Why would you worship a being that allows terrible things to happen to children?

Question

What is it about that which seems particularly worthy of worship to you?
Do you rationalize it as "god is testing us and we can't understand what he's teaching us"?
If a child must be brutalized for you to learn a lesson from your god, is the lesson really worth it?

timjim - you aren't answering the question. If you are correct, and your god allows children to be brutalized, why do you find that worthy of worship?
If it's to teach a lesson, is it worth it for you to learn that lesson?

RIF - Does it really matter?

Greenwood - if your god exists and doesn't stop it from happening, then (by definition) he allows it to happen.
Thanks.

Greenwood - A child being hurt isn't the same as a child, or anyone, stealing (or any other crime).
Sorry.

Answer 1

Why are children special? Terrible things happen to all caliber of people. This is the bugaboo of "free will".

Answer 2

I worship Jesus Christ because I know He is good without a doubt. I know Him personally. He is a good friend.

I know without a doubt that He would never hurt anyone without a good reason. I also know without a doubt that He has allowed many evils to persist for our own good, because in the end, He will right all the wrongs. A child may suffer and die on earth today, but in Heaven the child's reward will be greater than anything they ever suffered.

So often, people want to quickly blame God for all the wrongs and evils in the world just because He is all-powerful and yet they don't want to take accountability themselves. It is a like a rebellious teenagers blaming their bad grades on their parents when the teenager is the one who slacked off in school. Then, when the teenager is grounded, they become even more angry because they have to suffer.

Either God is good or God is not. If God is not good, then why is the world still here? Obviously, if God were truly evil, he would have destroyed it just for fun. However, the universe maintains a homogeneous balance where life is able to grow and thrive. So, if God is good, and there seems to be evil within the world, should we be so quick to accuse God? If He created the world, certainly He has every right to do whatever He wants with it.

Faith means trust. I trust that God is good based upon Jesus Christ who is the image of God. We cannot judge God based upon a world in which He has no part. If we are going to judge whether or not God is truly worthy of worship, we must look at what He has done on earth as Christ, and then decide to have faith in Him or not. If we trust God, we believe that He knows and does what is best despite all the bad things we see happening around us. That is what it means to have faith.

Answer 3

God does not 'allow' children or anyone else for that matter to be hurt in any fashion. The word allow means to 'approve, permit, permit by neglect,...' God clearly states more than once that it is wrong to harm any one on this earth. He has established that law, so he does not allow it at all. God is sickened by children or adults getting hurt and is punishing the people, that did the harm, already, by sentencing them to Hell. They will suffer for their acts as God continually promises in the Bible. They will be held accountable, trust me. It is, whether you like it or not, man's fault. The people that harm made their concious decision for themselves. God did not make that decision for them nor did he say to himself, "I'm going to sit back and watch as these people harm one another." And another thing, you can not rate wrong acts by whatever you personally feel about them. Every wrong act is just as bad as the next one. And that is because they all, one way or another, harm someone in the end. Stealing, murdering, lying, whatever. And how pray tell could you possibly want God to interfere? Imagine if God were to come down in all his splendor and crush the evil doers with his mighty fists. But wait, then he would have prevented the evil people in the world from doing their evil deeds which does two things: 1. Makes them not really evil doers because he didn't give them a chance to actually do evil, and 2. Interferes with their free will. And don't say, "well they might not have done evil, but they certainly thought evil, that's the same thing according to what you just said." And you would be right, they had to have thought evil, even if they didn't do it. However thinking about evil and doing evil are two different things. Thinking about it lets in the chance for conscience questioning. And doing is the act of rejecting the conscience.

I think this answers your question. I love you as a fellow human being, even though I disagree with you. God bless you.

Answer 4

Your question is a mystery that can't be resolved in this lifetime. We can only speculat that God does not interfere with our free will....so if something "bad" happens of someone's free will, then it is not God allowing it to happen. But, what of those born into suffering? That's the part that is mysterious to me...maybe a soul chooses a life of suffering for some sort of spiritual growth or maybe it's for the growth of others around them. It does give us an opportunity to show what we are made of....do we help these people or discard them? I think it is very moving to see someone overcome their adversities, it's very inspiring to see that life did not get them down.....great question.

Peace, Love, and Blessings
Greenwood

No, you misrepresent the statements. God allows us free will. What you do with your free will is what matters. If your child stole something from the store, would you say that you allowed it? No, you'd say the child stole it. Plain and simple.

