I appreciate your thoughts, but you never answered the questions I posed to you.
“Do you believe that God planned all of the events in the thief on the cross’ life that led up to his audience with Jesus there?”
“Do you believe that the thief now believes that the audience was worth his getting caught and punished?”
The question you posed was,
“Do you believe that God planned for the founding fathers of this country to advocate breaking up black families in slave trade and bless america?”
My answer had nothing to do with whether Washington, Jefferson and Adams should models of how one should live. That was not the question. The question was about God’s plan for slaves and I answered, “He uses the gifts of illness, addictions, financial ruin, injury, ignomy to bring us to him. So to answer your question, God uses even slavery to bring his children to him, for circumstances do not determine our royal lineage, only faith in him. What does it profit a man if he has all of the freedom in the world and loses his soul?”.
God uses just the right circumstances, personalized, to draw his own unto himself, including slavery. That is how many were taken out of slavery to Satan into the freedom of the Lord. Would you have them left in their condemned state? It is not a method that we think civilized people should use to treat others, but it was used by God to spiritually liberate many. Look at Joseph, Gen. 50:20, “But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.” God had foretold the slavery in Egypt to Abraham and then sold Joseph into slavery to make it happen. He foretold the sacrifice of his son to Isaiah some 750 years before it happened in order to liberate us from the slavery to sin.
God did not make the thief sin or preprogrammed the thief to sin, He simply used the situation that was at hand and the thief freely asked Christ to forgive Him.
Sin belongs to man and never to God
...And God does use unfortunate situations such as illness and other things to allow man to freely Choose Him.
Catholic’s/Orthodox don”t believe God sets up a stage play of puppets.
God reacts to everything in one NOW ,one event!