Quotes & Sayings


We, and creation itself, actualize the possibilities of the God who sustains the world, towards becoming in the world in a fuller, more deeper way. - R.E. Slater

There is urgency in coming to see the world as a web of interrelated processes of which we are integral parts, so that all of our choices and actions have [consequential effects upon] the world around us. - Process Metaphysician Alfred North Whitehead

Kurt Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem says (i) all closed systems are unprovable within themselves and, that (ii) all open systems are rightly understood as incomplete. - R.E. Slater

The most true thing about you is what God has said to you in Christ, "You are My Beloved." - Tripp Fuller

The God among us is the God who refuses to be God without us, so great is God's Love. - Tripp Fuller

According to some Christian outlooks we were made for another world. Perhaps, rather, we were made for this world to recreate, reclaim, redeem, and renew unto God's future aspiration by the power of His Spirit. - R.E. Slater

Our eschatological ethos is to love. To stand with those who are oppressed. To stand against those who are oppressing. It is that simple. Love is our only calling and Christian Hope. - R.E. Slater

Secularization theory has been massively falsified. We don't live in an age of secularity. We live in an age of explosive, pervasive religiosity... an age of religious pluralism. - Peter L. Berger

Exploring the edge of life and faith in a post-everything world. - Todd Littleton

I don't need another reason to believe, your love is all around for me to see. – Anon

Thou art our need; and in giving us more of thyself thou givest us all. - Khalil Gibran, Prayer XXIII

Be careful what you pretend to be. You become what you pretend to be. - Kurt Vonnegut

Religious beliefs, far from being primary, are often shaped and adjusted by our social goals. - Jim Forest

We become who we are by what we believe and can justify. - R.E. Slater

People, even more than things, need to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone. – Anon

Certainly, God's love has made fools of us all. - R.E. Slater

An apocalyptic Christian faith doesn't wait for Jesus to come, but for Jesus to become in our midst. - R.E. Slater

Christian belief in God begins with the cross and resurrection of Jesus, not with rational apologetics. - Eberhard Jüngel, Jürgen Moltmann

Our knowledge of God is through the 'I-Thou' encounter, not in finding God at the end of a syllogism or argument. There is a grave danger in any Christian treatment of God as an object. The God of Jesus Christ and Scripture is irreducibly subject and never made as an object, a force, a power, or a principle that can be manipulated. - Emil Brunner

“Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh” means "I will be that who I have yet to become." - God (Ex 3.14) or, conversely, “I AM who I AM Becoming.”

Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. - Thomas Merton

The church is God's world-changing social experiment of bringing unlikes and differents to the Eucharist/Communion table to share life with one another as a new kind of family. When this happens, we show to the world what love, justice, peace, reconciliation, and life together is designed by God to be. The church is God's show-and-tell for the world to see how God wants us to live as a blended, global, polypluralistic family united with one will, by one Lord, and baptized by one Spirit. – Anon

The cross that is planted at the heart of the history of the world cannot be uprooted. - Jacques Ellul

The Unity in whose loving presence the universe unfolds is inside each person as a call to welcome the stranger, protect animals and the earth, respect the dignity of each person, think new thoughts, and help bring about ecological civilizations. - John Cobb & Farhan A. Shah

If you board the wrong train it is of no use running along the corridors of the train in the other direction. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

God's justice is restorative rather than punitive; His discipline is merciful rather than punishing; His power is made perfect in weakness; and His grace is sufficient for all. – Anon

Our little [biblical] systems have their day; they have their day and cease to be. They are but broken lights of Thee, and Thou, O God art more than they. - Alfred Lord Tennyson

We can’t control God; God is uncontrollable. God can’t control us; God’s love is uncontrolling! - Thomas Jay Oord

Life in perspective but always in process... as we are relational beings in process to one another, so life events are in process in relation to each event... as God is to Self, is to world, is to us... like Father, like sons and daughters, like events... life in process yet always in perspective. - R.E. Slater

