Hypothetical Question for Christians?

Question

Christians, please consider the following hypothetical question: You are at work in a high-rise building along with 5,000 other people in a big city. You hear a giant explosion in the floors above you. Immediately, you realize that the building is moving and is also on fire. Parts of the roof above you are beginning to cave in. You rush for the fire escape and sprint downstairs. As you are running, you pray that God will protect you. You finally reach the ground and run out of the building. You are bruised, cut up, and covered with ash, but you are alive. Later that evening you hear on the news that you are one of about 1,000 people to make it out of the building. The other 4,000 people died due to crush injuries, burns, or smoke inhalation. Question: Did God answer your prayer? Is the fact that your alive due to God’s intervention or protection?

Answer 1

This is a very difficult question to answer. God answers prayers that are in line with His Will and purpose. If it is His will that a person be saved, He will do it.

I guess it would be difficult to know forsure if you were saved directly because of divine intervention, unless of course, you came out without a scratch and you had to run through the fire... then you'd know forsure ;) . Either way, it would be appropriate to thank God. Because....

Even if you weren't saved by divine intervention, in a way you were still saved because of your Creator. We were created with thinking ability. That person's God-given thinking ability was what would cause them to understand that there was something terrible happening and that they needed to run without hesitation in order to escape the dangerous situation. Proverbs 2:11 says: "thinking ability itself will keep guard over you, discernment itself will safeguard you,". (Compare Proverbs 3:19-26)

Answer 2

Maybe focussing on the prayer kept the person from panicking in an emergency. As for the others who prayed and died, I agree that sometimes it's just coincidence that some died and some escaped.
I think the fact that you're alive is due to luck, coincidence, and maybe being level-headed.

Answer 3

The fact that I'm still alive would be due to God wanting me to be for some reason......in His eyes, maybe my time isn't up, maybe my job here isn't done, so he kept me alive. I don't think it would be due SOLELY to the fact that I prayed to be saved, because I'm sure a lot of the 4,000 who didn't survive did that as well. But God's intervention is definitely at work.

Answer 4

If He made the path open for you I would say probably yes. If you ran over and pushed others out of your way, I would say probably not. I can't believe anyone would make it out without helping someone else along the way. In any case, God would speak to your heart and you would know if it was Him or yourself that got you out. People forget that if you are a Christian, God communicates with you 24/7 about how you live your life.....and He doesn't stop sending His message until you do something about it.....either praise, thank Him or correct any mess you made. He loves us enough to not leave us alone.

Answer 5

God is imaginary and your delusional if you don't realize that. Why would god answer your prayer trying to escape a crashing building? At the same time people are praying for the starving children in Africa and they just continue to die. If god answered prayer why are we still searching for the cure to cancer? Why has he not given us the information we need to cure cancer? I'll tell you why because prayer is an illusion nothing more. Religion preys on people who don't want to think for themselves. Why? Because god needs your money!

Answer 6

God does have His Angels watch over His children and protect them. Gods Will is the deciding factor here. Sometimes fervent prayer can change Gods will, other times Gods Will must go forward to accomplish His Glory. Whether we live or die, we should always give thanks.
God Bless You....Peace.

Answer 7

If I had a 1 in 5 chance of getting out alive and I did, I would certainly thank God. Would I had gotten out even if I had not prayed? Probably. But I thank God for everyday that I live.
.

Answer 8

You know Gabe, don't take offense but, people like you seem to be so insecure that you all continually ask Christians the same general questions, like if you don't understand us, then you must be wrong, is this a fact?
I don't mind answering but, it's always the same. Did you know that Abraham started the three major religions of the world? and, if your religious but, of a different religion, your probably one of us, unless of course your one of the unfortunate agnostics or atheists, and, that's to bad but, it's what you want.
So, why don't you just be happy with whatever you believe in, if anything at all, and leave us alone?

Answer 9

Let's say the 4,000 ones that lost there lives asked for God to protect them...I don't think that God had anything to do with answering that one survivers life.

Answer 10

I'd say yes: God provided me an avenue of escape and time of escape, and I took it. Does this mean that God hated or disapproved of the 4,000 who died? No. It meant, IMO, that it was their time to go, and it wasn't my time yet.

From Luke 13:
1Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2Jesus answered, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? 3I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. 4Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish."