The church I've been attending for the last couple years is a truly grounded church. It is anchored in Christ, and it is truly endeared toward His word. This concept of "election" keeps being brought up, without ever being exposited, except to say "God does whatever He wants. Who's to judge?" By that logic, why would anyone ever feel a negative emotion about ANYTHING?? Everything happens by his will, so who cares if I get butchered into pieces and eaten and shat on while I'm still alive? Why would I care? It's God's will! Not only would a Christian be not un-OK with it, they'd be PRAISING Him for it! "You, God, who only bring about GOOD things, are accomplishing something miraculous in this situation!" The ONLY good that could POSSIBLY come from that scenario is the understanding of the wrongdoer in this scenario is the victim's faith in God shines brighter and changes the mind and heart of the person who's doing wrong and they repent and continue believing in what they witnessed. That's not a given. That's not an un-given. But it's not a given. God tells us to turn the other cheek, so that, as Paul explains his epistles, people with evil intent may be put to shame, and even if they shamelessly continue pursuing evil, they will be without any conceivable excuse. It won't be "well, you didn't exactly help the situation" They may have that to say about other people, but Christ's children should not be in on that. We should be compassionate in understanding that they are in danger if they continue acting evil.
But what is EVIL? God has HIS definition. But do we have ANY CONCEPT of what that word means? Or do Christians just parrot what God says? Surely, there's a part of us that knows at least some of the things that make up right and wrong. The sexual immorality laws of The Bible are more foreign to natural man, they don't SEEM to make much sense, but the fact of the matter is that God will more likely than not withhold blessing from people that partake in it. But every other facet of God's law is beyond fair. Not "fair" because God says it's fair. Fair because WE, mere mortals, recognize the goodness of it. Had the Israelites kept God's law, as He says to the people who are entering the Promised Land, they would have attracted people throughout the world because they'd be like "Wow, these laws are so fair and just. Who HAS laws like these?!" They'd be joining the faith left and right. It didn't work out that way, obviously because of Israel's repeated and exceeding rebelliousness toward God. But the early Isrealites still understood the goodness that was in His word, even if they didn't feel the full weight of it. People sang praises to Him repeatedly throughout the early books of the Old Testament. Is that because God TOLD people He's good or is that because we are able to identify what IS *GOOD*?
So, no. I don't believe God's goodness is outside of our ability to judge.
I emailed my pastor about this yesterday and got a response. The response made sense, kind of...
The annoying thing about this is I tend to look for a way out of owning up to things. If it's not my fault, I don't have any intention of being blamed for it. I don't have any intention of paying for something that isn't mine. Sure, I'll give to those in need, as long as I'm not depriving myself, but I'm not going to give someone the satisfaction of pinning their ill will on me. So if I don't feel like pulling my hair westward toward Eden, I'm fine thinking "Well, God's in control. I don't need to worry about it." Except I'm not fine with that. That's my tendency, but I always have a sneaking suspicion that I AM ABLE. He IS ALSO ABLE, to what I should do, and to pay the price of my NOT doing what I should do, and far more than I can even imagine, but I AM ALSO ABLE to do A LOT. True, I am not the creator of the world. True, I don't know literally everything or even understand as much as I perhaps may like to, but THE CHRISTIAN LIFE is not about TRUSTING IN GOD. The CHRISTIAN LIFE is about LIVING **FOR** GOD. You trust in God when you FAIL TO live for Him, but inasmuch AS IT DEPENDS ON YOU, PURSUE GOOD WORKS AND CARRY THEM OUT DILIGENTLY. I don't understand people who are constantly "not relying on good works". Yes, your good works won't save you. How the heck could they? They DO, however, earn favor with God. In Heaven, we're all equal, maybe, I'm not sure if that's stated in scripture, but on Earth there are indeed consequences for evil and neutrality. I don't think those consequences are just "The natural order of things". Those consequences reflect how God feels about you because of WHAT YOU'RE DOING. I wish I could just preach this to myself, but one thing I'm maybe too good at is not deferring to my own thinking. My feelings are indeed strong, but my thoughts are just more like "I'll take that into consideration" Obviously it has to make sense in order for me to consider it. I'm not going to "have faith" in something that literally makes no sense.