To promote societal transition to sustainable ways of living and a global society founded on a shared ethical framework which includes respect and care for the community of life, ecological integrity, universal human rights, respect for diversity, economic justice, democracy, and a culture of peace. - The Earth Charter Mission Statement

Christian humanism is the belief that human freedom, individual conscience, and unencumbered rational inquiry are compatible with the practice of Christianity or even intrinsic in its doctrine. It represents a philosophical union of Christian faith and classical humanist principles. - Scott Postma

It is never wise to have a self-appointed religious institution determine a nation's moral code. The opportunities for moral compromise and failure are high; the moral codes and creeds assuredly racist, discriminatory, or subjectively and religiously defined; and the pronouncement of inhumanitarian political objectives quite predictable. - R.E. Slater

God's love must both center and define the Christian faith and all religious or human faiths seeking human and ecological balance in worlds of subtraction, harm, tragedy, and evil. - R.E. Slater

In Whitehead’s process ontology, we can think of the experiential ground of reality as an eternal pulse whereby what is objectively public in one moment becomes subjectively prehended in the next, and whereby the subject that emerges from its feelings then perishes into public expression as an object (or “superject”) aiming for novelty. There is a rhythm of Being between object and subject, not an ontological division. This rhythm powers the creative growth of the universe from one occasion of experience to the next. This is the Whiteheadian mantra: “The many become one and are increased by one.” - Matthew Segall

Without Love there is no Truth. And True Truth is always Loving. There is no dichotomy between these terms but only seamless integration. This is the premier centering focus of a Processual Theology of Love. - R.E. Slater

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Note: Generally I do not respond to commentary. I may read the comments but wish to reserve my time to write (or write from the comments I read). Instead, I'd like to see our community help one another and in the helping encourage and exhort each of us towards Christian love in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. - re slater

Thursday, December 23, 2021

Thomas Oord - God Doesn't Punish



God Doesn’t Punish

by Thomas Oord
November 19th, 2019

I don’t think God ever punishes. But I do think there are natural negative consequences to sin and evil. I spell out what this means in my book, God Can’t: How to Believe in God and Love after Tragedy, Abuse, and Other Evils.

Although the idea God punishes is largely absent in the New Testament, numerous passages describe the pain, destruction, and confusion that sin and evil cause. The apostle Paul says, for instance, “The wages of sin is death.” Biblical writers warn of “the wrath to come.” Sin and evil lead to destruction of various kinds.

Victims know personally, of course, that others can intentionally harm. And we can intentionally hurt ourselves. We don’t need the Bible to know evil sucks!

Old and New Testament writers speak of God’s anger (wrath) or sorrow (grief) when humans treat others and creation wrongly. God knows there are harmful aftereffects for abusive, oppressive, and corrupt actions. God knows evil sucks!




Does God Decide Whether to Allow Pain or Prevent It?

Unfortunately, many think God freely decides whether to administer the damaging consequences of sin and evil. They think God deliberately chooses whether to allow wrongdoing to wreak havoc.

“Let me see,” God muses, “should I let the hammer fall or protect her from sin’s painful effects?” In this way of thinking, God sometimes protects us from the pain sin causes but at other times does not.

This way of thinking leads to questions victims know so well:

If God always loves, why doesn’t God always protect us from pain and suffering? Why doesn’t God stop the horrors that come from evils others inflict? If God voluntarily chooses to allow the harm that comes from evil, wouldn’t a loving God prevent most of that harm if not all of it?

Fortunately, there’s a better way to interpret the pain, chaos, and destruction that follows sin. This better way accounts for the brokenness following wickedness. It’s a more helpful explanation for the wages of sin than believing God allows or causes death. That better way says…

Natural Negative Consequences

There are natural negative consequences to sin.

Rather than believe the suffering, devastation, and heartache from wrongdoing are supernatural punishments, we should believe they’re the natural negative consequences of refusing to cooperate with God’s love. Rather than think God sometimes consents to sin’s effects and other times does not, we should think sin and evil naturally result in ruin.

