Greatest Storm in History Coming Today

by Amazing1914 97 Replies latest jw friends

prophecor

Loved every ounce of that energy, Terri. It speakes volumes to my heart & soul. Thanks for your perspective on things.
Sunnygal41

(((Prophecor))) You are so welcome, my brother! By the way, I HAVE to tell you something that I've been wanting to say for awhile...........you resemble my BF's longest, closest friend so much in your picture!!!! His name is Marcellino Hill, Moose for short! LOL!
Terri
Amazing1914

Talesin and Terri,
First, Talesin:
"Jim, does this give you pause? ... I'm curious. After debunking the JW faith, how do you reconcile blind faith in a doctrine which you admit has no convincing arguments in its favour? ... (not being sarcastic or malicious, I really don't get it, and you are such a good 'reasoner')"
Yes, it does give me pause. I do not have blind faith in Jesus Christ, nor do I say it has no convincing arguments. Rather, I am having difficulty understand and explaining destructive nature that is outside human causes. The "man caused it with global pollution" that some profer is utter nonsense, and reflects very poor understanding of science. Of course, human causes are bad enough, but we can put the blame where it belongs. I am just not able to understna dsome aspects of God's will. I have to be itellectually honest and admit this, and then seek answers, ragardless of the ultimate conclusion(s) I have to reach.
Terri / Sunnygal:
Thanks for the warm wishes. I am not in harm's way, as I live in Illinois ... about 1800 miles away from the hurricane. Locally, I am more concerned about drive-by shootings than the weather ... well, except when it gets colder than hell in Chicago. I am not sure how to respond to your "Mother Earth" views, as I know so little about them. The closest I can relate would be from Eccelastes 3:1-8 which says,
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
Perhaps in these verses is where we see the answers to our human difficulties.
Jim W.
Sunnygal41

Jim, from your concern, it sounded like you yourself were in the direct path...........to find that you have so much depth of compassion and connection to the rest of your fellow humans is a wonderful thing, imo. You mentioned that beautiful verse in Ecclesiastes, which was made into a famous song back in the sixties, as well as being one of my favorite verses from the Bible, along with the one in Proverbs about prettiness in an empty headed woman being compared to a nose ring in a pig's snout, lol..............I feel that it truly was a spiritually inspired comment and well worth copying and pasting again:
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
So, in essence, life is all about cycles and balance, which is such a simple statement for such a profoundly affecting concept. But, as I've been encouraged to do from friends of mine to "keep it simple", and so I try, as we all do.
Terri
Qcmbr

Since when was death bad? People dying is treated as some sort of bad thing when really from God's point of view it's good thing to return to Him.

If you believe in God you have to believe the weather is in His hands as well and yes it seems pretty crappy that people die in storms but people die due to the frailties of the human body as well - in the great balance they are the same thing. We are all going to die therefore death isn't the big bad bogey monster that we think it is.

Unfortunately JW philosophy still runs through this thinking that somehow death wasn't the originl plan, that suffering isn't required and that we can become what we are supposed to be without any pain whatsoever. I'd be interested to know what people think the world would be like in a 'garden of eden' with no death and everything perfect but no opposite.

Looking at it another way, if we really are eternal creatures that will exist after death and we get one chance in all of our existence to go without, suffer, bleed abd struggle for things - that is going to be the contrast to everything good we ever get.

"For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so.. righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility.
Wherefore, it must needs have been created for a thing of naught; wherefore there would have been no purpose in the end of its creation. Wherefore, this thing must needs destroy the wisdom of God and his eternal purposes, and also the power, and the mercy, and the justice of God."

"..if Adam had not transgressed he would not have fallen, but he would have remained in the garden of Eden. And all things which were created must have remained in the same state in which they were after they were created; and they must have remained forever, and had no end.
And they would have had no children; wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin.
But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things.
Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy.
And the Messiah cometh in the fulness of time, that he may redeem the children of men from the fall. And because that they are redeemed from the fall they have become free forever, knowing good from evil; to act for themselves and not to be acted upon, save it be by the punishment of the law at the great and last day, according to the commandments which God hath given."
the_classicist

We object to human wars, and in particular to Christians participating in war. The reason is that Christians should not kill, even if the war seems justified

