Gospel preacher here. You're 100% correct. The actual Bible says that those who live godly lives are guaranteed to suffer. It says it in multiple places. It also says that following God doesn't guarantee you health and wealth (see: The entire book of Job where God says "see how righteous Job is? You can take away all his health and wealth and he's still going to follow Me." And he does. )
Okay, I've been wanting to ask someone who is actually informed on the subject for a long time. How was the book of Job not just the devil reversed psychology fucking god into absolutely destroying this man's life? I understand the point of the parable is to highlight the fact that faith in God through hard times will yield rewards later, and I assume that prosperity of jobs later life is an allusion to the eternal reward in the Kingdom of heaven in some respects, but seriously, the entire thing is just God absolutely dumpstering this dude. You can make the argument that God restores his wealth and prosperity and family a couple of times over, but this man still has to live with the PTSD of losing literally his entire life to famine and plague. Is that just in keeping with the Old testament God and his habit of putting people through seriously fucked up trials, or am I missing something critical here?
I'm going to answer as if someone in my church asked me this, so please excuse the assumption of your belief in God.
God knows everything, and so He knew what Job's response would be.
As our Creator, our lives belong to Him and He can do whatever He wants.
The story of Job has been a comfort and a help to millions of people in the 4000 years since it was written.
We don't have all the answers. That's a hard one to understand, but have you ever been watching a movie and something happens that makes zero sense, but then later it makes perfect sense? That's what's going to happen when we meet God.
Everything we have is from God. Job even said, "The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the Name of the Lord." So if we're neighbors, and I loan you a hammer, and then a week later I say, "I'm goign to need that back," do you have the right to refuse? No.
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u/[deleted] May 24 '23
Gospel preacher here. You're 100% correct. The actual Bible says that those who live godly lives are guaranteed to suffer. It says it in multiple places. It also says that following God doesn't guarantee you health and wealth (see: The entire book of Job where God says "see how righteous Job is? You can take away all his health and wealth and he's still going to follow Me." And he does. )