherein we have free reign to judge God all while condemning Him for judging us. Instead, what the Bible teaches is that we all sin against God and deserve death; that's what is "fair" according to justice. God, therefore, is unfair by giving anyone a shot at redemption and salvation through faith in Christ. When looked upon in that light, instead of God being a sadistic tyrant, He's actually good and merciful for giving us a chance that we don't deserve.

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Why not just reveal yourself and then accept the people that want to follow you?

Just seems like a sick game to play

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According to the Bible, He's done that many times. He revealed Himself to Adam and Adam still disobeyed. He revealed Himself to Saul, and Saul rebelled. He revealed Himself to the whole nation of Israel and they disobeyed time and time again. He revealed Himself in the form of Jesus, performing miracle after miracle to confirm who He was, and yet He was still rejected to the point of the crucifixion. The Bible, itself, is a record of God's revelation to mankind, yet it is rejected daily. The issue isn't one of intellect, but of morality. We don't reject God because we don't have enough evidence, but because our hearts are hardened against God. Those who hate God would reject Him even if He came to them in a vision and performed all sorts of miracles. The miracles would be dismissed as a hallucination, temporary insanity, or some unexplained natural phenomena that will have an explanation in due time. It happened to men in the past and it would happen to us.