He wrote:
To which I have replied:So God, if you're out, up, around, inside there? Can you explain? Are we being punished for insufficient belief? Is Nick being punished for some kind of moral weakness? And how, exactly, are Emily and Tony and Danyelle and Amber - true believers all - supposed to take this lesson? (Not to mention Gary, Jo, Donna, Ryan, John J., Becca, Omi, Shannon, Jess, Ryan, and Chelle - all your faithful servants) Honestly, the "it's not for us to know..." lesson sounds like a cop out. God? Bueller? Anyone?
I've tried to live my life by the teachings of Christ, and put into practice the generosity of spirit and absence of hate He taught, as has Michelle, as much as she'd hate to admit it. If this is some kind of recruiting campaign, it's not working. How can a religion of love, acceptance and forgiveness allow something like this? We are broken, all of us, and I don't see how YOU are going to fix us. With all sincerity and an open mind... Andy
Jesse was also a step-son and also 23. Unlike Nick, he had not just recently got married but I kind of wish that he had found that special someone, even if just for a brief while. And then again, perhaps it was best not. That kind of "what-if" thing is indeed not for us to knowDear Andy: To Christians, “it’s not for us to know” would indeed be a cop out because we do know; God has made these thing clear in His Word, the Bible. No-one is punished for insufficient belief on this earth. All of us are equally sinners and equally separated from God. All of us are naturally bound for eternal separation from God, which (whatever it may consist of) is the worst thing imaginable. God’s son, Jesus took on himself all of the punishment that is rightfully ours; God raised Jesus from death in victory over the grave as He promises to raise all who sincerely believe. That’s how God has promised to fix us. As Nick was a Christian, his faith is that he has gone from this world to be with his Lord and Maker – he would not see that as a punishment but as reward.
In all those who loved him here on earth, Christian or not, there is an awful sense of personal loss. But to sincere Christians who loved him here on earth there is the certain knowledge of Nick’s eternal salvation. It is God’s love, acceptance and forgiveness that made it all possible.
Believers do not have the same emptiness that non-believers wrestle with; the hopelessness of the void that so many seem to wish is the real way things are. I find that depressing. Why would anyone hope that Nick’s belief is wrong and that indeed he is now nowhere and nothing?
Andy, we’ve thrashed this out so often. “Trying” to live by Christ’s teachings in generosity and absence of hate are better things than their opposite – but they won’t save anyone from what Nick has been saved from. I wept for my son Jesse and yet at the same time recognised the victory over death that God gave him by grace through faith. My faith was strengthened by God’s promise, not weakened by man’s disbelief. Jn 3:16 – not just a slogan.
Meade
PS I got the wrong end of the stick a bit - Andy didn't say Nick was a Christian; it was the other folks he named.
No - he did say that so let it stand.