If God is good..

Gael23

This is a slight vent..
A family friend is in her final hours of a battle with cancer. This lady has lived a life devoted to the christian faith and attended daily mass until she became ill.
Many of us believe in the saying that 'God is good' but it just seems so cruel that such suffering can come upon in a person with such a strong faith in god.

Slav

This is a very good question. This question is actually the central part, the essence of Christianity but for some reason remains largely unknown.

God cannot save us from physical death nor can he save us from sufferings. What he can do though is to suffer with us and to die with us. This lady was baptised into the death of Christ (Rom 6:3-4). If she's now suffering together with Christ she's victorious over suffering. If, when her time comes, she'll die together with Christ then you'll witness her victory over death. That's Christianity.

If you are interested, Thomas Hopko deals with it in greater details in these lectures:

The Death of Christ and Our Death in Him

The Death of Jesus

Our Death in Him

georgieporgy

You can't go to heaven without dying. John the baptist had his head cut off.Jesus himself had a rather cruel end. Thats kinda the way it is.:(

Pwpane

ryanf1 wrote: »

This is a slight vent..
A family friend is in her final hours of a battle with cancer. This lady has lived a life devoted to the christian faith and attended daily mass until she became ill.
Many of us believe in the saying that 'God is good' but it just seems so cruel that such suffering can come upon in a person with such a strong faith in god.

Yes it is cruel.

Do you believe God is good?

uck51js9zml2yt

Pwpane wrote: »

ryanf1 wrote: »

This is a slight vent..
A family friend is in her final hours of a battle with cancer. This lady has lived a life devoted to the christian faith and attended daily mass until she became ill.
Many of us believe in the saying that 'God is good' but it just seems so cruel that such suffering can come upon in a person with such a strong faith in god.

Yes it is cruel.

Do you believe God is good?

He is good all the time ,everywhere.

latte2010

Jessie Flabby Gingersnap wrote: »

He is good all the time ,everywhere.

He clearly is NOT!

uck51js9zml2yt

latte2010 wrote: »

Jessie Flabby Gingersnap wrote: »

He is good all the time ,everywhere.

He clearly is NOT!

that's clearly a matter of opinion:-)

Gumbi

Jessie Flabby Gingersnap wrote: »

latte2010 wrote: »

Jessie Flabby Gingersnap wrote: »

He is good all the time ,everywhere.

He clearly is NOT!

that's clearly a matter of opinion:-)

Not if it's demonstrable. If you subscribe to the God of the OT, then he is NOT good, and that's easily demonstrable

PDN

Gumbi wrote: »

Not if it's demonstrable. If you subscribe to the God of the OT, then he is NOT good, and that's easily demonstrable

It isn't - and shouting in capital letters doesn't make it so.

PDN

Btw, there is already an Atheist/Christian Existence of God Debate thread. Anyone wanting to argue that can take it there.

Feel free to debate here if anyone really wants to argue that they believe in God, but that He is not good.

Gumbi

PDN wrote: »

Gumbi wrote: »

Not if it's demonstrable. If you subscribe to the God of the OT, then he is NOT good, and that's easily demonstrable

It isn't - and shouting in capital letters doesn't make it so.

I'm on mobile boards and so I cannot make use of italics.

Perhaps I chose the wrong wording. Any moral person can easily demonstrate to another moral person that the God of the OT is immoral. I think anyone defending those immoral actions is deluded.

To propose that the God of the OT is good is both preposterous and nonsensical.

PDN

Gumbi wrote: »

I'm on mobile boards and so I cannot make use of italics.

Perhaps I chose the wrong wording. Any moral person can easily demonstrate to another moral person that the God of the OT is immoral. I think anyone defending those immoral actions is deluded.

To propose that the God of the OT is good is both preposterous and nonsensical.

So you believe in God, but don't believe He's good. That's interesting.

ahnowbrowncow

So why when someone recovers from cancer the recovery is attributed to god but when they die people respond with, that's life, god cannot save us from death

PDN

ahnowbrowncow wrote: »

So why when someone recovers from cancer the recovery is attributed to god but when they die people respond with, that's life, god cannot save us from death

So you believe in God too? The theists are flooding in tonight.

MagicMarker

Slav wrote: »

God cannot save us from physical death nor can he save us from sufferings.

There are many who believe he does just that. There are many who become Christian because they believe they've experienced it first hand. The 50+ thousand people who visit Lourdes every year seem to believe it.

Gumbi

PDN wrote: »

Gumbi wrote: »

I'm on mobile boards and so I cannot make use of italics.

Perhaps I chose the wrong wording. Any moral person can easily demonstrate to another moral person that the God of the OT is immoral. I think anyone defending those immoral actions is deluded.

To propose that the God of the OT is good is both preposterous and nonsensical.

So you believe in God, but don't believe He's good. That's interesting.

I'm not really sure what I believe in at this point in my life. I want to believe in God, but can't without being disingenuous.

I would call myself an atheist. Where in my post did you conclude that I believed in God?

ahnowbrowncow

PDN wrote: »

So you believe in God too? The theists are flooding in tonight.

Oh, I forgot this was a christian only thread :rolleyes:

PDN

Since atheists are using this thread as an end run round the Charter, instead of using the Christian/Atheist Debate Thread, we'll just have to lock it then.

Gumbi

PDN wrote: »

ahnowbrowncow wrote: »

So why when someone recovers from cancer the recovery is attributed to god but when they die people respond with, that's life, god cannot save us from death

So you believe in God too? The theists are flooding in tonight.

Huh?