How far reaching are God's powers?

[MilesAbbott81]

The idea that God deals out bad things for sins, either as punishment or for instruction, is depressingly common, but theologically and scientifically unsound.

I can guarantee that you will die, and it is more likely to be a prolonged illness than dying instantly in your sleep.  You may get cancer, or dementia, or a series of strokes.  Your personhood may get slowly stripped from you.

I can also guarantee that some bad things will happen to you and those you love.

So you say it's theologically unsound, but you don't offer an explanation as to why. And I will add that the vast majority of Christianity believes in free will and does not believe that God punishes for instruction. They mostly don't think that God has anything to do with the evil in this world, that it's all Satan's fault, and that punishment of the wicked occurs in the afterlife. THAT is depressingly common.

When you can show that those with your particular belief are protected from these things, you will have evidence that can show the world you are right!  Too bad no sects of any religion have been able to show that.  It is almost like God doesn't want evidence of his actions to be found out, by not actually doing them in a way that can be statistically measured.  So, if he does good for some people, he must do bad in equal number to others to average it out.

You're operating under the assumption that God has a responsibility to prove something to you. That's called sign seeking, which I would never recommend to anyone. You're likely to experience something demonic instead. The Bible specifically says that we're to walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7), so why assume God wants you to have evidence?

That's not to say evidence will never be provided, but it will almost never be in a way you expect or would even necessarily want, and it probably won't ever come when you really want it.

Also, God blesses the wicked, for many reasons I imagine, but one being so that people can't point to their blessings as evidence of God's favor. That's not how it works.

I had a nephew die of cancer.  I was a universalist Christian, though not exactly like you.  I truly believed.  I prayed.  I would've given my life for that boy.  He was 5 when he got stage 4 cancer, and was special needs.  He didn't have a sin in the freak'n world.  He had a genetic error that when it causes cancer, causes death 100% of the time.  Not a single child has survived.  He survived a year with aggressive treatment, which was a world record.

I'm guessing your 100% guarantee of death is your proof of scientific unsoundness? That means nothing. God determines all events before they ever happen. If He gave the child an incurable disease, then there was never any hope that that child would survive without a miracle from God...and such miracles are exceptionally rare.

I never said the child needed to be guilty of sin to suffer the consequences of sin. That's on the child's forebears.

You say you truly believed. That may be true, though I doubt it. Many think they truly believe, but are deluded because they've never repented. And unless you received from the Lord somehow that it was your place to pray for the child, who is to say He had an obligation to hear your prayer? The deaths of children may be a terrible and tragic thing, but they're necessary, and if it needed to happen then you had no right to intervene. Stopping death or sickness isn't your responsibility. That doesn't mean you'll never be given to do so, but presuming that you have the right to do so just because you want it is not a good reason.

Rather than blame God, I came to realize that the universe simply plays out according to rules.  If a DNA sequence says "cancer", then cancer will happen.  It is a biochemical certainty.  It would take a miracle to not create the cancer.  It doesn't take an act of God to create it.

So I say again -- your hypothesis about how God works is testable.  It requires a God diddling with quantum mechanics, chemistry, physics, or whatever.  It requires measurable differences in outcomes for believers in your sect vs. those who believe in Vishnu or are atheists.

I'm hope tragedies don't happen to you or those you love, but whether they do or don't, it proves nothing.

You're correct that the universe does play out according to rules, but incorrect if you say God doesn't make those rules, and incorrect to say He can't violate His own laws supernaturally. Clearly, the Bible makes its claims that Jesus and others performed many miracles.

They're rare today, but they do happen. Just because you haven't personally witnessed one means nothing.