I have heard many people say that they cannot accept an ideology where God causes suffering, such as natural disasters, poverty, pain, or emotional distress, and that God is mean; so for this, they reject any idea of God, because that person wants to believe that God is all good, and doesn't do bad things to punish his children.
And this sort of makes sense, because how could an all loving, all giving God, possibly allow bad things to happen to "his children" who he loves ...
Before I go any further, let me say that my particular views are deeply rooted in, and influenced by Christianity.
It is my personal belief that God doesn't punish his children while on earth, and then punish them again after their death, like double jeopardy, because that would seem unjust, therefore making God unjust, and thusly imperfect and undesirable as a God.
As a matter of fact, he never wanted to punish his children at all, but rather he gave them everything in the garden of Eden, and in return he asked only that they not eat of the "forbidden fruit" of the poisonous tree. Adam and Eve were given free will, because a dictatorial love is not love at all, and love that is freely given is the purest kind of love.
Once Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they were no longer within his protection, and had been subjected to evil, which is intolerable in Heaven since it is not pure love. It was not God punishing them, it was God trying to protect his children by telling them not to "eat of the poisonous tree" (disobey Him). Hell was created for Satan and his followers, and it existed before Adam and Eve, Hell was not created for Adam and Eve.
Many people forget just how powerful Satan is, let's not forget that Lucifer (Satan) was an angel who had more power than anything existing in Heaven other than God himself, and that power still exists today. But in order for Heaven to remain immaculately pure, Satan had to be cast out. God even loved Lucifer, and never wanted him to be cast out of Heaven.
What Father wants to kill his children, or for them to be cast into an eternal hellfire ... OK, maybe Charles Manson, but he would not be a very good father anyway, and is certainly not worthy of the title "God".
My point is that God doesn't bring despair onto his children, but God cannot protect his children that do not obey him. In the instance of a tidal wave, those who are saved from death are blessed by God, and those that are swept away are not being punished by God, but rather did not obey Him, and therefore they remained outside His protection.
If God took a persons life on earth as punishment for their actions, He would not be able to justify judging them a second time after their death, because that would be an imperfect justice, and since God is perfect ...
Did I over-simplify this issue, or did I just make it more complicated? These are just my personal impressions that seem to make sense to me, and I thought they might make sense to someone else also.
- Thom
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