Job

[The Grand Nudger]

I make a reference to the commandments of the New Testament and instead of dealing with the idea of weather or not these commandments are good or bad virtues to live by you chose to respond with, "Magic book doesn't mean a thing to me." Okay then why are you still talking about the magic book of Job? 

Is that not what you wanted to do, in your thread.....?

I haven't made the choice to be evil, I have made the choice to trust my creator even when I don't understand why he does what he does. My reason for this is simple, he created me not the other way round. My job here on earth is to make moral choices, not moral accusations. Simply put, while we are here on Earth there is a lot that goes on which is outside of our understanding or control, but it isn't our job to necessarily understand everything. It is our job to live out our morals even when it is difficult. Going by the commandments of the New Testament, I'm not sure how the world wouldn't be a better place if less people had sex outside marriage, committed less murder and if less people chose to covet and steal. I'm also not sure how loving others the same way you want others to love you would make the world a worse place. 

Apparently, sometimes, trusting whatever made you amounts to being complicit in evil.  I mean shit, he made you, not the other way around. Does this also apply to earthly fathers harming their earthly children?

Job, for the most part, kept his faith where 99% of people wouldn't. The story of Job, at least for me, inspires me to be patient with the problems that life presents me because I can assure you that despite all the bad fortune that has fallen upon me in the past I was likely not even experiencing 1/10 of what Job already endured. Again, the conclusion of Job is that it is our duty as believers to be patient and not allow suffering to corrupt our view of God. You say you are willing to endure anything for your moral convictions, correct? Well Job's was that his creator is good, and he did endure much undeserved heartache in order to maintain this position.

So I ask you, is it better to do the right thing and receive a just reward? Or continue to do right in the face of unjust suffering? As it is written, "But even if you suffer for righteousness sake, you are blessed."

Was god being unjust?  This is the being you trust...again?  It seems like we don't disagree at all.

Also my appeal to heaven is important, how much can you lament the suffering that takes place here on a perishing Earth if it produces far greater fruit in the eternal realm? I am content to suffer through this existence if it means that I can somehow bring glory to my God. I don't see how a story about patient endurance under the harshest of circumstances would inspire a person to do more evil.

Important to you - because you can be bought for that price.  You know how you pass up all sorts of fruit in the produce aisle?  Bruised bananas and the like?  This is exactly how I see the beliefs you've espoused in thread. You could fill an entire warehouse full of rotten fruit but I still won't be interested in even the one piece.