God knows what makes life good. So God calls us to act and live in ways that promote the good life. Love promotes well-being, and failure to love promotes ill-being. Refusing to cooperate with what makes life good leads to harm.

That’s just the way things work in a cause and effect universe.

God isn’t the Universal Spanking Machine who hits disobedient children. God is the loving Parent who loves everyone and calls every creature to love. God does not sometimes decide to protect us and other times lets the hammer fall. God always acts to protect us to the greatest extent possible. But there are natural negative consequences – for others and ourselves – when we ignore divine beckoning to love.



Sin is often its own punishment

Evildoers hurt themselves because doing evil means self-inflicting harm. The old saying, “you reap what you sow,” captures this truth. Evildoers suffer from self-inflicted wounds, whether psychological, physical, or spiritual, because sin destroys the sinner.

Doing evil also hurts others. In an interrelated universe, the actions of one – for good or ill – affects others. Innocent victims suffer too. To create a new saying, “you reap what others sow.” Victims know the truth of this new saying.

In sum, the wicked never prosper. They may seem to prosper in the short term. But wickedness, sin, and evil always result in natural negative consequences that hurt us all.

God and Natural Disasters

We make better sense of life when we realize sin has natural negative consequences. But sometimes nobody causes our suffering. No one sinned, not others and not us. Sometimes pain and anguish come, and no one’s to blame. We are victims of natural disasters, random sickness, or bad luck.

Those who believe in a punishing God are quick to claim natural disasters, freak accidents, or unexplained illnesses are divine punishment. If they cannot detect a human cause for some event, they assume God did it. Insurance companies call natural disasters “acts of God,” for instance, and some say God causes sickness as reprimand for sin. A destructive hurricane, tsunami, earthquake, or volcanic eruption always prompts someone, somewhere to say, “the Gods must be angry!”

To counter these claims, we must remind ourselves of a belief I’ve addressed in my book, The Uncontrolling Love of God, and in numerous blog essays: God can’t control others, because God’s love is uncontrolling. That includes not controlling the weather, viruses, inanimate objects, and nature more generally. Consequently, God can’t prevent evil singlehandedly, including natural disasters, chance occurrences, and more.

I’ve also explored in other blog essays God’s uncontrolling love in relation to the myths and realities of healing. In a universe where the actions of the biggest creatures, smallest entities, and forces of nature matter, God works to persuade all creation to health and wholeness. Given the evils we and others endure, it’s good to know God loves all creation, and doesn’t control any of it.

Thank goodness, God is not in control!




The Idea of Process-Based Co-Creation 

*To new readers of Dr. Oord's "Uncontrolling God" concept this comes from the Arminian (not Armenian!) doctrines of creaturely-and-creational freewill. All creation is granted freewill because all creation is imaged in God's freewill Self. Further, it is out of divine LOVE and not divine FIAT that freewill is bestowed upon creation. Hence, the future is open and uncertain because God does not control the future. The future derives from creational freewill and cannot be know... NOR directed or controlled.
Divine imaging-ideas like partnering, urging, or encouraging creation better describes God's sovereign "rule" over non-Arminian doctrines such as Calvinism which ascribe all events as from God. The contemporary version of Arminianism is known as "Open and Relational Theology." To which I, and others like Dr. Oord, are removing the Westernization of Christianity back towards the ancient Semetic idea of "Process Theology" - though the ancient BC kingdoms had no formal philosophies or doctrines for process ideas, they did see the world as place where creational flow, rhythm, and narratival events occurred. - re slater 

God Doesn’t Have a Divine Body

God is a universal spirit without a localized body. This means, among other things, God literally can’t be a Spanking Machine, because God has no hands or body parts with which to spank.

