The faction and divide demonstrated here by people from differing cultures and social networks have not fallen on deaf ears.
An entire race of intra-celestial sentinels that occupy the seventh septant of Uversa have watched and listened closely to the growing tension within your world, and are preparing now to make entrance to your world, yet not without cause.
I, Demetrius, beseech you all, regardless of your faith and creed, to watch closely to the world around you as we will be with you soon.

The final phase of the Period of Escalations is upon you.

Dr. Jeffress: Your science is a bit lacking. Shifting tectonic plates caused the earthquake and they had no reason, mysterious or otherwise.

By the way, your church is palatial - a testimony to the hubris of man.

In your story your god created all that exists, including this Satan character, and Satan is evil. So your god created evil.

That's quite a dance you have to do to get around that. You have to swallow a world-sized ball of crap to get around that.

And this god is his own son, who he sent to pay for the sins of his other creations. This son died, but can't die because it's a god, so why should we think that's anything special?

I have a lot more respect for a mother who sends her only son to die for our country than some petty little god who does word games with "son", "die", and "sin"

"One must remember that Satan...not God...is the killer."

And apparently, your god is to weak to stop satan from killing.

Perhaps you should believe in a stronger god.

One must remember that Satan...not God...is the killer. A voodoo-steeped country like Haiti may be the victim of their own sins. God doesn't normally protect those who don't trust in Him. Try asking a God you don't believe in for help.

"God is ultimately responsible for the earthquake in Haiti and has a reason that is beyond our ability, trapped in time, to understand or comprehend."
God is a God of love, and Satan ("adversary) is our enemy. Some have suggested that it's no coincidence that both Louisiana and Haiti suffered from a lack of Godly protection...that their Satanic practices caused both catastrophes. I don't know if it's true, but it seems logical.

"One of the subtle manipulations of the Huckabee Christian sect is that 'we are all evildoers who deserve to die.' "
This is not a Huckabee"invention"; it's plain Bible truth. Why are you Democrats quick to blame everything bad or even whatever they disagree with on Republicans, as in this case? Grow up and take some responsibility.

"Jeffress - Evil and suffering constitute prima facie evidence that there is a God."
Exactly TRUE...and, in doing so, it vindicates the claims of the Bible that good (God) and evil (Satan) BOTH exist.

To the more important facts of life considering the horror of the earthquake in Christian/Pagan Haiti:

If there is a god:

From Father Edward Schillebeeckx (famous contemporary theologian), Church: The Human Story of God, Crossroad, 1993, p.91 (softcover)

"Christians must give up a perverse, unhealthy and inhuman doctrine of predestination without in so doing making God the great scapegoat of
history" .

"Nothing is determined in advance: in nature there is chance and determinism; in the world of human activity there is possibility of free choices.

Therefore the historical future is not known even to God; otherwise we
and our history would be merely a puppet show in which God holds the strings.
For God, too, history is an adventure, an open history for and of men and women."

Jeffress - Evil and suffering constitute prima facie evidence that there is a God.

Evil doesn't say anything about god's existence, though if there is a god, then it says that god is malevolent, not merciful, cruel, not loving, and unfair, not just. With a god like that, who needs the devil?

Jeffress - Frankly, it gives me no comfort to think that I am simply the victim of random acts.

I would rather live in a meaningless, random universe than under such absolute evil.

Jeffress - A third truth is that God is loving and just.

How does killing > 100,000 people make one merciful, loving, and just?

This column: Utter nonsense squared, cubed,
and multiplied to the nth power of the largest number that can be imagined while overdosing on Psilocybe Semilanceata and DMT.

"Evil and suffering constitute prima facie evidence that there is a God. The fact that we even care about such things in the world argues strongly for the existence of God ... and gives us a strong clue about His character."

This nonsense gives me a physical pain.

"The fact that the sun shines is a prima facie evidence that it is raining." Or:
"The fact that I care about a fortune argues strongly about the existence of my fortune."

Why didn't so many bigot European immigrants come to America a little later, e.g. after the age of enlightenment.

The core of all this terrible superstition lies in Mr Jeffress words "I want a God who has all of His creation under control".

"I want a god". This is a proof, as far as Mr. Jeffress is concerned, that the god concept (which ones of the thousands?) are man-made wishful hallucinations for lack of evidence and lack of knowledge, and, in all organized religions, unfortunately also a complete lack of honesty, at best, but in reality (Robertson, anyone?) much worse, the greed for power. Power is best exerted on the dumb masses, therefore we have a "Liberty University", for instance.

