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 Twelve crosses comprise a makeshift memorial across the street from the movie theater where last week’s mass shooting happened.
July 28th, 2012
10:00 PM ET
My Take: This is where God was in Aurora
By Rob Brendle, Special to CNN I held her hand as she died. Her family had come to a church where I was pastoring that morning, a routine Sunday. A thousand things would never have crossed their minds as they drove through Colorado Springs toward New Life Church’s enormous concrete worship center - including the prospect of being assaulted in their minivan by a young man with a high-powered rifle. Later that day, we were all at a local hospital. The girl whose hand I held, Rachel, had already lost a sister at the scene. Her father was down the hall in critical condition and her mother was coming undone in the waiting room, but she didn’t know any of it. Rachel lay unconscious for a couple of hours more in the ICU.
And then she died. Her family had come to church together that morning, and by nightfall they were shattered. That was almost five years ago. The movie theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado shook me and the rest of the nation. Reading about the young and unsuspecting victims took me back to the dying girl in the ICU who had come to my church that day in 2007, in a an incident that left the two girls dead and injured several others. Back to the Columbine massacre a decade earlier that horrified the world and traumatized Colorado. And back to the aching questions that accompanied those previous incidents: Why did this happen? Where was God in all of it? How could a loving God allow this? Where was God in Aurora? 7 responses We pastors face the unenviable task of being asked to answer for God. Most people ask the big questions in times of irresolution, times when satisfying answers are scarce. Let’s be clear: there are no easy answers to the deepest questions of suffering. Libraries overflow with the volumes that have been written to address these questions. Centuries of philosophers, pundits and preachers have reflected on the existence of evil, the meaning of pain and the role of God in suffering. I won’t begin to recount all of their ruminations here. But here’s what I think. God is the author of life and the originator of good. He distinguished humankind from among his creation with faculties like reason, emotion, dexterity and choice. Scripture teaches that God made people in his image. Set apart from all the rest of his creatures, we were endowed with the capacity to know our Creator and ennobled with the ability to choose him. So singularly did God love humans that he gave us this ultimate gift. Aurora survivor to alleged shooter: ‘I forgive you’ The capacity to choose God and goodness came with the commensurate ability to choose evil. Is it loving to force his creation to follow his order, or to teach it and leave the creature to choose? It would seem that God came to the same conclusion that America’s founders did many millennia later: compulsory virtue is no virtue at all. But Scripture also teaches that God is totally in control. He is all-powerful and all-knowing and he is willing and able to intervene in human events. So there is a gap between human choice and divine foreknowledge, a gap that transcends understanding and that helps define God in my mind. The debate over this theological tension has persisted for centuries, and I don’t aim to settle it here. Let me suggest simply that God, in his sovereignty, has chosen to make our decisions meaningful. Consequently, much of what happens on earth neither conforms to nor results from his preference. There are at least four influences on human events: God’s will, to be sure; but also the will of Satan, our adversary; peoples’ choices, for better or for worse; and natural law (gravity, collision, combustion, and the like). It is difficult to know which force causes the circumstances that devastate us. But it is enough to know that God need not be responsible for them. The man who made the Aurora crosses Much of the internal gridlock around tragedy is because suffering is foreign to us. This foreignness is peculiarly Western and modern. Most of the world, for most of the world’s history, has known tragedy and trauma in abundance. You don’t get nearly the same consternation in Burundi or Burma, because suffering is normal to them. God and hard times coexist intuitively there. For us, though, God has become Anesthetist-in-Chief. To believe in him is to be excused from bad things. He is our panacea for the woes of life. The God of the Bible promises no exemption from suffering. In fact, he all but promises suffering. He does not suggest that his followers won’t go through fire, but rather that we won’t burn up. Mostly he promises to be there with us, to comfort and encourage us and renew our strength. God grieves with us, and he grows us into good people in the process. CNN’s Belief Blog: The faith angles behind the biggest stories Where was God in Aurora? He was on the lawn in front of the Civic Building as thousands gathered in solidarity, hope, and love at a packed prayer vigil last Sunday. He was in University Hospital as neurosurgeons groped for synonyms for miraculous. He was in the outpouring of compassion at a victim’s funeral and in the passionate call for unity from a resolute councilwoman and at the bedside vigil of a wounded victim’s church community. Redemption has only begun in Aurora, and already God is everywhere. Their will be beauty once this story is written that overshadows and transcends the ashes. Jesus started his ministry by declaring, “I am the light of the world,” and ended it with “you are the light of the world.” What God our cities will see is what we show them. From the beginning, light has shone in the darkness - he ordered it that way. And the deeper the darkness, the brighter the light will appear. Where is God in Aurora? He is shining brightly from the hearts of his people. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Rob Brendle. soundoff (4,566 Responses)« Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 Next »
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The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
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Editor’s note: Rob Brendle is the founding pastor of 
Have no worries my children. When I was a child, God molested me too. Now he just .r..apes society at will. Don't worry, his brainwashed followers, the priests do it too. We all do as commanded. Someone is always sucking the slon.gg of God, and God is always jack hammering someone at the same time.
