Can God make mistakes?

[DaisyJoy1]

If you're a Christian - of any denomination - do you believe that God can make mistakes by putting people in the wrong bodies? I am thinking specifically of transgender people, obviously.

If you do believe that God can make mistakes, how do you connect this with the rest of your faith?

If you don't believe that God can make mistakes, how can you explain why transgender people feel the way that they do?

I am a Christian and my (atheist) friend asked me about this and I just didn't know how to answer her. Of course I don't believe that God can make mistakes - I KNOW He can't make mistakes. So how does that make sense within the context of the feelings of transgender people?

Was just wondering what other Christian's personal thoughts were about this.

@j712adrian Eh?!

You can be thread police all you like, but these type of false statements need calling out...

If he existed no but he does not

I’m not ‘being thread police’, I’m asking you to please not deliberately derail threads, as per MNHQ’s own rules. Also the ‘false statement’ you’re ‘calling out’ is from an atheist, so…????

People want to have actual discussions. If you can’t read what they’re saying, or understand the point of a conversation, you are going to struggle with that. But you can as always start your own thread to talk about the things you want to talk about.

Completely off topic here but God, in the form of Jesus was a Jewish man from Palestine (or the Roman Judea), so would have most likely looked Middle Eastern, not white...

'In 2018, Joan Taylor, a professor of early Christianity and Second Temple Judaism at King’s College London, published What Did Jesus Look Like?, a historical study into Christ’s appearance.

Drawing on textual and archaeological sources, Taylor suggests that Jesus was around 5’5″ tall — the average height seen in male skeletons from the same time and place. Like others in Judea and Egypt, where Jesus briefly lived, the historical Jesus likely had dark hair, tan skin, and brown eyes. As for his clothing, he would have probably worn a woolen tunic, likely with a cloak, and sandals.

“I think what you would recognize Jesus as being is just really someone who looked very poor,” explains Taylor.

All in all, most modern researchers agree that he would have looked like a first-century Jewish man. After all, The Letter to the Hebrews declares, “It is clear that our Lord was descended from Judah.” '

HTH

"gender isn’t as binary as we once thought and we can learn to love each other and coexist no matter how our bodies and minds are."

The bible and quran are both disgustingly homophobic

Some readings of the Bible are disgustingly homophobic!
Unfortunately, generations of translators over the last 2000 years have influenced it.

It's hotly debated among highly trained theologians, so I'd be reluctant to claim who has it right.

I haven't read the full thread as I did want to wade through the irritating off-topic comments so apologies if this has already been said before.

I've been a Christian all my life and still practice now. I don't believe God makes mistakes.

I believe this world was created as a long-term project by God and intended to be a partnership between Himself and humans.

I believe we humans have made many, many mistakes that account for a lot of suffering and evil in this world.

I believe God is loyal and faithful and will fix our mistakes in time. He never gives up on us and is committed to fulfilling His promises to us.

I do not believe that gender exists. We are either male or female and that's it. Our genes and our bodies tell us that this is true. You can have any personality type, any interest, any hobby, any dress sense you like but that will not change your sex.

I believe God loves us and has compassion on us all regardless of your thoughts, beliefs or actions. I believe that anyone who is transgender has suffered or is suffering great emotional harm and God wishes to heal them. I do not believe being trans is a sin. Every trans person should feel welcome in Church exactly as they are. If they are made to feel unwelcome that is the sin of the people in the church. God welcomes all people, has love for all people, and desires good for all people.

I think it makes less sense to be atheist and buy gender ideology. Being IN the wrong body suggests we are not our bodies.

I'd say 'yes' on the basis that the Bible says 'God created man in his own image'.

I do not believe being trans is a sin. Every trans person should feel welcome in Church exactly as they are.

I do agree with this. I don’t think it’s possible to have a gendered soul, but clearly it is possible to feel like you do and it’s in the wrong body, and so while I don’t have a big overarching theology ‘explaining’ trans people I don’t think they’re inherently bad or should be unwelcome in church. Trans Christians are better placed to explain their own experience than I am.

