The Global Flood

[RealityCheck]

Can you give me an example of a country that is starving today, and tell me why it's starving?

A "country" doesn't starve, the people in it starve.





Okay fine. In Sudan there are many thousands of people that are going without food. This is because the warring factions (rebels vs. government) purposely prevent food from being shipped to towns and villages where food is needed.

Down in Mexico there are thousands upon thousands of people living in poverty, unable to meet their daily basic needs. Hard to refute this, as so many of these people desperately cross our border to find work here. Why do so many people in a Catholic country suffer so? Can't say it's because they're Catholic, because there are plenty of Catholics in the US, France, Spain, Italy, etc. that are pretty well off. If it's for lack of proper faith, why would God see fit to afflict only some Catholics in a specific country, and not all Catholics everywhere?

Then there's places like Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand, India, etc. Lots of poor people there going without food. Bad economies, totalitarian governments, isolated trade policies (by both the country and potential trade partners)... I don't see "lack of faith" being ascribed as a reason why these people starve. In fact, Christianity is quite prevalent in these countries, but the mere fact that someone is a Christian doesn't play into whether or not a person starves. A person who is a Christian is more likely to have a connection to a Christian mission, yes, and that mission is likely to have relief supplies and food available. (On the other hand, what happens when the government kicks out the missionaries? What does God do when his agents can no longer reach his Christians?)

Then too, there are plenty of Christians in the United States that go without food, who are unemployed, who struggle to make ends meet or who fail altogether. Is God actually providing for their needs?

Then again, let's look at an even larger question. Why should God's compassion for any one human being be limited by whether or not that person is Christian and has faith in Jesus Christ? Is God unwilling to help such a person or unable?

 

[Joman]

You don't believe there are rich atheists, and poor Christians?

Your confusing poor with want. I've never heard of any Christian's testimony claiming that God din't meet their need.

Joman.

 

[RealityCheck]

Your confusing poor with want. I've never heard of any Christian's testimony claiming that God din't meet their need.

Joman.

I have.

 

[Joman]

30 million Americans live below the poverty line, and America is the most Christian nation on Earth.

I know of no stories about death from starvation due to lack.

Joman.

 

[Joman]

I have.

Have you really?

Joman.

 

[Jase]

Your confusing poor with want. I've never heard of any Christian's testimony claiming that God din't meet their need.

Joman.

So American families living on minimum wage, living in homeless shelters or living on the streets, with no health insurance, and lucky if they can get one meal is having their needs met?

I'm not saying it's Gods fault, since I think humanity holds a large responsibility for the current state of the world, but to say that God is providing everyone's needs seems incorrect.

 

[RealityCheck]

Have you really?

Joman.

Yes.

 

[RealityCheck]

I know of no stories about death from starvation due to lack.

Joman.

Just because you don't know doesn't mean it is not true. It is more likely that you simply haven't read enough and experienced enough.

 

[JohnR7]

So American families living on minimum wage, living in homeless shelters or living on the streets, with no health insurance, and lucky if they can get one meal is having their needs met?

Yes, they are having their needs met. But the promise if for those who have faith, not for everyone.

In American you have to determine who is able to work and who is not able to work. We have to do our part, before God is going to do His part.

Each person is a individual and everyone has their own story. So to try and generalize does not really accomplish anything.

 

[PETE_]

Yes.

So you let someone starve to death?

 

[JohnR7]

I know of no stories about death from starvation due to lack.

Joman.

Where have you been? You should run a google image search on starvation or malnutrition. You will see lots of people who starve to death. Or maybe look into things like the holocaust or ethnic cleansing in Germany, Romania, Cambodia, Armenia and other countries.

In America during the civil rights movement, they use to fight over who would get the first seat on the bus. In some countrys the first seat is free, because if they hit a land mine, they are the first to die.

 

[Jase]

Yes, they are having their needs met. But the promise if for those who have faith, not for everyone.

In American you have to determine who is able to work and who is not able to work. We have to do our part, before God is going to do His part.

Each person is a individual and everyone has their own story. So to try and generalize does not really accomplish anything.

And yet you're generalizing by saying everyone with faith is having their needs met, when the world around us clearly shows that isn't the case.

