Is this God's plan

Immorality!!

I think all the great religions used the wrath of their gods to attempt to explain the inexplicable, fire, flood, pestilence and famine, which were generally natural disasters with no apparent cause.
We have a far greater understanding now, but still frequently only with hindsight.
When causes and solutions are discovered and people resolutely refuse to accept them, (refusal to isolate, social distancing, acceptance of the vaccine) it has to be human judgement that is responsible.

I can’t say I have much faith in the WHO, or any UN related organisation, come to that. I’ve heard far too much from horses’ mouths - or from those very close to them - over the years, never mind that they’re all pretty much massive gravy trains, with employees so often paid way in excess of what they’d get in similar jobs elsewhere.

Just thinking, if this is Gods plan to destroy the corrupt and rid the earth of greed and violence, it’s not a very good one, is it?

I mean, he’s tried it several times before and it hasn’t worked then.

What is it they say about doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result ?

Whether you believe in God or you don’t, this pandemic has got absolutely nothing to do with God. Like Sarnia I think it very likely that this virus was inadvertently carried out of a lab in Wuhan.

Poor Lucifer. He's the human race's eternal whipping boy.

I think this pandemic has changed people to some extent mainly due to the restrictions of staying at home and lockdown.
Life whether we like it or not has been slower and more peaceful although many do not like it that way.
There are many people in the U.K. that have a faith and others not as I watched a news programme a few days ago I
was surprised to see a towering statue of Jesus being built in Mexico (think that is where it was) it will be 141 feet high quite amazing I thought. It will be higher than the highest
one in Rio de Janeiro which is 128ft high.

I quietly reflected on that for five to ten minutes and thought how amazing if we had something like that in the U.K. It would be an amazing sight .
The people in those other places are more faithful than us maybe we have lessons to be learnt.

Mexico is such a poor country.

Should they have spent the money on a statue?

Some justification for it in the Gospels, I guess.

I would hate any form of blatantly religious statue to be built nowadays. I admit to not having read my New Testament of late but I don't remember it saying anything about building huge, expensive religious symbols. I thought it was more about caring for the poor and needy. If the Churches or the state have money to spare then they should be using it to care for the homeless, the hungry, the vulnerable and others in need.

Just a correction the second statue is not in Mexico it is in Brazil. That means that both statues are in Brazil, it is being funded by Friends of the church over there and is not finished yet. Everyone to there own choice but what an iconic statue to have in Brazil.
I do not think the churches have money to spare for our collections there is usually money collected for the homeless, those in the Holy Lands and those fleeing persecution in their own countries plus others.
I still think it would be fantastic many others would not agree.

To answer your question polomint, no I don’t think it is directly, but He will use it. People often ask why He allows suffering. The simple answer to that is, He’s told us that there will never be perfection in this life, only the next. This is a rehearsal, a template if you like for the next. He wants us to choose Him willingly. If He keeps putting things right, without us knowing, we will never know Him. He doesn’t want that, in the same way you wouldn’t for your children. He wants us to have independently made that choice.

I can never believe in a God that allows so much suffering, old people with terrifying dementia young children fighting against a cancer, all the abuse of children and animals as well as domestic abuse that’s going on now. I don’t accept your explanation Discodancer ...........there can be no God at least no loving God.....

My own thoughts - periodically we have a method of thinning the population, be it wars, or illness or disaster. These also send us challenges to make us improve things? I do thinks it's God's way of improving our way of living.

I understand and respect your opinion Shinamae, but it is so often the people who suffer the most, who have the strongest faith. The people who are ‘ doing alright’, in their eyes, have no need for God, they’re fine without Him.

And I respect yours disco dancer although can’t say I understand it. I have a great belief in mother nature and a huge thunderstorm is very powerful to me and I find it very spiritual And I do much prefer winter weather to summer weather I love the rain the wind and even the cold.Sunny day....not so much...?‍♀️

Me too Shinamae. Since menopause, much prefer the cold weather! Take care.

You too..?

I have always wondered why this wonderful god did not protect his followers better during this Pandemic. Never understood thme reason to stop church, synagogue and mosque services. Surely, those places would be quite safe!!!

polomint

I dont mean to offend anyone, but do you think this coronavirus is part of God's plan to change our lives? There is so much violence , greed, drugs, immorality etc that I've thought of the cities of sodom and gomorrah that God destroyed due to them being so corrupt

No!

Gwenisgreat1

My own thoughts - periodically we have a method of thinning the population, be it wars, or illness or disaster. These also send us challenges to make us improve things? I do thinks it's God's way of improving our way of living.

I don't think that God ^ends these things to thin out the population.

I believe that it is rather that wars are more likely when there are so many people that there is conflict over resources - food, water, territory, power etc.

When there are many individuals they live closer together, so illnesses spread around faster. In a technological era, people travel from one place to another, taking their diseases with them.

Natural disasters like earthquakes, volcanoes, meteor strikes and so on have happened to the earth long before there were any people (or even animals) to over-populate it.

Man-made disasters are just that - made by people - so they can't be blamed on God, neither can the natural disasters which are caused by what humans have done - the landslides caused by erosion after wholesale tree clearances, for instance.

It is too easy to assume that if something happens - good or bad - it is because someone, (or some God or Devil) has decreed that it must, instead of looking for evidence of what is the actual cause.

Peasblossom

He’s going to be very cross about the vaccine then.

rofl

When you have faith Franbern you don't expect preferential treatment. You use that faith and the strength that God gives you to get through whatever life may throw at you.

The world is as the world is. Survival of the fittest.

In terms of faith I would prefer to think that the brilliance of the scientists who developed the various vaccines was given by God, than the virus is God’s wrath. The Bible makes it clear that however a person acts, it is up to his/her own conscience. The failure to contain the virus was man made, the virus is now increasingly thought to be man made although the jury is out on that one, certainly the leak was man made. Poor decisions are balanced by good decisions. Man’s goodness or not is shown in small ways. Some people choose to wear a mask, get vaccinated, socially distance, quarantine when necessary etc. Others selfishly refuse to comply with these simple requirements, not caring how their behaviour may affect others. Goodness or badness is within ourselves. It’s called God given conscience. Or human given, depending on your view.

It is intriguing to me how, whatever happens, believers interpret their scriptures or philosophies to fit the concept of god being good.

Either he/she is all-powerful or not; if all-powerful, then the evidence of human lives means he/she cannot be good.

I respect religions (well most!) and what they have meant to people over thousands of years, but I reject all doctrine and believe that living by the rule of kindness is all we can do.

We are in a sense all agnostics in that we just do not know about the existence of a god, or the purpose of our lives. Some believe but they too do not know.