Originally posted by sonhouse
So god runs things but lets men screw up? What about the animals that go extinct? Did they upset god and that was its answer, kill the buggers?
Its god's mysterious plan to cause earthquakes to shake us up?
What about earthquakes that happened before man was around?
Do you believe there may be life on planets around other stars in the universe? Would tho ...[text shortened]... for the deaths of whole species or is that not a cause for worry when it come to god's wrath?
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So god runs things but lets men screw up?
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That is a contemptuous and frustrated way to express the relationship between the Creator and His creature.
I have a hard time with that. But I will try to reply to some of your other problems. It is not as if I never thought about these things.
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What about the animals that go extinct? Did they upset god and that was its answer, kill the buggers?
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That is another expression of frustration and contempt.
However, I do believe in a pre-Adamic world which displayed the characteristics of a rebellion against God.
Much of science today is leaning towards trying to explain what could have wiped out the previous lives on earth. We have talk about killer comets, killer astroids, killer gas. Many of the artistic pictures you see of dinosaurs often have a picture of a exploding volcano in the backround.
The picture I have is sketchy. But I think the previous order of things was wiped out by a divine judgment. Then God created man and said
"Let THEM have dominion" (my emphasis).
I think the previous world had something to do with the ancient history of God's enemy Satan. I think that God did not totally destroy this enemy. But instead he created a new creature to replace him, shame him, and coordinate with God to judge him.
You see the Creator would not directly war against the ancient rebellious creature. He created a triangular situation. Now you have three parties.
You have God as one party and Satan as a second party. Between the two you have human beings. The direction the the human being turns, whether to God or to God's enemy, had something to do with the destiny of the creation.
These things are not easy to comprehend. And no doubt I, just as well as you, could make lampooning remarks and exploit these concepts to make them sound foolish.
You see. I think the Bible is God's revelation to man. But I don't think it is exhaustive. I don't think He has told us EVERYTHING just to satisfy our curiosity. I think God has told us the most essential things.
The things which He has revealed to us He does so only because it is related to our need for salvation. But just to tickle our curiosity about the ancient past, I don't think the revelaton of the Bible does that.
So my picture is incomplete and I do not understand everything about it. I think you laugh and jolly about it to your own peril.
But there are some unkowns.
I am totally comnvinced that if we want to understand the nature and destiny of man and who and what he is and why he exists in the universe - we have to study Jesus Christ the Son of God.
I believe that only by studying Jesus Christ can we arrive at the truth of human existence.
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Its god's mysterious plan to cause earthquakes to shake us up?
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At this present time I think the things which bother us probably are remnants of phenomenon which had some useful purpose.
Perhaps the common cold is a perverted phenomenon which had some more useful purpose. The same might be true of earthquakes. They may have had and probably still have some useful purpose. But they also are a bother to us now because of the collapse of Adam's world in his rebellion.
You might say that Adam JOINED the ancient rebellion of Satan. He was not suppose to do that. He was suppose to replace the previous authority so that creation would be under the human dominion.
It is possible that the previous order of things was so alien to us that we would not understand it if it was described to us.
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What about earthquakes that happened before man was around?
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As I said above, I think that Adam joined an ancient rebellion the remnants of which were still evident in the earth.
Whereas he was suppose to have dominion over the earth he failed that mandate and joined the ancient opposition party. But God has a saving salvation and cannot be defeated.
The Invisible War" by Donald Barnhouse
published by Kregal (I think) would be a good book for you read some month.
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Do you believe there may be life on planets around other stars in the universe?
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I don't know.
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Would those life forms be under gods hand too?
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I think that the whole universe was created for man.
At this stage I think that the universe is the real estate of Jesus Christ. I do not know to what extent he will use all of that real estate. My gut feel is that He will extend His eternal kingdom to the stars.
This is only my speculation. I don't know. But eternity is a long time and God is of limitless resource and power.
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It seems to me the human race is not doing such a great job of taking care of the planet. Will we be blamed for the deaths of whole species or is that not a cause for worry when it come to god's wrath?
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You must understand that all the wrath that God really needs occured on the cross of Jesus Christ. Whatever sins man has commited whether great or small whether forgivable or unforgivable whether public or private - all sins were judged in Jesus Christ when He died on the cross.
He took the wrath of God so that we need not take the wrath of God. That is the important point of the Gospel that you should remember.
Whatever sins commited by man against the environment were judged when Jesus died for you and I.
So we should thank Him and receive Him as our Lord and Savior and Guide to guide us back to the eternal purpose of God.