Every good thing comes from God... and calamities?...
Posted : 13 Jan, 2010 07:15 PM
I have this two verses marked in my Bible since I read them for the first time, they sounded very hard for me by then... well, still sound hard... Years after that I have heard different opinions in study groups: one question I was asked to answer made me start thinking, "If this roof fall down on your head now... who was who provoked God or Satan?"
No human being or angels can do a thing without God's approval. Just reading the book of Job we can see that.
I have come to the conclusion, that yes, everything comes from Him, I mean good and calamities.
First, because it is written in Lamentations:
37 Who can speak and have it happen
if the Lord has not decreed it?
38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
that both calamities and good things come?
And second, because we all know that He is in control of all His creation, since the micro-world to the vast spaces, As nothing is hidden from Him, and nothing can occurred without His knowledge, He is Sovereign and as hard as it could be for us to understand good and bad things come from Him too.
Every good thing comes from God... and calamities?...
Posted : 13 Jan, 2010 07:34 PM
Yes, in Job we see that God says, "This far and no further."
The trouble in the world is cause by our ancesters deciding to bite the forbidden fruit. Later on their desendants went on a sin binge.
The world is still reeling from the great flood. Walt Brown Ph.D. has his doctorate from MIT. He shows in his book how the flood cause so much of what we see today. You can read his book online at www.creationscience.com. This guy is no kook. Predictions that he made on the basis of his theory are being found to be true. He explains why there is water on the moon and why there was water on Mars. Earthquakes and volcanoes are the result of the flood.:rocknroll:
Every good thing comes from God... and calamities?...
Posted : 13 Jan, 2010 10:45 PM
Agnos,
Very good topic. It's interesting to think about... do bad incidents come from God? Many Christians say, "No. That's Satan. Goes doesn't cause it to happen." While I think there are some truths in that statement, I feel like we as humans and our limited understanding of heavenly things keeps us from seeing the full picture. Let me explain...
#1. Does God cause ALL things?
Let's say that I quit my job. Then, every time someone offers to give me money or food, I deny it. As a result, I end up starving myself beyond belief. This would be a bad thing. A tragedy. However, this isn't from GOD'S doing... it's from MY own doing. I acted in a way that had negative consequences. What I think we sometimes fail to realize is that sometimes, when something bad happens... a tragedy... a mishap... it's because WE'VE done it or cause it to happen. God, then, simply allows it to happen. Why? Because of our freedom of choice that He has given to us. He allows us to make our own decision, so we have to live with the results of our decisions.
#2. View of time...
God views time and events in a different way than we do. He knows what decisions we are going to make, and can therefore see what will happen in the future. We cannot. God can ALSO see what would have happened if a DIFFERENT decision was made. We cannot. For example... WE see this: "Man! I got toothpaste on my shirt! I've gotta change it. Crud!" Naturally, this makes us late. This is what GOD might see: "At 8:15 a jogger is going to cross the street without looking. Garrett will be driving through there at that EXACT time. I need to stall him for one minute." Someone's life was spared as a result of MY accident. I will NEVER know this. Only God can. There was no way for me to know that my toothpaste incident would prevent someone from getting run over.
So... I said all of this jumbo to say that I agree, in part, with what you have to say. Both good and bad things happen when God chooses to act. (Noah's flood, for example) However, EVERYTHING He does is good. I hope that this makes sense. Just remember... our minds are limited. We don't know what God is doing. We just have to trust that He knows what's best.
Every good thing comes from God... and calamities?...
Posted : 14 Jan, 2010 11:05 AM
Yup, I totally agree with the freak. Just one thing to add. God does have a plan that is apparent through prophecy...and every single thing we do has been seen and planned for. Just to reiterate...I do not believe that means God MAKES it happen OR that God WANTS it to happen. I do not believe God causes evil, because that would take us back to Lucifer...which would mean all this is God fault. No...we have free will. Satan has free will. God is so far separated from sin that it cannot even be in His presence without being obliterated. And on top of that...God is love, right? How can a being love something and torture it for no reason other than glorifying itself? No. I reject it completely. If that means I get to go to hell then so be it. I would not serve a god that treats it's creation so maliciously and then calls it love. And it is not pride that motivates me...I couldn't care less about myself...but I see what goes on in this world...a tiny fraction of it anyway...and it's horrible. To say that it's from God...I dunno...if it was me I'd be insulted. God "allows" evil to exist because any other option would involve removing the free moral will He created us with...so He plans through it. That's my belief....and it was probably more then "just one thing to add"....sorry...