If there is a god:

From Father Edward Schillebeeckx (famous contemporary theolgion), Church: The Human Story of God, Crossroad, 1993, p.91 (softcover)

"Christians must give up a perverse, unhealthy and inhuman doctrine of predestination without in so doing making God the great scapegoat of history" . "Nothing is determined in advance: in nature there is chance and determinism; in the world of human
activity there is possibility of free choices.

Therefore the historical future is not known even to God; otherwise we
and our history would be merely a puppet show in which God holds the strings.

For God, too, history is an adventure, an open history for and of men and women."

If, as you say, your Personal Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, your Prince of Peace, is responsible for this disaster, He and you, as his follower and spokesman, deserve a jail cell in the Hague as international war criminals along with Milošević, Rove, Cheney and Bush.

America is NOT exempt

In THIS country we have Brutal Satanists , who Abduct Children and

Adults to , RAPE , TORTURE , and Brutalize their bodies to The Ancient

Gods of Hell.

Sabbatean - Frankists Like : Abortionist Doctor Philip Kitner

of Asheville North Carolina, Abortionist Doctor Warren Hern of Boulder Co,

Norma Fitzwater of Ohio, USA Army colonel Michael and Lilith Aquino of St.. Louis Mo.

These Yezidiya ( Aramaic word for : Satan -Set -Hell Worshipers)

... REALLY do Torture humans, Eat them and Drink thier blood.

They saw children's faces off with band saws, in satanic rituals .throw people into vats of battery acid ; ,

skin theme alive and eat them .

....all while filming this with cameras to sell black-market and make extra monies.

These ceremonies take place in the Caverns on the border of Murphy North Carolina and Tennessee.

Our Country is JUST AS EVIL as Haiti..

Go here to see actual drawings from an EX victim USA Army colonel Michael and Lilth Aquino .

They tortured her her ENTIRE young life. She witnesses COUNTLESS human sacrifice and RAPE by the Aquinos.

She now lives In South Africa. Email her @ this website.

Go here to see actual drawings of the Horror she Endured by OUR USA.

http://www.revolutionzone.co.za/art.php

My point is THE USA is NOT exempt.

~H

"Dr. Jeffress wrote God was the ultimate--not the immediate--cause of the earthquake."

He also wrote that his god had a reason for allowing it to happen, a reason that "is beyond our ability, trapped in time, to understand or comprehend".

If we can’t “understand or comprehend” the reason that he allowed it to happen, how do we know that we are not subverting his will by aiding the victims of the earthquake?

PSolus

Dr. Jeffress wrote God was the ultimate--not the immediate--cause of the earthquake.

Still doesn't answer the question of suffering, but see CS Lewis The Question of Pain .

Christ Himself teaches Christians about suffering.

What man ever had more renown? The whole Jewish people foretell Him before His coming. The Gentile people worship Him after His coming...

And yet what man enjoys this renown less? Of thirty-three years, He lives thirty without appearing. For three years He passes as an impostor; the priests and the chief people reject Him; His friends and His nearest relatives despise Him. Finally,[Pg 234] He dies, betrayed by one of His own disciples, denied by another, and abandoned by all.

What part, then, has He in this renown? Never had man so much renown; never had man more ignominy. All that renown has served only for us, to render us capable of recognising Him; and He had none of it for Himself.

"God is ultimately responsible for the earthquake in Haiti and has a reason that is beyond our ability, trapped in time, to understand or comprehend."

If this is true, then it is possible that all of the people who are aiding the victims of your god's earthquake are subverting the will of your god.

How do you know that your god's reason for the earthquake wasn't simply to cause suffering, and that by lessening this particular suffering, he’s going to have to cause suffering somewhere else; perhaps by not helping some running back make a touchdown, even though the running back asked for his help to make that touchdown?

Dear Dr. Jeffries,

I'm glad you remembered your Job. (Rev. Robertson incredibly forgot his!)

We are all going to die, the only question is when--and even that is not too difficult to surmise--and, I guess, how. The 'how' is what is hard to accept with Haiti. Suffering is never a good thing.

Still, Job and the Sermon on the Mount are the best, most beautiful things about Christianity. Suffering is a bad thing but it can bring forth good. Jesus Christ had to suffer and die--and he died almost alone--but the faith that came from that horrible death was good.

Hold those opposite throughts in your mind. They are contradictory...but true nonetheless.

