(April 23, 2010 at 9:43 am)tavarish Wrote:(April 22, 2010 at 11:44 pm)Godschild Wrote: Sae I do not want you to think I'm cherry picking through the verses so I've chosen 2Kings2:23-24
This one is more difficult to explain to those who do not believe in God or His sovereignty. Elisha like all the other prophets was chosen by God to deliver messages to His people (the Jewish nation). God protects those He chooses for His work. Elisha was special to God and I believe this is why He allowed Elisha's curse to come upon the boys. The boys came from the village were God through Elisha purified the water that the village needed for drinking and watering their crops. The boys were disrespectful toward Elisha and Elisha being Gods messenger meant the boys were being disrespectful to the sovereign God.
I use three different translations to do my studies the NASB,NIV and ESV. Let's look at the point of contention in this story. You say that the she bears killed the boys however all three translations I use said they tore up (mauled) them not killed them. The word killed is not used so we can not assume they were killed without more evidence. The evidence I find in scripture is God honors and protects His prophets. Here are a couple of examples 2 Chronicals 36:9-21 and Psalm31:17-18. There are times such as 2 Chronicals 36:9-21 that God allows people to die when they dishonor a prophet of God i.e. God himself. I believe the same as Frodo that God is a just God and does not murder. He does take life but only in His sovereign judgment.
HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHA!!!!
Your God sends unleashes bears to wreck a bunch of kids, and you're nitpicking about who survived - then making the point that this God is just.
If you had a child that said he didn't love you, would that give you justification to set loose two hungry bears on him?
Please say yes.
I'm not nitpicking about who survived as far as we know they all survived. How do you know the bears were hungry. Sorry to disappoint you NO NO NO NO !!!!!!!! I'm not an omniscient being there's no way I would have the right to make that kind of decision. But I do wonder how a crocoduck would taste to a bear.
God loves those who believe and those who do not and the same goes for me, you have no choice in this matter. That puts the matter of total free will to rest.