I'm down on my knees ready to please you baby! Oh please give me that c.u...m oh God!
I respect your opinion and please thank God that you live in a country where you have the right to voice that opinion. Why blame God???What about His rebel angel, "Satan"?Are we the only ones fighting against the evil???God has been fighting against Satan's will.His battle is not an easy one, because His enemy is His own creation.God can win this battle, but not before Satan surrenders his heart.We are in the middle of this battle, suffering the consequences and asking so many times "why"???But if we don't believe in God, our lives will make no sense!Losing someone we deeply love is painful, as well as, is painful to God, to see his own creation become evil and turns against Him.We accept it or not.We will always have the good and the bad, the right and the wrong.We will always fight against our own evil and nobody said it was going to be easy.We have our own believes and our own choices, but we are not the ones in control of this Universe.There is a powerful force above us!!!And the only thing we can do, is be good to one another and pray for those who die tragically, instead of doubt God's existence.Because we are not only hurting God, but we are giving power to the evil. Our loved ones found the peace, we still have a long way to go until find ours.In order to stop the evil enemy, we need to keep our faith.I choose to keep mine!!!
You are delusional. You have not advanced one iota since the Bronze-age. Do you still walk with a staff and tend sheep too?
So you think I can be sneaky and create mayhem when your god isn't looking? I can do nothing unless the almighty sanctions it. The blood of those who died in that movie theater are on your so-called gods hands. Oh wait... thats right,
there is no god.
Where was God in Aurora?
Good question ... Probably at the same place He was during Columbine, or Virginia Tech, or 9/11, or the Indian Ocean tsumani in 2004 ... etc ...
But instead of preventing death and terrible suffering in the first place, He always seems to have something better to do.
Lets just say gods crack pipe gets alot of use.
I like that Sanity Clause !
Your god does not exist. Your bible is nothing more than a collection of myths. KEEP YOUR $%^&*( RELIGION TO YOURSELF!!!!!
huh? you speak to yourself too! if someone preaches about a holy bible.. it is their right to speak so do you, if you don't want to agree or want to reject a holy bible.. it is your decision, nothing more! but do not badgering others!
Why don't you just tell the truth and acknowledge that there is no deity overseeing events here on Earth? Oh, yeah, you and all the other charlatans who preach religion would be out of jobs and the huddled masses would have to actually think for themselves.
Why don't you at least challenge the lemmings to do a little thinking on their own and come up with a description of god based on observation and some basic logic. If a deity was responsible for creating the Earth, then he/she/it devised a system in which his/her/its creations kill and devour each other in order to survive. What would that deity be like in person?
Btw, he/she/it probably REALLY liked The Hunger Games!
Why not just beg your sky daddy to bring them all back to life? Oh, that's right, because you've fashioned a fairy tale playground where all of the dead folks are frolicking – so they're "better off". People like the author of this post make me sick. He's either a con-man who preys on the brainwashed sheep in his "flock" of dupes or he's a complete idiot who shouldn't be telling anyone what is/isn't moral.
"Why not just beg your sky daddy to bring them all back to life?"
+1
Thank goodness people are finally coming to their senses about religion. It's a man-made farce.
I have God's 12 inch c0..ck in my a..s..s....
It broke your keyboard
I love playing with God. He uses a.n.a.l... beads on me while I sucketh his white honey from him! Oh praise the Lord!
You just got cancer...sorry
All this is fine and dandy.....except "God" doesn't exist.
Ahhhh An Arrested Development fan. 🙂
Where's your evidence for that?
The Holy Bible includes an entire book, the Book of Job, on this very subject–why do good people, innocent of sin and living blameless and upstanding lives, periodically suffer the most brutal, sadistic, horrific injuries imaginable? The answer, according to the Bible, is that there is no answer that the human mind can grasp..... that God permits such horrors to happen to good people for reasons beyond our comprehension, and that furthermore, God is so omnipotent that it is sheer audacity to even make the attempt to comprehend why.
