I got a question from a youth on Facebook today. I thought it was a good question, and hope that I did a good job of answering it. Anyway, I thought I would share it with you.
Well I know you're a man with a good philosophy on aspects of religion, so I have a question for you. At my youth group, we started talking about death, and I proposed the question, "why does God let teenagers die, that have not yet repented, but could have done it later in their life, if they hadn't died at an early age?". I never really got a full answer and its bugging me.That is a good question.
My initial thoughts on the matter are that God is just and in whatever He does He does right.
That question could, for some people anyway, be used to try to say that God isn't just or isn't fair. And taken from one perspective it doesn't seem right or fair. But, we have to consider that no one deserves the privilege of salvation. What we all deserve is death and hell.
So, being able to repent from our sinful ways, and trust in Christ as our Savior is something we don't deserve, but it is instead something we have been given by God's grace.
As the Newsboys said in a song some time back, "When we get what we don't deserve it's a real good thing."
So, it's completely fair to the people that died young that they weren't given longer, because it would still be fair if they were never given that chance.
But, that doesn't really answer your question. As for your question, as to why God allows teenagers to die when they have not yet repented, that one is a bit harder.
My belief is that God knows who will repent and trust in Him. It's by the Holy Spirit that someone is able to repent, the Holy Spirit regenerates a person's heart to lead them to repentance. So God knows in advance who will repent. If a person is allowed to die prior to repentance He knows that.
With that in mind I think if a person is allowed to die young then they wouldn't repent regardless of how much opportunity they were given.
While, I don't know all of this for certain it is the understanding I come to from studying the bible. What I do know is what I said at the beginning, God is just and righteous. He can do no wrong. So, when something like this happens we need to trust that the Creator of the Universe, our Lord and Savior, knows what He is doing.
Do you agree with this answer? How would you answer the question?
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Comments (23)
I believe that because sin is in the world, people die at all ages. Without sin, there would be no separation from God and no death at any age. It's not God's fault people die. It's the fault of sin in the world, the result of man's free choice. God doesn't prevent all the effects of sin; one of those effects is that young people die before their time, and some of them are unsaved. God doesn't step in to change all the effects of fallen man and the fallen world. He leaves that free will in place so that those who choose to do so can follow Him. He loves us all and doesn't want any to perish, but He allows the consequences of sin to occur.
Because he thinks it's funny.
Everytime I hear that answer, I assume the answerer really has no idea and is just believes that to make himself feel better. Of course God only lets people he know would be unrepentant die. Any other answer would make God look like an asshole even though I guess he never claimed to be nice.
I think a better question is, "Why does God let a bunch of religious douche bags live?"
Because god has no control over us. To him we are just a big science experiment. He doesn't care who dies.
So you're saying that the people who died young deserved to die since they were unrepentant?.... If your choice of answers was either "they deserve it" to "who really knows what God wants" I would have gone with the latter. You're assuming too much and also implying that children who are not attributed to a Christian faith deserve to die young.
@AmeliaHart@xanga - There is another way of looking at it that most Christians don't think about.
In the economy of God, nothing is wasted, especially time. Every person receives the test they need in this life. For some, all they need is to gain a body and then they die. Others of us need a lifetime.
However, for all of us, there is a time between death and the final reward. Either in this life or as spirits waiting the resurrection, every person who has ever lived will know that Jesus is the Savior and Redeemer and will choose to follow Him or not. Our Heavenly Father is perfect and loving and just, and through the Eternal and Everlasting Sacrifice of His Son, He will provide each of us the opportunity to come back into His presence. No one is left out.
A very interesting question was posed, and you resort to, "God is just and righteous. He can do no wrong."
What a convenient answer. Why don't you think for yourself instead of rely on some un-falsifiable, ridiculously primitive-minded claim like that?
The fact is that no one knows the answer to these kind of questions except God. You said - " So God knows in advance who will repent." That is still an unsatisfactory answer because God allows millions of other people to live long lives that never repent. You were closer in your answer that nobody deserves God's grace and mercy. The fact is that we live in a world in which sin dwells and God allows us to make freewill choices of both good and evil and he doesn't always choose to intervene. So we just have to trust that God is untimately in control and can use all things, including our choices, for his own will and purposes.
