The God of Forgiveness, Love and Mercy

I have been chastised for concentrating too much upon the Old Testament, which speaks of God the vengeful, the punishing, the annihilating. 
I should place more emphasis, I'm told, upon the New Testament which speaks of God who is full of Forgiveness, Mercy and Love.

Just for a moment let us examine this Forgiveness, Mercy and Love:

(Mathew 13:41 + ) "The son of Man (Jesus) will send forth his angels and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
I find the use of the word "everything" most interesting. Which "thing" causes sin? 
Up to now I was under the simple impression that only man/woman can cause good or evil.
No stone, no plant no animal can cause sin or be sinful

So we are pretty well stuck with Mankind which gets cast into the fires of hell - forever - 

and the non-devouring flames are real and will cause suffering and indescribable pain for all eternity.

(John 3:36)  "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on them"

(Thessalonians 1:8-9)  Those....who do not obey the Gospel of our Lord Jesus, they will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord, forever.

(Mark 16:16)   Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not, will be condemned. (and I assume this condemnation will last for ever and ever.into all eternity.)

There are, in the New Testament, so many references to everlasting hell fire and the eternal suffering of those who have sinned. There are too many to list here. Let the few cited here suffice.

The God of the Old Testament simply killed or caused killing those He did not like. 

Now you live....  now you're dead....  finito
.

The God of the New Testament follows the sinners from the moment of death into all eternity and makes them suffer torment forever.and ever.

The fire is arranged very cleverly so that it does not consume the body but keeps it 'alive' feeling excruciating pain into all eternity.

Some forgiveness, some mercy, some love.

The New and Old Testament also calls God the "All Just"!

It seems to me, and I am not the first one who mentions this, that the Punishment should be commensurate with the Crime.

How 'just' is it then, to allow man, who can sin only for the duration of his finite life on earth to be punished into all Eternity ?

Man's sinful life is finite, but

God's revenge is infinite.

Some Justice.

With this kind of Forgiveness, this kind of Mercy, this kind of Love and this kind of Justice....

Bertstravels

can do without.

A Teasel and a Bee

Taken some time ago, still looking good !

Photographed in the Courtright Centre north of Toronto

 in early fall, with the Teasel having lost most of its

blue nectar carriers.

but still containing enough nectar to attract a bee,

who rushes from one opening to the next

to suck out as much nourishment 

as it can get.

and the pollen firmly attached to the "bee's knees"

In order to properly see the pollen

 on the bee in the picture below

please click on the image to make it large.

The pollen adhering to this bee are clearly visible.

What a nifty way to multiply. But is it fun ?

A super great Palindrome

...was entered by Howard and I thank him for it. 
It is so good that I want everybody to enjoy it.
So here it goes:

are we not drawn onward, we few, drawn onward to new era ?

this question I can only answer with this theological enquiry:

"do geese see God ?"

Bertstravels 
does not.

some slide shows.. correction

I just noticed that the web address of www.photodex.com/share/bertspix1 
must be entered in your address line anew. Just clicking on the address in the Blog does not work.

Bertstravels
is sorry for this error.

some slide shows

No, I had not forgotten, but just rarely thought about it.
Some time ago I posted a few slide shows on the "photodex" web site and it occurs to me that, if you had absolutely nothing better to do, you might visit this site and try out one or the other of these shows.
3 or 4 of them are about some very good local artists, of whom I particularly like Karl Brandstaetter and most of all, his "Horsemen of the Apocalypse".
Karl is one of the modern artist-painters, who still allows you to see 'whereof he speaketh' and not of the Sharlatan variety of whom I spoke earlier on under the heading: "Art is in the eye of the beholder".
Anyway, there is Karl Brandstaetter, and Giselbert Hoke and Franz Brandl as well as Dinese. Dinese has a most interesting way of painting: She goes to a high elevation, or in some cases she hires a plane (with pilot) and looks at the countryside from this high vantage point. then she returns home and simply from memory she paints what she has seen.
When I photographed the Hoke show, I mentioned the word "abstract" in connection with his work. He corrected me and I remember what he said verbatim:
"My work is not in the Abstract. The Abstract style demands an object to be abstracted. With me, the painting is the object."
I could go on and on telling you about my conversation with these artists.
But for the time being I would like to suggest that you try this site:

www.photodex.com/share/bertspix1

you may be asked to instal the "Presenter-plug-in". This is free of charge and occupies a miniscule space on your PC.
Once you have done that, several shows will be shown as icons, of which you may select one.
another message may tell you that your permission is required. Just right click on this message and then click on "granted" ... Sounds complicated, but really is not.
Will you enjoy one or the other of the shows posted there.?
So hopes

Bertstravels

P.S. for greater enjoyment please right click on the screen and select "Full Screen"

Sablatnigmoor

You wonder what that might be. A "Sablatnigmoor" ?
Quite simple: It is a moor near the community of Sablatnig.
Due to its very dense shoreline growth and the swampy conditions of the ground around it, it is not easy to photograph in detail.
You will just have to be satisfied with those three images of the Sablatnigmoor.

Foto taken from a distance:

The last hills/mountains of the Karawanken in the background.

Eastend of the moor in the middle

and a farmers meadow in the foreground.

Part of the moor of Sablatnig.

It's about time

Yesterday I read in the local press that the Pope gave short shrift to his former Nuntius to the Dominican Republic, and former Archbishop Josef Wesolowski.

On the Pope's order, the Archbishop was arrested and charged with child abuse.
'Corriere della Sera' referred to this action by the Pope as 'exemplary', commenting that "the time for camouflage and obfuscation is over"
"It is a first" proclaimed 'La Republica'.
The News agency 'Ansa' called the Pope's action as "lightning from a blue sky".

While all of this sounds like a laudatio for Pope Franciskus, it is, however, more of a condemnation of all his predecessors.
It may be assumed without much reasonable contradiction that Child Abuse has been the hidden crime committed by many of the Catholic clergy since time immemorial, and it is a stated fact that never before did the Justice Department of the State of the Vatican proceed against such a high ranking member of the Roman Catholic Church on this or similar charges.

I can no longer remember precisely the words used by former Pope Benedict XVI, but the gist of what he said was that Child Abuse cases committed by Catholic Priests were not to be reported to the respective local authorities, but were to be dealt with within the Catholic administration.
This " dealing within the Catholic Administration" resulted, in many cases, in a transfer to a new Parish.

Although Mr. Ratzinger defrocked over 400 priests for sexual transgressions, the majority of these cases did not result in public trials in the  courts of the countries in which the crime was committed.
Members of any other profession, having committed the same or similar offence, would have been charged, arrested, tried, and if found guilty, sent to jail. I do not believe that there are many Priests who are serving time in jail.

Good for Pope Franciskus and congratulations for a job well started.

Every right thinking person will now wait for the next shoe to drop, including

Bertstravels