God cannot through divine bodily impact cause a hurricane or volcanic eruption. Nor can God literally step in front of a hurricane or sit on volcano to stop them. God cannot actually use a divine finger to stop a virus or rearrange rocks in a landslide. God doesn’t have a divine body.
Because God is loving, God can’t control others. Because God is spirit, God cannot exert bodily impact. God can’t punish through controlling nature or bodily impact.

Other agents, entities, forces, and processes – large or small – are active in the universe. God cannot control them nor does he singlehandedly determine outcomes. Creaturely agents, entities, forces, and processes sometimes cause harm. We should blame them for natural disasters, freak accidents, unexplained illnesses, and more.

There are natural negative consequences to sin and natural negative accidents, illnesses, and disasters in nature.



* * * * * * * * *






91 Bible Verses about
 "God Does Not Punish Us
According To Our Sins"



Romans 6:23 ESV / 9 helpful votes

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

James 4:17 ESV / 8 helpful votes 

So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

Romans 8:1 ESV / 8 helpful votes 

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Romans 3:23 ESV / 8 helpful votes 

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Matthew 10:28 ESV / 7 helpful votes 

And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Ezekiel 18:32 ESV / 7 helpful votes 

For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord God; so turn, and live.”

Romans 2:4 ESV / 6 helpful votes 

Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

1 John 1:9 ESV / 5 helpful votes 

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

John 3:16 ESV / 5 helpful votes 

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Luke 12:48 ESV / 5 helpful votes 

But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.

Ezekiel 18:20 ESV / 5 helpful votes 

The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.

Psalm 51:1-19 ESV / 5 helpful votes 

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. ...

1 John 5:11-13 ESV / 4 helpful votes 

And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.

1 John 3:15 ESV / 4 helpful votes 

Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

Colossians 1:20 ESV / 4 helpful votes 

And through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

Romans 1:32 ESV / 4 helpful votes 

Though they know God's decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

Ezra 9:13 ESV / 4 helpful votes 

And after all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great guilt, seeing that you, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserved and have given us such a remnant as this,

1 John 3:8 ESV / 3 helpful votes 

Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.

1 John 3:5 ESV / 3 helpful votes 

You know that he appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.

1 John 2:2 ESV / 3 helpful votes 

He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

2 Peter 3:9 ESV / 3 helpful votes 

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

1 Peter 2:22 ESV / 3 helpful votes 

He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.

James 5:20 ESV / 3 helpful votes 

Let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

James 1:15 ESV / 3 helpful votes 

Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

Hebrews 4:15 ESV / 3 helpful votes 

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

Hebrews 2:14 ESV / 3 helpful votes 

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil,

1 Timothy 5:24 ESV / 3 helpful votes 

The sins of some men are conspicuous, going before them to judgment, but the sins of others appear later.

2 Thessalonians 1:6-10 ESV / 3 helpful votes 

Since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.

Ephesians 5:5-6 ESV / 3 helpful votes 

For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

Ephesians 2:10 ESV / 3 helpful votes 

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Galatians 6:7 ESV / 3 helpful votes 

Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.

Galatians 6:7-8 ESV / 3 helpful votes 

Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

Galatians 6:1 ESV / 3 helpful votes 

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.

Galatians 2:20 ESV / 3 helpful votes 

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV / 3 helpful votes 

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

John 3:36 ESV / 3 helpful votes 

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

John 3:16-17 ESV / 3 helpful votes 

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Luke 11:4 ESV / 3 helpful votes 

And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.”

Matthew 23:33 ESV / 3 helpful votes 

You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?

Matthew 18:15-17 ESV / 3 helpful votes 

“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

Isaiah 59:2 ESV / 3 helpful votes 

But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.

Leviticus 24:16 ESV / 3 helpful votes 

Whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him. The sojourner as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death.

Genesis 19:1-38 ESV / 3 helpful votes 

The two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed himself with his face to the earth and said, “My lords, please turn aside to your servant's house and spend the night and wash your feet. Then you may rise up early and go on your way.” They said, “No; we will spend the night in the town square.” But he pressed them strongly; so they turned aside to him and entered his house. And he made them a feast and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house. And they called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them.” ...

