Do those who do not try to follow God suffer more while on earth?

[Evanr1]

In Exodus and Leviticus, God says to Moses that those who follow his commandments will live longer lives, and be free of disease and misfortune. It also has some strange commands from God including sacrificing animals at the alter, stating that sexual activity/menstruation makes a person unclean for a certain period of time (I assume spiritually because it says for them to sacrifice doves or pigeons to God to become clean again), and I believe sacrificing your first born child. Throughout the Gospel, some of Jesus's statements seem to contradict this (from my interpretation), when talking about how the meek, suffering, mourning people will be comforted and inherit the earth or kingdom (implying people suffering a lot on earth will be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven), and that "the first will be last and the last will be first", which I thought refers to the concept that things will not be fair on earth in general, and that we will suffer.

One thought that comes to mind is that, perhaps those strange teachings in Exodus and Leviticus were directed towards only that particular group of people at that particular point in time, and that the whole point of Jesus's existence was to make a change in the connection between us and God, this being that he sacrificed himself for our sins (so we no longer should be sacrificing anything else). But by that logic, wouldn't that mean that we should disregard all of the teachings in Exodus and Leviticus because it all was said in the same "breathe" to the same audience...... which would mean that the famous 10 commandments should be disregarded.

In other words, wouldn't we have to believe that the famous 10 commandments (do not murder, do not bear false witness, do not covet etc), AND the other strange teachings previously mentioned ALL are directed toward us and we should obey ALL of them, or we would have to believe that none of it was meant for us and that we should ONLY look at the teachings of Jesus?

I feel like we would either have to believe that all of the teachings in Exodus and Leviticus are law and directed toward us, which would include the sacrificing of animals and that if we have sexual activity we have to sacrifice something after 7 days to become clean again, OR we would believe that Jesus came along, made major changes to everything and therefore we should disregard ALL those commandments and only listen to what his teachings were.........


any thoughts?

 

[Anguspure]

In Exodus and Leviticus, God says to Moses that those who follow his commandments will live longer lives, and be free of disease and misfortune. It also has some strange commands from God including sacrificing animals at the alter, stating that sexual activity/menstruation makes a person unclean for a certain period of time (I assume spiritually because it says for them to sacrifice doves or pigeons to God to become clean again), and I believe sacrificing your first born child. Throughout the Gospel, some of Jesus's statements seem to contradict this (from my interpretation), when talking about how the meek, suffering, mourning people will be comforted and inherit the earth or kingdom (implying people suffering a lot on earth will be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven), and that "the first will be last and the last will be first", which I thought refers to the concept that things will not be fair on earth in general, and that we will suffer.

One thought that comes to mind is that, perhaps those strange teachings in Exodus and Leviticus were directed towards only that particular group of people at that particular point in time, and that the whole point of Jesus's existence was to make a change in the connection between us and God, this being that he sacrificed himself for our sins (so we no longer should be sacrificing anything else). But by that logic, wouldn't that mean that we should disregard all of the teachings in Exodus and Leviticus because it all was said in the same "breathe" to the same audience...... which would mean that the famous 10 commandments should be disregarded.

In other words, wouldn't we have to believe that the famous 10 commandments (do not murder, do not bear false witness, do not covet etc), AND the other strange teachings previously mentioned ALL are directed toward us and we should obey ALL of them, or we would have to believe that none of it was meant for us and that we should ONLY look at the teachings of Jesus?

I feel like we would either have to believe that all of the teachings in Exodus and Leviticus are law and directed toward us, which would include the sacrificing of animals and that if we have sexual activity we have to sacrifice something after 7 days to become clean again, OR we would believe that Jesus came along, made major changes to everything and therefore we should disregard ALL those commandments and only listen to what his teachings were.........


any thoughts?

Given that no servant is greater than His master I would expect that even more excruciating suffering could be expected for those who follow the Living God closely, not less.

​

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done. (Matthew 16)

​

 

[Korean-American Christian]

In Exodus and Leviticus, God says to Moses that those who follow his commandments will live longer lives, and be free of disease and misfortune. any thoughts?

If people who followed God's commandments lived longer lives....if people who followed God's commandments were granted freedom from disease and misfortune, people who maintain a relationship with Jesus would be free of all diseases....people who maintain a relationship with Jesus would be free of every kind of tragedy.

It is obvious, then, that following God's commandments does not guarantee freedom from disease and misfortune.

Many non-Christians do not suffer while they live their earthly lives (example - Bill Gates).

Please read Psalm 73

Psalm 73:12
This is what the wicked are like—
always free of care, they go on amassing wealth.

 

[Evanr1]

So this is my point, the previous two replies are stating that people who live a life in God's will DO suffer a lot while on earth, which directly goes against what the Old Testament teaches will happen as previously mentioned, so essentially a lot of Christians don't believe in what the Old Testament says.

