When talking about Hell, unbelievers like to criticize God for giving us free will. They argue that if punishment is possible, then basically, God should have just lobotomized us into robots with no free will so that we'd never sin.
However, whenever a Christian sins, these same people criticize us heavily, telling us we can't blame the devil for things*, and we need to own up to our own actions.
This is hypocritical. Why is it that when a Christian does something wrong, it's okay to scorn them, but when an unbeliever does something wrong, it should be excused by some no-punishment, good-vibes-only "god" who's better off taking away our free will? The answer is simple and obvious: double standards. "Rules for thee but not for me". This is a classic thing that happens across all groups / clubs / demographics / cliques / etc across all of human history. It's not just a religious thing. But I hope that pointing it out here will inspire some reflection from all sides involved.
After all, when you look closer, the main issue here isn't "Group A or Group B". This is about a deeper sense of justice within each person, and uncertainty surrounding it. A coherent view generally involves equality. In this case, either both unbelievers and Christians have to be held accountable, or neither has to be held accountable. Either point fingers at everyone, or at no one. If we're going to point fingers, we can't just point fingers at people we don't like. We need to be willing to point those fingers at ourselves and our own allies, too, or else we're skewing our own judgment. Of course for the Christian, the Bible gives us guidance on how to handle both of these things. Rebuke gently. Don't hate. (Some claim the Bible says you should avoid hating everybody. Some claim you should only avoid hating other Christians. This isn't my call; pray about it or talk to a trusted pastor.) Don't judge people while you're committing the same sin, things like that. But generally, the only way to really move forward at all in these kinds of situations is to untangle all of these complex social things like our biases and emotions, and try to see the situation for what it really is.
This post was written because God told me to write it, and kept reminding me.
Hope it's good enough. I'm really not feeling it today, but the righteous cause of God is always worth it. Sloth and sickness and stress and distraction may try to get in the way, but the righteous cause of God is always worth fighting for. Always cleanse me, Lord; my existence has never had any meaning except to serve the Highest, and I know that the Highest is You.
* I'm pretty sure I've already talked about this here, but if not, let's get it out of the way.
"The devil made me do it" is a strawman argument. That is not in the Bible. The Bible NEVER TEACHES that the devil can force you to do anything. The devil can persuade you to do things, but only if you're already willing to listen, or if you're easily manipulated, etc. It's basically the same as with humans. People aren't going to put a gun in your hand, grab your hands and ankles, and physically lift your legs up and down, and walk you up to someone and then squeeze your trigger finger and make you shoot somebody. Rather, they're going to threaten you, right? Or they're going to offer a reward for shooting the person, or they'll try to tell you the person deserves it for some reason, something like that. That's how the devil operates. You'd have to have an extreme amount of trust (or be extremely ignorant) to let a person just take your legs and walk you somewhere with a gun, right? So it is with the devil. He cannot force you unless you're already willing to be forced. And almost nobody reading this is going to be in that situation. Only the most reckless of dark spiritual types are going to let themselves be that vulnerable. And even if you are that vulnerable, you can always get out through the power of Christ. You are not stuck in this situation permanently, you can get out.
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