The Dying Dog Analogy

By Michael Runyan ~ 

Suppose there is a dog owner who is exasperated that his dog never seems to behave well. Periodically he punishes the dog, but this doesn’t seem to promote better behavior. Subsequently, the dog becomes very sick and taking it to the vet reveals a serious heart problem. The vet recommends putting the dog down.

But the dog owner has a different plan. He is concerned that this dog will die and ‘get away’ with being such a bad dog- that is, the punishment he has received so far is less than what he deserved. Therefore, he purchases a heart and lung machine and hooks the dog up to it. Suddenly, the dog regains his health. Now the owner goes to work, torturing the dog incessantly, poking it with knives, burning it with hot coals, punching in the face, etc. He tries to keep the dog alive for as long as he can to deliver the maximum amount of pain possible. The dog suffers and burns and chokes and howls and cries throughout his torture.

Now, what is the analogy here? The dog owner is the Christian god, Yahweh. The dog is a person who did not accept Jesus into his heart. The heart and lung machine is Yahweh giving a new body to a deceased person so that he can torture him in hell. The ‘keeping alive for as long as possible’ is Yahweh’s plan to keep his victims in hell alive forever so he can likewise deliver the maximum pain possible.

How would you feel about a dog owner who did what is described above? How would you feel about Yahweh, for all intents and purposes, doing the same thing?