Christians Need To Stop Claiming That “Love Me Or Burn Alive Forever” Is Free Will (& Various Other Documented Manipulations Of The Old Testament God)

Let’s just take a look at the definition of free will.

Free Will: the power of acting without the constraint of necessity or fate; the ability to act at one’s own discretion.

Can you see why Christian rhetoric that makes the threat that if you don’t follow their god, you’ll go to hell and burn alive forever is coercion, and not free will at all?

It should be obvious.

In my experience, it’s not obvious to Christians and it needs to be spelled out.

Christian folk have a hard time seeing things for what they are and seeing things as they wish them to be.

Here it is.

The idea of free will, is that you can choose without the constraint of necessity or fate.

Let’s take an example of a female who is with a boyfriend who tells her, “If you leave me, I will kill you”. Is the boyfriend offering her a choice that equals free will? Of course not. In this example, any and every reasonable person can see that this is, in fact, coercion – the very opposite of free will – that a choice that comes with a threat is not a free choice at all.

Free will requires genuine alternatives and no fixed punishment. If one option leads to punishment, the decision become effectively necessary – not free.

Free will cannot exist where the cost of refusal is infinite torment.

The presence of eternal punishment turns faith into self-preservation, not freely given devotion. A God who demands love under threat of damnation makes obedience rationally forced, not freely willed.

Convert Or Die

Many Christians point a finger at the Muslim religion which has often been spread by the sword. Obviously, this is coercion and an unjust and manipulative way to gain converts.

However, it is as though Christians have forgotten the many instances in the past where Christianity used the exact manipulation and control tactics to gain converts through history – the Inquisitions and the Crusades throughout history.

Now, you could argue that this is not really a tenet of true Christianity.

Fine. However, the manipulation and control of Christianity may truly not be, “Convert or die right now”, but rather, “Convert of burn alive forever” once your body faces physical death.

Instances Where The God Of The Bible Manipulated The Free Will Of Humans

I’d like to provide examples from the bible about about the times when this god manipulated the free will of humans.

When This God Sent Lying Spirits To Manipulate Free Will

In 1 Kings 22, the prophet Micaiah describes a heavenly scene where this god asks, “Who will entice King Ahab into going to battle so that he will fall?” A spirit offers to become a “lying spirit” in the mouths of Ahab’s prophets, and God permits it. Ahab is deceived, goes to war, and is killed, fulfilling judgment. The story is outlined in more detail here.

When This God Hardened The Heart Of Pharoah So That He Could Show Off His Powers

In Exodus, it is written that Yahweh hardened Pharaoh’s heart numerous times so that Pharaoh would continue to resist the release of the Israelite slaves. This clearly prolongs the conflict, leading to multiple plagues, and the text says this happens so Yahweh’s power and reputation will be made known through Egypt’s downfall. He literally hardened Pharoah’s heart, so that he could execute horrific plagues, not just to Pharoah but to all of the Egyptians.

When this god wants to show up to show off his powers – look out. The horrifying plagues sent included:

Water turned to blood

Frogs

Gnats/lice

Flies

Livestock disease

Boils

Hail

Locusts

Darkness

Death of the firstborn boys

For further details, check out this blog post.

When Yahweh Deceives Prophets

Ezekiel 14:9-10 (King James Version)

And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the Lord have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel.

 And they shall bear the punishment of their iniquity: the punishment of the prophet shall be even as the punishment of him that seeketh unto him.



Did you catch that? There are times when this god deceives prophets and sends them false prophesies and then punishes the prophet.

This God Sends “Powerful Delusions”

2 Thessalonians 2:11–12 tell us this.

And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:

That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

While it speaks for itself, I will reiterate. This god promised to send a strong delusion so that people would believe a lie and therefore be damned.

Reiterating

• This god uses manipulation and coercion to gain followers. “Follow me or burn alive forever” is the opposite of free will.
• This god has been known to send lying spirits to deceive
• This god hardened the heart of a man to show off his powers, including how he could kill children and first born males
• This god admittedly deceived prophets and then killed them
• This god promised to send ‘a powerful delusion’ to deceive people and then punish them for being deceived

Perhaps the powerful delusion did come to pass – that this god is good, fair, or loving.

See it for what it is, not for what you want it to be.