Why is God seemingly inactive?

[Dave_B]

Hi All

We are told that God is all-loving and all-powerful.

Yet, when sickening crimes take place, God seemingly allows them to happen and does nothing.

For example, the singer from the band Lost Prophets, was arrested last year for multiple child sex charges, including conspiracy to rape a one year old. He has now been imprisoned for a large number of crimes against children.

You and me are law abiding people.

If we were witnesses to this, would try to stop such crimes.

Maybe by phoning the police, or perhaps even a violent act, like punching them in the face, to stop the crime from taking place.

If we had god-like powers, we could give the pedophile a heart attack, or touch them and cure them of their mental illness and insanity, or maybe we could dispatch an angel to speak to them.

… Yet, God, a loving person, with infinite powers does nothing and lets sickening crimes take place. Sits back, and does nothing.

How can you explain this?

 

[tonyrey]

It is an assumption that God **never **does anything. And if He intervened on every occasion what would be the point of giving us free will?

 

[Dave_B]

It is an assumption that God **never **does anything. And if He intervened on every occasion what would be the point of giving us free will?

Hi Tony

We are told the disciples walked and talked with God and witnessed physical miracles. Throughout the Bible there are encounters with God.

They heard from God, saw God and God intervened in their affairs with healings and wonderous supernatural events.

Why would God intervene with them, and not with people today?

 

[AnimalSpirits]

 

[cguerber]

I believe it is impossible for a human mind to understand how and why God works and does (or doesn’t do) things.

Isaiah 55:8

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.

Even if we don’t understand, but know that we are walking with the Lord, He gave us these words:

Romans 8:28

28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

We must have ‘faith’ in His words… even if we don’t understand.

Blessings
CG

 

[lakotak]

Free will is a wonderful gift from God, but it also carries an awesome responsibility of which few contemplate, but only take for granted. The choice is ours to freely do good and bring wonderful things to the world or freely do evil and bring chaos to the world around us. God lets us make that decision, otherwise their would be no free will on our part to server Him or not to.

 

[agnes_therese]

What you seem to be really asking is, Why didn’t God create us as robots, incapable of doing anything wrong? In which case (IMO), what would be the point of creating us in the first place?

Evil will always be a mystery, at least until we get to Heaven and understand all things.

Probably not want you’re wanting to hear, but that’s my 2 pennies, adjusted for inflation.

Hi All

We are told that God is all-loving and all-powerful.

Yet, when sickening crimes take place, God seemingly allows them to happen and does nothing.

For example, the singer from the band Lost Prophets, was arrested last year for multiple child sex charges, including conspiracy to rape a one year old. He has now been imprisoned for a large number of crimes against children.

You and me are law abiding people.

If we were witnesses to this, would try to stop such crimes.

Maybe by phoning the police, or perhaps even a violent act, like punching them in the face, to stop the crime from taking place.

If we had god-like powers, we could give the pedophile a heart attack, or touch them and cure them of their mental illness and insanity, or maybe we could dispatch an angel to speak to them.

… Yet, God, a loving person, with infinite powers does nothing and lets sickening crimes take place. Sits back, and does nothing.

How can you explain this?

 

[Dave_B]

…Probably not want you’re wanting to hear, but that’s my 2 pennies, adjusted for inflation.

Fine by me. I like to read different points of view.

I like that answer.

 

[tonyrey]

Hi Tony

We are told the disciples walked and talked with God and witnessed physical miracles. Throughout the Bible there are encounters with God.

They heard from God, saw God and God intervened in their affairs with healings and wonderous supernatural events.

Why would God intervene with them, and not with people today?

There is plenty of evidence, Dave, that God has intervened throughout history with miracles and apparitions to saints and ordinary people. Lourdes and Fatima are the best known examples.

 

[Della]

Hi All

We are told that God is all-loving and all-powerful.

Yet, when sickening crimes take place, God seemingly allows them to happen and does nothing.

For example, the singer from the band Lost Prophets, was arrested last year for multiple child sex charges, including conspiracy to rape a one year old. He has now been imprisoned for a large number of crimes against children.

You and me are law abiding people.

If we were witnesses to this, would try to stop such crimes.

Maybe by phoning the police, or perhaps even a violent act, like punching them in the face, to stop the crime from taking place.

If we had god-like powers, we could give the pedophile a heart attack, or touch them and cure them of their mental illness and insanity, or maybe we could dispatch an angel to speak to them.

… Yet, God, a loving person, with infinite powers does nothing and lets sickening crimes take place. Sits back, and does nothing.

How can you explain this?

Why should he only stop the most egregious sins and not the little ones, too? All sins are detestable to God.

