My problem is I cannot imagine God would want us to be victims of (Insert something) period. But some of the way people interpret things makes it sound like we are meant to be living punching bags of suffering and self righteousness. And I cannot justify a good God would intentionally want his followers to choose the path of most suffering.

And I already hear "We live in a sinful world, suffering is a part of sin, blah blah"

Thats just justification for suffering existing.

I think there is a difference between God allowing us to have afflictions and sufferings and His pushing us down that path. I also don't believe that all suffering is the result of sin. There are many types of sufferings that are independent of whether or not a person has sinned

It is important to remember that often it is through resistance that a person becomes stronger (weightlifting, for example). Life is not supposed to be easy all the time, and I believe that a big part of our lives on the Earth is to gain experience that will help us in the life to come.

But no, I also dont believe that God would send a person to Earth simply to suffer, and He offers respites and mercies according to the needs of each individual. And He has offered ways to relieve ourselves of burdens and sufferings. But I think that if we never suffered a moment in our lives, we would never truly know and appreciate the blessings and joys of life either.

"But I think that if we never suffered a moment in our lives, we would never truly know and appreciate the blessings and joys of life either." No you become a liberal valley girl who has never worked a day in her life but post videos about how hard lockdown is because they cant get sushi anymore or go to bars.

That's exactly what I was thinking. I don't think God likes seeing us suffer, but I think He knows that sometimes it can be beneficial to us, whether as a teacher to avoid repeating mistakes, to remind us to appreciate the blessings and joys in life or any number of other ways that hard times create strong men (and women).

So that's my thought. He doesn't want us to suffer any more than we ourselves want to suffer, but His perfect knowledge allows Him to accept that sometimes we will be better for having faced adversity. But it still doesn't make it any easier for Him to witness.

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I just got off my night shift, so I'll clock out of here for a little, but if you'd like, we can continue this discussion later.

Im just sick of all these christians who want to lay down in front of a train and say "Well god said we will have a life of suffering and if god loves me he will stop the train. And if he does not its gods will. And if your a christian too you will lay down on the tracks too."

Chalk it up to poor theology and the old "me and my bible under a tree" mentality. It opens up a whole slew of wacky interpretations.

@Nitrix u can post that tweet here in this subchannel.

“But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.”
‭‭1 Peter‬ ‭5:10‬ ‭KJV‬‬

thats another thing I hate, people who insist on using the KJV rather than a modern version.

nobody in today texts someone "Wilst thou picketh up a pound of butter? Thou art going to need some for the cheese that hast been grilt tonight."

Not dropping an opinion or anything, just wow this chat has been really blowing up with you here Mercy XD

People dont talk about god or religeon in 2020. Look what happened.

Im here to fix the first part.

If people tweeted bout church like the tweet about the masked singer- just saying.

Im like Elijah. I just showed up out of nowhere, some people dont like me, some do. But I am here to mock and shame bad logic <:CrazyAOC:720122172470722570> and I take no prisoners after I dump some cold water.

And for those who get that reference <:salut:730846445732888630>

God has purposes for all things, most purposes being things of which we don't know or understand *yet*.

If you ruin your life god will take you and if you did not ruin your life god will take you. But pretending things are gonna be fine based purely on "it all works out in the end" is unbiblical.

Not all things will end up 'working out fine', though a lot of things are connected for good or bad to happen. God will let things happen that he sees is right to happen for better things to come.

In the very end (revelation), there is a great tribulation. There is THE anti-Christ. Not just an anti-Christ, but the Anti-Christ. Is this all bad? Of course it is, but is there better to come after? For sure, and we see that.

When they were rebuilding the gates of Jerusalem people prayed God would fix the gates. It took someone from out of country to ask their king permission to do it. Then he went there and lead them. The surrounding countries were jealous and tried to spread rumors of anarchy and treason to the king about these "rebelous jews." But this time they didnt just beleieve everything would work out with god. The elders came together with a clever plan and it was thwarted. THEN the nations actively tried to sabotage the walls and attack and they had to build the walls with a sword in one hand and mortar in the other. It was a fight, it was hard, and was not good. But they didnt just "Well god has a plan and if his plan is to see this wall built it will happen, and if not its all part of gods plan."

Passivist Christians are lazy. We are called to do "SOMETHING" not nothing.

It's up to us to figure out what God's will is for us to do.

Vocation

You have the options laid out there for you

Everyone points to revelation for literal translation but the entire endeavor was based to be like a greek play and made with heavy symbolism and is NOT how things are going to play out.

It's all parables, similes, metaphors, etc

Its an allegory, not a parable. Like Pilgrims Progress.

characteristics are given personification.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

That's true I suppose

The thing about revelation is that all the things mentioned in there *will* happen. Perhaps not in a literal way like Paul states things in. It could be over the course of time, or it could be swift, but who knows? All we know is that it's going to be a wild ride.

There's time and will for all things.

THE BIBLE, itself, states that NO MAN will know when its coming and anyone who says they know is lying. it will come when nobody is expecting it. Generation after generation think it.
WW2 Nazi prison camps, Revelation.
Veitnam war and the expulsion of religeon from the state, Revelations.
Y2K, end of the world.
2012: End of the world.
2020: Revelations.

I didn't insist on anyone using it, I just happen to like it. I find older language interesting

Yes, no man will know.

God will come like a thief in the night.

its not coming because everyone is expecting it.