I was on a forum having a long discussion about God and the Bible. It was fine until the Holocaust was brought up. I mentioned how God would lift his protection on people if they rejected his ways, theorizing that that's why the Holocaust happened. God lifted his protection, and the devil stepped in to terrorize them as he's done in the past, hence Exodus and Judges. But then this man I spoke with stated that turning away from dead people made God as bad as Hitler.
Angrily, I brought up the book of Revalations and how this guy clearly never read it, and somehow thinks he can judge God when he doesn't know anything about him. Obviously, he was looking for bad points about God instead of trying to learn about it, so I left. But he'll obviously reply, so I don't want to go back. But a part of me keeps wondering.
How do you try to forget about it? He doesn't want knowledge. What do you do in a time like this?
Truthfully?
Forgive me please, some of this may not be pleasant. But you asked in the OP "what do YOU do" so I'm going to take it that way ....
Firstly, I realize that if *I* am upset and angry or whatever because of someone's decision not to believe ME ... that really points to a problem within myself. What is it about ME that thinks they MUST agree with me and accept MY words? If I am upset on that count, it is really a matter of pride or something along those lines, and I have some work to do on myself.
Now, I may be GRIEVED that they reject Christ. That is an appropriate response. In that case, use that grief and pray for them fervently. That is one thing a caring heart can do.
And another thing is that if we are trying to explain things like "why God let the Holocaust happen" .... wow, that gets difficult anyway. Do we know the counsels of God? There are a number of "Christian" answers .... God's respect of human free will, God's knowledge and bringing all things to good for the sake of those who will believe, and so on. But if a person is hurting, especially, those things can sound like something different than what we mean - rather like if your father beats you within an inch of your life for pilfering a cookie and tells you that "it's for your own good" or some other personal issue that jumps into their minds. I believe God DOES respect free will, and DOES bring all things to good if we cooperate in allowing it, but that can be difficult to see or accept, and telling people so can drive them further away. The real reasons God does or allows something - we often don't really know. It can be more honest and better to say that if there is real dialogue.
It is true we ought not judge God, and we don't know. But when we toss out possible answers, not knowing, people can judge God by OUR answers, and that might not be something we want to make ourselves responsible for.
One thing that has helped me a great deal is something my priest shared with me some months ago. He said that he learned to look at people as sick and in need of healing. Our Tradition views sin in terms of a sickness that people need healing from anyway, and not as a legal infraction that people need to pay a penalty for. And when we go into a hospital and see people who are infirm, we don't tend to judge them for their limitations or how they respond because of their illness. Sin is the same way. Evil things happen to people, reaches into the depths of their hearts, and they react to the injury or illness caused by that. If we consider them like those people who are physically sick in the hospital, only they are spiritually sick and walking around among us, it is much easier to have compassion and mercy on them.
They just haven't found and taken the right medicine yet. May the Lord have mercy on them, and on us all.
Oh, and if I'm going to be upset by reading someone's responses .... I try not to read them. If it's not going to benefit anyone, let them have the last word. We ought to speak the truth in love, as we are able, but you can't beat people over the head with it. We can pray for them. But we have a responsibility to our own spirits as well, and getting angry over someone's words and escalating the situation isn't going to help them, or us, or anyone else who reads it.
God be with you. I hope I have not offended you. Please forgive me if I have.
