Is this God's plan

keepingquiet

I don't believe God interferes that directly into our petty human lives. I like to believe things happen so that we can enter more closely into His Divine life.

I like to believe things happen so that we can enter more closely into His Divine life.

Just what does that mean - in plain English?

Peasblossom

This is what Jesus said:

Be children of your Father in heaven. For he causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteousness and unrighteousness.

Can you explain in plain English what this means?

Are you Jewish, polomint?

I’m wondering why you you place more emphasis on an ancient Jewish story than the words of Jesus.

No I'm not Jewish. I dont know why you thought that. I'm Christian and believe in God, Jesus and the bible

Plus of course the devil

Just because you seem more influenced by the Jewish story of Sodom than the teachings of Jesus,

But the story of sodom and gomorrah is in the bible

No. It is not!

It raineth equally upon
The just and unjust fella
But more up the just because
The unjust stole the just’s umbrella.

The poor, the sick and the marginalised suffer and die disproportionately from Covid 19, so I think trying to see it as part of a grand plan to deal with evil doesn’t really add up.

NotSpaghetti

No. It is not!

Yes it is.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodom_and_Gomorrah#New_Testament

I'm not a believer by any means by the assertion that the story or Sodom and Gomorroah isn't in the bible is a bit odd. Have I missed something?

To answer your question polomint, its my view that we don't need any supernatural influence to explain the presence of this pandemic, for all the reasons people have given above. There have been pandemics in the past and there have been societies that are much more corrupt than the world is now. So no, not part of any plan, just the way it is.

And not offended at all

I do not believe God has anything to do with it.

I am an agnostic but respect other people's faith as I know it gives them comfort.

polomint

Well the devil also has power, so is it the devil's work?

No. If God does not interfere in His creation than neither can the devil. I have been on a real spiritual journey during this pandemic and what I have learned is we cannot find any answers in outward things. The pandemic has natural or human cause (probably natural, but as others have pointed out people moving their germs around the planet hasn't helped.)
God wants us to find Him in our own hearts. There are no easy explanations as to why things happen but don't seek simplistic answers such as a) God is punishing us b) it is the devil's doing. God works through suffering, He doesn't cause it. We do, and thinking anything other just lets us off the hook.

But I thought Jesus came to show a new way. A way of love and forgiveness. A Heavenly Father whose care noticed even the fall of a sparrow.

The old has passed away. Behold all things have become new.

Ah Riverwalk, plain English. I wish you well of that request!!

Mapleleaf

No, I think it’s a lot more to do with the way human beings live these days - travel to any part of the world is possible (in normal times), so that opens up the spread of diseases to a much wider area in a shorter space of time.

Also, as a species, we are destroying and exploiting our natural resources at an alarming rate, and wiping out other species without much thought in our ever increasing desire to destroy the rainforest, exploit the polar regions, intensively farm, and spread ourselves all over, etc, etc. Something has to give, so perhaps it’s natures attempt to try to balance things out a bit.

Having watched David Attenborough's documentaries on extinction and climate change, I'm afraid I have to agree with you Mapleleaf.
I don't think it has anything to do with God, we are doing it to ourselves.

Talk of “end times” and other things which have been with us since time began always amuse me. Think about history and the plagues, epidemics and wars which have gone before. Nothing new there.
I’m agnostic and tend to think, if there is a God, he or she, has gone on an indefinite holiday and has left us to it.

There is indeed fundamentally nothing new here. The world has always been plagued by an assortment of natural disasters.

We have always "plundered" our natural resources - that is what all creatures do in the interests of survival - e.g. beavers build dams that help them but that wreck homes for much other wildlife etc.

We are no different; we just have more sophisticated ways of fulfilling nature's inevitability: striving for personal survival.

The corrupt are making sure they profit from the situation, anyway.

I was answering the original question.

do you think this coronavirus is part of God's plan to change our lives?

Sorry
That was in response to Alegrias

This pandemic has rather put me off God!

Oh, I'm sorry NotSpaghetti! I misunderstood.

Riverwalk

keepingquiet

I don't believe God interferes that directly into our petty human lives. I like to believe things happen so that we can enter more closely into His Divine life.

I like to believe things happen so that we can enter more closely into His Divine life.

Just what does that mean - in plain English?

Riverwalk- I know it seems like a different language. I don't quote chapter and verse but try to explain in my own terms and I'm new to this so please bear with me.
During this pandemic like everyone else I have gone very deep into my own beliefs. It has been a journey of realisation that we are all too busy trying to explaining God in human terms.
If I get in my car and it doesn't start I'm not going to blame God am I? I know there's something mechanical going on. If I try again and it doesn't start I might ask for divine help. If it starts does it mean God started it? Of course not. Therefore by the same reason I believe God didn't start the pandemic.
However, if by asking God for help with my crappy car, it helps form a relationship with something I have to believe might know how the car starts. I am changing my perspective. I am accepting the possibility that the act of asking, and not just the mechanics, helped start the car.
So, by asking God to help me deal with the awfulness of the pandemic I know I am not dealing with it alone. God is in the car and in the frustrations that I feel. I know this may not be the plain English you crave- but I want to get across the idea that if we go to God in our failures, He comes to us. That is just my experience.

According to Darwin’s Origin of Species, it is not the most intellectual of the species that survives; it is not the strongest that survives; but the species that survives is the one that is able best to adapt and adjust to the changing environment in which it finds itself.

Megginson, ‘Lessons from Europe for American Business’, Southwestern Social Science Quarterly (1963) 44(1): 3-13, at p. 4.

Whether it is God or isn't God, He would want us to be flexible and adaptable.