According to F.B.I. statistics, there is a brutal rape every 10 seconds, a murder every 20, and an assault every 5. Do christians believe this is part of God's "plan"?  Also, does god know everything, including what would happen to these victims before it happened?
124538
There is nothing sadder than someone thinking that their or someone else's suffering is part of "god's plan." Don't live like this people. Don't think that eventually some god is going to make everything better. Make your life great on your own. Don't rely on help from a god. Do everything you can to make your life and those you know and love better. Then you will be happy. You don't have to go on suffering because you think some god out there is testing you or will eventually make it better.\n\nI live without a god. I make my own success and happiness. I live without thinking I can get help from above. It is a great, liverating feeling.
639182
Very well said!\n\nRemember that the people who bring up "all the killing Christians have done" are not really worried or distressed about all the alleged killing.  \n\nThat's just their excuse for throwing rocks at a Church that teaches certain things that they don't want to hear, or that don't jive with their lifestyles.\n\nIt's the same when they blame overpopulation (which is a myth anyway) and poverty on the Church's ban on contraception.\n\nThese blamers aren't really interested in alleviating poverty -- if they were, they would sign up to sponsor a child in a poor country through the many agencies run by the Catholic Church and other Christian institutions.  \n\nNor are they interested in gaining Church-approved contraception for the world's poor.   They're just interested in getting Church-approved contraception for themselves!!!
661854
That list of all the Bible parts listed as "the thinking of God" is the most ignorant thing I've ever heard.\nBible is full of contradictions. \nThe Ancient Testament says also that killing in the name of God is right.\nIs good also to have sex with your daughter or your son.\n\nChrist never said anything of that. We are Cristians.\n\nYou should study some antropology before telling other people that they're living in sin. In ancient times it was a shame to give away your sperma without having a child.\n\nLove is never a sin. Sex connected to love is never a sin. Sex is not a sin.\nVIOLENCE is sin!
638659
This stuff happens everyday and I used to ask why it was happening to me.  Now I know God has a plan for me, protects me, and hears my prayers.  I am a muslim woman.  I know for a fact that God does hear my prayers and protects me.  I should be dead, should have been a few times already, or at the very least have a disease.  Before I became a muslim, I was living a very bad lifestyle.  My husband knows God hears me.  he is always shocked at stuff that happens, because he knows that these things that I prayed for are rare and somehow always happen for me.  God does exist and there is a reason for everything.  You just need to let go of the problem and put your trust in God.  God will take care of it as long as you do good.
627894
NO,that's absurd...and I suppose hurricanes,floods,earthquakes,\ntornadoes,mudslides,blizzards,\netc.does not happen here in America!!!!!?\nPerhaps you think that all our(in America) natural disasters(year after year) was/is an act of satan!!!!?\nNot to mention,we have the most crime in the whole world!!!Where is GOD now?\nI sense a little more when reading between the lines of this idiotic question!!\nBIGOTRY perhaps!!!?
198599
So sad....\nThe Bible prohibits the killing of innocent people (Deu. 19:10). "Thou shall not murder" (Exodus 20:13, NKJV; Genesis 9:5).\nlook how "John the Baptist" responded in the womb to the presence of Jesus, who was newly conceived in the womb of Mary (Luke 1:39-44). \n\nYou shall not slay a child by abortion, if you dont like to have a baby ... DONT SEX!!!
