4d ago

The Struggle Brings Holiness

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People: God, please stop giving children leukemia.
God: Well now I'm gonna do it harder.
- Someone who dies in childhood would never have to worry about employment, finding food, stress over politics, etc. It's quite merciful.
- Simple question: is an eternity of joy worth some years of suffering?
  Another simple question: is a year of suffering not also pierced through with joy on occasion? Do we not also grow accustomed to what suffering occurs, and thus have moments of liberation from the pain?
  Of course, you have to judge Christianity based on the internal logic of the faith... I feel like you are shortsighted here, simply coming up with this idea in your head that kids suffer and then
  <nothing>
  , when in reality every innocent kid inherits the Kingdom of God.
  I'd also just refer you back to this:
  "Every trial and temptation is permitted by God as a cure for some sick person's soul. Indeed, such trials not only confer on us forgiveness of our past and present sins, but also act as a check on sins not yet committed." (in the Philokalia)
  Source
  
  Very interesting choice of analogy in the blog.
  The man who loses a leg in a drunken motorcycle accident experiences excruciating pain, and then all sorts of subsequent emotional and mental pain from the loss of his leg. Yet, he has the power to make this a tool for change in his life to save himself from alcoholism and mortal sin.
  So we've shifted from supposedly blameless babies being chainsawed by a maniac through no fault of their own to an alcoholic losing a leg resulting directly from his own actions. The argument being that suffering is a way to turn your life around and receive forgiveness for sins.
  What sins does a 2 year old need forgiven of? Or did God know they were going to be a sinner in the future and decide to nip that in the bud early? Either way it sounds like that blog is trying to assign moral culpability to literal children for their own sickness, and that's reprehensible.
  
  [Long post ahead - I am sorry it is so long but I don't have time to edit it and am just going to hit enter.]
  The post focused on the more common problem of suffering among adults as a result of their choices, but I fully acept what you are saying since it needs to be addressed. I am simply stating that the focus of that particular post was not really directly related to our topic, but that was the source of the quote.
  So, a two-year old does not need to be forgiven any sins - that is exactly correct, zero issues there.
  However, the suffering of an animal is even a lesson to us, and animals also are incapable of sin. The suffering of someone I did not know but who I heard about, or whose picture I saw, or who I even just thought of as a possibility - like the rhetorically useful starving kid in Africa - are actually all realities that impact me and how I live, right.
  I appreciate every time I eat a meal without meat in it because I think of the factory farms out there. I think of all the wonderful animals I have met. I think of videos of even birds showing gratittude and friendship with humans, right...
  Similarly, the suffering of children I do not know makes my own concept of life more appreciated, and it makes me more committed to living a better life.
  So I would sitll insist: every single bit of suffering in the world and every single temptation serves a purpose for our repentance.
  Right now, as an alcoholic, I feel even a kinship with people who are meth addicts or gambling addicts that have thrown their lives away... And every time I sit down with some people who are ordering booze, I feel a little bit itchy and a little bit... desirous of alcohol, wanting a drink, wanting things to be different... And I remember those people, as well as two friends who killed themselves eventually while alcoholics, and I think of my friend who was beaten routinely by a drunken step-dad... and I feel that extra motivation to be better.
  The reality that we all endure - that is so common it becomes tropes - animates us all, right?
  Like you may not have had a grandmother or aunt who was beaten physically by some rotten old patriarch, or a family member or acquaintrance of the family that was exploited s3xually by someone in those darker times... But your own rejection of the patriarchy is powered by the collective recognition that women suffered obscenely for years from it, right?
  So, in a very real sense, the fleeting nature of life and the suffering many endure make us better, IMO.
  
  So suffering is good actually? What about children suffering from leukemia in India or Egypt, where chrisitanity isn't all that popular are they going to inherit kingdom of god?
  
  Yes, I firmly believe that the innocent children will go to heaven. I also think a substantial amount of non-Christians who die in adulthood will also go to heaven, for they will be judged based on their hearts, and I think that many of these people are very good and very sincere. I live in a non-Christian country, and that is how I feel about my neighbors - many , many of them will be in the Kingdom of God.
  But I urge people, nonetheless, towards Christianity, because the only certain way that I can point to for having peace on this earth and peace in the next life is through Christianity... To clarify my point on this.
  I recently had a long debate about this that turned bitter with another Christian who was theologically some kind of arch-conservative that tried to convince me the opposite was true, and even though I felt he presented the strongest, most Biblical case you could, as he was a very eloquent and intelligent man, I still did not budge and am completely convinced that his perspective on this is wrong, and that it goes against even how conservative, traditional Christians view this.
  I'd gladly elaborate if you like.
  But I do want you to know... I am a conservative on most theological issues... and I fully believe the above statement. I am not blowing smoke up anyone's rear to win points.

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