Does God Still Punish Us?

[Adrestia]

[quote name='thessalonian' post='1855755' date='May 2 2009, 05:24 PM']What's your point? Does this mean there is no punishment either? Read Heb 12 and see if you can stand by that. So what of those who have "fallen from grace"? Read Gal 5 if you think that can't happen. " you have fallen from grace, you have be severed from Christ."[/quote]
I don't think that's what was meant...

To paraphrase what you said earlier, those who are in Christ may [i]suffer[/i] because of the sins of others, but it is not [i]punishment[/i] or [i]condemnation[/i].

[Marie-Therese]

This is a complicated question.

1. Does God still punish us? Answer: most definitely YES. We have temporal punishment attached to sin...God chastiseth every son whom He loveth. Purgatory still applies, in case you need a definitive response to that.

2. Natural disasters are not, IMHO, necessarily a punishment from God, as some of the other responders here have also said. Natural disaster is, unfortunately, a part of the working of the Earth which humans have to deal with. However, in the context of the divine, read Revelations. It states plainly that natural disasters and world conflicts will increase in frequency and severity as we head toward the End of Days. Now, don't misunderstand, I'm not one of those Chicken Little "end of the world" alarmists, but we are much closer to that time than we are aware of. Natural disasters are a sign that the Lord gave specifically to indicate this. So, are they a punishment? I don't think so. I think they serve a different purpose. And, not to mention, maybe the devastation they bring might cause some to come to a realization of the state of their life and come to change their behaviors.

My thoughts, for what they're worth.

[thessalonian]

[quote name='tgoldson' post='1855816' date='May 2 2009, 07:29 PM']I don't think that's what was meant...

To paraphrase what you said earlier, those who are in Christ may [i]suffer[/i] because of the sins of others, but it is not [i]punishment[/i] or [i]condemnation[/i].[/quote]


Those who are in Christ still sin and still suffer punishment. None of us are sinless. Therefore we are all punished in some way for every sin, i.e. we do suffer for our sins. All sin has a consequence. Salvation takes away the punishment of hell, but not temporal punishment due to sin. The poster seems to indicate that salvation removes temporal punishment. We will see if that is the case.

[mortify]

God does punish for personal sins.