334116
I don't see that there were any babies killed in Numbers 5:11-31. The purpose of the drink was to settle the matter of whether she had committed adultery or not. \n\nThere are many of the laws in the Old Testament (eye for an eye, for instance) that are not required to be executed, but are limits on what can be done to one who harms you. If you put out my eye, I can't kill you for it. I also don't have to demand that you have your eye put out. It's the most I can require of you, but it's not what I am required to exact of you.\n\nIn that day, death was the penalty for adultery. I see this as God's way of protecting women from being stoned to death because a man is jealous. It was a way to prove her innocence. And it was also a deterent to crafty women who thought they could cheat and then deny it and drive their husbands crazy.\n\nHow many people have had a cheating spouse and wished that there had been a truth serum out there somewhere?\n\nThe thing is, that the result is so disgusting, you'd have to be pretty outraged to do it. Outraged enough that you probably would want to kill her whether you had proof or not.\n\nWhether babies were involved in this or not is impossible to prove. Notice in verse 28: "But if the woman has not defiled herself, and is clean, then she shall be free and may conceive children." Doesn't that sound like the womb is closed?\n\nWhile infertility was not always a sign of separation from God, God closed the wombs of the unfaithful. Genesis 20:8-18
553666
Yes, god is everywhere.\nGod is in you, god is in me.\nGod is in a victim, god is in a killer (It doesnt mean God kills god).\nGod is in rapist, god is in rapped girl (It doesnt mean God rapes)
279037
I don't know how you got those facts but i am not surprised, a lot of Christians are killed for their faith. Many especially those who live in countries dominated by Muslims and communist are continually persecuted until they change or die.\n\nJesus said it already in Matthew.24:9 "Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake."\n\nI think that is what we have been seeing over time. There is another scripture that says a time will come when someone who kills you will think he is doing God a favor.\n\nI hope i answered your question.
95936
I believe it proves we are in "The Last Days." Rev 9:20 & 21 says, The people after these judgments repented not of their MURDERS, THEFTS, SORCERIES & FORNICATIONS. Here we have listed the 4 main crimes of the Last Days. People kill each other just to be "IN." People from all walks of life steal what ever they think they can get away with. Sorceries in the Greek is, "Pharmacia" Drug use is rampant today. Finally, FORNICATION, THIS IS ALL MANNER OF SEXUAL SIN & MISCONDUCT. Any sex, outside of Marriage, comes under this heading. We most certainly are in The Last Days.
301315
I don't do the god and devil thing.  I believe the bible is the greatest story ever written, it has it all....murder, torture, slavery, child abuse, unwed mothers ( Mary and Joseph were not married at the time of Jesus conception), adultery, prostitution, robbery, extortion, mass killings, genocide, slander, sex, orgies.  You name it it's in the bible.  The list goes on and on...It really makes me wonder...The so called powers that be have been caught in to many cover ups and scandals to be believed.\n\nOnly my opinion...I am adding this after reading some of the responses you received...The different views are great....but I know I would not like to be in the same room discussing this with the persons who lost their cools here.  Thank you for opening this debate.
582792
Thank you very much for asking this question as it allows us to see the true natiure of the Christian believer. Look at these cold-hearted answers:\n\n"Most sat on their ass when they should have gotten out of there": here we have a person who has presumably never lived anywhere near a natural catastrophe blindly passing judgement on those who tragically lost their lives. The implication here is that nobody was caught or stranded and that, in a sense, they had it coming. This is human compassion.\n\n"God didn't send the hurricane; Satan did": here we have the classic argument: that which is good is the work of God, that which is bad is the work of the Devil. God, who the Bible repeatedly states can control the world however he wants, chose this time to sit back and allow the Devil to do his thing. Even more amazing, those who did survive were saved by God. Those who didn't, for reasons I guess we cannot know, thus weren't.\n\n"Not all of the people are dead, so obviously He helped them": again, here we have a God arbitrarily picking-and-choosing. One wonders if he just threw darts at a dartboard to decide who should perish, leaving their loved ones to mourn, and who should be saved. One might be reminded at this time that innocent babies were among the dead.\n\n"God gave them brains and feet to run with": again, apparently those who died were not using their God-given brains. I dearly truly hope that none of the people who have answered here are met with a natural catastrophe. I, for my part, would never dare to blame their demise on their own lack of thinking...\n\n"He was with those people but maybe they did something wrong": arrogance! Do you know anything of the minds of those people who died? How many of them had been good citizens, maybe even good Christians? How many of them were innocent babies with no way to protect themselves?\n\n"If one prays, God can easily divert or stop the hurricane": natural disasters are caused because people don't pray. or, alternately, God could have stopped the hurricane, but just decided not to because not enough people were praying... Divine justice and mercy...\n\n"Do you also blame the police for not stopping every crime?": well, or course not, for we can recognise that the police are fallible and not all-powerful. The analogy does not fit at all because the God that many of those people believed in is all-powerful... but sometimes chooses not to use that power.\n\n"God never strikes a place without warning its people first": this wins hands-down for most arrogant and crude response yet. The number of people who die tragically in natural disasters is all but incalculable. The suggestion here is that God is repeating his Sodom-and-Gomorrah trick countless times a year and people are just too deaf to hear. Additionally, the people who died in New Orleans were the ones who "embraced witchcraft and celebrated lewdness" - or perhaps this person believes that _all_ people in New Orleans were/are lewd witches. The tragedy of this lack of compassion is that it implies, somehow, that the writer's good luck never to have been hit by a natural disaster somehow makes him more righteous than other people.\n\nNote that all of the above is from a 'Christian' point of view... It's enough to make you cry.
