Bible Question:
You are right- I do believe God is perfect, yet I am having trouble reconcile some things with his nature. First, if God determines moral standards- and thus good and evil, how can we call him good? Secondly, if we believe in a just God, how can he kill innocent children? Lastly, if God is unrestrained by moral standards, and seems to tell people to kill, coule a mass murder be an honest tool of God's? Like I have mentioned before, what if Bin Laden truly WAS told by God to commit holy war (as he believes so himself)? |
Bible Answer: We call Him good because He is the very essence of good. The word of God tells us He is the only one that can be called good (Matthew 19:17). We (mankind) have a tendency to see things only as man can see them. In doing so, we even tend to believe that our standards or interpretation of them somehow applies to God. We tend to forget that all men have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). We are the created not the creator. We are a corrupt creature unable to save ourselves and unable to even know the things of God without His help. So if anyone is wrong in what is good and not good it is mankind not God. God has no trouble understanding His ways. Mankind is the one with a problem understanding. You ask "Secondly, if we believe in a just God, how can he kill innocent children"? Here is a good example of what I mentioned above. You have determined on your own who is innocent and who is not. On what authority do we say that what God has done is evil? As I said, mankind has a tendency to apply our interpretation of good and evil, right or wrong, etc... to God. Where is your proof the children were innocent? Is this not mankind's own interpretation of innocents? How do you know when a life is taken that it is not God's way of sparing the person from something even worse. I personally don't know one way or the other. What I do know is that God is God, He knows what He is doing, He has the power to do it and I trust in that. If I have trouble understanding the ways of God I don't dare question Him nor think I have a place in correcting Him on anything. I for one am thankful God does not live up to our standards. If that were the case we would be in big trouble! In regards to the Bin Laden thing it goes without saying that he can only do what he is allowed to do. So it is with you and so it is with me. Take a look at the book of Job. Notice the sovereignty of God. God allowed satan to do the things he did to Job but he limited him on what he could and could not do (i.e. take his wealth, take his family, take his health, but do not touch his life!). He is in complete control regardless if we understand it all or not. Also, the god Bin Laden wars for is not the God you are trying to understand. |