our view of god's ability to be all, to be all powerful, must include wisdom and compassion, and it must include the qualities of being obtuse and/or abstruse, perhaps past our ability to comprehend.
one the one hand we are gifted by god's compassion and generosity. and, what limited intelligence we enjoy has to be included in that package of attributes conferred upon us. and, on the other hand, good has also "conferred" upon us several other gifts of a more dubious nature, those including the capacity to murder and to inflict suffering and degradation upon our fellows.
i give you putin. and, martin heydrich. and, klaus barbie.
and, if god has the ability to confer these qualities upon us, it seems to me that he also must share in the attributes he confers.
it is my personal view that being all powerful comprehends being a bit "asleep at the switch" with regard to our existence, and though he stands in judgment, he must also in some respects stand in ignorance and neglect of our situation. even, perhaps, indifference.
i give you putin. and, reinhard heydrich. and, klaus barbie. and, joseph goebbels.
and, now it seems, fed ex drivers. in texas, within the week past, a fed ex driver abducted and murdered a 3 year girl after delivering a package to her parent's house. and, again in texas, with the past couple of months or so, another fed ex driver abducted and murdered a 7 year girl. two lives, stolen and destroyed, almost off the front porches of their own homes.
how can we reconcile our concepts of divinity in grace, when that divinity and grace includes beauty and the wonders of life, "hand in hand," so to speak, with atrocious barbarity, wickedness & cruelty, and the absolute absence of any empathy for the life of others. creation, destruction ..... all in one.
every day, almost ever hour, we are in almost revelation over the accomplishments of man, his aspiration to knowledge and holiness, and his quite opposite tendency to baseness, and cruelty and depravity. sometimes, i suspect, in the form and existence of a single person. (this is why i included references to heydrich and barbie, two of the most sadistic person ever to live. and, being who they were, i have no doubt that they enjoyed opera and the symphony.
how?
well, to me, it is all a hopeless muddle.*** both spiritually and intellectually.
heydrich. son of a composer, played the violin and the piano, very well. goebbels, committed suicide with his wife, and they also killed five children before killing themselves. high educated. barbie. and, to illustrate the "muddle" of all things, barbie was an expert in torture, and was known as the "butcher of lyon." he survived world war ii, and worked after the war for the allies. he also lived and "worked" at his "trade" in bolivia. he was finally extradited to france where he was tried for his wwii crimes, and died in prison.
and, putin. a thug, and a murderer. evidence/intelligence has come to the fore that prior to invading the ukraine, he contemplated and planned "a limited war" with japan over some obscure islands claimed by both russia and japan, and currently occupied by russia. instead, for reasons not clearly understood, he abandoned the invasion of japan and invaded the ukraine instead. he is responsible for the deaths of perhaps 40,000 ukrainian civilians, and noted for the bombings of maternity wards and hospital and apartment building. as a matter of some note, his agitprop types claimed as a rationale for the war against japan the "denazification" of japan.
yes, i am troubled by all of this. and, in my mind, it is a hopeless intellectual and spiritual muddle. and, it makes a muddle out of the attempt to understand and fashion a coherent picture/portrait/understanding of god, and our providence. to fashion a "personal proof" of the role of god and providence. and, how much that same "proof" shall guide my life, and our lives.
john jay @ 12.04.2022
*** and, has proved to be the same muddle to governments and government officials in history, and now. the "killer angel," indeed.
I had a long and spirited discussion about why god allows man's inhumanity to his fellow man with my brilliant spouse,and she chalked it up to His gift
of free will and that gift absolves mankind from all its transgressions.
Posted by: Paul Albers | December 05, 2022 at 04:59 AM