abu_rashid wrote on Feb 10
th, 2012 at 6:16am:
So was their God punishing them for the 2000 odd years they were suffering? Was the Holocaust also God's judgement upon them? Seems you don't mind to tie God into it all when it sounds all miraculous and triumphant, yet when it's the opposite, do you also attribute the same?
Abu,
Forget about 'the Jews' for a moment, if you can.
This life is
our trial, or testing. [imo, that is the
ONLY reason we are here.]
Daniel 12:10
Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.
Testing for both Jews, and, Gentiles.
Genesis 22:18
And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.
I believe that >> we << [all mankind] are, metaphorically, all in the [this] 'wilderness' together [see Deuteronomy, below], not just the Jewish people.
Is God wrong [cruel?] to test us ?
Take it up with God.
God said to his people, the Hebrews......
Deuteronomy 8:1
All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers.
2
And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.Isaiah 40:1
Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.
2 Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD'S hand double for all her sins.
3 The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Abu,
Those who pass God's testing, will be redeemed.
Isaiah 48:10
Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.
And the 'others', those who fail ???
Revelation 21:7
He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.
8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.