Interesting post. I would like to raise some questions and points to you as a skeptic. First of all, I do not subscribe to any religion containing the Biblical God, so therefore I am not fully informed on this topic. Please correct me where you see fit.
I have been told that if you do not "believe" in God, it is impossible to ascend to heaven. No matter how many good deeds or how great you are as a person, if you do not put your faith in God, it is simply impossible. This seems contradictory to the statement you raise:
He promises to work out even the biggest disasters for our ultimate good. However, God does not need anything from us, not even glory.
It is arguable that he will not force us to follow his teachings, but banishing us, despite being good people, seems threatening in itself. I frown upon this requirement to enter heaven. Once again, I do not follow biblical teachings so please correct me if this is not within it's compass.
Quoting you once again,
Although we can be confident in the big picture – good wins, evil is defeated – we learn from the Bible that the details of the future are not set in stone.
When? When does the big picture arise? Will it be in my lifetime? Or will I be part of the sacrifice to fulfill this big picture? I'd like to bring the Omnipotence Paradox into this discussion (which you can read about more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omnipotence_paradox). Now I know this does not fully turn your argument against itself as you've pointed out that God lets us make poor decisions as well as suffer the consequences. But if God were truly good, and truly omnipotent, why let us suffer? I think your statement here:
because it means that God not only cares for us, he also respects us as individuals enough to allow himself to be vulnerable to the consequences of our poor choices.
is a good response to what I said. I understand the respect as individual part. However, I am having difficulty understanding the care portion. I do not equate respect with care. Would you let your child go through all the hardships we face if we could prevent it? We would not have to starve, feel pain, or stress. But, we do. So in contrast, this is not a truly comforting thought to me.
I have no intention to attack your faith and beliefs, and I apologize if I did. However, I feel this is an interesting topic. Once again, I do not have all my facts straight about Biblical religions, so please correct me if I got anything wrong. Thanks for the post.
You raise some good questions. I appreciate your respectful attitude and apologize for not replying sooner. I have a very demanding job and rarely check my Steemit.
First, I do not know you, but I am confident that you really are not all that “good.” The reason I know this is that the standard for goodness is perfection, and none of us can possibly meet that standard. We all see good things that should be done and pretend not to notice, we all have moments when we are selfish or greedy or cowardly or callous or prideful. I know that you, as a thinking adult, have done one of these things at least once. And it only takes once to be imperfect. When Satan tempts us, we do not resist 100% of the time. We fail. I fail often.
Here is the thing: to be able to live in God's presence (that is how heaven is described in the Bible) and not be annihilated instantly by his perfection, you have to be perfect. So, God, loving humans and wanting us to have a relationship with him forever, came up with a loophole. He sent a part of himself to earth to live as a human (Christ, who is called the "right arm" of God in Isaiah). Christ was God, but he was also human, tempted to be selfish and prideful and greedy, as we are. But he resisted Satan 100% of the time. If we allow Christ, who was perfect, to take on all our "not goodness" (sin), then we can stand before God as if we were Christ: perfect. This is the offer that God gives us: allow God to be your boss - be adopted as his child - and then your brother, Christ, will remove all of those not perfect things you have thought and done so that you can live with God forever.
Most people are unwilling to submit to God as their boss. Most people want to be their own bosses. They do not realize that, for humans, being your own boss is not really an option. If you think you are your own boss, in reality, Satan is your boss, and he is sitting back laughing at you for being such a sucker. Satan makes it seem as if following God is somehow sacrificing on your part. In reality, though, every single thing God tells humans to do is for the benefit of humans.
Consider this: All the laws of the Old Testament prevented diseases, improved relationships, and helped the farms yield more crops. We know from research studies that when we think about ourselves all the time, we are miserable, but when we think about others and try to come up with ways to make them happy, we develop a joyful lifestyle. God's ways are good for us personally, even on earth, most of the time, and they are always good for humanity as a whole. And, when we are asked to be uncomfortable for the good of others, we can handle that, too, because we know the discomfort is temporary and the benefits - bringing others into the family - are well worth the cost.
So, it is not a matter of being "Part of the sacrifice" at all - Christ did the sacrificing. It is a matter of seeing reality and being brave enough to act on it. The reason you have to put your faith in God is not because God needs you, but rather, because you need God.
God uses an adoption analogy. I have friends who adopted two "older" siblings out of foster care. These kids did NOTHING to earn their adoption. They were not even all that lovable. They had been in lots of foster homes and had serious behavior problems. The courts required a period of time for them to live with the adoptive parents, and then they would return to the judge to finalize the adoption. These kids were really hard to parent. They were violent at times, and they had very little love to give. They did not trust that our friends really wanted to adopt them just because they wanted to love them - they kept looking for an ulterior motive. But there was not one. Our friends simply felt blessed and wanted to help these two kids. The son, in particular, often rebelled and denied that they would ever be his parents. But when it came time to make the choice, both kids knew the parents loved them and submitted to being adopted. They had to tell the judge that it was OK with them and go through the formal ceremony. That is what God requires of us. We also have to go through an "adoption process" with God - that is what water baptism is. If we refuse to even acknowledge God, we are a long ways from submitting to him as our Father. (By the way, the kids are gradually becoming more and more like their parents - less violent, less angry, more giving. This happens to true Christians, as well.)
To answer your final question: God often describes our relationship with him using the analogy of a perfect parent and their beloved child. Good parents DO indeed allow their kids to make bad choices that result in unpleasant consequences (hardships). When my kids were very young, I gave them opportunities to earn money and the money was then truly theirs. I let them spend every penny they had on momentary pleasures (candy, cheap toys that quickly broke), and then refused to bail them out when they wanted money for more meaningful things and had none. They "suffered" and felt stress as they had to delay gratification while earning more money for what they now knew was the better choice. They grew and learned and felt the true happiness that comes from knowing that they had earned what they had. Now, as adults, they are excellent money managers and have enough to be generous with those who are truly in need. Was it caring of me not to just give them money whenever they were stressed out about not being able to buy what they wanted, immediately? I believe that it would have been selfish of me to have given in to begging rather than facilitating their growth. God's priority is not our immediate gratification, but rather, our partnership with him in the long term strategy of helping others learn about his generous offer to have a fatherly relationship with them, as well.
Please let me know where this explanation fails to satisfy your needs for answers, and I will try to do a better job of monitoring the conversation and answering promptly. I would be happy to add examples directly from Bible verses, but I got the impression that you are not at the point of studying the Bible yet, so I went with broader strokes.
Blessings,
Linda