Revelation 20:14 ESV / 2 helpful votes 

Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.

Revelation 20:11-15 ESV / 2 helpful votes 

Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

Revelation 20:10 ESV / 2 helpful votes 

And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

Revelation 11:18 ESV / 2 helpful votes 

The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.”

1 John 3:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes 

Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.

1 John 3:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes 

Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.

1 Peter 2:24 ESV / 2 helpful votes 

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

2 Timothy 4:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes 

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom:

2 Corinthians 5:10 ESV / 2 helpful votes 

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

Romans 13:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes 

For he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer.

Romans 12:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes 

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

Romans 5:12 ESV / 2 helpful votes 

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—

Romans 3:25 ESV / 2 helpful votes 

Whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.

Romans 2:6-10 ESV / 2 helpful votes 

He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek.

Romans 2:5 ESV / 2 helpful votes 

But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.

Romans 1:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes 

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,

Acts 22:16 ESV / 2 helpful votes 

And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.’

Acts 3:19 ESV / 2 helpful votes 

Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out,

John 16:33 ESV / 2 helpful votes 

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

John 10:35 ESV / 2 helpful votes 

If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be broken—

John 8:44 ESV / 2 helpful votes 

You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

John 5:29 ESV / 2 helpful votes 

And come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

John 5:24 ESV / 2 helpful votes 

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

Luke 24:47 ESV / 2 helpful votes 

And that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

Luke 16:13 ESV / 2 helpful votes 

No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”

Luke 12:5 ESV / 2 helpful votes 

But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!

Mark 10:45 ESV / 2 helpful votes 

For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Mark 3:29 ESV / 2 helpful votes 

But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”—

Mark 1:15 ESV / 2 helpful votes 

And saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

Matthew 25:46 ESV / 2 helpful votes 

And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Matthew 25:41 ESV / 2 helpful votes 

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

Matthew 25:14-30 ESV / 2 helpful votes 

“For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money. ...

Matthew 23:27-28 ESV / 2 helpful votes 

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

Matthew 16:27 ESV / 2 helpful votes 

For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.

Matthew 9:13 ESV / 2 helpful votes 

Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Matthew 5:28 ESV / 2 helpful votes 

But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Daniel 3:1-30 ESV / 2 helpful votes 

King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold, whose height was sixty cubits and its breadth six cubits. He set it up on the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon. Then King Nebuchadnezzar sent to gather the satraps, the prefects, and the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the justices, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. Then the satraps, the prefects, and the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the justices, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces gathered for the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. And they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up. And the herald proclaimed aloud, “You are commanded, O peoples, nations, and languages, that when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, you are to fall down and worship the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. ...

Jeremiah 17:10 ESV / 2 helpful votes 

“I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”

Isaiah 59:18 ESV / 2 helpful votes 

According to their deeds, so will he repay, wrath to his adversaries, repayment to his enemies; to the coastlands he will render repayment.

Psalm 62:12 ESV / 2 helpful votes 

And that to you, O Lord, belongs steadfast love. For you will render to a man according to his work.

Deuteronomy 24:16 ESV / 2 helpful votes 

“Fathers shall not be put to death because of their children, nor shall children be put to death because of their fathers. Each one shall be put to death for his own sin.

Deuteronomy 5:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes 

You shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,

Leviticus 20:10 ESV / 2 helpful votes 

“If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.

Exodus 34:6 ESV / 2 helpful votes 

The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,

Exodus 22:20 ESV / 2 helpful votes 

“Whoever sacrifices to any god, other than the Lord alone, shall be devoted to destruction.

Exodus 20:14 ESV / 2 helpful votes 

“You shall not commit adultery.

Exodus 20:13 ESV / 2 helpful votes 

“You shall not murder.

Genesis 1:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes 

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.