Deseret News | Tests are gifts from God

Reader comments
Tests are gifts from God

A test? | 4:47 a.m. Aug. 26, 2009

According to United Nations there are 1.02 billion undernourished people in the world. I’m not a rocket scientist but I don’t think this is some kind of “test” from God. A test is something that people have contrived not God. We like to put things in little boxes for our selves so we can try to make meaning of something that is not understood.

Texas Dave | 7:37 a.m. Aug. 26, 2009

Dear A Test?
Maybe this is your test. What are you going to do about those 1.02 billion people?

Anonymous | 9:08 a.m. Aug. 26, 2009

Another example of incorrect doctrine being taught over an LDS pulpit. Joseph and Brigham taught that Satan tests us and we prove to God our fidelity and and worthiness to become eternal parents of our children.
Maybe they had better test the speakers on their knowledge of the Gospel prior to making them speakers or having their talks previewed and corrected.

Comments continue below

Job | 9:19 a.m. Aug. 26, 2009

Ask me where my tests came from.

Trish | 9:57 a.m. Aug. 26, 2009

This is sad.

Lemonade | 10:24 a.m. Aug. 26, 2009

Another privileged LDS woman telling us if life gives us lemon, make lemonade. Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom. I feel so uplifted.

Ronnie Bray | 10:38 a.m. Aug. 26, 2009

I do believe that this is an unsound doctrine, not that it is offered as a doctrine, but rather as advice to young people preparing to play out their lives on the stage of life.

It could have been better stated, and ought properly to have been identified as a personal opinion or expressed in a better way so it does not sound as if it is an accepted or acceptable teaching.

I can find no scriptural or theological foundation for the statement. What I do find is that when the earth was prepared and ready to be inhabited, God said that they would be watched to see whether they will be obedient to his saving commandments and ordinances.

Therefore, the only test seems to be the test of our faith, but not by way of tests sent from God. That notion is Olympian, but Almighty God is not capricious, nor cruel, nor insensitive.

Being omniscient, he knows that life throws out challenges, disappointments, chucks spanners in the works, sand in our engines, without either Divine or Adversarial intervention, so there it is unnecessary for our Father in Heaven to pile on any further agony.

God is Love!

Mike | 10:47 a.m. Aug. 26, 2009

Re. Anonymous: Satan puts the opportunity there for us to make the choice if we want to pass or fail the test. God lets this happer so we can prove outselves. So far Anonymous has failed his test. Luckly for him/her there will be another chance to pass or fail.

Anonymous | 11:11 a.m. Aug. 26, 2009

And what are you supposed to do when you get lemons? cut them and pour them into your eyes so you can cry harder? or make the lemonade which is more sweeter and enjoyable? When my son got ill and spent one week at the hospital, should I complained and be resentful to God for making my son ill and me being helpless to my son? or should I spent a week with my son and get closer to him, reinforcing and streghtening my relationship with him? I chose the second and now, when most parents are batling with their teenagers, my teenage son and I are a team. Choose the best part. And really, lemonades taste better.

re: Mike | 11:44 a.m. Aug. 26, 2009

Who made you Mr Judge?

A test? | 11:46 a.m. Aug. 26, 2009

"When my son got ill and spent one week at the hospital, should I complained and be resentful to God for making my son ill and me being helpless to my son?"

But do you believe that God made this happen so it could be a test for you?

Mike | 12:02 p.m. Aug. 26, 2009

Re Anonymous: God didn't make your son ill. Life happens. How we deal with life is the test. God didn't make my wife almost die in a car accident but it was how we as a family dealt with it that shows if we passed the test. Life will go on and we will have trials and what we do with the trials will determine where we go in the next life.

RE: Ronnie Bray | 12:25 p.m. Aug. 26, 2009

Test-something that manifests a persons real character: Purpose,destroy idolatry, (1Kin 18:22-240
testing physically,(Luke 14:19),Testing morality(John6:6). I can see why you might not find tests Bibical,"They must be first TESTED,and then if there is nothing against them let them serve as deacons...A deacon must be the husband of ONE WIFE and must manage his children and his household well." (1Tim 3:10,12)

re: RE; Ronnie Bray | 4:41 p.m. Aug. 26, 2009

Quoting scripture from the bible does name prove that these things happen because they are a test given to us by some God.

RONNIE BRAY | 7:29 p.m. Aug. 26, 2009

The testing [1Tim 3] is not a test from God, it's an inquiry into character of men to be called to the diaconate.

The stable influence of marriage is part of the inquiry into stability, although the scripture sayeth not "... the husband of ONLY ONE wife" Look at Koine.

It is disingenuous to even suggest that God tests people to see if they will break or not. That kind of god lives on the top of Olympus and has nothing to do with the God of the Bible, nor with Jesus Christ.

John 6.6 - has nothing to do with God sending tests for people. Leaping from the 'particular' to the 'general' is patently simplistic.

You accuse me of something I neither wrote nor inferred.

As to my moral character, you lack qualifications to judge. Neither can you guess why I might not think 'tests' biblical.

Please keep to the subject under discussion.

God bless

1 Kgs 18 22-24 has nothing to do with the Tests that the article suggested. This is a Living Prophet called by God, and competes with Baal-ists to prove the power of the Living God against their block of wood.

Ronnie Bray | 7:40 p.m. Aug. 26, 2009

Quoting Bible passages that do not fit the case of the thread, namely

"Our lives' difficulties are sent by God to see what we are made of"

There is no scriptural foundation for this notion, regardless of which Bible you scour.

It is obvious that the poster that posted four proof-texts does not understand that it is not finding the word that counts, but finding the context of the word when it occurs and understanding its usage in that context the discover exactly what it means in the text at that point.

I repeat for the benefit of my hostile friend that there is absolutely no Biblical foundation for believing that God sends storms, famines, pestilence, and personal tragedies to TEST our characters, faith, durability, commitment, spirituality, or anything else.

One might quote scripture from now until Domesday, but unless they understand the scriptures at a serious level, and not merely as a box of ammunition with which to assail anyone 'not thinking or believing the same as oneself' it is a waste of opportunity to walk close to God and Jesus.

Does, I wonder, God send Bigots, or are they shipped out from another place?

RE: Ronnie Bray | 10:21 p.m. Aug. 26, 2009

YOu MAY be right GOD doesn't send them,

but he may ALLOW them.

WE ALL knew we were coming to world with terrestial challenges.

WE do KNOW GOD allowed SATAN to "test" Job.

SO GOD MAY not cause them, but sure will ALLOW things to happen.

And it cetainly can be said we are tested by this earthly mortal existance, and being cut off from GOD's physical presence certainly challenges our faith.

RE: Ronnie Bray | 8:21 a.m. Aug. 27, 2009

((Job 1:6-2:13)God allows Job to be put into Satans hands,v.12. Job suffers for many chapters. (42:10-17) vs 11. They all comfort him over the evil(trouble) the Lords has brought over him.

(1Tim 3:12)A deacon(diakonoi)must be the husband of one(mias)wife. no polygamy test.

Anonymous | 10:31 a.m. Aug. 28, 2009

If God "allows" bad things to happen, then he is just as much an immoral creature and accomplice to evil as if he made things happen.

Do NOT give the example of Job because ALL credible Bible scholars agree the story of Job is not literal but allegorical only! It proves nothing about theology.

Add your comment

Comments are monitored. Any comments found to be abusive, offensive, off-topic, misrepresentative, more than 200 words or containing URLs will not be posted.

Words Remaining

E-mail address: For internal use only. We may want to contact you to publish your comment (not your e-mail address) in the newspaper or for a separate story idea.