Every good thing comes from God... and calamities?...
Posted : 14 Jan, 2010 03:43 PM
Thanks for sharing your thoughts...
Yes, freak, that make sense... and I agree with what you have said... very clear examples.
Thanks Glend and Mark... you can add more, feel free... :waving:
My point was... is that God is in control of every thing, not with part of the things... and the Rebel = Satan does not control anything, he is a creation.
Human beings [we] have the tendency to blame Satan for everything we don't like or don't approved, or don't seems to be good, there are plain of examples, and I am sure that they are crossing your minds right now... and as "freak" has said we are responsible for a high number of them... but, it is more convenient blaming Satan.
Thanks again. Keep going if you have more to say please.
Every good thing comes from God... and calamities?...
Posted : 14 Jan, 2010 05:49 PM
There are lots of good thoughts on this post. Sorry if I repeat any of them, but I thought I'd share my thoughts.
I believe that all good things come from God (see James 1; James is one of my favorite books) and that God does no evil. People are often near-sighted and presumptuous. They see trials and tragedies and fail to look at them beyond face value. They assume that because something seems bad to them, it must be evil (likewise, they assume everything that seems good to them must be good).
It may seem like your car breaking down is a bad thing, but who knows for sure (except God)? Perhaps God wants to delay you for your safety (as said in a previous post). Perhaps He is punishing you (in which case, it would be for your good or some good, no matter how unfair or wrong it may seem). Then again, maybe your car breaking down was neither good nor bad; sometimes things just happen. Maybe somebody had it out for you and sabotaged your car out of his/her own free will. It's hard to say for sure.
Every good thing comes from God... and calamities?...
Posted : 14 Jan, 2010 09:19 PM
Nothing can occur without God's approval...without God allowing it to happen. Not even the beating of a Butterfly's wings would occur without God's permission.
But God does not micro-manage this world or our lives, neither does he do things to punish us -- what God does is chastize us...as a Father will chastize His children. Punishment will come later after Judgement.
When "bad" things happen to us, they happen because of the natural order of this world and God decides to either allow it to happen or He will brush it aside and keep us from suffering it. The thing is for us to "learn" from it.
I've seen people say
"oh well, I will endure this suffering...for it will pass."
This is to miss out on what God is trying to teach you during this suffering or chastizement.
Others will say
"why me Lord? What have I done to deserve this?
Again missing the lesson God wants us to learn.
The next time you find yourself in trials or tribulations or suffering from illness or some physical ailment...ask yourself
"what can I learn from this? What can I gleam from my situation that will improve my Walk with Christ?"
God can turn any circumstance into an opportunity for good. Look for it.
Every good thing comes from God... and calamities?...
Posted : 15 Jan, 2010 06:43 PM
Spri, don't be sorry to repeat and repeat... we all do it with pleasure, and that way we learn better and better... every one of us say the same in a different and useful way for others, or new things in a way that turn our brains and hearts on in a higher level.
Yes!!! Arch. ... that third paragraph you wrote is "the a most concentrated" way to speak about this theme, and remind me what is happening now in Haiti after the hurricane...
When we are in peace, without major problems or not with that kind of problems people are suffering in Haiti, we speak and share knowledge theoretically... and it is good, this is our time to do it. We pray for those in need and we help as we can from here, but there is more... God help us to not only learn, but get ready to keep this knowledge when the times turn hard to bear.
Do we place ourselves "under the skin" of those in need? The ones who have not passed through calamities need to be ready, and for us who have passed through strong storms... well, we need to be ready too... to turn them into "and opportunity for good".
