With all the unrest and uneasiness going on these days, End-of-the-World talk is everywhere, from zombie apocalypse theories to teachings of a more spiritual nature. Which kinda got me thinking. The Bible teaches that throughout history and for the majority of the future, humankind has been and will be genuinely deceived and misled in regards to the existence, teachings, and intentions of God. But in the very VERY last days, it will eventually become so blatantly obvious that denying God's existence won't be a thing anymore. (quick note before you go on: this isn't a which-is-right thread. My question actually won't have anything to do with whether or not such a thing will happen.) The Bible teaches that during this time, there will be two kinds of people. The first will be those that Spoiler: accept and repent. These people are the kind who, once it has become proven that God is real and what he says is true, accept his message and repent from their old ways. These people, according to the Bible, will usually be killed by the other kind of people. If they manage to survive to the next harvest period, they will be caught up in the next rapture. The second will be those that Spoiler: deny and fight These people are the kind who, even though they know that God exists, have become so bitter and full of hate towards him that they kill all those who have turned to him, and, once the final rapture has happened and all who will turn to God have been killed or raptured, everyone who is left will amass together to form an army and try to wage war against God. (Spoiler tags for a little additional reading, if you're into additional reading. XD) So I've been wondering. If, during the last days, it became known that there was indeed a higher power, some omniscient omnipotent omnipresent entity of any kind, be it God or Allah or anyone... What would my response be? What would be the responses of the people around me? If there was a god... would I find myself repenting for the mistakes I made in life (especially if it turned out I was wrong about it being mine XD) and turning to this god, or would I look at the world around me and see so much hurt, pain, and hate, and blame this god for what I see? Would I be of the number that would refuse to turn? Would I find myself a part of this last desperate crusade against an unbeatable entity I would have no hope of even standing against? So in this thread, I'm not asking for theories about whether there is some entity, or if so, which one is most likely to be real, AND IF REAL, which interpretation of this entity's words and actions is most likely to be correct. I'm asking which group do you all think you would be a part of in this end-of-the-world scenario. Do you think you would turn? Or do you think you would fight?
There may be a god, but they are not my god. I could not live with myself if I bent knee to such a tyrant while my brothers and sisters suffered. If god intends to turn me into someone who can live with that, screw that. That is even worse. I will choose to suffer in eternity if it means preserving who I am.
This is actually an interesting scenario. When it comes to a question like this, I think of the Left Behind novels (yes, the ones that the new Nick Cage film is based on) and how they handled this. The characters, both good and bad, were human. It's obvious that they know they're in the Christian version of the End of Days (the novels being a hypothetical scenario of the Book of Revelations). They face this question of they realize that God is real, but are angry. And it's hard here. I want to say that I'm the kind of person who would immediately accept what has happened and repented my ways. However, that's an idealistic answer in my point of view. My first reaction would probably be of the latter option because I would feel betrayed. I would still fight whatever tyranny that there is on Earth (if we're assuming Revelations, that would be the Antichrist, False Prophet, etc.), and that would probably help me in finding some kind of acceptance and repentance. (And this is coming who identifies as Christian)
If there was indeed a higher power I' d have no way to tell whether he' s omniscient or not. I' d have to be omniscient myself to tell, which isn' t about to happen anytime soon. Either way I' m stuck with my own moral compass. I didn' t wait him to be around to feel guilt and shame, him being real wouldn' t change the way I judge myself one bit. Interacting with the real deal would probably put him in a different light than the 35478648899345566333 hands "testimonies" going around, but best case scenario he' d get my respect, not my veneration. No amount of threats can change that, that would only lead me to keep my opinions to myself.
I'm in two minds here. Half of me agrees with Makaze because if a deity emerged and they had simply allowed this suffering to happen without a damn good reason then I'd be furious, because far too many people have had to go through terrible things and for all that to be for nothing would be unacceptable. The other half of me would accept and repent, because it would mean that my question is finally answered. I don't know whether there is a God or not and I'm not strongly convinced either way and I've had personal experiences that are enough to lead me to question both sides. I don't know that I could change myself to fit that God's ideals, but I'd accept that they exist and that they are the truth, as it would illogical of me not to at least recognise them. Assuming there's some kind of tyranny on this world that is clearly against humanity then I'll fight that. Whatever it might be. If that isn't enough to repent then... Well there's not an awful lot more I can do. I'd have to try and push against whatever came in this theoretical last day scenario but if any more is asked, I'm not sure that I can follow whatever these high standards are.
I don't believe that any God that actually had power in our universe could possibly be one of a malevolent nature, so I don't think repenting would even be necessary. If He/She/It were an omnipotent, omnipresent entity, that entity would probably already know what I've done, and would have already passed a judgement, as an entity of such scale would no way be bound to the limits of time and space that we humans understand. Why wouldn't a God be malevolent in my mind? Because what would be the point of creating and maintaining a universe of life if choice were stripped away from us; the choice to make a mistakes or have preferences or subjectivity? Making mistakes and having preferences and such are really the definition of separation between life and machinery, in my opinion. So in the end, I guess I feel that, if the end times were to come, I wouldn't be worried at all for what will come to me. I can accept that a God can exist, because my definition of a God leaves no room for destruction.
(For the sake of convenience I'm going to assume the deity in question is the Christian of Muslim god.) Neither. If he turns out to be real, I'd dislike him like a son would dislike a neglectful father. I can only speak from my frame of reference, but giving cryptic advice through a book and then getting pissed when we don't follow it to the letter is generally considered bad parenting. I'd return the favor in kind by ignoring him as long as possible. I choose this rather than joining any of the two groups because the outcome would be eternal damnation either way. Fighting God seems futile and as for repenting... Well, just because God would turn out to be real doesn't mean he is just in my eyes. I can't wrap my head around the fact that a sin of limited consequence (no matter how grave) is met with an infinitely lasting punishment. Again, I can only speak from my frame of reference, but who'd be to blame for that? There are several other rules imposed by God that I simply don't agree with because I've never been properly shown how I could be wrong. I can't with a straight face repent for this, and I trust God is clever enough to see through fake attempts.