And FWIW, God never demands that you test for conclusive proof of His existence or nonexistence. Quite the opposite.... He wants you to have the faith that He exists, whether it can be proven or not.
Yeah... and monkeys fly out of my butt.
"God is so omnipotent that it is sheer audacity to even make the attempt to comprehend why."
Oh, shut up. That's so tiresome.
Uh...in the book you speak of, god actually purposely put Job through all that to show the devil how obedient we can be.
That's a horror story.
According to the book of Job, bad things happen to good people so that God can win a bet with Satan.
I think Lucifer owes God a Coke.
M sez:
"And FWIW, God never demands that you test for conclusive proof of His existence or nonexistence. Quite the opposite.... He wants you to have the faith that He exists, whether it can be proven or not."
Trivia time - Name the verse where man DID ask for the proof of god's existance. AND where god gave EMPIRICAL proof of his exisitance. NO FAITH REQUIRED
Book of Job? God makes a bet with Satan that Job will not lose his faith regardless of what Satan does to him. That doesn't sound like a loving God to me.
Nice fake answer. Here's one for you:
What is more likely? That the whole nature of the cosmos was suspended for one instance such that a woman was impregnated without intercourse, or that a Bronze-age peasant woman lied?
And BTW, the story of the virgin birth was well-established in the region many years before the jesus story. You are living a lie and too timid to break free. Coward.
Why God, he was b4lls deep in an altar boy. Where else would he be?
Typicall victim of the failed American education system . Blame God for man's pre-meditated evil action.
You do realise that in your stupidity you are saying NO-ONE does anything bad – it's God's fault!
So why have laws; courts; Judges; trials; PRISONS – since NOBODY is guilty of anything!
You've just GOT to be a pathetic Obama acolyte! Blame EVERYBODY and his wife for your own failures. Pffft! No WONDER America's going to he11 in a handbasket! Bunch of M0-R0NS!
thought that being a freak for jesus was what I wanted, spent all my time reading the scriptures, mumbling over my beads and then I encountered Veritas, how disgusting it would be to have him as a role model? I decided to go to the cougar bar, have a few beer and see if I can get lucky and get laid, by a woman, Veritas, so don't bother showing up, thanks.
God has never been Aurora, Co. It's all consciousness that is taking part and cause this events to happen . Without consciousness, Holmes and the victim will not be there.
EVERYTHING THAT EXIST IN THIS MATERIAL WORLD IS EMPTY OF ITS INHERENT EXISTENCE. FROM PARTICLE PHYSICS TO QUANTUM MECHANICS, THE EXISTENCE OF CONSCIOUSNESS IS THE KEY. WITHOUT BELIEVING IN CONSCIOUSNESS, WE DON'T EXIST.
RELIGION IS IMMATERIAL. IT IS HOW YOU CULTIVATE A PROPER LIVELIHOOD AND HOW YOU TREAT YOUR FELLOWMEN (WITH LOVING KINDNESS AND COMPASSION) SO YOU CAN LEAVE THIS WORLD WITH A LASTING LEGACY OF WHO YOU ARE FOR MANKIND TO REMEMBER.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRkDicwjRQs&feature=youtube_gdata_player
May all sentient being be free of suffering.
Perfect stated and perfectly correct.
Wow that was some good non-sense did you come up with that all by yourself?
If the purpose of life is to be remembered then durn few of us will fulfill that destiny. And when the sun becomes a red giant, even that will be meaningless. Religion gives comfort and hope to many. If you choose not the share that – great – you're probably correct. But so what? Let it go. You're wasting life's precious seconds hating on these folks.
How can any intelligent person preach such flawed ideas and understandings? God's image, god's preferences? If a god is omniscient, then there is no free will and all of life is his mental masturbation. That makes him a selfish and cruel god. It makes more sense that man is a flawed creature, like all creatures. We suffer our own inhumanity, as well as the joy of good. The Aurora shooter was mentally disturbed. If you need to look beyond that for meaning, consider all those responders who saved and comforted the victims. There is divinity in their actions. Not in god's.
J, don't think such complex thoughts. Screw logic. Just follow the blind with ignorant assumptions and a mistranslated text we have been following since the beginning of time, or 6,000 years, however you want to define the moment of creation.
J Kelly – Intelligent analysis and Logical thinking sure ain't YOUR bag, mate!
More like Blasphemy, Profanation and disrespect for the God who made you, I'd say. With a name like Kelly, you're probably a part-Irish lapsed Catholic. They're always the worst because they have to self-justify selling their birthright for a mess of potage!
