In Reply to: Re: Do all things always work together? posted by George on August 05, 2003 at 08:48:27:
I strongly resist the notion of God's being "totally in control".
George, you took the words right out of my mouth, and I agree very much with that. Kathy started a thread several weeks ago on this topic and maybe it's worth finding it and reposting here. IMO, from how I understand the Bible, God has deliberately chosen to limit his power and interaction on the earth even though He's omnipotent and has the power to create everything in the first place. So much depends on our prayer, our choices, our willingness to recognize the truth and do something about it.
However, since God is everywhere and knows everything, I think even if a person is in a corrupt, evil organization like the Famiy, like Ray said, God can be there with you. He can make things turn out in the end. But clearly God was not with us in all His power or we all would have received a strong warning that wouldn't go away, "Get out out this group! It's a cult!" For most of us it took years of figurning things out, seeing abuse, etc. for the scales to be tipped and for us to leave.
But did God "use the Family"? I believe that to a large degree if someone was truly living for God for PART of their Family experience and winning souls, that that is entirely between them and God, without glory going to Berg or the Family structure. As the Family blossomed to its full nature, witnessing was practically stopped for decades and the Bible was dissed as irrelevant. Children were abused, wives were prostituted. So I don't think it was ever "God's will" for someone to be n the Family for a time.
God just never abandoned us while we were in, but it doesn't mean He wanted us in there, just because He was with us. He was like a father sitll mercifully looking after a tripped-off kid. And he led us out as quickly as we were able to hear His voice telling us to get out. This is a deep subject and a lot can be said about it.