God's Challenges

[Bob8102]

One time, decades ago, I was having a conversation with one of my friends who was at that time an atheist. I made some comment relating to the concept of ‘what it would be like to be God.’ He responded, “No challenges.” Since then I’ve thought about that and have concluded that God DOES have challenges. It is a challenge for Him to get people in this world to believe and obey, responding positively to the gospel. With the angels, there was a time to make an instant decision whether to keep worshiping God, or to rebel. This occurred at the beginning of creation and then the time for decision was quickly past. But God set up for Himself a challenge when it comes to dealing with us. We were to have a protracted time of temptation, and, before the fall of man, God’s challenge was to have the people of the world keep believing and obeying Him. Since the fall, the challenge to God is the same: to get people to believe and obey. Only now we have an in-built sin nature working against God and against our own souls. Somewhere in the Old Testament, it says something like, “The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will perform this.” It also says of the Messiah that ‘zeal for His Father’s house will consume Him.’ When one has zeal for something, that means they are striving against a counter-current that is against that thing that they are striving for. God has zeal for His purposes, and He strives against the counter-current of human sin and evil and unbelief. So, God does have challenges!

 

[linux.poet]

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This thread has been moved from Traditional Theology to Christian Philosophy and Ethics. ​

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[Jermayn]

One time, decades ago, I was having a conversation with one of my friends who was at that time an atheist. I made some comment relating to the concept of ‘what it would be like to be God.’ He responded, “No challenges.” Since then I’ve thought about that and have concluded that God DOES have challenges. It is a challenge for Him to get people in this world to believe and obey, responding positively to the gospel. With the angels, there was a time to make an instant decision whether to keep worshiping God, or to rebel. This occurred at the beginning of creation and then the time for decision was quickly past. But God set up for Himself a challenge when it comes to dealing with us. We were to have a protracted time of temptation, and, before the fall of man, God’s challenge was to have the people of the world keep believing and obeying Him. Since the fall, the challenge to God is the same: to get people to believe and obey. Only now we have an in-built sin nature working against God and against our own souls. Somewhere in the Old Testament, it says something like, “The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will perform this.” It also says of the Messiah that ‘zeal for His Father’s house will consume Him.’ When one has zeal for something, that means they are striving against a counter-current that is against that thing that they are striving for. God has zeal for His purposes, and He strives against the counter-current of human sin and evil and unbelief. So, God does have challenges!

God has challenges because He has challengers, not because He has any difficulty accomplishing His will. He is sovereign over everything, and if He so chose, He could cause someone to believe, even though He has given us the ability to choose. His allowance of human resistance doesn’t imply weakness; it highlights His patience and mercy. As Psalm 115:3 says, “Our God is in the heavens; He does all that He pleases.” So yes, God has challenges in the sense that sin and rebellion exist, but those challengers pose no challenge to His might.

 

[timf]

Here is a short article that touches on the problems a creator faces

Christian Pioneer - Current blog

Christian Pioneer - Answers to questions about Christianity

christianpioneer.com

 

[BelieveItOarKnot]

One time, decades ago, I was having a conversation with one of my friends who was at that time an atheist. I made some comment relating to the concept of ‘what it would be like to be God.’ He responded, “No challenges.” Since then I’ve thought about that and have concluded that God DOES have challenges. It is a challenge for Him to get people in this world to believe and obey, responding positively to the gospel. With the angels, there was a time to make an instant decision whether to keep worshiping God, or to rebel. This occurred at the beginning of creation and then the time for decision was quickly past. But God set up for Himself a challenge when it comes to dealing with us. We were to have a protracted time of temptation, and, before the fall of man, God’s challenge was to have the people of the world keep believing and obeying Him. Since the fall, the challenge to God is the same: to get people to believe and obey. Only now we have an in-built sin nature working against God and against our own souls. Somewhere in the Old Testament, it says something like, “The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will perform this.” It also says of the Messiah that ‘zeal for His Father’s house will consume Him.’ When one has zeal for something, that means they are striving against a counter-current that is against that thing that they are striving for. God has zeal for His purposes, and He strives against the counter-current of human sin and evil and unbelief. So, God does have challenges!

I think God does it all strictly for entertainment purposes:

Revelation 4:11
Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

I'm also pretty sure being executed on a cross wasn't a picnic, or His long suffering with all of us

Patience taps His Fingers on the table of judgments