And the wonderful thing is, that even in your ignorance, God loves you completely.
Considering how rotten humans treat animals, I pray the animals survive humans when we can't sustain life anymore for ourselves many reasons. I think "God" will consider his experiment of "Earth" to be a failure, in fact, it seems to me that it is now.
I agree.
God was in Aurora! So was the Devil. God is everywhere 24/7.
let me show you the total complete ignorance and stupidity and heathenistic uncivilized barbarism of these commenters. they are JAMES EAGAN HOLMES! IN THE BOOK OF II TIMOTHY 3:13 IT STATES THAT "BUT EVIL MEN AND SEDUCERS SHALL WORSE AND WORSE DECEIVING AND BEING DECEIVED" SAINT MARK 7:18-23 "ARE YE SO WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING ALSO DO YE NOT PERCEIVE THAT WHATSOEVER THING FROM WITHOUT ENTERETH INTO THE MAN IT CANNOT DEFILE HIM BECAUSE IT ENTERETH NOT INTO HIS HEART BUT INTO THE BELLY AND GOETH OUT INTO THE DRAUGHT PURGING ALL MEATS THAT WHICH COMETH OUT OF THE MAN THAT DEFILETH THE MAN FOR FROM WITHIN OUT OF THE HEART OF MEN PROCEED EVIL THOUGHTS, ADULTERIES, FORNICATIONS MURDERS, THEFTS, COVETOUSNESS, WICKEDNESS DECEIT, LASCIVIOUSNESS, AND EVIL EYE, BLASPHEMY, PRIDE, FOOLISHNESS ALL THESE EVIL THINGS COME FROM WITHIN AND DEFILE THE MAN." THE BIBLE STATES IN JEREMIAH 17:9 "THE HEART IS DECEITFUL ABOVE ALL THINGS AND DESPERATELY WICKED" THE BIBLE STATES IN GENESIS 6: 5-6; 11-12 "AND GOD SAW THAT THE WICKEDNESS OF MAN WAS GREAT IN THE EARTH AND THAT EVERY IMAGINATION OF THE THOUGHTS OF HIS HEART WAS ONLY EVIL CONTINUALLY AND IT REPENTED THE LORD THAT HE HAD MADE MAN ON THE EARTH AND IT GRIEVED HIM AT HIS HEART. THE EARTH ALSO WAS CORRUPT BEFORE GOD AND THE EARTH WAS FILLED WITH VIOLENCE AND GOD LOOKED UPON THE EARTH AND BEHOLD IT WAS CORRUPT FOR ALL FLESH HAD CORRUPTED HIS WAY UPON THE EARTH." JESUS SAID IN JOHN 8: 44 "YE ARE OF YOUR FATHER THE DEVIL AND THE LUSTS OF YOUR FATHER YE WILL DO HE WAS A MURDERER FROM THE BEGINNING AND ABODE NOT IN THE TRUTH BECAUSE THERE IS NO TRUTH IN HIM WHEN HE SPEAKETH A LIE HE SPEAKETH OF HIS OWN FOR HE IS A LIAR AND THE FATHER OF IT" IN HEBREWS 2: 14-15 "FORASMUCH THEN AS THE CHILDREN ARE PARTAKERS OF FLESH AND BLOOD HE ALSO HIMSELF LIKEWISE TOOK PART OF THE SAME THAT THROUGH DEATH HE MIGHT DESTROY HIM THAT HAD THE POWER OF DEATH THAT IS THE DEVIL AND DELIVER THEM WHO THROUGH FEAR OF DEATH WERE ALL THEIR LIFETIME SUBJECT TO BONDAGE" JESUS SAID IN JOHN 10: 10 "THE THIEF COMETH NOT BUT FOR TO STEAL, AND TO KILL AND TO DESTROY I AM COME THAT THEY MIGHT HAVE LIFE AND THAT THEY MIGHT HAVE IT MORE ABUNDANTLY" ROMANS 6: 23 "FOR THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH BUT THE GIFT OF GOD IS ETERNAL LIFE THROUGH JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD" II CORINTHIANS 4: 3-6 "BUT IF OUR GOSPEL BE HID IT IS HID TO THEM THAT ARE LOST IN WHOM THE GOD OF THIS WORLD(DEVIL) HATH BLINDED THE MINDS OF THEM WHICH BELIEVE NOT LEST THE LIGHT OF THE GLORIOUS GOSPEL OF CHRIST WHO IS THE IMAGE OF GOD SHOULD SHINE UNTO THEM FOR WE PREACH NOT OURSELVES BUT CHRIST JESUS THE LORD AND OURSELVES YOUR SERVANTS