Answer 5

I am not answering this question with any disrespect to you what's so ever! However, I just want to share something with you, and then maybe you can decide from there. I was abused as a child, and an adult from my parents. My parents denied my feelings, and defended their wrong doings. The actions that wronged me, was people that were suppose to love and protect me....my parents. And they didn't!
I've known two children in my lifetime that died. One died in a boating accident, and one died while fishing on the edge of a lake. And there was rescue people camping there too and no one could save this child!
All of the things that happened were horrible things that happened to innocent people. But, everyone has their time on earth, and we don't know when our time is over.
God does test us and He always will allow things to happen to teach us lessons. I learned that a child doesn't belong in front of a boat because if the driver hits a big wave the person in the front will fall over and go under the motor and get their stomach torn up. Also, when fishing you should put a life jacket on your child when fishing, no matter how shallow the water is. Because life is precious.
The one most important thing I learned in my personal life is, that just because people are our parents, doesn't mean that the people He choses for us knows how to love their kids the right way.
God allows, and wants everyone to be happy. It's our free will to do the right thing and decide for ourselves what we will do.
The one thing I learned as a parent is, I will never, ever do anything to hurt my kids, and say things to them to make them cry, over and over. I will never abuse my kids and hit them repeatidly.
All of lifes problems, issues, have within themselves a little or big lesson to learn. It's up to us to look deeper and find them!

Answer 6

(Ecclesiastes 9:11) I returned to see under the sun that the swift do not have the race, nor the mighty ones the battle, nor do the wise also have the food, nor do the understanding ones also have the riches, nor do even those having knowledge have the favor; because time and unforeseen occurrence befall them all.

In God's new system these things will not happen

(Isaiah 65:25) “The wolf and the lamb themselves will feed as one, and the lion will eat straw just like the bull; and as for the serpent, his food will be dust. They will do no harm nor cause any ruin in all my holy mountain,” Jehovah has said.

And God can undo anything that we perceive as harm.
(Revelation 20:12-13) And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and scrolls were opened. But another scroll was opened; it is the scroll of life. And the dead were judged out of those things written in the scrolls according to their deeds. 13 And the sea gave up those dead in it, and death and Ha′des gave up those dead in them, and they were judged individually according to their deeds.

What to us is permanent is NOT to God.

Answer 7

Well, the answer is plain and simple! God gave man free will. To do good: Or to do Evil. Well, its sad that some will go as far as to torture people, but they do! When someone harms a child, they chose to do so! It was all them! God loves children! And of course he grieves when one of them is harmed. Nobody gets away with harming a child. It will catch up with them eventually! You reap what you sow. People think that they can do terrible things to others and get by with it. Thats just an illusion. I have seen people to terrible things to others and not long afterwards END UP DEAD! I don't wish for anyone to die. But I'm just making my point.

Answer 8

Yes, God does allow it to happen. God has created mankind with free will and moral capacity, tremendous gifts that make us more than mere smart animals, in fact making us "in God's image and likeness". With these gifts comes full responsibility for their use. If someone uses his free will to choose to brutalize a child, then that person, not God, is fully responsible for that act. Free will would be completely meaningless if God said "I give you the freedom to choose good or evil, but whenever you choose evil I'll jump in and make sure nobody gets hurt".

Answer 9

It's a reality thing. God exists, and suffering exists. The question is why do they both exist. If a child was brutalized, I would hope someone would be touched in their heart, and not let the child's suffering remain meaningless. I suspect God would be quite pleased with your question.

Answer 10

God is good, it is man that does evil.
God told him not to do it but God doesn't force us to do what he said.
I don't learn lessons by hearing of children being brutalized.
Let me give you an example of why I deem God worthy of worship. Because he is God.
Your attitude is wrong.
I hate cockroaches, however I am glad God doesn't let them grow as big as cars.
I don't want to killed by a lion, so I don't go to where they run free.
I won't jump in a swamp where crocodiles are.
God gave us a brain, so we should use it.
Don't blame God for man's stupidity.

Answer 11

I worship God, who is love, who is holy and who answers when we call.

God is also the God of freedom and allows people to make choices in their lives, even if they are evil or foolish choices. People like to blame God for tragedies when in fact it is mankind or else satan who causes these things. When children are sexually molested, that action is done by someone who does not know the truth about God and His love, even if he should call himself a prophet of God.

We. ourselves, can not just "expect" the blessings and protection of God if we have kicked God out of our lives. God is not some fairy tale character but the Creator of the whole Universe. We should all treat Him with the awe and respect He is due.

It is very sad that many people do not know how to pray or teach their children how to pray and call upon the Lord for help. As well, parents need to pray every day, in Jesus' name, for their children's protection and take whatever measures they can to protect their children from everyday dangers.

God is perfect, as are His ways. The brutalization of children can not be laid at His feet- at satan's maybe but not God's.