Posted: Jan 21, 2015 11:50 pm
carl wrote:
A 'good' God is not discounted simply based on a 'bad' world:
1) After God created everything, His Creation was 'very good': "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day." (Genesis 1).
2) That 'very good' Creation became tainted by mankind's sin: "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it; all the days of your life; It will produce thorns and thistles for you...and to dust you will return.” (Genesis 3). Death and suffering are introduced by mankind's sin.
The above explains how a 'good God' created a 'very good' world which soon became filled with violence because of mankind's sinfulness. This process of degradation continues today, via the sins and hurtful acts of modern humans (everybody today).
This is in direct contradiction to the OT:
Ezekiel 18:20
The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.
People cannot be responsible fir ech others sins carl.
So how can infants be punished with illness, hardship and death?
carl wrote:God was not taken by surprise by mankind's sinfulness nor is He without a plan to redeem the situation:
1) God sent His Son to redeem the world: "So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”[f]; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. 46 The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. 47 The first man (Adam) was of the dust of the earth; the second man (Jesus) is of heaven.
If people cannot carry each other sins they surely cannot redeem them either. Cue Jesus special pleading.