Yes, people who believe that God gets mad about such things would be afraid of that. I'm not afraid. I wonder, do people who believe God might strike people dead for doing certain things know of any cases of God striking, say, a child molester dead? Has God ever struck a bank robber dead? An adulterer? Did he strike Saddam Hussein dead? Hitler?
But yes, it does seem that the examples we have in the Bible are only when a "man of God" is insulted or disobeyed, or someone lied about how much they gave to the church, or something. Even the Bible doesn't record God getting that angry about things like rape or murder, as I recall.
Why would God strike a person dead? JUST simply to 'punish' them? No, hell will serve that purpose fine enough. If God intervenes and strikes someone down dead, I imagine it would be for a more elevated purpose than mere retribution. It would probably be calculated and designed to produce the maximum effect - namely, to bring a holy reverence for God into the minds of those who witness or hear of the event, to build their faith in God while also keeping them in a healthy fear of God.
But why would God do any such thing today? People would not respond positively to it. Why some even of those who claim to love God more than life itself would be among the FIRST to deny God had anything to do with such a 'horrific, vengeful, frightful' thing. They would assure everyone and themselves that God is no 'bogey man out to get the bad people' because that might make people - who suspect theythemselves might not be all that good to begin with - were potential targets of God's impending, unexpected, unpreventable Judgement. And thus, society today certainly has no rational EXPECTATION of any such demonstrations of Divine Power and Justice by any God that DID exist. Therefore, even if it were a FACT that God existed, there would be no reason for anyone today to expect any such act on His part. We would simply scoff and deny it anyway. And so he allows us to wallow in our unbelief, sealing our own destruction upon ourselves by our own hardened, calloused hearts. As it is written, "the backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways".
But while you are asking about horrible sinners, like child molestors, dictators, etc being struck dead by God because of their horrific crimes against all that is holy and good, hear what Jesus had to say about that very subject -
Luk 13:4
Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem?
Luk 13:5
I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
Yes, I had that fear-inducing event in mind when I posted. Fear is a good motivator, I suppose. (Not working with me, unfortunately. You have to believe in it to be afraid of it.)
Timmy are you and Livefortruth, the same person? If not, this is for both of you.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, knowledge and understanding. Do you know what the 'fear of the Lord” is? It is to hate evil, pride and the froward mouth.
And what you are saying and what LFT did, is evil. Not only that both of you are proud of what you, or both of you, are saying.
God would be kind, to knock you both down, so that you wouldn't have to endure the fires of hell.
But since you don't believe God, it wouldn't do any good. You wouldn't even recognize it as the hand of God. So I imagine you will live your lives without that wisdom, knowledge or understanding.
Hmm. That was for peeking into the ark, which isn't exactly an offense against another human, which is what I had in mind. The other one, purposely not impregnating the widow of his brother so his child wouldn't be legally his own child, well, yeah. That counts.
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Hebrews 13:23 Know ye that our brother Timothy is set at liberty
Timmy are you and Livefortruth, the same person? If not, this is for both of you.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, knowledge and understanding. Do you know what the 'fear of the Lord” is? It is to hate evil, pride and the froward mouth.
And what you are saying and what LFT did, is evil. Not only that both of you are proud of what you, or both of you, are saying.
God would be kind, to knock you both down, so that you wouldn't have to endure the fires of hell.
But since you don't believe God, it wouldn't do any good. You wouldn't even recognize it as the hand of God. So I imagine you will live your lives without that wisdom, knowledge or understanding.
We're not the same person.
Your definition of "fear of the Lord" is not right. You do not have to have any fear, or any regard at all, of God in order to hate evil. Christians are not the only people in the world who hate evil.
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Hebrews 13:23 Know ye that our brother Timothy is set at liberty
Your definition of "fear of the Lord" is not right. You do not have to have any fear, or any regard at all, of God in order to hate evil. Christians are not the only people in the world who hate evil.
Could you post an example? Thanks.
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Do Not Argue With Idiots, they will just bring you down to their level and beat you with experience.
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Whether the stunt pulled by Livefortruth is evil or not is up for debate. From his point of view, there is a group of people who claim supernatural powers and/or supernatural assistance from God, and (remember, this is from his point of view) the do NOT have any such thing. They pretend. They (many of them) are proud of their powers. They demonstrate them with messages in tongues and interpretations. Prophecies, words of knowledge. Discernment. His stunt is (in his mind) demonstrating the fakeness of those claims.
I don't exactly condone or condemn his stunt. It is what it is.
Now, of course, there is always accusations, as there were this time, following these things about the lack of truuuuue discernment in some churches. But the ones who point fingers are just as unlikely to succeed in demonstrating real supernatural powers as the pranked churches. IMO.
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Hebrews 13:23 Know ye that our brother Timothy is set at liberty
Really? Do you actually believe that Christians are the only people who hate evil? You think I love evil? Seriously?!
Sure I think you hate evil as you define it. I dont think you define it the way Christians define it.
we all hate Ax murders, we all hate wanton slaugter of innocents. We pretty much all take a hard stand against guys that kidnap and enslave women, we all take a dim view of a person who gets 4th graders hooked on herion etc.
but as much as that is evil, that is not exactly what God calls evil and there are aspects of what God calls evil that you certainly do not believe to be evil.
So the answers to your three questions are, yes and no... and yes and no... and yes and no....
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