Why didn't God "Just forgive us" ?

In and of itself, nothing.

(Unless you hurt God’s feelings.)

It seems to me that God gave us free will because that makes our relationships with him meaningful. Making a choice, though, to reject, to divorce ourselves from God... now if he's real, that's definitely offensive.

This isn’t an answer; it’s simply your conclusion. You haven’t rationally justified why it is should be offensive to a God with such powerful and supposedly loving attributes. There is a difference between being offended and horribly affecting someone for all eternity.

Divorcing yourself from God could be a misdemeanor. God makes the rules. He loves us, so He should understand our mistake - being fallible and measly creatures in relation to the divine - and let us be. Instead, He hangs around and constantly tells us what to do, and tells us we’re sinful. This is not the mentality you would want your child to have, is it? To let them know they’re a disappointed and they fell short?

If His choice to give us free will was so detrimental to our fates as fallible beings, then He made a conscious decision to allow sin to envelop humanity as a result. This is a cruel system we were placed into.

Based on the way I understand sin to be described in the Bible, this would akin to saying to your spouse, "I know I cheated on you--a lot--and I know I divorced you, but this can all be boiled down to a couple minor mistakes... what are you so upset about?"

You’re attaching a personality to Adam and Even that is not present in the Bible. They weren’t so spiteful and dismissive of their alleged wrongdoings. They were ignorant, and being fooled into a system wherein God knew the outcome.

In this situation, is the spouse morally justified in condemning their spouse to Hell? Should the unfaithful spouse be burdened with a fate worse than death, simply because of their misplaced loyalty? I really can’t fathom how someone could affect another person like this and feel justified. It’s a grandiose punishment for a such a finite crime. We are humans, and we are prone to fall short of expectations, at times. But doing so isn’t deserving of harsh treatment such as the curse of sin.

Any choice to disobey God is a choice to reject him... in other words, we are the ones pulling away from him.

And? We have that choice to make - mistake or not. Free will grants us that freedom. The fact that God made our freedom lead to sin is disgustingly childish. We rejected God. So what? Why punish someone for choosing to do so? It is their choice and mistake to make. If anyone were to do that to you - and you were infinitely smarter and more knowledgable than them - you would reason with them.; let them understand why you’re hurt. You wouldn’t just curse them with sin and condemn their entire lineage.

--- Please address any of the court room analogies I provided, if you have the time. I think they’re important to recognise as fair descriptions for God’s illogical paradigm for atonement and sacrifice and fixes.

/r/DebateAChristian Thread Parent