Why Would God Kill A Pastor Doing God's Work?

[thrillobyte]

Christians keep missing the point of my question. I am not asking, "Why would God kill a Christian?" Of course we know that everyone, even Christians are going to die. What made this different was that this guy is a man ordained presumably by God to do God's work. And just as he was in the process of doing God's work God allowed him to die--pretty horribly I might add. This would be analogous to a boss shooting an employee dead just as the employee was about to tell the jury his boss is innocent which would have freed the boss from prison. Why would God want to shoot himself in the foot like that? How many people who witnessed this said, "I'm not going to be a Christian if this is how God treats his children." And how many souls were likely lost because God didn't protect his pastor?

"Unless the Christian god doesn't exist." Then it happened exactly as we would expect of an event in a godless world. It was a complete tragic accident with no deity involved.

[kjw47]

Originally Posted by thrillobyte

Christians keep missing the point of my question. I am not asking, "Why would God kill a Christian?" Of course we know that everyone, even Christians are going to die. What made this different was that this guy is a man ordained presumably by God to do God's work. And just as he was in the process of doing God's work God allowed him to die--pretty horribly I might add. This would be analogous to a boss shooting an employee dead just as the employee was about to tell the jury his boss is innocent which would have freed the boss from prison. Why would God want to shoot himself in the foot like that? How many people who witnessed this said, "I'm not going to be a Christian if this is how God treats his children." And how many souls were likely lost because God didn't protect his pastor?

"Unless the Christian god doesn't exist." Then it happened exactly as we would expect of an event in a godless world. It was a complete tragic accident with no deity involved.

God didnt do it. Time and unforseen circumstances caused that death. Did you miss where Gods own son was put to death, 11 apostles put to death( 1 died natural) all the followers were being put to death.
God knows this isnt the real life, entering his kingdom is the real life.
God doesnt interfere with free will( in most cases) otherwise it wouldnt be free will.
And all is not as appears in this satan ruled system,( 2Cor 11:12-15) just because one says they represent God doesnt make it a fact. Jesus shows that fact at Matt 7:22-23--this is judgement scenario.

[mordant]

Originally Posted by GoCardinals

who are you going to blame for the devastation you suffered at the brutal loss of a loved one if there is no God? No one? Nature?

No one. It's a much better headspace, for me at least. It's not god's fault, or nature's "fault". It is just stuff happening. It might be disappointing, or tragic, but it's not personal, or somewhere on a fairness scale. It might be comprehensible as cause and effect, or it might not be obvious in that way. But life does not owe me anything. My religious faith it raised my expectations to absurd levels. This may of course have been an artifact of my particular beliefs or even my spectacularly bad take on them. But I don't think I'm alone in having some expectations of coherence, safety, protection and the like by hewing to a particular faith.

Originally Posted by GoCardinals

If you already have "tremendous patience", then perhaps you should've not been "devastated" at the loss of a loved one? You wouldn't be talking about it here?

I had poorly set expectations back then. I do not now. Anything I have could be "taken" from me for any reason or no reason, since I have no expectation that I'm entitled to anything. Of course, if a loved one died, it would still be painful. It would just not be an occasion for asking useless "why" questions.

Originally Posted by GoCardinals

I don't think we all go through the same thing. Many godless people try to find that mental peace and contentment under the refuge of drugs and alcohol to keep their brains numb. Many religious people don't need this. But indeed, that doesn't mean all religious people are angels. There are millions of wolves in a religious cloak.

I see those as addiction issues, which afflict the religious and the areligious about equally. If you can point me to research that associates religion as a necessary condition to sobriety, I'm all ears.

Originally Posted by GoCardinals

May be you think differently, but my brain does not believe that the entire universe and everything in it has come together all by itself.

I admit it is not intuitive. But an argument from personal incredulity is not persuasive to me, either.

Originally Posted by GoCardinals

The other incentive that some of us find behind believing in God is obviously the biggest quest of all humanity, i.e., What's after death?

Empirically, no one knows. No one has come back from the dead to tell us whether there is a God or not?

We are all holding our cards till the truth is revealed to us.

Some people believe, some dont. We shall wait and we shall probably see.

The irony if I'm right is we will never see, because at the end it's "lights out".

If however you are correct, I promise to buy you a beer.

Originally Posted by GoCardinals

This is sorta rare coming from an Atheist.
I have noticed that many Atheists are totally blind folded from the other side of the coin.

They look at all the hardships upon themselves and upon all humanity - and then tend to blame God for it all.
They simply fail to see all the happiness and good things that ALSO happen to them and to the human kind, and praise God for it. No?

I mean it's funny. "If it's bad, it's coming from God. If it's good, I did it for myself."

I doubt that most atheists think this way in everyday life. They are just arguing theist's hypotheticals. It is also an abreaction to the general theist line that if something good happens, god gets credit, but if something bad happens, he never has more than zero responsibility. It's all YOUR fault somehow. God has a nice job, if you can get it!

Originally Posted by GoCardinals

There are things that are indeed in your control and you have a choice. But there are definitely things in your life that are NOT in your control.

I don't think that's what I said. I simply said things happening to me are not personally directed at me. Once I take random events personally, I have to fix blame somewhere, either on myself, god, the universe, life, Other People. Sometimes there's a perceivable causal chain and someone (always another human, or myself) is at the root of it. But in general, there is no throat to choke. It is just stuff happening.

In saying that, I am in no way claiming it's under MY control, lol. Good grief, no!

Originally Posted by GoCardinals

God looks at your efforts and will reward in the hereafter.

Of course, it's a matter of personal belief that you won't agree with it - which is just fine by me.

Originally Posted by GoCardinals

As they say, your religion is what you do before and after prayers.

Indeed it is!