> > One person commented that when God
> > allows things like this to happen, it is always
> > for a reason.

> This kind of statement and belief provokes me greatly. God wouldn't want or allow this to happen. But stuff happens. People are evil and hurt other people.
>
> God the almighty have given us free will. This puts limits to what He can do. If he were to protect us from all harm, our will wouldn't be free.
>
> This does not, however, mean that God can't use the bad things that happen to make something good come of it. But that, too, is entirely up to ourselves and how we choose to act on it.

Travholt, I don't understand what it was about my post that provoked you. From what you're saying here, I think that you and I share the same perspective. The only thing I read in your post that I disagree with is when you say "God wouldn't want or *allow* this to happen." No, He does not want things like this to happen. Every single sin that is committed in this world brings Him great grief. And yet He does *allow* great tragedies to occur, for the very reasons you put forth. There are no limits on what sovereign God Almighty can do; only limits on what he *will* do.

If you believe that God could not have done something supernatural to prevent those planes from reaching their targets, I won't agree with that. He certainly could have performed a miracle, and indeed He does in some instances; there are countless people alive today who will testify that they owe their life to some miraculous intervention from God. There may even be people who, in the days to come, will tell stories of how they miraculously survived this disaster.

But, like you said, if God were to intervene all the time, we would not truly be free creatures with our own hearts and minds.

There are those who are calling this "God's judgement on America." I am certainly not in that camp. Yes, He does use mankind to execute His judgement (Assyria brought His judgement on Israel; Babylon on Judah and so forth) but it's not man's place to speak for God.

Grishny