So, if you or I lie why doesn’t God strike us with lightening? Shouldn’t he if he is supposed to intervene in all cases of sin?

And why should God be made responsible for our bad actions? Aren’t we responsible for our own actions? If not, how could we possibly send anyone to prison for committing any crime if it’s God who ought to be blamed and not the criminal?

We cannot wiggle out of our culpability for sin by saying that God ought to have stopped us. He gave us brains and a will to do good or evil. If we chose to do good, it is to our credit, but if we do evil, we are to blame. If it were otherwise none of us would be alive because God would have had to have passed instant judgment on us all.

 

[GangGreen]

We live in a world of sin where people have free will.
Having that free will means that people will exercise it in horrible ways.
In our world, good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people and vice-versa. If bad things only happened to bad people and good things only happened to good people, then it would mess with that whole free will thing.
When bad things happen, it moves people with compassion for those who suffer. Would it be the same if only bad people suffered?
We suffer because of our sins and the sins of others. We suffer as a penance for our sins and the sins of others.
We learn from our sufferings and those of others.
and in these things we grow closer to the Lord.

 

[SinnersAnonymus]

Hi Tony

We are told the disciples walked and talked with God and witnessed physical miracles. Throughout the Bible there are encounters with God.

They heard from God, saw God and God intervened in their affairs with healings and wonderous supernatural events.

Why would God intervene with them, and not with people today?

You have to want God in your life.

We are granted a lot of free will and the ability to do with it what we want. I imagine that some limits are set in place (we were unable to nuke ourselves into oblivion during the Cold War even though we tried very hard to do so). However, God is still very active in people lives if they desire a true relationship with God.

A few examples. During the Crusades people were allowed to act in a way that violates Christ’s teachings on peaceful self sacrifice. The Crusaders were eventually crushed by Saladin’s forces and knight orders were executed even after surrendering. They lived by the sword and died by it. This is a warned about in scriptures. St. Francis however went a whole different path. He followed Christ’s teachings and not only met the Sultan but impressed him so much he was showered with gifts (most of which he refused) and was granted safe passage.

A modern example is Desmond Doss. He refused to carry a weapon during WW2 in order to obey God’s Commandment not to kill. He volunteered to go into combat even though his job at home was considered a critical need and exempted him from the draft. While training to be a medic he was labeled a contentious objector and harassed greatly by his fellow G.I.s for not carrying a weapon. It was not until actual combat that his true bravery was shown. Interviewed Japanese survivors of the war reported at one point they tried to shot him (medics were a preferred target to lower US moral) their guns would jam. While he was eventually wounded by a grenade he won the Medal of Honor for going way beyond his call of duty single handedly rescuing dozens of wounded soldiers under fire.

Both of these situations deserve more reading. Mr. Doss has a documentary out as well.

However, God is active in your life if you want him to be. Problem is, if you reject God you are given the freedom to do so. In many ways, our society and personal lives can be affected by becoming lukewarm or rejecting God and we are slow to notice. For example, I have had talks with secular social workers about how they are surprised by the disappearance of the honest poor. However, this is something Pope John Paul II warned about as society slowly rejected the Christianity that it once followed.

What you are describing is wanting God to prevent us from sinning. While we can police ourselves and each other, God desired to not interfere with humanity’s freewill so much he created Angels to act as middlemen.

Another important point is how God can take great pain and hardship and transform it. Look at the Crucifixion, it was the greatest punishment a person could receive and was even considered one of the most severe curses of the time to hang between heaven and earth. Yet it became our symbol of hope and salvation. I have worked with those who have been abused, and it can be very traumatizing. However, I have also been humbled to the point of tears when I see how much a person can forgive, grow, and heal when they follow Christ’s teachings.

While preventing the abuse to begin with is preferable, it is possible to heal from it. However, we have to act as God’s physical presence on earth. We have to show compassion, forgiveness, love, and understanding in the way Christ did while being Crucified.

God Bless

 

[tonyrey]

You have to want God in your life.

We are granted a lot of free will and the ability to do with it what we want. I imagine that some limits are set in place (we were unable to nuke ourselves into oblivion during the Cold War even though we tried very hard to do so). However, God is still very active in people lives if they desire a true relationship with God.

A few examples. During the Crusades people were allowed to act in a way that violates Christ’s teachings on peaceful self sacrifice. The Crusaders were eventually crushed by Saladin’s forces and knight orders were executed even after surrendering. They lived by the sword and died by it. This is a warned about in scriptures. St. Francis however went a whole different path. He followed Christ’s teachings and not only met the Sultan but impressed him so much he was showered with gifts (most of which he refused) and was granted safe passage.