But Christians are allowed to kill for legitimate reasons (such as the security of the state). Look at Jewish translations of the Tanakh: it's "You shall not murder" not "You shall not kill"; a slight nuance not captured in many translations.
"God does not love our suffering. He does not want us to suffer, but he will not normally interfere with the laws of nature which he authored. Jesus lived, suffered and died by these rules -- the same ones by which we live and suffer. Jesus' unmerited suffering and death show that God will not take away our freedom to protect the innocent from the evil. He created us free, and put us in charge of his creation. We must choose between good and evil, and we must answer at the end of our lives for what we have done with our freedom. Jesus' resurrection reveals that reward and punishment will be meted out by God not now, but in the life to come. All accounts will be settled then. God will reward whatever good we have done or whatever evil we have endured. The mystery of suffering will not be resolved in this life, and we cannot ultimately hope to account for it now. " -- +Bishop Raymundo J. Peña
DanTheMan

Since when was death bad? People dying is treated as some sort of bad thing when really from God's point of view it's good thing to return to Him.

Well, if everybody lived to a ripe old age and died peacefully in their sleep, that would be one thing. But generally that doesn't seem to be the case. Usually death is preceeded by either a long period of intense pain and suffering or a short moment of absolute, unimaginable terror.
Cygnus

I don't want to get into this topic other than to say I'm still convinced it doesn't matter whether God exists or not. We as humans should do the best we can while we're here, then shuffle off into oblivion. Like my ex-wife's brother said to the elders when he quit going to meetings and they asked, "Don't you want everlasting life?" He said, No, I want to grow old and die like everyone else. I always thought he was something of a dimwit but that's damned profound.
sonnyboy
Many of these natural disasters occur because of mans being totally out of sync with the laws and physics of the planet. Cause and effect are more the reason as to why there are such powerful destructive forces that wreak havoc with our world, not because God doesn't give a shit.

There have been natural disasters since the beginning of recorded time, way before the invention of the destructive technologies you describe.
- Destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum by volcanic activity
- Destruction of the Minoan civilization by tsunami
- 1201 Egyption quake which killed over a million
- 1556 quake in Shansi China which killed over 800,000 people
- Ancient cities destroyed by quakes: Troy (numerous times), Ugarit Syria, Helike Greece, Bronze Age Crete just to name a few
- 1780 Great Hurricane in Caribbean killing 22,000
- 1815 90,000 Indonesians killed by volcanic activity
- 1883 volcano in Indonesia kills 36,000
- 1887 900,000 people killed in China due to flooding of the Yellow River
- 1931 over 3 million Chinese killed in flood of Yantze River, 1 million more killed in 1938
I'm not saying that humans have never caused a 'natural disaster' to take place, but if there is a God, you can't let him off the hook that easily. He'd be responsible for the seismic activity which causes most natural disasters (tsunamis, volcanic eruption, earthquake, etc.).
Now, you have to ask yourself, if this god is so 'perfect' and full of love and compassion, why did he create the world in a manner that causes his objects of love pain, suffering, and death?
I'd really like to hear the answer. If he did this by accident, then that would prove how imperfect he really is. If his creations are flawed, then he would be flawed as well.
BrendaCloutier

Considering that lately science seems to be blaming any unusual weather on "Global warming" caused by man.

We watched a PBS show on Krakatoa's explosion in the 1800's. The debris from that blast circled the earth for 5 years, reflecting the suns rays back into space, and cooling the earth. A similar thing happened when little ol' Mt. St. Helens blew (100 times less material displaced) and "she" circled the earth for a couple years causing cooling of the earth.
The more I learn about our LIVE planet: weather patterns, volcanization, tectonic plate movement, and the spinning core of our earth the dynamo that creates the magnetic forcefield that protects our planet form solar wind, the more I am facinated by it. And on earth they have found lifeforms that live in incredible extremes of temperature and chemicals - "extremites".
Mars used to be a live planet, and has since "died". It is believed it once had a magnetic forcefield like ours. I don't know about the magnetic field, but Venus has tectonic plate movement, live volcanization, and may well have extreme life.
Whatever the origination of "life" and of the universes I find it quite facinating.
If there is a god, I certainly believe that She He It They (S.H.I.T.) don't care any more or any less about humankind, no matter what humans believe and worship. That S.H.I.T. doesn't care about the animals and plant life or the planet itself. At least in the mirco-realm - i.e. individuals or local groups doesn't give a S.H.I.T. (I'm actually serious ... albeit it is funny)

Greatest Storm in History Coming Today

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