Did Jesus Die on The Cross for The Just/Elect/Saved Whose Names Are Written in The Book of Life OR

  • Christian Chat is a moderated online Christian community allowing Christians around the world to fellowship with each other in real time chat via webcam, voice, and text, with the Christian Chat app. You can also start or participate in a Bible-based discussion here in the Christian Chat Forums, where members can also share with each other their own videos, pictures, or favorite Christian music.

    If you are a Christian and need encouragement and fellowship, we're here for you! If you are not a Christian but interested in knowing more about Jesus our Lord, you're also welcome! Want to know what the Bible says, and how you can apply it to your life? Join us!

    To make new Christian friends now around the world, click here to join Christian Chat.

PaulThomson

Well-known member
Oct 29, 2023
2,767
329
83
Eccl 7:14
14 When times are good, be happy;
but when times are bad, consider:

God has made the one
as well as the other.

Therefore, a man cannot discover
anything about his future.

NIV
Yes, you found a translation of the passage that most closely fits your theology that impugns God's character, and then you claim that is what Ecc. 7:14 says.

Ecc. 7:14 KJV "In the day of prosperity be joyful: but in the day of adversity consider. God has set the one over against the other to the end that man should find nothing after him."

The hebrew word fpr day in masculine. The Hebrew word for prosperity is feminine. The Hebrew word for adversity is feminine. The hebrew word for the one is masculine. The Hebrew word for the other is masculine. The word for has set is 'ashah., to shape what already exists.

So, the text does not say that God brings evil into existence. He manipulates the evil already existing to produce some benefit (blessing or learning) to those involved. In the day of prosperity remember that God has had a hand in coordination things to rein in evil, and you happen to have benefitted from God's intervention. And in the day of adversity, remember that God has been working to rein in evil, and you happen to have come out badly nevertheless. God sometimes puts us on the winning side and sometimes He allows us to end up on the losing end, so that we will not presume we have the power to manipulate God or events to always get the outcomes we desire.


Or...how about this for added comfort:

Isa 45:7
7 I form the light and create darkness,
I bring prosperity and create disaster;
I, the LORD, do all these things?

NIV
Yes God massages the light and the dark and the circumstances that produce prosperity for some and adversity for others. God does all four of these things. But it is a giant leap to conclude from that that everything that happens is perfectly as God would like it to be. A potter selects a lump of clay expecting to make some fine bone china, but in working the clay he finds some impurities that mean it is not fit for the vessel and use he had had in mind. He make the best of an imperfect situation and makes a vessel for less honorab;e status and use. This does not mean he put the impurity into the clay on purpose, because he actually always wanted to make an inferior vessel and wanted to have an excuse for doing so. What comes out from God's intervention may be better than it would have been without His intervention, but it is almost certainly not exactly what He wanted.