A modern example is Desmond Doss. He refused to carry a weapon during WW2 in order to obey God’s Commandment not to kill. He volunteered to go into combat even though his job at home was considered a critical need and exempted him from the draft. While training to be a medic he was labeled a contentious objector and harassed greatly by his fellow G.I.s for not carrying a weapon. It was not until actual combat that his true bravery was shown. Interviewed Japanese survivors of the war reported at one point they tried to shot him (medics were a preferred target to lower US moral) their guns would jam. While he was eventually wounded by a grenade he won the Medal of Honor for going way beyond his call of duty single handedly rescuing dozens of wounded soldiers under fire.

Both of these situations deserve more reading. Mr. Doss has a documentary out as well.

However, God is active in your life if you want him to be. Problem is, if you reject God you are given the freedom to do so. In many ways, our society and personal lives can be affected by becoming lukewarm or rejecting God and we are slow to notice. For example, I have had talks with secular social workers about how they are surprised by the disappearance of the honest poor. However, this is something Pope John Paul II warned about as society slowly rejected the Christianity that it once followed.

What you are describing is wanting God to prevent us from sinning. While we can police ourselves and each other, God desired to not interfere with humanity’s freewill so much he created Angels to act as middlemen.

Another important point is how God can take great pain and hardship and transform it. Look at the Crucifixion, it was the greatest punishment a person could receive and was even considered one of the most severe curses of the time to hang between heaven and earth. Yet it became our symbol of hope and salvation. I have worked with those who have been abused, and it can be very traumatizing. However, I have also been humbled to the point of tears when I see how much a person can forgive, grow, and heal when they follow Christ’s teachings.

While preventing the abuse to begin with is preferable, it is possible to heal from it. However, we have to act as God’s physical presence on earth. We have to show compassion, forgiveness, love, and understanding in the way Christ did while being Crucified.

God Bless

I entirely agree with you. It’s Dave who has the problem!

 

[tonyrey]

“Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow…”

 

[AnimalSpirits]

I suppose an additional question would be, why is God so inactive relative to his track record in the Old Testament? When a preacher claims that god is sending natural disasters as punishment for XYZ, the majority of Christians get all up in arms claiming that this is not what their religion is all about. Yet OT God had no problem smashing cities, drowning people, killing the first born, ect. Even after Jesus, I beleive Peter had a few people smited.

So if God is so willing to leave us mortals be, why was this not so in the past? If you can answer without using words like “mysterious”, “unknowable” and so forth, you get a gold star.

 

[Dave_B]

Why should he only stop the most egregious sins and not the little ones, too? All sins are detestable to God.

So, if you or I lie why doesn’t God strike us with lightening? Shouldn’t he if he is supposed to intervene in all cases of sin?

…

Hi Della

Striking us with lightening sounds very old testament I would have thought an all-knowing deity would be apportion help and correction as required as a loving Father would with their children.

 

[Judas_Thaddeus]

Quite the contrary.

God is SO active, we hardly ever take notice, unless we look hard.

 

[Dave_B]

…Another important point is how God can take great pain and hardship and transform it. Look at the Crucifixion, it was the greatest punishment a person could receive and was even considered one of the most severe curses of the time to hang between heaven and earth. Yet it became our symbol of hope and salvation. I have worked with those who have been abused, and it can be very traumatizing. However, I have also been humbled to the point of tears when I see how much a person can forgive, grow, and heal when they follow Christ’s teachings.
…

+1. Great post.

 

[Dave_B]

…So if God is so willing to leave us mortals be, why was this not so in the past? If you can answer without using words like “mysterious”, “unknowable” and so forth, you get a gold star.

Or be made a doctor of the church

Thanks everyone for your replies, will re-read tomorrow.

 

[frobert]

I suppose an additional question would be, why is God so inactive relative to his track record in the Old Testament? When a preacher claims that god is sending natural disasters as punishment for XYZ, the majority of Christians get all up in arms claiming that this is not what their religion is all about. Yet OT God had no problem smashing cities, drowning people, killing the first born, ect. Even after Jesus, I beleive Peter had a few people smited.

So if God is so willing to leave us mortals be, why was this not so in the past? If you can answer without using words like “mysterious”, “unknowable” and so forth, you get a gold star.

Many ancient religions and probably some modern ones did not believe in natural causes and need to blame someone when something bad happens. God could have punished sodom and gomorrah because there were BAD people living there but if he did he did it through a natural disaster most likely an earthquake. Today there are many questionable Christians who claim that HIV is God’s response to homosexuality but when they do so they must also believe that non-homosexual victims of HIV are just collateral damage.