FOR JESUS SAKE FOR GOD WHO COMMANDED THE LIGHT TO SHINE OUT OF DARKNESS HATH SHINED IN OUR HEARTS TO GIVE THE LIGHT OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE GLORY OF GOD IN THE FACE OF JESUS CHRIST" YES YES YES YES YES YES GOD WAS IN AURORA COLORADO BECAUSE HE IS OMNIPRESENT OMNIPOTENT AND OMNISCIENT GOD HAS GIVEN MAN A SOUL WHICH IS COMPRISED OF A MIND HEART AND WILL AND GOD WILL NOT OVER RIDE THE WILL OF MAN; MAN HAS TO CHOOSE BETWEEN DEATH AND LIFE SIN OR RIGHTEOUSNESS CURSES OR DELIVERANCE A LIE OR THE TRUTH BONDAGE OR FREEDOM A DEPRAVED FALLEN HUMAN NATURE OR SALVATION. JAMES EAGAN HOLMES CHOOSE DEATH LIES AND DECEPTION AND DELUSION OVER THE TRUTH. JESUS SAID IN JOHN 5:24 " VERILY VERILY I SAY UNTO YOU HE THAT HEARTH MY WORD AND BELIEVETH ON HIM THAT SENT ME HATH EVERLASTING LIFE AND SHALL NOT COME INTO CONDEMATION BUT IS PASSED FROM DEATH UNTO LIFE" COLOSSIANS 1:13-15 "WHO HATH DELIVERED US FROM THE POWER OF DARKNESS AND HATH TRANSLATED US UNTO THE KINGDOM OF HIS DEAR SON IN WHOM WE HAVE REDEMPTION THROUGH HIS BLOOD EVEN THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS WHO IS THE IMAGE OF THE INVISIBLE GOD THE FIRSTBORN OF EVERY CREATURE" JOHN 3:19-21 "AND THIS IS THE CONDEMNATION THAT LIGHT IS COME INTO THE WORLD AND MEN LOVED DARKNESS RATHER THAN LIGHT BECAUSE THEIR DEEDS ARE EVIL FOR EVERY ONE THAT DOETH EVIL HATETH THE LIGHT NEITHER COMETH TO THE LIGHT LEST HIS DEEDS SHOULD BE REPROVED BUT HE THAT DOETH TRUTH COMETH TO THE LIGHT THAT HIS DEEDS MAY BE MADE MANIFEST THAT THEY ARE WROUGHT OF GOD" JESUS SAID IN JOHN 14: 6 "I AM THE WAY THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE NO MAN COMETH UNTO THE FATHER BUT BY ME" IF YOU ARE A CHRISTIAN OR A CHILD OF GOD IT IS A WIN WIN SITUATION BECAUSE IF YOU DIE YOU GO IMMEDIATELY INTO THE PRESENCE OF GOD FOR TO BE ABSENT FROM THE BODY IS TO PRESENT WITH THE LORD AND IF YOU STAY HERE YOU ARE IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD. JESUS SAID IN JOHN 11:25-26 "I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE HE THAT BELIEVETH IN ME THOUGH HE WERE DEAD YET SHALL HE LIVE AND WHOSOEVER LIVETH AND BELIEVETH IN ME SHALL NEVER DIE BELIEVEST THOU THIS." YES THERE IS A GOD AND HE WAS THERE IN AURORA COLORADO AND HE STILL IS IN AURORA COLORADO BELIEVE HIM AND SURRENDER AND COMMIT YOUR LIFE TO HIM AND YOU SHALL HAVE LIFE!
Don't use capital letters on posts. I won't read them!!! And I don't care what the bible says. Read the ten commandments, then look at the next page and read about how we are to treat our servants and slaves.
You've been brainwashed thoroughly. No hope left for you.
@barooma. And yes, Virginia, there is a santa claus. A whole lot of time wasted posting trivial verses from a made up book od nothing., that has it's only claim to fame is that is old, has SOME historical value. Nothing more. Oh yeah, prove your god exist. I await your answer. No quoting the bible either, it has ZERO relevance. I want PROOF of your sky-fairy.
Sounds like something that HeavenSent (away), would say. Another delusional flake. Thee bybull is it's only life. No boy/girl friend either.
