Does God have a favorites list?

Question

You might have heard all the stories about how one person got saved from a disaster like a plane crash because fate or Providence intervened and caused them to miss the plane. Why save only one person when all can be saved. It's not like that one person was a less worse sinner than the people who were killed, or did anything to deserve special protection, because the bible says no one is righteous.

Answer 1

well god has a plan for everyone.. and everything happens for a reason

and i honestly believe that.

Answer 2

Old school Near East philosophy held that bad things happened if you were a bad person. You can even see some evidence of this in the New Testament, where people still thought that disease was punishment for sins. (Hence Jesus telling people their sins were forgiven when they came to him for healing from diseases--and hence why the writers wrote in the whole miracle worker angle; they were trying to emphasize that he forgave sins!) The whole purpose behind the book of Job was that bad things happen to everyone.

This kind of favoritism showed up in later philosphy, under the guise of the "elect" versus the "non-elect," where people decided that God wanted to save some and damn others. Obviously, then God favors those in Christian countries, since God supposedly has complete control and the people in those countries aren't likely to become Christian, according to this view, and that belief has led to many atrocities against people from countries that aren't predominantly Christian.

Answer 3

Sometimes I feel like I must be God's favorite child.

It is true that one person is not more valuable than another, yet you are valuable to God also.

I believe everyones names were written in the book of life at the foundation. Some names get blotted out.

Answer 4

When there is rainfall, the rain does not discriminate who it will fall upon, it falls on everyone indiscriminately, similarly, transcendental knowledge is available to everyone, those who use their individual free will to develop their relationship with the Supreme interact with the supreme equal to the degree of devotion exhibited. Those who choose to pursue worldly pursuits remain under the stringent laws of duality, which includes cause and effect, the measure and quality that you give, will be the same that you get. Better to develop transcendental knowledge and rise above the material prisonhouse that restricts our interaction with the Supreme directly.

To discuss further:-Sriman Sankarshan Das Adhikari ([e-mail])

Answer 5

Very likely there was still something that person had to do. It could be that God saved him in order to preach the gospel to someone who would never have accepted it from anyone else. Maybe even now, He is keeping someone from dying in order that they might be the one you will hear.
God does not have a "favorites list".
But, He does have a Book of Life! My name is in there. I hope yours is too!!

Answer 6

No.
The only "list" is the Book of Life. If God deceided to save this one person it is because he has some other purpose for their life. The other people had already fulfilled their life purpose.

Answer 7

You might enjoy some of the books a man named Spong has written on Christianity.

Answer 8

The bible clearly says that "God is not partial". It also says that "he does not try us with evil things" God shows no favoritism. We are subject to being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Answer 9

Because God uses people in different ways. He knows what were going to do before we're born. And if that person dies, that means....maybe....that they already did what they were created to do(if they have a realtionship with him.) If they don't die, that means God isn't done with them yet.

Answer 10

Yup. It's got all the best MySpace sites on it.