Along with the headline are Twitter posts from various politicians, calling for - or acknowledging self - prayer for the victims and their families. This has caused quite a stir on both sides of the religious / non-religious aisle.
Does God answer prayer?
Where IS God when tragedies occur?
How can God allow a person to kill so many innocents - even in the name of religion?
Do I believe God answers prayer? Yes, yes I do. Does He answer ALL prayers? No, no He doesn’t. And to be honest, I'm thrilled that He doesn't!
Several years ago I gave a talk to a men's breakfast group at church (give a man bacon, and he'll listen to anything!) where I covered such topics as time, eternity, finite and infinite, free will versus predestination, and where we and God stand on such things. If you are interested, you can read it here, but be aware - it's a bit long. I gave an example by asking if someone had a swimming pool. I then asked that person to go home, cup his hands, and have someone pour the contents of that pool into his hands. That is an example of Finite trying to grasp Infinite. Oh, we get little droplets, but even as we think we grasp them, they simply wash away as we try to grasp more.
I bring that up, because it would be pretty awful for an infinitely omniscient (all knowing) God to have to cow-tow to the wishes and whims of finite man. I, for one, don't want a God who sits waiting for me to tell Him what to do. And if you are a man who believes God should, I want to know one thing: How is it possible for you to walk with cajones that big? (I'm talking to you, Word and Faith charismatics!)
My question is, HOW should God be "fixing this"? What, exactly, do you want God to do? (Before you answer that, read the last two paragraph above again!)
There is only one thing that I can think of for God to do, that will prevent people from killing other people. But I have to warn you: you won't like it. The only thing God can do is to eliminate your free will. Again, feel free to take (several) moments to read that post-bacon talk I gave mentioned above to understand free will and predestination.
Now, notice I didn't say for God to eliminate THEIR free will. If God were to forcibly stop ANYONE from functioning in free will, the ability for anyone to function in free will would immediately cease. You have trouble with predestination now, wait until God stops allowing even one person to function of their own accord.
In order for God to prevent people from committing such heinous crimes, He would need to eliminate free will from mankind. That means you would NO LONGER be able to function of your own volition. Like a remote-controlled car, you would only move via the DIRECT control of someone else (in this case, God.) Only then would people no longer be able to commit crimes. Or do good deeds. Or take care of their children. Or watch the Cleveland Browns win multiple Super Bowls.
Or even one . . .
One of the prayers God DOES answer is provide wisdom to those who seek it (see James 1:5 in the bible). And wisdom is something we all need.
The ability to ACT on that wisdom is another thing. Known as "free will".
© Emittravel 2015
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