Is it true that everything happens for a reason?

[saved34]

I believe there are things that we can cause or bring upon our own selves(Peter says if we suffer for our own wrong doings we are to do it with patience) but in the over all scheme of things God is in full control and uses each and every occurrence in our lives as a tool for molding and shaping us. Because he has charged himself with our care and well being, neither death nor life can overcome his love for us. Things present or things to come cannot change his care for us. So everything may not happen for a specific reason as in God caused it, but God delivers us out of, or through every peril, and he ALLOWS us to be tested or suffer in order for our own growth and maturity.  

[missmuffet]

The fact that God has control over everything in this world is called "God's Sovereignty".

[KC02]

Well I am a nuckehead and I have certainly brought some things upon myself. Even so, like the verse Izzel quoted (Rom. 8:28), God has used some bad times to make me a lot stronger.

[WIP]

Yes I believe that ALL things work together for good ...Rom 8:28

I also believe that we "reap what we sow".......there are always consequences to our actions whether good or bad.

[AGTG]

On 3/8/2014 at 9:58 PM, bopeep1909 said:

Do you guys believe that some things happen and they are just a consequence or do you believe that nothing is ever a consquence and everything that happens is done by God?

 

 

 

Edited May 9, 2020 by AGTG

[Fez]

Yes I believe everything happens for a reason, and there is no such thing as chance. I wrote this a few years back as part of a predestination debate we were having, but it still says what i think...

 

Chance can do nothing because it is nothing. We use the word chance to describe mathematical probabilities. A flipped coin has a 50/50 chance to come up heads. If it comes up tails we say we had bad luck and we missed our chance. How much influence did chance have on that flip?

 

We would know a bit more if we knew what side the coin was on when flipped, the exertion of the thumb, the density of the air, the weight of the coin, and how many revolutions it made. If we knew this our chances of prediction would far exceed 50/50. We can’t measure the factors, so we simplify the matter by talking about chance.

 

But in reality chance exerts no influence at all on the coin toss. Why not? Because chance cannot do anything, because it is nothing! Before something can do something, exert power or influence, it must be something! It must be an entity, either physical or nonphysical. Chance is neither. It is a mental construct; it has no power or no being. It is nothing.

 

To say something happened by chance is to say that it was a coincidence, which is simply a confession that we cannot perceive all the forces and powers that work in an event. And so it is with the complex affairs of life that are beyond our exact ability to fathom. So we invent the word chance to explain them, it is a word we use as shorthand for our ignorance.

[OakWood]

Do you guys believe that some things happen and they are just a consequence or do you believe that nothing is ever a consquence and everything that happens is done by God?

 

No some of it is random otherwise there would be no concept of free will. However, there are consequences of everything that we do and God knows all and records all, but he does not predetermine all.

Therefore not everything happens for a reason but most things probably do.

[OakWood]

Yes I believe everything happens for a reason, and there is no such thing as chance. I wrote this a few years back as part of a predestination debate we were having, but it still says what i think...

 

Chance can do nothing because it is nothing. We use the word chance to describe mathematical probabilities. A flipped coin has a 50/50 chance to come up heads. If it comes up tails we say we had bad luck and we missed our chance. How much influence did chance have on that flip?

 

We would know a bit more if we knew what side the coin was on when flipped, the exertion of the thumb, the density of the air, the weight of the coin, and how many revolutions it made. If we knew this our chances of prediction would far exceed 50/50. We can’t measure the factors, so we simplify the matter by talking about chance.

 

But in reality chance exerts no influence at all on the coin toss. Why not? Because chance cannot do anything, because it is nothing! Before something can do something, exert power or influence, it must be something! It must be an entity, either physical or nonphysical. Chance is neither. It is a mental construct; it has no power or no being. It is nothing.

 

To say something happened by chance is to say that it was a coincidence, which is simply a confession that we cannot perceive all the forces and powers that work in an event. And so it is with the complex affairs of life that are beyond our exact ability to fathom. So we invent the word chance to explain them, it is a word we use as shorthand for our ignorance.

 

I agree with everything you say..... but I don't quite. I can't explain it very well.

Chance is nothing, you're right, but nevertheless not everything happens for a reason, at least not a reason of any importance.

[OneLight]

Perhaps you are looking for the reason in the wrong place.   Just because we do not see the reason at first, we should not decline that there is a reason, but instead, pray that God shows us the reason.

[OakWood]

Perhaps you are looking for the reason in the wrong place.   Just because we do not see the reason at first, we should not decline that there is a reason, but instead, pray that God shows us the reason.

 

I'm not saying there is never a reason, just sometimes an reason of no consequence. The trouble is we don't always know whether it is a reason of no consequence or not.