I don’t understand how you can bend things that have no physical properties. Isn’t space just a privation and time just a concept?

Eduardo Cavallo You’re operating on the assumption that Christians believe the purpose of life is to live it out to the fullest, that God made us to be happy. But this isn’t the case. God made us to come to a right relationship with Him by our own volition, not luring, and thus enter into a state of completion that we could never have in this life due to the state of disorder in which we live, and further, we were created to disseminate that truth so that others might enter into a relationship with Him and grow closer to Him. We are not God’s pets; we are free moral agents. Just as God is free to create, so He gave man that same autonomy in the limited way it can be realized in a state of disorder. Operating off the assumption of free will, we can believe that God did not cause or condone the massacre in Sutherland Springs. I realize that Mohler here would disagree with that as he holds to Calvinism, which I do not; I believe that the God of Calvin is fundamentally immoral and therefore not maximally great, as Anselm posited. But assuming that God gave Satan the free agency to decide to render himself incomplete, we can deduce that God did not bring about the fallen state - Satan did by his own volition. Thus, God is not the author of evil or death - Satan is. Now one could point to the verse in Isaiah where God pointedly says, “I am the author of good and evil,” and of course, that’s where hermeneutics comes into play. It’s not as if the translation is incorrect, but rather, you have to put it into the Jewish understanding of the time. Hebrew is an inflexible, constrained language; there were very few words in their lexicon and so they had to use the same terms even though they might carry different connotations in a language as advanced as English or Greek (for example, “not purposed” vs. “hated,” as it relates to the verse “Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated”). Therefore, we can read God’s claim to the authorship of evil as hyperbole, which Jewish poetry was given to anyway. But of course, the question at the heart of this is why God would allow the massacre to happen. I don’t know the exact reason and no one else does either. I don’t know why He doesn’t intervene in certain cases, and yes, I do doubt at times and I do question. But there is no logical incompatibility between a loving God Who’s granted us with agency and a God that permits evil. God may have morally sufficient reasons to allow evil and there’s no way to disprove that. For example, through this tragedy, ten people might’ve been brought to Christ as a result of a family member or friend’s death, and bear in mind too that though those people suffered physical death, under a Christian worldview, they never die anyway - they just transfer from one state (corporeal) to another (fully spiritual; completion). He took those people Home. Those who had faith in Him - have faith in Him - suffer no injustice in the act of dying. A KZfaq comment isn’t going to assuage any hurt; it isn’t going to animate the pictures those family members have of their loved ones or make the pianos seem less empty. But we can rest in the knowledge that God but His nature is morality, is goodness, is completion. He will never leave us or forsake us. Thanks for your time. Be well.

Revelation 13:7-8 (NIV) 7 He was given power to make war against the saints and to conquer them. And he was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation. 8 All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast--all whose names have not been written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world. ] We suffer as Jesus suffered.

The issue here is whether God's intention and desire, as silverbluff08 mentions, is for us to be "happy" as the world counts happiness. However, when we understand that God has "created all things and for your pleasure they are and were created" (Revelation 4:11), then we can begin to comprehend why things happen the way they happen. The end of creation is not to please us or somehow make us happy. It is for God to work out His purposes, and His primary purpose is to bring glory to Himself in the redemption of mankind. We humans, even many of us Christians, have a problem with a God who allows evil because it is part of His design for creation and because it serves His primary end. We think that God is this helpless deity who witnesses all the evil that man does, and can do little more than wring his hands and regret the events and nothing more. That's not the God of the Bible. The God of the Bible "creates light and darkness, I create peace and bring calamity" (Isaiah 45:7) and "declares the end from the beginning" (Isaiah 46:10 ). If you insist on seeing in God a benevolent grandfather who is all about spoiling you with whatever your little heart desires, then you will have to look for a different god. The One who created the universe is not the one you want! That God demands that you repent and realize the depth of your sinfulness because He will judge the world by the Man He raised from the dead (Acts 17:31-32). Cry out to Him while He is near (Isaiah 55:6-7).

God is not a cosmic genie who grants wishes.

Tell me, is sex before marriage wrong? Are pornography and masturbation wrong? Michael Jackson died. We will all die one day. Where are you going when you die? Are you 100% sure that you will go to heaven? Are you a good person? Christianity has bad news and good news. But first the bad news GOD sees everything. He knows your secrets. GOD also hears what comes from your mouth. "But I tell you, on the day of judgment people will have to give an accounting for every careless or useless word they speak." (Matthew 12:36.) Lying is wrong. Masturbation is wrong. Pornography is wrong. Heterosexual sex before marriage is wrong is also wrong. Homosexuality/Lesbianism is wrong. Jesus summed up the evilness of our hearts in this way: For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. 20These are what defile a person. (Matt 15.19-20) If you have committed fornication (and I have myself), or broken any of the 10 Commandments, then you’re guilty of breaking GOD’s Law, and therefore we all deserve conscious hell fire forever (like the rest of mankind). But GOD loves you and sent his sinless Son to be tortured, and die on the Cross, taking the punishment for sinners. 3 days later, Jesus rose from the grave. You MUST turn from your sins (stop sinning), and obey Jesus, and love him with all your soul, heart, mind and strength. Be reconciled with Christ! “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; 7let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. (Isa 55) He calls on the name of the LORD will be saved. (Romans 10:13) If you became a Christian, you will receive 1. forgiveness of sins, your sins and guilt will be blotted out, 2. GOD himself will dwell inside you, transform you, speak to you through the Bible and GOD Almighty will live His life through you 3. God will remove your heart of stone and give you a new heart and a new spirit, with new desires. GOD will rejoice in doing you good. 4. your name will be written in the Lambs book of Life, 5. you will enter the new Earth, 6. and you will see GOD's face. 7. Being filled with the Spirit, you'll be filled with love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23) 8. GOD will live his holy and righteous life through you. Otherwise, you will be judged guilty, and tortured forever. This is true, whether you believe it or not. Your blood be on your own head. You’ve been lovingly warned. Now you have no excuse for your sin.

Go away

Jared Thomas: Why do you lie concerning the Bible and its content?