Quote:
Originally Posted by Schneed10
Yeah these are the exact philosophical questions I'm driving at.
Let's assume God exists and has the power to grant me the athletic ability to become a professional golfer. But I still did all the work over 5 years to actually get there. Does he get some credit? I guess so, he gave me the athletic ability. I deserve some credit too, because I took that ability and worked hard with it, and turned it into success in professional golf. Now let's say I come down with back problems. If God gave me a body athletic enough to play golf professionally, and I give him credit for that, doesn't he deserve some blame for giving me a body that couldn't hold up for the long haul in professional golf?
He doesn't get to have it both ways.
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Well, who says He's trying to have it both ways? One's body breaking down or ailing has nothing to do with God's goodness or his judgement. It's simply nature taking it's course.
Bodies like everything else give way to time and wear and tear. For God to defy the natural laws that govern this side of eternity, if you will, violate the very laws that He set in motion and violate his own authority in some way. There are laws that operate in time and there are laws that operate outside of time. By time I mean, the right here and now as we all know it. And by outside of time, I'm referring to eternity. But therein lies where we agree to disagree, and this is where faith and prayer becomes and will forever remain a mystery, one has to believe in something and someone on the other side of this life. Once that notion is settled, now we're in business and the idea of prayer and faith is somewhat attainable. It really is the starting point.
Faith/Prayer is much like a coin. For it to be legitimate currency and legal tender, it has to have what we call a "head" and a "tail". Well that's how prayer works, there is a manward side; man doing his part. Flip it over and there is Godward side to it; God doing his part. For it to "spend" and be considered "legal" in our society, the coin must have two different sides or else it's considered conterfeit. And I think this is the conclusion many believers and non-believers jump to. Some say, well God should deliver me from this and that or God didn't do this or that and they conclude He doesn't exist or they doubt. And then some will say for me to get to point B in life, I must do everything and be in control of everything in order to get there. Leaving no room for God to operate or take a majority stake in their life. It takes a little of both.