four seasons wrote:If the questions I ask here seems a bit confused, it is because I feel confused about what I am asking about.
As I understand the scriptures, God sometimes punishes some humans while they are living on earth. I was thinking about why God did that instead of (a) doing nothing and (b) after these individuals had died let them go to hell as punishment. My answer to that question is that God punishes humans while they are still alive because he want as many humans as possible to start living righteously while on earth. What do you think of that answer? I was also thinking about this: Why would God want as many humans as possible to start living righteously on Earth? I was thinking that after they died they anyway got a chance to repent and avoid hell, so why intervene so early (while they still are on Earth)? Is that because there are benefits to repent on Earth and not wait until after death? Or does God want some degree of order on Earth?
I would be thankfull for answers.
I smell the ill-effects of the prosperity gospel...however, i think the following is the appropriate repsonse for the OP:
Matthew 5:4 "Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted."
Seek freedom and become captive of your desires...seek discipline and find your liberty I can tell if a person is judgmental just by looking at them what is chaos to the fly is normal to the spider - morticia addams If you're not upsetting idiots, you might be an idiot. - Ted Nugent
four seasons wrote:My answer to that question is that God punishes humans while they are still alive because he want as many humans as possible to start living righteously while on earth.
I would be thankful for answers.
A tidal wave would make me homeless, hungry and cold. It would not provide me any assistance in living righteously. Crap happens outside the providence of God.
Sorry, but a sparrow does not fall to the ground where God is not aware of it. NOTHING happens without God's allowance! NOTHING!
SteelHead wrote:Right nipper.... You know there are no pre captivity copies of Jeremiah, and that it is very easy to write prophetically after the fact?
That would be difficult to do since Jeremiah has a personality or style of writing and is a man of his own time...
The idea that Moses wrote the Pentateuch is totally unreasonable.
~Those who benefit from the status quo always attribute inequities to the choices of the underdog.~Ann Crittenden ~The Goddess is not separate from the world-She is the world and all things in it.~
The earliest written copies of the Pentateuch are post exilic. There is 0 archaeological evidence of Hebrew enslavement in Egypt and the Exodus as described in the Old Testament.
The burden of proof is upon you.
Last edited by Guest on Mon Sep 30, 2013 3:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
It is better to be a warrior in a garden, than a gardener at war.
Some of us, on the other hand, actually prefer a religion that includes some type of correlation with reality. ~Bill Hamblin
four seasons wrote:What do you think of that answer?... Is that because there are benefits to repent on Earth and not wait until after death? Or does God want some degree of order on Earth?
I would be thankfull for answers.
God intervened with the Israelites in the wilderness because he (the Ark) was there. When two of Levi's sons offered strange fire God zapped them. Later when the philistines won a battle and took the ark he intervened with them. When the Ark was brought back and left in a field the farmer was given a green thumb. In the New Testament God was with Peter. He was able to both heal and curse. He was also able to bestow the Holy Ghost.
With regards to repentance, this is all part of your catechism and it's up to you to make sense out of it.