Discussion»Questions»Human Behavior» A survivor of a recent tragedy claims someone (implying God) was looking out for him. Does that mean those who died didn't?
A survivor of a recent tragedy claims someone (implying God) was looking out for him. Does that mean those who died didn't?
Why is that the go-to for so many people? To suggest that divine intervention spared their lives when others died? Wouldn't the inverse be true as well? i.e. If God was looking out for you, why didn't God save the person next to you too?
Are you in a position to tell God what He should or should not do? Are you wiser than Him? If He chooses to save one and not another, do you know enough to tell Him He's wrong? Are you able to discern why He did (or didn't do) what He did? Do you know His thoughts, His intentions? God has His reasons for what He does and does not do. Those reasons may seem strange to us as we cannot see the whole picture.
This post was edited by Shuhak at May 9, 2019 2:25 PM MDT
That's what it all boils down to. Satan and God made a bet ... and they used poor Job as their play piece. Not to mention all the other innocent people (and animals) who died.
It does not matter what other "lessons" are supposed to be in the fable. The truth is that God allowed people to be tortured and killed, purely to win a bet.
"Bone broth" is what an animal "boils down to"---would you think that a cup of bone broth is sufficiently representative of the animal?
And the story of Job explores the question of God's relationship to human suffering, and invites us to trust God's wisdom and character.
The "bet" therein is the "set up" for the story itself.
I am more impressed with those who do not believe in the existence of the Abrahamic God when they actually know something about the book that we believers use (among multiple other sources) to learn about that God.
Hermeneutics is the study of the general principles of biblical interpretation. The four major ones are literal, moral, allegorical, and anagogical.
You stopped at the first of four.
This post was edited by tom jackson at May 10, 2019 8:35 AM MDT
So we should trust the wisdom of some magical being who has no qualms about using us as playing pieces for a bet between him and another magical being?
I would have said it differently. I would think more along the lines that God is looking out for the dead and that it was not the survivor's time to join God on the other side.
That's better. We are the one's missing out on God's nearness, not the dead.
hearing people say that annoys me a little too, i feel like it’s kind of arrogant to believe god bothered to save your life because you have some purpose you haven’t fulfilled yet, but if you tell anyone that they’ll call you arrogant for assuming you know better than anyone else how the universe works, and maybe they’re right. I hope they’re right. If there is a god and he does pick and choose when and where each person is killed, then that would be a huge relief to me
Yeah, I'm not big on that whole "god's plan" thing. If there was a god, and murder, starvation, torture, and disease were part of his "plan," he's certainly no god I would worship either.
All it means is what was said. Believers do not attempt to limit nor embellish that which God may or may not choose to do. To do so would be supreme arrogance. A believer may well feel that surviving a brush with harm or death was the result of God protecting them, themselves.
I also love it when victorious athletes or lottery winners cite and thank god or Jesus. What difference does it make to some imaginary deity whether one team or person wins or another does?
An imaginary deity of course would not care; on the other hand, it is high likely that the existing one does---I also think He is quite amused at our disbelief He has quite a sense of humor, you know.
And you seriously asserting that some deity exists in objective reality is so ridiculous that it gave me a chuckle. You obviously are clueless on this subject and hardly the intellect you purport to be.
God wants to protect us all. But we have to listen. I am not talking about an audible voice but that inner feeling or thought that we all have. Most do not acknowledge that is it God. Most chalk it up to intuition, instincts, premonitions or just coincidence.
I have seen it too often to dismiss it like that. I know it has saved my daughter life in a car wreck. My daughter was teen and he just had a feeling she was in danger and something bad was going to happen. He actually thought it was about the some guys she was hanging around. He kept praying and was still not getting any peace over it. One day he looked at the car and was prompted to pray. And he prayed that if that is what it was that she be saved. But if He felt it was needed that she get a minor wreck but with no injuries just a bump. Approx a month later,, she got in a wreck. Not a minor one, she flipped the car upside down and totaled it out. It was crushed they had to cut the door to get her out. She was not injured at all just a bump on the head. I think, I still have picts of the car. We got a pict of the star crack in the windshield where she bumped her head.
Numerous times we were saved from being stranded on the road from a break down (my husband had put the exact part we needed behind the seat months before)
Years back (before we had internet)...he wanted to get some kind of insurance on our business. But because we make our equipment insurance agents would just look as us with a blank stare and stay they really did not know how to write policy for items that never have a title/serial number or even a bill of sale etc. Said they could sell us something but it would not be real coverage. Anyway, we had a fire and lost almost all of our items.
We have learned to pay attention when he gets something that just will not leave him alone. Because Someone is looking out for us...we know it.
Shuhak 