Does God still kill people?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Delphinus85
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
D

Delphinus85

Guest
Hello all,

My friend and I got into a conversation today, and I was venting about how a protestant pastor at my school was talking about how God kills catholics who cross protestants. He told me that God still will strike down the wicked, so if it is necessary, God will kill someone. For an example, he told the story about a pastor with a wife and kids who turned gay and left his wife and kids. He said how one of the children thought that his dad should just die because of the pain he was causing everyone. So the pastor PRAYED THAT GOD WOULD KILL THIS MAN:eek: (I was very appaled by this to start with) and a week later the man’s heart supposedly “exploded” in his chest and he fell over dead. And that scripturally God will kill evil people.

Needless to say, I got a little fired up about this because I always thought God wished that none perished but all should come to repentance. And if God does kill truly evil people who are hurting others, why didn’t he stop Hitler? Mussolini? Luther? (sorry but luther did more harm than good by splitting the church over issues that were FIXED within 100 years)

I would apreciate help in responding to this if it comes up again. A little background info, this friend of mine is a friend from my protestant days who means a lot to me, and I am not about to sever this friendship. Both me and my husband love this guy, and it’s not just him. I seem to be confronted by this issue a lot.
 
Hmm. Perhaps this pastor might share how he knows God so well?

I think Archbishop Sheen once said it is best to begin a discussion from your opponents point of view. For example, I wonder how the pastor might respond when asked how can others, like him, gain favor with God so as to bring death upon someone else?
 
wigglebrick said:
Hmm. Perhaps this pastor might share how he knows God so well?

I think Archbishop Sheen once said it is best to begin a discussion from your opponents point of view. For example, I wonder how the pastor might respond when asked how can others, like him, gain favor with God so as to bring death upon someone else?
Click to expand...
Actually I said that I thought this was a pretty sick selfish and twisted prayer, and he said that it’s God will that the wicked perish, so that the pastor was merely praying for God’s will to be done, and it was.
 
Delphinus85 said:
Actually I said that I thought this was a pretty sick selfish and twisted prayer, and he said that it’s God will that the wicked perish, so that the pastor was merely praying for God’s will to be done, and it was.
Click to expand...
Ahh, I see. Well since we all aim to accept God’s will, perhaps he might enlighten others on how he knows God’s will so specifically?

I’m half serious here. This method isn’t for everyone, but asking questions steeped in consequence that follows their logic can make a strong point. The lack of humility from someone who proclaims to know God’s will is astounding.
 
wigglebrick said:
Ahh, I see. Well since we all aim to accept God’s will, perhaps he might enlighten others on how he knows God’s will so specifically?

I’m half serious here. This method isn’t for everyone, but asking questions steeped in consequence that follows their logic can make a strong point. The lack of humility from someone who proclaims to know God’s will is astounding.
Click to expand...
That is a good idea. I did something similar. He kept quoting from Isaiah about how God struck Israel down. I mentioned that they were HIS people. They all believed in him, but this guy was not a believer, and I was waiting for him to give me an example of someone who doesn’t even believe in God at all being killed for immorality. Even Nineveh or Sodom and Gammorah (sp?) were towns that knew God, and they weren’t doing his will. When he couldn’t come up with scripture, he kind of just said that it was God’s will because he was protecting innocents. sigh
 
Yes… sigh

To be honest, I don’t find verbal/aural apologetics to be fruitful very often. So many people are set in their ways. Deep down they are just looking for validation to confirm their worldview. We all do this, I suppose. It takes humility and honesty to admit we may be wrong.

Bless you for engaging your friend on a meaningful level. Presumably, they appreciate this too. How we live as Catholics often speaks much louder than what we proclaim 😃
 
Delphinus85 said:
Actually I said that I thought this was a pretty sick selfish and twisted prayer, and he said that it’s God will that the wicked perish, so that the pastor was merely praying for God’s will to be done, and it was.
Click to expand...
Sounds a lot like the teachings of the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas. Yikes!
 
Delphinus85 said:
Hello all,

My friend and I got into a conversation today, and I was venting about how a protestant pastor at my school was talking about how God kills catholics who cross protestants. He told me that God still will strike down the wicked, so if it is necessary, God will kill someone. .
Click to expand...
this belongs on the non-Catholic religions forum, since it is not a discussion of a Catholic doctrine, and is in fact directly opposed to Catholic doctrine about the nature of God and the nature of prayer.
 
No one today has the power of a curse over others.

But, through sin we can cause our deaths prematurely.

1 John 5:16
If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that he should pray about that.

1 Corinthians 5:5
To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

1 Corinthians 11:26-33 (King James Version)

26For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come.

27Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.

28But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.

29For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.

30For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and **many sleep. **

31For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.

32But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.

33Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat, tarry one for another.

