Whew! I stay away from here for a day or so and look what I have to come back to. Sometimes I need to take a break and pull all the arrows out of my body. I just came back from helping at our church's Saturday morning food giveaway and I was heartened to see how many teenagers showed up to help from I don't know where. We also had some people leave the line to help unload the trucks. We don't ask what their beliefs are, but just accept their help and work together to make this thing happen. Isn't that great? We usually give out food to around 300 people.
Anyway, I can't sit here and deny all the instances from the old testament that you guys bring up since they are all there in black and white. It seems that we must assume that he is a God of justice, anger, wrath and love, since he exhibits all these characteristics in the bible. The question one must ask is if these actions are justified. In your eyes these actions appear unjustified . Of course most of the adults who were at the receiving end of the actions were probably fine with the same type of thing, which people of their cultures were committing against others. Were they worthy of the same punishments which they inflicted on others? If a city is destroyed by a nuke, everyone in the city, good or bad, suffers the consequences. Unfortunately, children are subject o the consequences of their parents failures, and they did die along with their parents. But God had a plan for them and and all who followed him. He gave them an early death, but also an early salvation.
Do you all assume that God is evil for allowing us to die? My take on this is that he created the world the way it is, so that our lives would be the progress towards making us the kind of peop with whom he wants to share eternity - to become whom he created us to be. We grow and develop as we deal with adversity and learn to rely on him as we face these things. What would be the reason for God to create a bunch of puppets who he feeds, clothes and cares for? He may just as well create some pets if that is what he wants. What he wants is people who learn and grow and choose for themselves. We face adversity and come out stronger and we learn to rely on God and have a relationship with him. Then we are sanctified and spend eternity with him.
Yes, God is loving, but he also is just, and sometimes angry and wrathful. He's not some one-dimensional santa claus, but rather a complex being. He does put us through suffering, but but our existence isn't only meant to be in this world. As our creator he does take actions that we are not allowed to take. That is his privilege as creator. And as for God "working in mysterious ways", as you folks lie to say, he is omniscient and we are not. So, yes we can't understand all his motives, but we can listen to his word and know which way we are headed.
Anyway, I can't sit here and deny all the instances from the old testament that you guys bring up since they are all there in black and white. It seems that we must assume that he is a God of justice, anger, wrath and love, since he exhibits all these characteristics in the bible. The question one must ask is if these actions are justified. In your eyes these actions appear unjustified . Of course most of the adults who were at the receiving end of the actions were probably fine with the same type of thing, which people of their cultures were committing against others. Were they worthy of the same punishments which they inflicted on others? If a city is destroyed by a nuke, everyone in the city, good or bad, suffers the consequences. Unfortunately, children are subject o the consequences of their parents failures, and they did die along with their parents. But God had a plan for them and and all who followed him. He gave them an early death, but also an early salvation.
Do you all assume that God is evil for allowing us to die? My take on this is that he created the world the way it is, so that our lives would be the progress towards making us the kind of peop with whom he wants to share eternity - to become whom he created us to be. We grow and develop as we deal with adversity and learn to rely on him as we face these things. What would be the reason for God to create a bunch of puppets who he feeds, clothes and cares for? He may just as well create some pets if that is what he wants. What he wants is people who learn and grow and choose for themselves. We face adversity and come out stronger and we learn to rely on God and have a relationship with him. Then we are sanctified and spend eternity with him.
Yes, God is loving, but he also is just, and sometimes angry and wrathful. He's not some one-dimensional santa claus, but rather a complex being. He does put us through suffering, but but our existence isn't only meant to be in this world. As our creator he does take actions that we are not allowed to take. That is his privilege as creator. And as for God "working in mysterious ways", as you folks lie to say, he is omniscient and we are not. So, yes we can't understand all his motives, but we can listen to his word and know which way we are headed.
