It's still a pretty horrible parable, to my mind. One can admire Job's countenance in the face of this, but it certainly doesn't leave the deity looking worthy of admiration, nor is it a resonant explanation of "bad things happen to good people"... in particular because you wouldn't think that God would keep making that same damned bet : Hey. I'm your friend. That gives me sole permission to give you boils, kill your family, burn your house down, and make you sick as hell. Why anyone would want to put themselves through this torture is just stupid. And it shows what a cruel insane prick god is.

Isn't it funny how I look at it totally different.....Does that surprise me nope.....And again just because it doesn't fit what you think...just doesn't mean it didn't happen and without cause. Because for me it's all relevant.

Thats fair Deb. I was merely voicing my personal view of the story itself. Tell you the truth, it was one of the first I looked up to read because I was familiar with it. However I am telling you my honest opinion.

And totally entitled to it....as I am in saying that with God there is a reason for every lil thing He does. The Lord tests me in these threads daily.....I got mad and said...WHY WHY WHY.....I don't want to anymore.....and his answer....Go So go figure krimsa......

"Space Cadet" was not one of his better books IMO. But he's such a stellar writer that's just saying it wasn't Hugo material. In his defense it was only his second book and he got steadily better.

hoooooosh right over.

Every creature that knows God, respects God. Satan is no different.



That message isn't in the Bible. God uses Satan to test his people. God sets the rules, because God is sovereign. Satan has no power over anyone who belongs to God, other than the power that God gives to Satan. Satan is like water in a way, his evil will fill any space it can fit. So if God allows Satan to do anything but kill Job, Satan will do everything but kill Job. He has no mercy and doesn't seek to serve God, but it is in Satan's nature to perform any evil which he can perform, even if he ends up serving God's purpose.



God gave Satan the right to do as he would, Satan could have choosen to do nothing evil to Job or his family, but it seems that Satan never goes against his nature.



Of course God knew what the outcome was going to be, because the series of events were going to happen. If God had refused to give Satan the permission he desired, then God couldn't have known what the outcome would be.



Not at all. You seem to think that the Bible can be understood in a vacuum, it cannot. The Bible can only be understood fully when read in context of the whole Bible. It's not a hard concept. The Rosetta stone was used to understand the Egyptian language. The way the Rosetta stone was used to decipher Hieroglyphs is similar to how the Bible should be used to decipher the Bible.



That's quite the leap there. If I gave you permission to drive my car, does that mean I give you permission to run over kids playing in the street? Obviously not. God gave Satan permission to meddle in Job's life in any way Satan saw fit, other than hurting Job. Satan did the absolute worst things he possibly could to Job without physically hurting Job. Satan could have rebelled against his own nature and blessed Job, but once again, Satan doesn't seem to go against his nature.



I can't imagine someone using Job to proselytize about Christianity, but I don't flinch away from the Book of Job. It makes perfect sense when you look at it in focus rather than through a jaundiced eye.

twice

Angels, those who have chosen to remain forever obedient to God, are our good friends. Along with the many other things that angels do, they are also assigned to protect and guide people - "Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve the moment you were conceived, and in all probability know far more about you than you know about yourself. It could be that everything that you have ever said or done has had at least one irrefutable witness.

Angels are described in the Bible as forever distinct from humans - that is, humans do not somehow become angels after they die. However, angels have often manifested themselves with the appearance of a human when they were dealing with humans.

Angels appeared to many people throughout the Bible, sometimes to inform or assist you, me, JOB, his family even.

Angels are pretty sexually irresistible also. Just ask that unruly mob that encircled Lot's home in Sodom.

Just imagine, EVERY THING a person has done, every thought, every fantasy, every act they have committed and word they have ever spoken is SEEN HEARD AND RECORDED by an ANGEL. SO MUCH FOR constitutional privacy rights lol.

That would suck. I dont think I would be comfortable with that at all. I watched a movie about a female angel who smashes into a satellite in orbit and plummets to earth. She cant speak in a language that humans understand but she does have wings. She also really likes french fries because shes never experienced human foods before. It was a good movie. Funny.

I liked the movie with gena davis and the space aliens that crashed in her pool and they took human form. So they mimic the tv shows and drive her crazy lol

Earth Girls Are Easy. They actually already looked like humans, but they were furry. And in our atmosphere, they grew to human size, but they were small in their spaceship...

Damon Wayans, Jim Carry and Jeff Goldbloom. It's an awesome cast, but I think at the time they were all relatively unknown.

Earth Girls yepper, and gina was ssssoooooo cute in her bikini lol. Jimmy Carry was in it tooo also right?