The apologist in me loves to actually hear the best arguments atheists have to shoot my way on why God doesn't exist and one of the most common things is that God isn't good. God is evil.
Richard Dawkins said about God:
I get asked all the time why, if God is so good, does certain things like hunger, disease, death happen? That should at least prove that God either doesn't exist or if He does exist, that He is not worth following.
I think the answer to those questions are the same as the person I talked to in a chat a few months before who was sad and scared of death. He was sad because there were things he would surely miss out on. In his own words, "there are TV shows I haven't seen, books I haven't read, places I haven't been..."
I really tried hard to not internally judge the man, but I felt he was very...earthly minded. He had no faith whatsoever that Heaven was real, much less that it was so wonderfully grand that it was ten billions times greater than the best day you could ever have on Earth.
Our focus is rarely on that which is greater than us. Our focus is our own dreams, our own pleasures, our own morals, all of which is wicked. So wicked in fact that we can't possibly fathom God's righteous anger and hatred towards all that that is really evil.
We have things backward. We see ourselves as good people who think that if we live decent, good lives, we should go to heaven and why would a loving God send a someone who is 'good' to a place of eternal torment? And not stomaching the truth about hell and it's true purpose, we try to dumb it down.
God isn't so earthly-minded. He sees beyond what you and I see. He allows bad things to happen because good comes out of it. That's right. Just as the bible says, God takes those bad things that happen in the world and makes it for good.
For example, I read once where someone said that God orchestrated the Holocaust. It was prophesied that the Jews would return to their homeland and what caused them to want to do it when they did? The Holocaust. So did God cause the Holocaust to happen so the Jews would want to return to Israel? No. It was created by one evil dude, but God used evil to create good and to fulfill His scriptures.
So if God is so good, why did He even let the Holocaust happen in the first place? Couldn't He have stopped it. The simple answer is: yes. He could've stopped it. But why doesn't God step in and stop evil from happening?
It's easy to ask that question when it's pointed outwardly. Are we talking about your morals or God's? According to the bible, even hating someone is murder. Lusting after another person is adultery. Nearly every thought and action we have is almost evil continuously. How many of us have those dark things in our past no one will ever know about? Those sins we may feel guilty about or maybe we don't.
What if God stepped in there? Would you even exist? Would you be free to think and act how you want? It's considered Christianese when someone says, "God can't interfere in the affairs of man" and that's true. The dominion and authority of earth has been given to the devil. The curse of sin wrecks havoc and it's because of US and OUR sin, there is death, disease, suffering.
Why do we blame God that there are so many people hungry? One man could step in and stop it, but who here blames Bill Gates for not stepping in and doing something about it? Instead he hoards his billions and people go hungry. Man has the wealth to do something about it, but our sin and greed hoards the wealth while others go hungry. Us wealthy Americans probably throw away more food than those in 3rd world nations eat in a whole day.
But it's hard to change your perspective. We live in a society today that it's easier to blame others for our actions, but we all contribute to this thing called sin. This world is very dark.
Even so, God has chosen us up out of this world. This place isn't our home, yet we're so comfortable here. Maybe that's partly why God allows pain and suffering. Our true home is a place where there is no death and suffering. I long for Heaven every single day because every day I'm in pain. Every day I miss my father. Every day I wonder if I have the strength to go on. Every day I mess up and hate feeling guilty. Every day I long to hug my Savior and have Him wipe my tears away. Earth is not my home, though I'm here for a purpose.
Richard Dawkins said about God:
I get asked all the time why, if God is so good, does certain things like hunger, disease, death happen? That should at least prove that God either doesn't exist or if He does exist, that He is not worth following.
I think the answer to those questions are the same as the person I talked to in a chat a few months before who was sad and scared of death. He was sad because there were things he would surely miss out on. In his own words, "there are TV shows I haven't seen, books I haven't read, places I haven't been..."
I really tried hard to not internally judge the man, but I felt he was very...earthly minded. He had no faith whatsoever that Heaven was real, much less that it was so wonderfully grand that it was ten billions times greater than the best day you could ever have on Earth.
Our focus is rarely on that which is greater than us. Our focus is our own dreams, our own pleasures, our own morals, all of which is wicked. So wicked in fact that we can't possibly fathom God's righteous anger and hatred towards all that that is really evil.
We have things backward. We see ourselves as good people who think that if we live decent, good lives, we should go to heaven and why would a loving God send a someone who is 'good' to a place of eternal torment? And not stomaching the truth about hell and it's true purpose, we try to dumb it down.
God isn't so earthly-minded. He sees beyond what you and I see. He allows bad things to happen because good comes out of it. That's right. Just as the bible says, God takes those bad things that happen in the world and makes it for good.
For example, I read once where someone said that God orchestrated the Holocaust. It was prophesied that the Jews would return to their homeland and what caused them to want to do it when they did? The Holocaust. So did God cause the Holocaust to happen so the Jews would want to return to Israel? No. It was created by one evil dude, but God used evil to create good and to fulfill His scriptures.
So if God is so good, why did He even let the Holocaust happen in the first place? Couldn't He have stopped it. The simple answer is: yes. He could've stopped it. But why doesn't God step in and stop evil from happening?
It's easy to ask that question when it's pointed outwardly. Are we talking about your morals or God's? According to the bible, even hating someone is murder. Lusting after another person is adultery. Nearly every thought and action we have is almost evil continuously. How many of us have those dark things in our past no one will ever know about? Those sins we may feel guilty about or maybe we don't.
What if God stepped in there? Would you even exist? Would you be free to think and act how you want? It's considered Christianese when someone says, "God can't interfere in the affairs of man" and that's true. The dominion and authority of earth has been given to the devil. The curse of sin wrecks havoc and it's because of US and OUR sin, there is death, disease, suffering.
Why do we blame God that there are so many people hungry? One man could step in and stop it, but who here blames Bill Gates for not stepping in and doing something about it? Instead he hoards his billions and people go hungry. Man has the wealth to do something about it, but our sin and greed hoards the wealth while others go hungry. Us wealthy Americans probably throw away more food than those in 3rd world nations eat in a whole day.
But it's hard to change your perspective. We live in a society today that it's easier to blame others for our actions, but we all contribute to this thing called sin. This world is very dark.
Even so, God has chosen us up out of this world. This place isn't our home, yet we're so comfortable here. Maybe that's partly why God allows pain and suffering. Our true home is a place where there is no death and suffering. I long for Heaven every single day because every day I'm in pain. Every day I miss my father. Every day I wonder if I have the strength to go on. Every day I mess up and hate feeling guilty. Every day I long to hug my Savior and have Him wipe my tears away. Earth is not my home, though I'm here for a purpose.
