Christians?

Question

I have heard many incidences when people have claimed that god/prayer has saved them e.g. car accidents or other dangerous situations and that prayer has healed the sick.
What I cannot understand is why he would save these individuals, and use his power to intervene, but not intervene when a child starves to death, or when a nation looses people because of drought, when innocent people loose people they care for in a civil war they don't want or understand.
Why would he help some big, fat westerner survive because he prays and not an innocent (who may or may not pray)?
Why would he answer prayers to help people get the job they want, loose weight, give up smoking etc and allow the attrocities that exist for many innocents to perpetuate?

Answer 1

The question you ask is essentially known as "the problem of evil". If there's a truly loving and omnipotent god then there should be no bad things happening to anyone. When I was a Christian, I felt that in order to remain so, I had to explain why the god I believed answered prayers didn't help in other occasions.

There's four answers.
1. God is not omnipotent...in other words he's loving but not all-powerful and so whilst he wants to help he can't. This type of god sounds too much like a human to be a god.
2. God is not loving...in other words he can help but doesn't want to. If this god exists then I do not want to worship it. It's a monster not a god.
3. God is neither omnipotent nor loving...in which case, why call this being a god?
4. God doesn't exist.

The only counters arguments I've seen Christians give to this is "the world is bad because of sin", "god gave us free will and can't intervene else doing so would take away our free will". Now ok, if that's true that does explain some of the bad things...greed, murder, war, etc...the bad stuff that we humans cause. However, it doesn't explain why god has allowed millions of people die in hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, etc...natural disasters that humans have no part in.

Answer 2

You ask an excellent question, and it is a difficult question for many Christians to deal with. The easy answer is to say that nobody really understands what motivates a supernatural being. To a certain extent, that's true, but it's not the whole story.

If you read through the Gospels, you'll notice several references to the poor and needy. God recognizes the fact that there *are* people who are hungry, who are poor, who are outcasts, and who are downtrodden in this life. You'll also notice that Jesus never says anything about his mission being to make everyone wealthy, or to make the deserts bloom with rich harvests, or to instantly solve all causes of human strife. Jesus' mission was to open the way to heaven for all people, something only He could do. He exhorted *us*, all of us, to feed the hungry, to visit the sick, to comfort the sorrowing, to shelter the refugee.

*We* are called to address the imbalance of resources. Why are there hungry people in the world? If you add up all the food calories the world produces and divide by the number of people in the world, there is enough food for everyone. But the people who have more than their share of those calories do not give to those who have less. Why are there droughts and famines? Not all areas of the Earth are identical. Some places have more resources and better climates than others. This is a physical reality. *We* are called to give of our surplus to compensate for such imbalances, but few people actually do that. Why are there wars in the world? Despite the fact that God exhorts us to peacefulness in the Bible, there are people in the world who choose war. And so we must deal with war. We must shelter the displaced and provide for those who are innocent victims of violence. But most people do not choose to do that.

God never promised us that he would make everything perfect. He never promised that no one would starve, or that no one would have a difficult lot in life. Instead, He directed *us* to work to fix those problems, or at least provide relief for our fellow human beings when the problems are too large for us to solve. Don't make the mistake of blaming God for everything that goes wrong in the world. Blame yourself and the rest of humanity for not doing enough to help those in need and in trouble.

Answer 3

Hello wake up people, the reason why some survive and others dont, why some are starveing and others arent, its not because god has his hand on some and not on others.
Its because god has aboandonded us from thetime eve accepted the fruit, the reason some survive and others dont its because we all have a time when we are to die, and when your times up, your times up. The reason why there are so many starveing people in the world, is because the rich and famous get richer and the poor get poorer.

Answer 4

Mia, you'll never get a good answer to that question. Nobody knows. If your like me, an agnostic, you have that desire just by the mere fact you asked the question? Kind of corny advice here, but there was an old rock and roll song. The chorus was, Hold on loosely, but don't let go. Best advice I can give you?

Answer 5

God save certain people to save others who saves others.

All the help we ever need is here on earth, that's one reason why God made us all different, but it always don't work out the way it should, there is many factors that tend to get in the way, one is greed. We all have free will, God does intervene many times, but we don't always listen, and God won't infringe on our free will..... we all make choices, and not always the correct choice....... there is more than meets the eye.... to why or why not does God help.

Answer 6

Your silly, Does the child pray? True faith builds a relationship with God and the universe, if you have faith God answers God does, but God does not work in supernatural ways because the faith we have today is limited, only when one dedicates thier whole life to God by forsaking this world and doing God's work would one be able to move mountains. God is complicated God causes the sun to shine on the good and the bad so being partial is not being. But the son sends his followers to those in need, so do you see that God does not choose sides and he gave humans the earth and everything in it this is called freewill. God does not interfere, have to go running late

Answer 7

Why do you soom anyone is innocent? None of us are. We all sin and violate the law. We are all guilty. It's only through the grace of God that we receive blessings. It's through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

And if someone doesnt pray then how can God answer their prayers? And can they pray if they are not taught to? Teach them to pray, teach them to work, teach them the principles of righteousness and you will see all people saved.

We live in a fallen world because of our choices. Until the children of Adam repent of their sins and turn to righteousness there will always be bad things happening in this world. People need to take responsibility for their actions and realize that their sins affect more than just them. They have consequences for other people as well.

Answer 8

Perhaps God answer prayer (talking to God); with the emphasis on those that listen/obey him.
Example; a person may tell 2 younger people to do X. One obeys him, one does not. Who does the older person (parent of both 'younger people') help?

Answer 9

Christians bear the name of Jesus Christ. He will only succor one church to bear His name. Only one church bears His name today, the rest are named after a man or a street, town, or something. You go on & on to ask alot of other questions, This may help. Life is eternal. NOT without end. eternal means no beginning & no end. We lived with God (and Christ and everybody else) b4 this life with mortal bodies began. In the pre-mortal life, in the we learned & achieved things that made us strong enough to withstand more strainient tests in this life. Or so strong that we are exempt from some test in this life.

Also there is perfect justice in Gods Courtroom. He cannot punish the wicked for maybe fixing to starve a child to death or lead a country to civil war if HE prevents that evil from happening.

Answer 10

Discrimination in religion is a big thing. If you want your followers to feel special, you set up some special thing that sets the members higher than everybody else. Religion really doesn't give anything, other than a way for you to be controlled.

So - It is simply to keep the emembers to the fire (or getting new members fearing not to be saved) that "divine discrimination" exist.