Yours in Christ,

One of the subtle manipulations of the Huckabee Christian sect is that "we are all evildoers who deserve to die."

Instead of assuming man's natural condition is goodness and health, this controlling, punitive dogma always keeps it's people down with perpetual guilt and the threat of eternal damnation. Never worthy, never well, never good no matter what you do or think. It's like the Catholics bosses (like punitive Mother Superiors) I have worked for who blamed any and all problems brought to them solely on their sinful, incompetent and hapless workers. I will never work for one of these "Christians" again.

At my mom's request (and against all I find repulsive) I took her to a Missouri Synod Lutheran Church for Christmas Eve services. Instead of Christ's message of hope, peace and joy, the Pastor said people put up Christmas lights to hide and compensate for the ever present darkness in their hearts.
It was truly an uplifting experience combined with their celebration of the Lord's Supper from which Missouri Synod Lutherans (Catholic Lites) bar those not of their specific dogma as it it were their Table (Not Christ's) and if God gave them the power (Not Christ) to grant the invitation to it.

Like big pharma who bombards us on television with ads for drugs to cure illnesses they want us to think we all have, Baptists, among other extremist Christian sects, bombard us with our failings (real or imagined) and try to convince us our natural state is not beauty, grace, well-being and physical, mental and spiritual health. I refuse to buy it any more.

It's all a shell game for money, power and control over others. What we need is Jesus to return to the temple and over-through these latter day money changers again.

Carstonio,

Agree, everything must be subjected to inquiry.

However, Faith is an essential component in life that fills the gap where logic and reason fails to do, it gives hopes, which gives energy and creates a desirable action. All of this is intangible but very much in place.There is no physical movement of anything, but energy surges with faith and hope.

There is an element of faith in every thing we do. Faith that I can drive home safely and that other drivers follow the rules, faith that I can drink the water from the faucet.

I would add that the issue has nothing to do with "rejection." Any assertion about anything deserves to be scrutinized and questioned, not blindly rejected but not blindly accepted, either. The idea is to eliminate as many assumptions as possible, to clearly delineate what we know and what we don't know.

"Ok instead of God, I would used the word 'causer' of life and matter either through evolution, creation or big bang, the fact is we are here."

The fact of our existence doesn't prove or disprove the existence of any gods. It's possible that gods exist but that they didn't create the universe or create humanity. The question of the existence of any object is a matter of scientific investigation, and this would hold for any assertions that a "causer" being exists. Am I arguing that such a being doesn't exist? No. Am I arguing that we have no evidence to either prove or disprove its existence? Yes. The most anyone can say on the matter is "I don't know."

Ok instead of God, I would used the word "causer" of life and matter either through evolution, creation or big bang, the fact is we are here.

That causer programmed the element of seeking its own equilibrium in each piece of matter. Jupiter circumumbulates around the Sun precisely, it has the gravity and other things built into it.. or caused in to to seek that balance.

Whereas the humans were given the mind to manage their own balance, given the free will to figure out how to keep that balance. Religion is one of the formulas, not necessarily the only thing, but one of them. Rejection of the causer is one's choice, we have the free will and freedom given to us to find the balance.

"Those who try to discredit Christianity use the existence of evil and suffering in the world as proof that there is no God."

Valid point. Atheists and theists both make the same assumption that a god would be a just god or a benevolent god. That ignores other possibilities, such as a god being malevolent or indifferent. There's no way to determine if any of those three are more likely than the others.

It's possible that gods exist and it's also possible that they don't. The existence of evil and suffering has nothing to do with the question either way.

"Evil and suffering constitute prima facie evidence that there is a God. The fact that we even care about such things in the world argues strongly for the existence of God . . . and gives us a strong clue about His character."

How so? That rejects the possibility humans could care about evil and suffering independent of the existence of any gods.

Dr. Jeffress, this is one of the most timely pieces, that we the people of faith need to read. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. It is time to get out and help, God is testing us and our intentions.

Indeed, when we don’t understand the calamities and its purpose, and we never will, it is good to trust in God. He is the creator and he knows his creation.

What happened is a Geological phenomenon, like the Tsunamis. May be it is a time for us to ponder and see if we can utilize the God given brains to understand and figure out managing it, as we have managed the environments around us.

The Quraan calls the human beings the "Ashraful Mukhlookhat", the honored creatures who are endowed with the intelligence to take responsibility for their own good and good for what surrounds them; life and environment.

Mike Ghouse
A fellow Dallasite
www.WorldMuslimCongress.com