Depressing article that made me lose a little faith

[Benjinho]

http://m.ncregister.com/blog/msgr-p...ent-and-we-must-heed-the-warnings-of-our-lady

I find the conclusion of this article depressing. If the repentant and faithful are going to be killed along with/because of the arrogant unrepentant (and there will always be unrepentant), I do not see the benefit of following God’s word, and this really gets me down. Why would a just God kill those who followed Him because of the actions of those who chose otherwise? That does not sot right with me.

 

[0Scarlett_nidiyilii]

First of all, it’s a private revelation and you’re free to accept or reject it.

Also, we are all going to die. This is simply a fact.

Thirdly, people get martyred all the time—we don’t follow Jesus to get out of pain and suffering. We follow Him because we love Him and so we can light to the world

 

[Vico]

… Why would a just God kill those who followed Him because of the actions of those who chose otherwise? …

In the Gospel of Luke (NRSVCE) we read:

27 A great number of the people followed him, and among them were women who were beating their breasts and wailing for him. 28 But Jesus turned to them and said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. 29 For the days are surely coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.’ 30 Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us’; and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ 31 For if they do this when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?”

And in the Epistle, 1 Peter 4:

17 For the time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God; if it begins with us, what will be the end for those who do not obey the gospel of God? 18 And

“If it is hard for the righteous to be saved,
what will become of the ungodly and the sinners?”

19 Therefore, let those suffering in accordance with God’s will entrust themselves to a faithful Creator, while continuing to do good.

But also, in Matthew 28

19 Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”

 

[Tis_Bearself]

I don’t understand how this is making you lose faith. Did you somehow believe that if you followed God, you would never suffer bodily, earthly death?

As other people already said, we’re all going to die. Would you rather die as a just follower of God or as one who rejected God and will be judged by God accordingly?

God doesn’t just take all his faithful followers straight to Heaven without dying.

 

[Beryllos]

I find the daily news more depressing than that article. Seriously. Any day now, the world could be thrown into economic collapse, war, and famine. The Lord is our hope. Perhaps this will give you courage:

Luke 21:28
“But when these signs begin to happen, stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand.”

 

[Genesis315]

Death can be a blessing for the just. As St. Paul said, “we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.” (2 Cor. 5:8).

To belabor the point made by others, we all die one way or the other. What matters is what comes after. Again, St. Paul: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive good or evil, according to what he has done in the body.” (2 Cor. 5:10)

The way of salvation necessarily is accompanied by the chastisements of God, which purify us from our sins:

“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor lose courage when you are punished by him. For the Lord disciplines him whom he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” (Heb. 12:6)

 

[GEddie]

“When my time comes, I want to pass peacefully in my sleep, like Gramps; not screaming in terror like the passengers in his car.”

One thing that has no visible fairness to it is death. Some have a long fulfilling life and die with only brief discomfort. Others die young after a hideous medical struggle. Others are murdered, still others die in war. Ad nauseum!

We see this even in Scripture. Consider Uzzah, who died trying to protect the holy ark. Or Pharaoh’s troops, whose mass drowning we read every Easter vigil – they were just following orders! Or the children of Daniel’s accusers – they deserved that death no more than he did. Or the holy innocents of Bethlehem.

For some reason, the divine will demands our bodily death. It’s that fact, not the surrounding circumstances, that should be frightening.

 

[CRV]

If the repentant and faithful are going to be killed along with/because of the arrogant unrepentant (and there will always be unrepentant),

The same occurs in human wars. The innocent people are killed by bombs the same as soldiers of the enemy.

Why would a just God kill those who followed Him because of the actions of those who chose otherwise?

Matthew 5:45 "That you may be the children of your Father who is in heaven, who maketh his sun to rise upon the good, and bad, and raineth upon the just and the unjust. " All are treated equally.

For the repentant to die along with the unrepentant in any particular event - it was obviously their time to die, in this manner according to God’s Plan, and not as a ‘punishment’ meted out to the faithful/repentant in the same way as punishment meted out to the unrepentant.

We all have our allotted time to die. That is why we are to keep watch, keep our lamps full and not be caught unawares so when we are called to our particular judgement we will be prepared. So we do our best to not commit sin, in particular mortal sin, and if we do commit mortal sin then God in His great mercy has left us the Sacrament of Confession in which we obtain His forgiveness when repentant and so are restored to His Friendship. So if we die in His Friendship/Grace we (our souls) will not perish (be killed) along with the unrepentant.

That is the death we should be concerned about (the death of the soul) rather than the physical death of the body here on earth in this life.

 

[stpurl]

Actually, it’s not the death itself that is unfair, since we all die. It’s the circumstances around how an individual dies that can seem unfair.

Uzzah may have thought he was ‘protecting the ark’, but in fact, he knew as well as everybody else NOT to touch the ark. He knew that God was ‘there’; trying to ‘protect’ the ark was in fact rejecting God --“Yeah Lord I know you’re right there and you have rules, but you can’t protect yourself in this ark, you need me to ignore the rules and save you”. . . Pharoah’s soldiers ‘just following orders’ had suffered through the 10 plagues and knew that the Israelites were favored by God and that in trying to ‘obey Pharoah’ --who had LET THEM GO and was now ‘reneging on the deal’, that they were doing wrong. You’re probably too young to remember Nuremburg --soldiers pleading, “we were just following orders to gas the Jews” didn’t get, "Oh well, that’s different, you’re innocent’, right? The Holy innocents died because of Herod’s evil, not God’s. . .
The Divine Will gave us our bodily life --the fact that said life will end in physical death and then eternal life where we were ‘meant to be’ with this world a mere ‘practice’, is not frightening at all. . .