@Venca@xanga - It's actually a very elegant response that explains the success and downfall of subjectivity in the human experience, and draws connections to ethics and political science in terms of the worth of point-of-view. Essentially, as we form our democratically-styled governments, we create an ur-citizen to which our political aims are applied. This ur-citizen is both a member of the majority and minority, and must have their whims placed over all others. We sacrifice the mind-numbing task of bowing to all the subjectivities of each constituent, which would look exactly like anarchy, in order to preserve our ur-citizen's status. People can relate to the ur-citizen, as it's a product of collectivity, but never know exactly what or who this ur-citizen is. Interpretation follows: the ur-citizen should have government-run healthcare or housing or have the right to buy assault rifles in grocery stores, &c. The conditions are even so more complex, because God isn't our creation - we're His. All He does is good, but we're too caught up in the in-between of subjectivities in an ethical entity to entirely comprehend. Throw sin into the mix, and the interpretation step gets even more confusing, because now there's a binary of subjectivities in order to determine if something is upstanding or deplorable. So, arguing that God is just and all things He does are righteous is more than a fair response to the situation - it gives us both the thesis of Mr. Tom's interpretation, and provides a sermonizing warning to remember the hierarchy of subjectivities. Presupposing the existence of an omnipotent, omniscient, and all-loving God, it makes a lot of sense...
In my old town, a teenage boy was surfing on the top of his car. His friend behind the wheel suddenly hit the gas and the boy lost his footing and fell. He hit his head on the pavement. After seventy-two hours, it was decided that the boy would never wake up so the machines were turned off. I don't know if the boy was a Christian or not, but his choices and actions had the consequence of death. Invincibility only exists in video games. Perhaps its intended to remind us that we may not have until our old age or until tomorrow to come to faith.
@lomal@xanga - "every person who has ever lived will know that Jesus is the Savior and Redeemer and will choose to follow Him or not." - What do you mean by this statement? Civilizations existed thousands of years before the birth of Christ. So there are many people in history who has never come to this realization. As well as people now. Even in the world of globalization there are still remote areas on this earth that are completely cut off from modern societies. What becomes of those people then? Please clarify.
@AmeliaHart@xanga - Hello. Thanks for your question. As you mention, it is obvious that every person who lives on earth today and many who have lived in the past have never heard of Jesus Christ. If salvation can only come to those who have the chance to hear and obey and benefit from His sacrifice, then how can God claim to love all of us?
The answer is mentioned briefly in I Peter 3:18-20. Peter says that while Jesus was dead, He went and preached to “spirits in prison,” who had lived in the days of Noah (prison means not having received the full truth). Every person on earth is a spirit child of Heavenly Father and lived with Him before we were born. Our spirits were placed in our bodies when we were born, and when we die our spirits are still here waiting for the resurrection and judgment.
When Jesus died, His spirit went to the spirits who had already died and organized His followers there to preach the Gospel to those who never heard it here. Before the end, every person will hear and know in the flesh or as a spirit, showing us that God is fair.
This is a very brief answer and there is much more that could be said. I know these things are true, because the Holy Spirit has witnessed to my spirit that they are true. I hope you have also felt their truth. These doctrines are taught in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. If you have further questions, you are welcome to ask me, talk to our missionaries, or go to www.mormon.org. I hope this helps. God bless you!
@lomal@xanga - I think this conversation would benefit from some physiology: The human brain has not finished developing until early- to mid- twenties. The mental faculties (emotional awareness, reasoning, etc.) of a 30-year-old are fundamentally different from those of an 18-year-old, 9-year-old, or 3-year-old.
It is unrealistic for us to expect a 3-year-old to reach sophisticated conclusions about simple things like sharing toys or dressing for the weather. How can we expect them to appreciate Christ's sacrifice, the concepts of sin and repentance, or the fate of their immortal soul?
Moreover, God allegedly knows a thing or two about human physiology, so how can God expect children to accept Christ as their saviour when He knows better than the rest of us that their human brains are incapable of processing the very idea of a saviour?
It seems as though he is punishing the soul for a shortcoming of the body.
@jim_the_american@xanga - I agree! Repentance is for those who are capable of sinning. Although it is not taught in most Christian churches, the eternal nature of Christ's Atonement automatically brings back into His presence all those who die and are unaccountable because of age or mental deficiency.
