GOD DID IT

Oooohhhh - better get ready to be hated and despised yourself. A lot of people here do not want to hear this kind of truth.

 

WOW,Thats a fact. Ijust heard a messege on being hated for telling the truth of Gods word,it was great !

 

I too believe that God is sovereign in these things, but that we shouldn't just judge that it was all judgement on God's part. I believe that this kind of thing is actually more mercy than judgement when people people are removed from their place of complacency and hear the gospel from all the Christian organizations that are sure to help. I pray and believe that many will be saved as a result of this calamity.

A greater judgement would have been for God to just let them go on sinning in their "Southern Decadence" as they like to say, and heap up wrath against the day of wrath. Rom. 2:2-6

BTW, a large homosexual parade was planned for the Thursday after the storm hit. Christian churches tried to dissuade the mayor, but he was adamant that it go on, and he even further promoted it. And he blames President Bush for the problem.

 

I think it is interesting that we always seem to blame the sin of others for disasters.

What if God were to judge pride, backbiting, hypocrisy, coveteousness, hatred of the brethren, etc in the same way we assume He judges homosexuality and immorality?

By the way - check out the reason God destroyed Sodom - Ezekiel 16v49.

 

He will have compassion on whom He has compassion. When He shows compassion, it's because of His mercy. When He brings judgment, it's because of our sin.

 

KJV Psalm 115:3 But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.

Proverbs 16:4 The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.

HankD

 

Ecclesiastes 8:11-13
11 Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.
12 Though a sinner do evil a hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before him:
13 But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days, which are as a shadow; because he feareth not before God.

 

C4K,

That is only part of the reason why God destroyed Sodom. Fornication and sodomy were also causes. That is not to say that these sins are more deserving of punishment than others, but they are set forth as reasons why God slammed Sodom. As Jude said,

"Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire."

Mark Osgatharp </font>[/QUOTE]Good reminder Mark - the sins of Sodom:

Fornication
Sodomy
Pride
Unshared wealth
Failing to help the poor
Haughty
Abminations

Maybe you have a point after all.

 

That may be true, but you used an example verse that has been used for years to describe America.

 

Dr. Bob.
Would you please read Revelation chapters 4-19 and kindly give me another reason other than sin that God pours out His wrath.

(Or the OT flood for that matter).

 

The Bible is our standard for right and wrong. Whatever God does IS, by definition, right. People develop a sense of morality (and they should) but, it seems that after a while, when they have become comfortable with their concept, that they begin judging everything from that concept rather than from the Bible. There is no seperate standard that God lives up to. He does anything He wants to, anytime He wants to, and in any way He wants to. Our responsibility is to adjust our concept of morality to fit Him and not the other way around.

It is difficult for us to wrap our teeth around the idea that God used EVIL to accomplish His goals but He did. It should, therefore, become a part of our concept of right and wrong. Not that we can then decide to use evil to accomplish our goals but that God can do it and it not only be acceptable but that it is indeed the absolute right thing for Him to have done.

 

I take issue with this. We are told to emulate God, but then we are told that God may at some times tell the truth, which is good, but at other times lie, and that is good too? How can we trust God if his morality is constantly changing? Yes, he told us he would forgive us our sins if we believe and tells us to have faith, but maybe he's decided that it's good to lie to us, and maybe he'll send us all to hell and call it good.

Additionally, would you really, honestly think that God was worth following if when Jesus had been sent to earth he decided it was good to molest children? According to your point of view claimed above you would have to believe that. Apparently according to your philosophy this scenario would be entirely possible!

If God is like that, maybe heaven is more like hell.

I do not have the entire Old Testament thing sorted out to my satisfaction yet.

 

But God is not arbitrary like the Muslim Allah. It is not that whatever God does is moral because he does it, but it is because he is absolute goodness and morality himself. His actions flow from a perfect and good character. There's a difference in these 2 views.

As far as judgment today, it seems like people are forgetting that in the OT, all those punishments and judgments were announced (usually beforehand) through God's prophets. This is not happening today -- I think His wrath is being stored up for judgment day because we have Christ to turn to for forgiveness to avoid his wrath.

 

God cannot lie. I said God can do anything He wants. I did not say God can do anything at all. It isn't that God cannot lie because there is a standard that He tries, even effortlessly, to live up to. He cannot lie because what He says is the definition of truth. There is no objective standrd to compare what He says to.

Tit 1:2 In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;

God's morality never changes. It is the one constant in this universe that we can count on. Our concept of morality, however, does change and it should always change to fit His and not some other objective standard we have devised.

Mal 3:6 For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.

A hypothetical scenario about Jesus doing wrong is only confusing to the discussion. I can be confident that this will never happen because of the previous and following verses:

Gen 18:25 That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?

1 Jo 1:5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

If we imagine that God has done something wrong then it is in our imagination that the problem lies and not in God.

Neither do I, not by a long shot. I am only saying that instead of building our pigeon holes and then placing God into one of them that we should learn about God and let that be our definition.