Certainly. I can tell by the detail of your response that you are quite well-scripted in their doctrine. I respect the effort that goes into that.
Since preaching the Kingdom message was a command from Jesus, I am not sure why you think it isn't just based on obedience to that command. (Matthew 28:19-20) After all, if I claim to be a follower of Christ, then I owe him my obedience. If I love people like Jesus did, then I am under obligation to warn them of God's intentions so that they can take the necessary action to avoid their own demise.
I have no problem with the injunctions for Christians to let their Light shine before the world, which is the great commission. But "to warn them of God's intentions so that they can take the necessary action to avoid their own demise," does not do that. It is not letting the light of Joy, and Love shine forth. It's peddling fear to make converts.
I can pretty much summarize at the outset that to warn people about God, and that they better convert, or else, which is what you just said amounts to, that they should "avoid their own demise," in your words, is NOT an invitation of Love. It makes people come to God because they are afraid he'll destroy them. That is NOT Love. That is Fear. To come to God out of fear, is not a response to Love. It's about self-preservation. It's not about Love at all. There is no sugar-coating that.
I'll continue.....
If Jesus likens this period of time to the days of Noah, then I can clearly see the similarity. The world is again saturated with violence and immorality...not just in real life, but in all facets of entertainment as well. Can you find many movies or TV shows that don't feature either violence or immorality....or both?
This reading of what Jesus taught is just a rationalization for peddling fear. There are many ways to understand what Jesus' meant in this, but "go tell people to convert or I'll destroy them", is inconsistent with the Love that Jesus teaches. That Love is always an
invitation, not a threat and a promise to escape their own demise, as you put it.
Being sure of ourselves is called confidence. We are confident because we live our faith.
No it's not. I do not believe either of what you just said. Being "sure of ourselves", can easily be understood as arrogance. It's looking to a set of beliefs as being "right", and then measuring yourself against this standard in order to look in the mirror and say, "I measure up". This is not God. At all.
Confidence, in God, not in yourself, is to say, "I do not know if any of what I believe is true, but none of that matters because I am not saved by beliefs. I rest in the Spirit, and trust in Love, without any understanding." Now that is Faith. That is confidence. Not in "ourselves", but in Spirit, and unknowing.
It isn't something we DO...it is WHAT we are....24/7.
If you found out today everything you believed was false, would you still have faith in God? Yes, or no? I would like an honest answer to this, if you would.
What motivates eight and a half million people in every nation on earth to use their free time walking their neighborhoods looking for those who may respond to the Kingdom message?
I gave several possible reasons to Hockycowboy, and I could offer more as well. As many personal motives as their are people. It's not hard to think of them.
If an earthquake hit and it wiped out all communication but I I knew that a tsunami was coming and I failed to warn my neighbors when I had no excuse not to, how could I live with myself?
Again, these are just rationalizations for peddling fear. That's not how, or why people should come to God. They come because they are drawn by Love, not driven to religion by fear. That is not what Jesus taught.
Who are you to question my motives, just because you questioned your own?
Have you examined your own motives, deeply? One can't easily answer that question, BTW. There are always deeper layers hiding behind what we like to tell ourselves. Try looking at it the way God would, without any masks we like to present to others and ourselves. Go deep enough, and you'll find selfish motives. They are there, unless you have been burned in the fires of the soul before the throne of God. They are there.
I guess Jesus covered this in Matthew 7:21-23?
He also said...
"The lamp of the body is the eye. If, then, your eye is focused, your whole body will be bright. 23 But if your eye is envious, your whole body will be dark. If the light that is in you is really darkness, how great that darkness is!"
Just as well Jesus knows the kind of light we reflect.
I understand that as shine, not "reflect". So you are saying you see that other faiths who shine this Light, are God's? Or do they need to convert to your particular version of faith? Are only those of your group, "saved"?
Its true, according to the Bible.....would you rather we didn't tell you or anyone else?
God would rather you demonstrate Love, rather than peddling fear. Coming to God out of fear, does not lead to Love. It leads to being happy you'll survive. It has nothing to do with being transformed out of a desire for God alone, without any personal reasons behind it, such as saving your skin.
On the contrary, I see it as the ultimate act of love to rid the world of those who don't want God in their lives and who have no respect for his laws or his property.
I cannot begin to tell you how not God's Love what you said is. I honestly don't know what to say, other than, look within your heart. Is that really God? It sounds like something you want, to "get rid" of those who threaten you. That's highly immature in faith, and completely lacks an understanding of Divine Love.
That is what got us into this mess in the first place. Whether we like it or not, God is the one who dictates what is to be done here on this earth. He tells us what is acceptable to him and what isn't.
What I am hearing here is the Strict Father version of God. He "dictates", rather than "invites". This is an austere ruler of the household, who whips disobedient children. This is not the God that Jesus taught. It is not God. God is Love. Not LAW. "Love, is the fulfillment of the law".
I'll leave it there for the moment. I'll just say, I have experienced that Divine Love of God directly. None of the spirit of what you are saying here, is consistent with that. It comes from human fear.