649200
There is more to the rape law. Back up to Deuteronomy 22:23-24 (NAB) \n\n"If within the city a man comes upon a maiden who is betrothed, and has relations with her, you shall bring them both out of the gate of the city and there stone them to death: the girl because she did not cry out for help though she was in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbors wife."\n\nNow, if you read Judges 21:10-24, Numbers 31:7-18, Deuteronomy 20:10-14, Deuteronomy 21:10-14, Deuteronomy 22:23-29, 2 Samuel 12:11-14, Judges 5:30, Exodus 21:7-11 and Zechariah 14:1-2, it's pretty clear the God actually APPROVES of rape and even uses it as a reward for his minions.\n\nIf you actually read the Bible, you'll find that God really doesn't give a whooping fundt about women. Women are property.\n\nWhat you are reading in Deuteronomy 22:28-29 is property law. Raping a mans betrothed is not about whether it is right or wrong to rape someone. It is about the punishment for devaluing another mans property. If you read very carefully, you'll notice there is no prohibition on raping a woman who is not betrothed, that is to say, the property of another man.\n\n-SD-
33963
Thank You, asking me that question...finally someone who begins to think. -\n\nwhat would such a God do with all that criminals and Idiots millions of ill and sic people, after a short life of only 70 - 80 years in so called Heaven? - And nobody will get a second Chance, to repair what he has done on Earth ? That must be a complete Idiot of a God, people probably Christians are believing in. And on the latest day all the cadavers are coming out of the earth to sit on the right side of god...what a scenario from a Horror movie...\n\nThank God it is different.\nWe are living to learn and to grow in our consciousness. Millions of lives, in different Cultures, different sex, different skin coulours, different religions, we are coming again and a agin till we are perfect.
503682
Wow, talk about looking at yourself.  That was me not too long ago.  The problem is that God can only interfere on a limited basis with out obscuring "free will".  The hard truth is that rapists and murderers have free will also.  It's complicated, and hard to justify. but I guess the better questions would be, why didn't  we do something about it?
590940
Well done.  I knew about the one in Exodus, but the others are new to me.  Thanks for pointing that out.  \n\nI'm a Bible believing Christian and I have always supported abortion.  In fact, I support abortion even when the mother doesn't want to in cases where the child will be born seriously defective.  \n\nI have gotten into many arguments with my Christian friends over this and I believe their problem is that they listen to what the preacher says and not the Bible.  For me, the Bible trumps the preacher any day.\n\nGreat job.\n\n===\nTo Williamzo: Exodus 21:22 says {para} "If two men fight and during the fight a pregnant woman is injured such that she miscarries, the man shall be FINED as the judges determine, but  if the woman also dies, then the man is put to death."  I suggest you read it again.\n\nWhat God is telling us in this verse is that an unborn baby is NOT the same thing as a human life.  If it were, the punishment would be death for that also.  Thus, God is telling us that abortion is NOT murder.\n\nBefore conception/before entering the womb - Isn't it obvious that God is talking about their spirit and not their physical body?
356604
It also says that God is VERY angry.  The bible clearly describes how he brought plagues, floods, and firestorms to kill thousands of people.  He also had millions more killed in the Crusades, the Inquisition, and the Holocaust.  In the Bible people are supposed to be stoned for violating any one of the hundred biblical laws.  If the church got its way then very few of us would still be alive.  It is a good thing they lost the power to execute people at will without any justification.  I hear the church is still bitter about that fact.