Again, a case of someone quoting a book that opponents know isn't authentic. Quoting the bible is like quoting the night before christmas to prove the existence of santa to an adult. Try using your brain for once. If god gave it to you, then you should be able to rationalize without quoting a book of fairy tales.
POSTING IN ALL-CAPS MAKES YOU LOOK INSANE.
Just for fun I'm going to set your soul ablaze for all eternity while you wonder why your god sold you out. Fearful little sheep.
If your a Christian then you SHOULD know this answer of where God was. Read your bible. HE was in Aurora, creating Evil
'Your' is possessive as in your English is atrocious.
'You're' is a contraction for "you are," as in you're an idiot.
So my typo makes what I said wrong? I didn't write the bible, but I have read it. Or you have nothing to combat it so you had to find something. " I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things."
Additionally, your reading comprehension is also below par. I said nothing about your argument, only your spelling.
However, the Bible is open to many interpretations, so claiming it as the basis for your argument leaves much to be desired.
God does not create evil. The devil does and he was in Aurora too.
@Nomad,
"God does not create evil. The devil does and he was in Aurora too."
Who created the devil?
Roll up! Rollup! Another Atheist, Blasphemer succeeds in fitting 50 pounds of Bull poo into a 20 pound sack!
to be beatified, Veritas, the miracle of putting 50 pounds of BS into a 20 pound bag, the church will of course accept. Now if you could prove that you worked with children for 10 years and never got caught with your hand in their shorts or panties that would be number two. On your way to sainthood.
"New Life Church’s enormous concrete worship center" = tax shelter.
If you believe then you should know where he was. Just refer to your bible.
Isaiah 45:7
King James Version (KJV)
7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.
God was in Aurora creating EVIL.
Where was God? Where is God? These are foolish questions since God is always here and always there. God is most evident in the love and caring of people who want to heal and care for those who are suffering and dying. Look at the face of your caring, grieving neighbor and you will find the face of God. We are not mindless puppets on strings and we have the free will to do evil or to manifest the love of God through our lives and actions.
if God is evident in love, then is the lack of God evident in evil (lack of goodness), how could be any lack of goodness if he is always here and there and everywhere and he is love???? kind of twisted logic... and quite unproductive argument
You can love, care and heal people without god. Occam's razor. Look it up and drop the sanctimonius religious nonsense.
Delusional. There is no magical invisible man watching your every move to judge you. Sorry... but if it makes you feel any better I'll set you on fire and you can wait for your god to extinguish you. And wait you will.
The first and foremost characteristic of God as stated in the Bible is JEALOUSY.
God is more evident in the action of a jealous husband killing his cheating wife than in any kind of love.
God was out on the lake fishing. We caught a couple of big ones, but I had to clean them.
The answer is simple. There is no God so we can't blame him for any of the bad stuff or any of the good stuff. It's just us humans, good vs evil and we're alone in this battle. People need to wake up from this fantasy and delusion and start accepting REALITY for a change. Santa doesn't really bring the presents.....
Isn't it funny how the religious always say, "Thank God for...(good things), but you never hear it for the bad things.
Linda Operle, You answer was a strong argument against God when you say, There is no God" If God was not real, how in the world is rain, snow, and how did humanity placed themselves on this universe? Since, you say, we cannot blame God for any of the bad/good stuff, who is the blame? Since, God is good, kind, compassion and howbeit died for our sins, "what is good"? Every being has a free will and it is a shame before God that you blaspheme God, when you say, "there is no God" The mind is a terrible thing to waste! and when you speak of delusion and fantasy, is it possible when you say, there is no God would it be fair to say, that is delusion and fantasy? The Santa you mention, if you took your time, it is spell Satan. I pray that God forgive you; and do not forget your soul is valuable (Isa. 43:4)
I'm not being nasty truly, but it would be nice to die 2 minutes AFTER you just to see your face when you come face to face with God for your final judgement!
God will not be mocked. This is NOT a threat it's a friendly warning. I pray the Holy Spirit will enlighten you.
@minister D (for delusional)
So god is good, kind and compassionate, unless you pi$$ him off, in which case he'll flood the world and commit mass murder on an unprecedented scale. I love how you infer Santa is Satan, and say that the mind is a terrible thing to waste. To believe in god is as lazy as a mind can get. It is people like you that will condemn humankind to extinction. Pray for me and I'll set you on fire for an eternity.
"I'm not being nasty truly, but it would be nice to die 2 minutes AFTER you just to see your face"
Christians are such incredibly vicious sadists. I'm not being nasty, truly, but it would be nice if you died right now and went to heaven.