Wisdom 1

12
Court not death by your erring way of life, nor draw to yourselves destruction by the works of your hands.
13
Because God did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living.
14
For he fashioned all things that they might have being; and the creatures of the world are wholesome, And there is not a destructive drug among them nor any domain of the nether world on earth,
15
For justice is undying.
16
It was the wicked who with hands and words invited death, considered it a friend, and pined for it, and made a covenant with it, Because they deserve to be in its possession,
 
Delphinus85 said:
Hello all,

My friend and I got into a conversation today, and I was venting about how a protestant pastor at my school was talking about how God kills catholics who cross protestants.
Click to expand...
This may be irrelevant, but I’m curious–since you refer to being married, you presumably are not a student at the school (unless it’s a college?). Do you work there? How did you come to be affiliated with such an institution? This sounds like a pretty extreme version of fundamentalism (not that I haven’t heard it before, but I’ve hung out with some pretty extreme fundamentalists).

Edwin
 
I come here to pose a question. Does the idea that God kills a person actually even make sense? On one hand it kind of appears as an acceptable concept when someone suddenly drops dead as in the case of the liar and his wife in Acts. On the other hand there are these two concepts:
  1. All people die
  2. People die when God wills it
Now, as for the protestant pastor, I don’t believe that is true. Can this story be even verified? What I sense from this is a call for vengeance and hate rather then a saintly attitude.

But I think the answer to the question is Yes. I think God will surely call people to himself sooner than normal. I heard a story of a girl who for whom a miraculous eucharist appeared out of nowhere. When she received it she happily died in the instant.
 
God as our Creator gives us life and He can take it away.

You could say that He kills people every day because we all die, if not by accident, disease, or one person murdering another (or themself), then of “old age.” I can’t think of any other way that a person can die.

I think what you are really asking is, does God “strike someone dead” anymore, like He seemed to in the Old Testament? My first reaction is to say “No,” but the more I think about it, the more I have to say, “How can we possibly know?” I think most of the time God works within the confines of our physical, human existence, but every once in a while for His own reasons, He supernaturally performs a miracle or causes something to happen outside of the natural order of things, and that could include taking someone’s life away.
 
from Acts 5:1-11 we see that God can kill people, even today. However, praying that something bad happens to someone else is not only a sin, it is sealing a pact with devil. Satan will probably hear your ‘prayer’, but the price is high.
 
antimon said:
from Acts 5:1-11 we see that God can kill people, even today.
Click to expand...
I was thinking about this passage and I don’t think one can use this passage as support. The Apostles resurrected dead people but I don’t think that this necessarily means that God resurrects dead people now. Of course it applies to the other side as well.
 
It is the judgment of God that the wicked shall perish eternally. That is certain. However, until they perish, God also desires that all should come to repentance and believe in His Son Jesus Christ and live in a worthy manner of the promises of Christ.

The imprecatory Psalms indeed ask for the just judgment of God upon the wicked, and He shall repay them. But we are not asked by Jesus to pray for their destruction, their judgment, or their misfortune. We are told by Jesus: “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matt 5:44), and again: “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you” (Luke 6:27-28).

We are not to judge one another (cf. Matt 7:1; Luke 6:37; Rom 2:1-3; James 4:12), and while we can be sure that God will invoke His right judgment on all, we should work towards the conversion and salvation of the wicked rather than their destruction.
 
GandalfTheWhite said:
I was thinking about this passage and I don’t think one can use this passage as support. The Apostles resurrected dead people but I don’t think that this necessarily means that God resurrects dead people now. Of course it applies to the other side as well.
Click to expand...
Funny enough this is the same passage he used. I didn’t agree since no one PRAYED for someone’s death. And yes, I know it is entirely possible for God to take someone’s life, but how is that congruent with the message of the new testament of Jesus? Just like what someone else posted about “blessing those who persecute you”? Not once do I see Jesus telling us to pray and wish for the destruction of anyone.
 
We know that He did kill people in the past and that some saints have prayed for the death of horrible people.

Genesis 38:7 But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD killed him.

Psalms 109:8 Let his days be few, [And] let another take his office.
 
Maranatha said:
God does not kill people. He allows all people to die as a consequence of sin. There are passages in the OT that are hard to interpret. That is why Jesus gave us His church to guide us in all things. For an explanation of why it seems God kills people please read:

jimmyakin.typepad.com/defensor_fidei/2007/02/hard_sayings_of.html
Click to expand...
LOL! If you wanna hold onto that belief then don’t read the passage in Genesis I quoted! Actually, don’t read Genesis at all, because God kills a good number of people in that book :eek:
 
japhy said:
We are not to judge one another (cf. Matt 7:1; Luke 6:37; Rom 2:1-3; James 4:12), and while we can be sure that God will invoke His right judgment on all, we should work towards the conversion and salvation of the wicked rather than their destruction.
Click to expand...
WHOA! That’s not true! MAtthew 7 teaches HOW TO JUDGE CORRECTLY. The apostle Paul criticizes the Corinthians for not judging among those in the Body of Christ in 1 Cor 6:1-5. Judging is good and Jesus taught to judge rightly.

John 7:24 “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.”

1 Corinthians 6:1-5 Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints? 2 Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? 3 Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life? 4 If then you have judgments concerning things pertaining to this life, do you appoint those who are least esteemed by the church to judge? 5 I say this to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you, not even one, who will be able to judge between his brethren?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top