A firefighter asked, "Where are my brethren"...

Rockford Register Star | 9-23-01 | Ross S. Milligan, Rockford IL

[supercat]

A firefighter asked, "Where are my brethren?"
GOD answered "Your heros are with ME."
This firefighter asked, "Why?"
GOD answered, "I needed angels."
The firefighter asked, "Why so many?"
And GOD replied, "Like you, I have many to watch over."

[supercat]

One of the cartoons in today's Rockford Register Star contained the above text. It was handwritten in big- and small-caps; I have tried to preserve capitalization and punctuation where they were unclear.

Hope nobody else posted this; I couldn't figure out how to do an author search, and didn't know what else to search under.

[katze]

#2 Please don't say that. I'm not real happy now either, with the Pope calling for peace, after the slaughter we've witnessed of innocent people. But, lets not blaspheme, it doesn't help. If I had my way, we'd go after them until we have the right ones.

[arjay]

I get tired of hearing people blame God for the deaths of people. Even this type of idea that God needs angels is a way of blaming God.

If one believes the Bible, Satan is the one responsible for sin and death. God gave man free will and when an event such as this takes place it is because man has used his free will to follow Satan instead of God.

God did not need any more angels. Man chose to do evil rather than good and innocent people paid the price.

Let us not blame God for this tragedy. Satan is responsible for bringing sin into the world and man is responsible for choosing the wrong rather than the right.

[katze]

I agree, but we all feel like we have to blame someone, and in this case it was a little bit too high. We are all so frustrated, and venting sometimes helps. I've done a lot of crying lately, because that is often what women do. The poster probably didn't mean it.

What I'd really like to do is pray that God would strike binLaden and his terrorists with a disease that would cause their bodies to rot inch by inch, with very painful lesions, beginning on their faces, making them easily identifiable, so we could put them in prison and die after about 50 yrs. I want them all dead, and that is all.

[Untouchable]

I am so tired of people propagating this unbiblical falsehood that people become Angels when they die. Angels are a seperate distinct creation by God.

[supercat]

The poster probably didn't mean it.

I did not author the original text. As noted above, I saw the text in a cartoon and posted it here verbatum.

There are those who believe the universe runs according to some divine plan. There are others who believe the universe runs entirely on its own and no divine plan has anything to do with it. I would guess the author of this piece belongs in the former category.

As for myself, I tend to believe that there is a divine plan, but that God can use many ways of achieving it; people have considerable free will, but God exerts a certain amount of infuence to steer the world his way. As such, the author's comment might possibly be meaningful but probably not. On the other hand, I cannot presume to know what our Lord has in mind for myself or any of us.

[katze]

I didn't mean you, about the poster didn't mean it. I thank you for posting; I didn't take it as a cartoon-type joke. I believe if anyone deserves eternal reward, it is those who die saving their fellow human being; the ultimate sacrifice.