Born,

Sorry, I did forget about your story.

BYS,

Let's talk about Job. You really feel good about worshiping a god that would allow the suffering of a man like in that story? Even though things were patched up in the end, God allowed for the killing of his family and the destruction of his life. You see this as a test of righteousness? You see this as a holy dictate that you have no good reason to question? You adhere to the ideal that all of humanity is so petty that god can purposefully destroy the lives of humans in order to test how faithful they will show to be?

You really feel as though it is good and necessary for humanity to bow to an ideal such as this?

If you do, then your scriptures are right, this does seem like foolishness and it is entirely incomprehensible, not because I don't understand it, but because I understand that ends don't justify means for a supposedly just ruler.

"G"

I never thought of it before, but if you read the beginning of the story of Job, it was much like our discussion. God was bragging on Job to Satan. He said that Job was blameless and upright. Satan said that Job only worshipped God because God had put a hedge around him. He had everything. Satan said that if God would stretch His hand against Job, that Job would curse God to His face. Satan, like you, had to have proof. So God allowed Satan to test Job. God never did anything to Job Himself. He only allowed Satan to do it. But God did tell Satan that he could not kill Job.

Satan couldn't do anything bad enough to Job to make him curse God. He tried everything. I've always thought from the way the story reads, that his family and everything was wiped out by a tornado or something similar. Anyway, Job continued to worship God, no matter how bad things were. Not only did he lose his family and his wealth, but he was covered with horrible sores. His wife turned against him. His friends told him he must have sinned for such horrible things to happen to him. But Job knew he had not sinned. In the end, God gave Job much more than he had to begin with because he never sinned.

Anyway, the way I see it, God was just giving Satan the proof that he insisted on. If Satan had not had to have proof, nothing bad would have happened to Job. But Satan's whole purpose is to destroy God's people. He hates God so much that he wants to take as many to hell as he can bacause that is the only way he can hurt God.

I read your last post, and I'm having a hard time thinking that you wouldn't have an issue with your god allowing satan to destroy Job's life. This isn't about proof. If anything, this was satan tempting god, and god just gave right in to it and allowed an unnecessary test of Job.

God would have known Job's heart and wouldn't need to prove anything to satan. He could have just dismissed satan, knowing that satan was just trying to best him. This is an irrational argument.

Satan may not have been able to do anything to sway Job's mind, and god may have given Job much more in the end, but once again... this is very important. Ends don't justify means. If god allowed satan to cause a tornado to kill Job's family, then god is an accomplice to murder. God forbids murder.

And really, you're going to compare my request for proof, with satan conversing with god about how to test Job? This is not an equal, or a fair comparison.

This post was last modified: Jun 20, 2008 09:01 PM by ggeorge2814.