this post was submitted on 16 Mar 2025
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[–] [email protected] 12 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Well, since this is a religious discussion, I'm a Christian. It's always God.

Job 1:6-12 very clearly shows God granting permission for Satan to test Job.

1 Kings 22:19-22 shows the "court in heaven" and God soliciting ideas from spirits for enticing Ahab to attack Ramoth Gilead, where he will die. When a good suggestion is made, God grants permission.

Exodus 10:1-2 states clearly that God hardened Pharaoh's heart to not let the slaves go, so that God could display his "signs" (plagues).

Satan is a liar, and the father of lies.

Romans 9:19-21 NIV

One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?” But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’ ” Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Wow, sounds like a cruel deity that's definitely not worthy of worship.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 hours ago (4 children)

Hey, at least you're judging based on the facts of what the Bible says. God is who He is. He's not campaigning. You disagree with Him, but at least it's really Him.

Of course, that puts you in the same position as Job. You want to judge God. You want to put him on trial. You disagree with Him.

And if you have the opportunity to question Him directly, you'll say the same thing Job said.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (1 children)

I'm judging a fictional character based on how he's characterized by the book he appears in. There may be a higher power, but the god of the Bible certainly ain't it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 45 minutes ago* (last edited 45 minutes ago)

Certainly? You have a better candidate? Baal? Molech? Satan, perhaps?

You do you; pick a side, deny the battle, anything you choose.

I'm quite seriously suggesting that the God of the Bible, and specifically the Christian God, is is the most perfect God that could be imagined, and yet wholly unexpected as He is revealed. The God of the Bible soothes no one. He ruffles everyone's feathers. He is pure perfect and exacting. Yet there is love and mercy there.

Now, His followers have done a lot to screw up that presentation. But that's as it always has been. In the Old Testament, in Jesus's day, and now, the people of God - even those with direct divine revelation - have been misrepresenting Him.

Joshua 24:15 NIV

But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. [Or the gods of reason, science, and unbelief?] But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

And if you have the opportunity to question Him directly, you’ll say the same thing Job said.

That would be what, "Why are you so weirdly obsessed with Leviathan?" after Job 41?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 hours ago

Haha, Leviathan was certainly the "big bad" in Job. I don't know what creature was being referred to (maybe a species of large crocodile?) but yes, he gets a lot of air time.

No, I meant Job 42:3, "Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know."

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) (1 children)

I would add that not every author is writing unbiased in the Bible. We know now for instance that some books near the end of the Bible attributed to Paul may not have been written by him, but by some of the people under Paul in the early church. So adding parts about women not holding positions of authority within the Church more or less served to cement their own positions and authority for the early-Christians that were formalizing the religion.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago

Yep. That's addressed in books the Council left out.