The Evangelical Universalist Forum

Killing of Egypts infants

I deny that God killed any infants when He struck the firstborn of Egypt. Assuming the existence of firstborn Egyptian infants at that time is eisegesis.

It would be bizarre (to say the least) for God to copy Pharaoh on this.

No, I don’t. I think the blame is placed on the humans. In the case of a 9 year old getting cancer and dying, I am more inclined to believe God had a part in that. However, I suppose it could be said that things we have done to our environment (chemicals, carcinogens, etc…) could be to blame for that, and not God. Which is definitely possible. If God created the order of the things and leaves this machine largely untouched, then I think I could swallow that God isn’t to blame in the 9 year old case. But, at this point, we don’t know enough to know why certain people get sick and others don’t. This one is a tricky one for me, to be honest. I mean, Jesus was willing to heal people in his earthly ministry, yet so many still die on their deathbeds with genuine faith asking for healing and never get it. The Calvinist can explain this, but their explanation is vile to me.

Thanks Gabe. I understand your struggle to understand.
I don’t think God is to blame for any deaths. I suppose I’m about 90% Deist.
I think that usually God does not intervene, and people normally die from natural causes (if we can consider earthquakes, floods, disease bacteria, and other human beings “natural causes”). Perhaps we should not call the cause of death and suffering “nature” but rather “fallen nature.”

But what keeps me from being a full-fledged Deist, is the fact that God sometimes does intervene. Sometimes God heals and delivers from suffering. I was once miraculously healed myself from a back ailment. I forget what the condition was, but it was a serious condition, diagnosed by a doctor. The brothers in the Christian assembly where I gather, prayed for me, and the when I saw the doctor in my next appointment, he said, “Obviously I made a mistake in my diagnosis. You don’t have this condition at all!”

My big question is not, “Why is there much suffering and death in the world?” but “Why does God sometimes heal or deliver from suffering, but usually does not?” On the surface, His healing seems to be random. Those healed are no more Godly than those who aren’t—sometimes a lot less Godly. Why does He choose to heal a few, but do nothing at all for the majority of sufferers?