Any other childfree people here?

[Aldin]

Originally Posted by Lazy Orang

Because it's too dangerous. If someone has unlimited power, they can do anything they want to people, unpunished. The idea of unlimited power and authority sticks in my throat a bit, but when it's unconditional as well, that's when the real problems start - unconditional total authority means that power can be abused as much as the guy with it wants, and no one can take it away.

So we are saying that the Christian God is dangerous. Someone with unlimited power that can do anything He wants to people, unpunished. I agree with that wholeheartedly. The Christian God is extremely dangerous. Even more so because we are limited in our perception of who He is and what He wants.

But is He a tyrant?

I grabbed Merriam-Webster:
Tyrant
: a ruler who has complete power over a country and who is cruel and unfair
: someone who uses power in a cruel and unfair way

Clearly He has power. The question is whether or not He is cruel and unfair. I've got cruel as "disposed to inflict pain or suffering" and unfair as "marked by injustice, partiality, or deception".

The gist of the Bible is this: God made everything perfect without pain or suffering and honestly warned Adam and Eve against the consequences of eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. After they ate, pain and suffering entered into the world as a consequence of their action. Desiring a future state where everyone who chose it would be able to once again live with Him without any pain or suffering, God began to unfold His plan to make that future possible.

I know how God's plan started and I know how God's plan ends - everyone who chooses it living with God free from pain and suffering. This ongoing middle part where we all get from a to b is sometimes pretty hard to understand. Knowing that we started at "a" and are ending at "b" though, reassures me that even without my understanding of the plan, I can trust that it is working perfectly according to the design of the God who desires to live in peace, reconciled with us all.

~Aldin, trusting in God's perfect character