I just read more of the Old Testament and right after the ten commandments in Exodus chapter 21, it flat out condones human slavery, stating that it is okay to hit a slave that you own with a pole as long as you don't kill him because he is your property, and stating that kidnappers, murderers etc are to be put to death, right after stating "do not kill" as a commandment. That doesn't exactly fit with Jesus's "treat others as you would want to be treated" and "love your neighbor". Also Jesus went against the Old Testament a lot, by working on the sabbath day, not having his people fast, and agreeing with the statement that "loving your neighbor is far more important than any burned offerings or sacrifice". However he did engage in the passover ritual from the Old Testament.

This is my dilemma, I believe the gospel has the most beautiful teachings of all time and I believe it is right in every possible way, but many teachings of the Old Testament seem too far disconnected from those teachings in the gospel and I might even get the feeling that the Old Testament was perhaps tampered with at some point for political purposes (read the law sections of the Old Testament).

 

[Sarah G]

I really like the way you are critically studying the Bible.

When God descended to earth in the form of Lord Jesus Christ the religionists were following the old laws with no love in their hearts for God or for their fellow humans. Jesus came to change that. Jesus was a radical, saying that the apparent holy men were not holy at all.

If one follows the greatest commandments of Jesus should one need a whole bunch of other laws and rules? Isn't it obvious that we shouldn't kill other people or steal things? Apparently not. After the teachings of Jesus have been learned and accepted as correct Christians still have to ask 'Can I do this...can I do that?'' as if God is a lawyer. It's like when you are a kid and your mum has to pop out for a bit she tells you ''Be good, behave yourself.'' and you ask ''Okay, can I kill the cat though? Can I eat the pie you made for Aunty Betty? Can I pour water in Jeremy's bed?''

The Holy Spirit should transform us and reform us enough but somehow people still fall into the trap of legalism and look for loopholes to avoid truly loving God with all their heart, soul and mind and loving others as God has loved them. Why are we like this? I don't know. Satan? People just want to be able to 'get away with stuff' which the Holy Spirit should be convicting them for. How long will they get away with cruelty on the basis of 'It says here in the Bible...'? I don't know.

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

Do people with an intimate, personal, supernatural relationship with Lord Jesus Christ suffer less than those without that beautiful, incredible, precious connection? Yes. If you look at a site like Suicide Project (don't if you are sensitive or depressed) you will see people suffering in extreme darkness. It seems almost impossible to offer anything good, any comfort, consolation or hope. That is an extreme suffering in comparison to what we see here in the advice threads. Christians suffer but there is an obvious difference between living in the light and lurking in the shadows.

John 8:12
When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."

 

[Evanr1]

When God descended to earth in the form of Lord Jesus Christ the religionists were following the old laws with no love in their hearts for God or for their fellow humans. Jesus came to change that. Jesus was a radical, saying that the apparent holy men were not holy at all.

This is where my confusion comes in, because Jesus also dose the passover and mentions parts of the Old Testament, implying that the Old Testament was the true word of God. I guess what I am wondering now is, do most Christians believe that the Old Testament really is the word of God or not? Some of what it says I think is flat out immoral/wrong (see my previous post of condoning human slavery in exodus chapter 21 right after 10 commandments), it looks to me like it might have been tampered with for political purposes(to make the people follow their laws), Jesus warns us of false profits(he could have been talking about the OT), Jesus came because the people who were following it weren't loving each other the way the true God wants them to because of the OT, but then Jesus follows the OT himself? If it was the true word of God then how could it be so wrong and result in humans not loving each other?

My best explanation that I am beginning to believe is that the Old Testament was tampered with at some point for political purposes(motives are pretty clear and it was compiled at varying times over hundreds of years), parts of it might have been the real word of God, and then Jesus came along and told us the true way to live, gave us hope, and warned us of false profits and that the Old Testament was not the best way.....but then why did he follow it? LoL this is how I think.

The other argument I hear is that those messages were from God but they were only meant for that specific group of people in that historical time period, I do not buy this theory because it includes the 10 commandments which all Christians seem to follow, and because I don't believe the same God would want us to be enslaving each other and commanding us to murder someone for speaking badly about their parents(exodus chapter 21), and then would change to all loving and compassion like Jesus.....

It is not so much that I am concerned with legalism and I want to know 'what I can do', I already know in my heart what is right and wrong, it is more me trying to figure out what I truly believe, such as is the OT the true word of God? what texts do we currently have that I truly believe is the word of the true God? Because I want to connect with God.

 

[Shempster]

I am convinced that many of the warnings against sin are to protect us from the natural and spiritual consequences of some sins. The punishment comes with the activity.And I also believe that these things are caused by the evil one. We allow him access to our lives by sin and as he gets a hold on us things deteriorate.
All evil thoughts and actions have consequences and many are uncomfortable or even life threatening.

If we could manage to get our hearts clean, we can be exempt from much of the sufferings humans go through.