Dark Virtue
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[b said:Quote[/b] (Arkanjel @ Sep. 09 2004,9:39)]
[b said:Quote[/b] ]The reason God tests us is not to see if we will "pass" the test, it is for refinement.
Sorry, I don't buy that. That assumes that God is not omniscient, that He doesn't know if we will pass the test or not. Shouldn't God already know if we will pass the test or not?
[b said:Quote[/b] ]It is the same as refining any precious metal. You temper it with fire. The bible is full of references to refinement to better man and teach him how to be more "godly".
In this case, God tempers not with fire, but with pan, suffering, misery and evil. Man refines metal because we can create metal out of thin air. God doesn't need to refine man. God could have created a refined man, but He chose not to.
[b said:Quote[/b] ]That is why Jesus is described as the potter and we are described as the clay. He is molding us through challenges, tests, pain and suffering, good times, bad times.
Again, that is a horrible analogy. A potter cannot create fine china from the same clay that makes pots for plants. God, however, can create anything from anything or nothing. God chose to create a flawed being.
[b said:Quote[/b] ]Its not a punishment, its tough love.
You would think that an omnimax being could do better than "tough love".
[b said:Quote[/b] ]People do the same to their own children. First you will tell a child not to touch the hot plate and he might listen for a few minutes or even a few days. After awhile that child will want to find out on his own if the plate is really hot. Then comes the burn. Now the child understands that which he has already been told, but he had to find it out for himself. We are ALL children in Gods eyes.
Again, you're limiting God. God always sees the child, omniscient remember? Yeah, letting the child burn their hand is the best way for the child to learn, but any parent worth their salt would give their life to spare their child ANY hurt. Here we have a parent that not only puts their child in the middle of pestilence, evil and innumerable horror, but that parent CREATED the pestilence and evil! That's like you or me putting a small kid in a room full of beautifully lit candles, telling the kid not to touch the pretty things and then walking out. I think we all know what would happen. If God were a parent in our world, He would be in jail and we'd be in the care of social services.