 

[PETE_]

I find it odd John that you do not find Genesis literal, but fail to see that God meeting all our needs does not always apply to this physical life, but the eternal one.

 

[Nathan Poe]

And yet you're generalizing by saying everyone with faith is having their needs met, when the world around us clearly shows that isn't the case.

One cannot maintain a "Health and Wealth" gospel without some serious doublethink.

 

[Beastt]

I find it odd John that you do not find Genesis literal, but fail to see that God meeting all our needs does not always apply to this physical life, but the eternal one.

And an eternal life yet to be demonstrated to be anything more than an empty promise issued by men from some 2,000 years ago, at that.

 

[JohnR7]

And yet you're generalizing by saying everyone with faith is having their needs met, when the world around us clearly shows that isn't the case.

If you look at the world you will clearly see what happens when you do not have faith. People who have faith are not of the world. They do not represent the world, they represent God. Far to often people see the world, but they do not see what God is doing.

Christians can see what God is doing. They see His love, mercy, grace and forgiveness. They see His His miracle of provision and supply.

When my wife was growing up, she use to long for a can of spam. They could not even afford a candy bar. They had about $300 a month to support 7 people on. So it was all they could do to pay for her school supplies. But she worked hard and got sponsers and the day came when she graduated from College and ended up going to Hong Kong to get a job there.

She put her neice though college, she built a house for her mom, they got a propane stove. They decided not to get an electric pump, they just got what they call a pumpmatic with a longer handle so it is easier to pump the water for taking a bath and washing the clothing.

Then after 9 years in Hong Kong, she decided it was time to get married and have a baby. Somehow she got me to go over to Hong Kong to get married. Our son is 8 years old now. She is still spending half of her money to help her family out back in the Philippines. She just bought some property there and if anything were to happen to me, then she plans to go "Home" to retire. Because it cost less to live there, then what it cost to live here, and it would give the people she helped a chance to pay her back.

So that is pretty much it, the life of a little girl who could not afford a candy bar and use to dream about eating a can of span. Of course they always had something to eat, bannanas, rice, potatos or something like that. They did not always eat fancy, but what they did eat was pretty healthy. We use to have a garden and whatever was ripe went into the stew. She always seem to enjoy eating it whatever it was.

 

[JohnR7]

Evidence of local floods should probably not be discussed on this thread to avoid going off topic.

That is a technicality though. Did you ever hear about the shot that was heard around the whole world? That was in 1775 and we still hear about it today. Noah's flood took place 4-7,000 years ago, but we still hear about it today. It is a standard lesson in sunday school, and a story all christians are suppose to teach their kids.

How could something that happened so long ago, still have so much impact on us today. It may have been a local flood, but the whole world was effected by it.

 

[JohnR7]

I find it odd John that you do not find Genesis literal, but fail to see that God meeting all our needs does not always apply to this physical life, but the eternal one.

I find it odd that the Bible is jam packed filled to overflowing with promises for us right here and right now in this life and all you seem to be interested in is the pie in the sky when we die.

I have hope for the future, but I also have hope for what God is wanting to do in my life today. The hear and the now is just as important as the there and the then. Yes we have comfort in what would otherwise be unknown, but only because of what God does in the area of our lives that is known.

 

[RealityCheck]

That is a technicality though. Did you ever hear about the shot that was heard around the whole world? That was in 1775 and we still hear about it today. Noah's flood took place 4-7,000 years ago, but we still hear about it today. It is a standard lesson in sunday school, and a story all christians are suppose to teach their kids.

How could something that happened so long ago, still have so much impact on us today. It may have been a local flood, but the whole world was effected by it.

Poor example, John. A "shot heard round the world" is merely a metaphor. There was not literally a gun shot or cannon shot that every single person around the world heard. Sound does not physically work that way.

 

[RealityCheck]

I find it odd that the Bible is jam packed filled to overflowing with promises for us right here and right now in this life and all you seem to be interested in is the pie in the sky when we die.

But isn't that the most important message? Doesn't even Jesus say that it will avail people nothing if they attain everything they want on earth, but lose their soul? So why shouldn't people focus on that?