Like I discussed with Tom on his page, this is a case where I am speaking another language. To me, repentance is the wrong term for this entire discussion so I have trouble understanding the point. But ultimately, we are all at the mercy of God. There is no assured/guaranteed (they mean the same thing, they are listed as synonymous by Webster's dictionary) salvation, there is no assured/guaranteed damnation.
Why does God let young, unrepentant people die?
"let" ... is it possible that God doesn't actively intervene in our life/death decisions? I think so. We live and we die. It's not as though He is manipulating every second of our lives.
"young" ... what is age really? If you have a faith that truly believes in heaven and eternity. Even 100 years on this earth is a drop in the ocean compared with eternity. And ... better to be there than here, I think.
"unrepentant" ... for those of us with a wider view of the afterlife, we appreciate that Christ's sacrifice is sufficient ALL people.
"die" ... I remain ever amazed at the fear/concern/feeling of unfairness about death. Anything that has life will experience death. We all know this intellectually, but so many seem to try to ascribe emotional unfairness and spiritual undertones to it.
How about this: "And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God."
The rest is incidental.
I will never understand why God lets young people die, period. As someone who has lost two young friends in the past year, I find it hard to comprehend the fact that God could let something so horrible happen. I find solace in the idea that they are now in a better place, with our God, but it's probably the one thing I will always question about my faith.
I agree with this answer completely, although I could understand why some people might not want to accept the answer or why some people might be uncomfortable with the answer.
personally i believe that there are only a handful of people in history who are/were SO against the concept of a god that absolutely nothing in the universe would cause them to have faith. i think the simple reality is that, if Christianity is right, the Christian god doesn't care that much to provide whatever experiences may be necessary to foster faith in some individuals. reading a book doesn't do it for everyone. and i've heard some great arguments supporting the idea that any god would have to be utterly stupid to trust inherently flawed human beings with something as important as their own salvation (it's comparable to a mother letting her toddler cook a turkey for Thanksgiving). and that's yet another reason why the Christian god seems like a ludicrous idea to me.
@jim_the_american@xanga - I was always taught that children who are not old enough to reason with a clear understanding of spiritual issues automatically go to heaven if they die. Once they reach the "age of accountability" (somewhere in the teenage years), they are at the point where the place they end up after they die is a result of their choice; up until that point, they just go back to heaven if they die. I couldn't tell you what the biblical basis is for that, but it makes sense to me.
When sin entered the world, so did sickness and death and evil and everything else that sucks. God gave us free will, and our actions have consequences (both for us and for other people). It wouldn't make sense for Him to give us the ability to make choices and then intervene and remove all of the consequences of those choices. Thanks to Adam, life sucks sometimes. The best we can do is make good choices.
My 20 year old husband died on October 12, 2010. 3 days after our daughter turned 1. Many people say it's not fair and perhaps it isn't. The way I look at it, Caleb (my husband) was never mine to begin with. He always belonged to God, God just let me borrow him for 3 years. The best of my life. Caleb and I met in church and both have a strong faith in Christ Jesus. Something quite rare in young people. My husband wasn't unrepentant as this blog refers to, he was a great man, an amazing husband, and the best daddy a little girl could ask for He was also a servant of God. All I can say is we don't know when our time on earth is up, that is why God says to follow him now. Because we are like vapor, here today and gone tomorrow. I am not willing to play russian rullet with my life and wait to accept Christ, because the day that I chose salvation may never come. Now is the time to repent.
How do some people avoid death then? Does having money and resources protect your life until old age? This just is a hard pill to swallow. Stop saying repent now, this stuff takes time. It makes no sense why God would take someone's life younger who wanted to do the things another person got to do. I'm wondering if the people that live long unrepentent lives though made some deal with the devil, a deal to never go to Heaven. Is it those people that live? Or people that chose to be athiest, which can't be true because Marylin Monroe and John Lennon died young. But I am wondering the deal with the devil stuff. So in order to enjoy the sin in this world you have to make a deal to forget God? Or you die because "you can't serve two masters?" But its still messed up. Someone lives long makes dumb choices and never has to pay for it until old age. But then someone dies young wants to live that way for a little bit and then serve God but gets his time cut short? Why is it because he wasnt cut out to fit in with the "warriors" and would face too much humiliation? But its not right. Why should your mindset decide your fate?