Tag Archives: God

Why does God keep punishing me?

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I recently finished a book, Encounters with Jesus, by Timothy Keller.  He wrote about things I knew [sort of] but he articulated them in such a way that it gave me much greater understanding and hope.  One of the topics Keller touched on was God’s justice and our fear of continual punishment.
Keller easily deflated our perception that God continues to punish us.  He pointed out that all our sins, past present, future, great and small, were laid on Jesus on the cross.  There is not a single sin, anywhere in all time and/or creation, that was not dealt with – punished on the cross.  Not a single one!  The big question is, have you acknowledged this and received God’s incredible gift of salvation?
Therefore, because of God’s perfect justice, it is impossible for God to continue to punish those of us who have acknowledged Christ’s sacrifice.  It would be unjust for God to punish us for something (sin, mistake, error, etc., deliberate or otherwise) that God has already punished Jesus for (including all our sins from this moment forward).  That would be to punish the same sin twice.  If God were to continue to punish us for a previously atoned for sin it would completely negate all of Christ’s sufferings. This is not possible!
We read the following in Colossians 1:22-23 NLT, “Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you [insert your name here] are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.  But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News.”
But this truth does not necessarily answer your question, “Why does it feel like God is punishing me?”  Jesus himself answers this question, naming satan, the great accuser.  In Revelation 12:10 NIV we read, “Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.”  In fact, Isaiah 50:8 NIV makes the following statement in this Messianic prophecy, “He who vindicates me is near. Who then will bring charges against me? Let us face each other! Who is my accuser? Let him confront me!”  Not only does God not repeatedly punish us for our sins over and over, our Saviour stands before God’s throne vindicating us!  How awesome is that!?
The original Hebrew term satan is a noun from a verb meaning primarily “to obstruct or oppose”, as it is found in Numbers 22:22, 1 Samuel 29:4, Psalms 109:6. Ha-Satan is traditionally translated as “the accuser” or “the adversary”.
If the above is true, and the Accuser shows up, as he will from time-to-time, and when we are at our lowest points, perhaps in a valley (he likes to try and kick us while we’re down), we have the perfect example of how to respond: “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’” You can also simply say, “In Jesus name, go away!”  “Then the devil left him” (Matthew 4:11).
If God is not punishing us, what about discipline?  God does discipline the ones He loves. In thinking on this we should consider: a. It is pointless to ‘discipline’ someone if they don’t know why they’re being disciplined. b. Discipline is a ‘corrective action’, it is there to provide a positive and beneficial outcome. c. God disciplines those He loves.  Whatever discipline God metes out – it will/must always be done in His divine and limitless love for us.
All this potentially leads to another question, “Why do bad things happen to me?”  This is a question for another time but meditate of this thought: What would life be like if ‘bad things’ never happened?  How would it affect your relationship with God?

WHO FLIPPED THE COIN TO CREATE THE UNIVERSE? THE ATHEISTS NIGHTMARE

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Excerpts from The Battle for the Beginning by John McArthur:

Either there is a God who created the universe and sovereignly rules His creation, or everything was caused by blind chance. If God rules, there is no room for chance.  God’s rule and chance are mutually exclusive and inherently incompatible.  If chance causes or determines anything, God is not truly God.
But chance is not a force and cannot make anything happen.  Chance is nothing. It does not exist. And therefore has no power to do anything.  The outcome of the flipping of a coin is not a matter of chance, rather, the outcome is exactly determined by all the laws of physics associated with the flipping of the coin and the properties of the coin itself.  Under precise laboratory conditions the outcome of a coin-toss will be predictable and repeatable. The only variable, where the laws of physics do not apply, is the decision to toss the coin—or not.  Without this initiative there can be no outcome.
Chance is contrary to every law of science (chance precludes anything from being observable and repeatable), every principle of logic, and every intuition of common sense.  The most basic principles of thermodynamics, physics and biology suggest that chance simply cannot be the determinative force that has brought about the order and interdependence we see in our universe.
God is the uncaused cause.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” The Bible: Genesis 1:1
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WHAT IS CHANCE?
Randomness – a lack of pattern or predictability in events.
Probability – the measure of the likeliness that an event will occur.
Luck – a purposeless, unpredictable and uncontrollable force that shapes events favourably or unfavourably for an individual, group or cause.
Chance is a philosophical concept.

Anyone who has read or watched the Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy will know that at the end of the show, as Ford Prefect, on his Spaceship of Infinite Probability, ends his search for The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything with the his answer – 42.  The question we all need to ask ourselves is, does the sum total of all my life experiences, all the highs and lows, the joys and sufferings, my childhood, my education, my career, all the good I have done, and the loves of my life, total nothing more than the roll of the dice? I hope your answer is, “No.”

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This is the typical non-theistic response: “Evolution is driven by mutation, selection in regard to the species environment, and reproductive success. It is absolutely not due to blind chance. It is completely run by specific events that lead to decent with modification.”  This statement is obviously self-contradictory!

It uses mutation as the basis for its argument.  The question has to be asked, what caused the mutation?  The environment? This then becomes a circular argument and leads to the next obvious question, what caused the changing environment if not chance?