Mr. GunRunner
You said, “The book of Job is not humbling. In fact if I had to list 10 reasons why I’m no longer a believer, the book of Job would be up near the top of the list.
If the god of Job did exist, I would rebel against him and call for regime change. It is a sick, sick story.”
I wondered what your stand was - and this made it quite apparent!
Job, the man, showed us all what a lowly human can do with faith. He showed us the epitome of unfaltering immoveable faith.
The book of Job also shows us some ‘philosophy’ and how rationalizing can convince anyone of anything - unless their core faith is strong enough to withstand the barrage via Job’s wife and 3 ‘friends’. In the end of Job, we see the true value of man’s philosophy and rationalization as God puts man in his place.
It is quite telling that if God’s response to Job doesn’t humble you, there is some serious bitterness and rebellion going on!
I dare say - the Job story is far from a valid reason for your “rebellion”.
I’m certain you have a million questions as to why God would allow such a thing to happen to one with the faith of Job. Even Job had a few questions for God, didn’t he? But Job - through all that - never let go of the hand of God.
Can I ask that you read Romans 1? Here is what I really want you to see: Please really read it.
16I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. 17For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”
18The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
21For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
24Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
26Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
28Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
GunRunner - you need to see the line that says, “...so that men are without excuse.” So after all the teeth gritting and anger and rebellion and whatever else is going on - at the end of the day there is a man in front of a mirror who has to ask himself what his faith is in.
There is a point where God does ‘give you over’, but notice God did not inflict this on you or anyone else. They knew God and replaced him with something, anything else. (The most famous god of all time is the god of “ME”.) They made the choice of giving up the True God and so - God eventually ‘gave them over’.
Don’t let this be you.
I apologize if this is off subject to the original thread or inappropriate here.
My point on using the word 'rebel' was that I've somewhat crossed over into the realm of antitheism, rather than just atheism. That is, not only do I not believe, I think it would be pretty awful if it were all true, and I'm thankful that its not. There is no supernatural being watching over my every move and analyzing my every thought. And thankfully so; we do not live in a divine North Korea with a nosy dictator overseeing human affairs.
If a supreme being did exist, I would "pray" that it would not be the one described in Job, who is an arrogant aristocrat who allows horrible things to happen to Job at the hands of Satan simply to prove a point, or more pointedly, to win a gentlemen's agreement. His actions are very reminiscent of how Greek gods used to behave. Satan and god's discussion remind me of two plantation owners sipping scotch and playing pool while arguing over who has the most loyal slaves.
Forget that noise! I bow to no one, especially the god of Job. Thankfully he's not real and is a creation of mankind.