I'd take it further and say that some readings of some very small parts of the Bible are disgustingly homophobic (and quoted by homophobic people wanting to make their own sad very Un-Christian-in-its-sentiment point)

Hmmm, a bit bigoted to assume the two go together. I bet you're American.

No God doesn't make mistakes
We do

This is something that puzzles me.
God is meant to be loving but plagues, famine, war, disease, the existence of people like Pol Pot, Hitler, Boris Johnson....to me that seems like a lot of fallibility.

God is meant to be loving but plagues, famine, war, disease, the existence of people like Pol Pot, Hitler, Boris Johnson....to me that seems like a lot of fallibility.
God gave us the world. What we did with it was down to us, how we parented children who grew up to be Hitler is down to us, climate change etc, yeh down to us.
Anyone who thinks God sits up there a bit bored one day and says, hey I know, I'll just give that 3 year old cancer or I'll have a car driver knock down that elderly man is a fool. Why on earth would he? When my 16 year old was killed, God didn't do it, a speeding driver did

This

But chakras do?

I have a strong faith (not Christian) so for me God does not make mistakes, people do. Gender stereotypes are a human issue.
I also don't believe that God is love. Of course bad things happen to people and people have disabilities - including mental ones where they think they're in the wrong body.
It's an illness like so many things.
God has created a universe of diversity, change and things both good and bad. The Christian idea of an ever-loving God is not one that makes sense to me.

😁😁😁You win the thread as far as I'm concerned. Good observation/comeback, I enjoyed that!

For those talking about Jesus' existence being well-documented historical fact, V Jesus existing AND being the Son of God, this is a passage I adore from Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. This passage really clarified for me exactly who Jesus is. I'll post it here in case anyone is interested and because I just love it:

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God.

That is the one thing we must not say.

A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher.

He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell.

You must make your choice.

Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse.

You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher.

He has not left that open to us.

He did not intend to.”

UGH Goosebumps every time 😁

Well, for a start, we have free will. God gave us free will. An awful lot of terrible things happen simply because we have free will.

Secondly, at several points in scripture we can see that although God has ultimate power, the devil is in charge on earth. He is the 'ruler' or 'prince' of this world (John 14:30) and he controls the world at this time.

So I'd say, as a Christian, I believe that a combination of these two facts is how I understand a lot of awful things that happen.

I also keep in mind that a lot of things happen which we can't understand and which are maybe a part of a bigger picture or plan that we aren't aware of (at least right now). My favourite bible verse is, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways submit to Him, and He will set your path straight." (Proverbs 3:5-6). So, more than try to explain and justify why everything happens, I just try to always trust God, and know that my own understanding might be limited on some things, but this is why we have faith.

So that's just my personal feeling on the matter.

(I love that Boris Johnson made it onto a list with Hitler and Pol Pot, that really made me laugh! 😁)

I think this is a really interesting point! It's weird that I'd never thought of it like this before, but as soon as I read it, it made a lot of sense. I'm glad you posted this - I need to mull it over a bit more. Thank you for this!

It really doesn't make any sense at all. Well, maybe if you view it through a theists idea of what an atheist is, but it's dribbling nonsense to an actual atheist...

@CremeEggsForBreakfast
I've been a Christian all my life and still practice now. I don't believe God makes mistakes.
I believe this world was created as a long-term project by God and intended to be a partnership between Himself and humans.
I believe we humans have made many, many mistakes that account for a lot of suffering and evil in this world.
I believe God is loyal and faithful and will fix our mistakes in time. He never gives up on us and is committed to fulfilling His promises to us.
I do not believe that gender exists. We are either male or female and that's it. Our genes and our bodies tell us that this is true. You can have any personality type, any interest, any hobby, any dress sense you like but that will not change your sex.
I believe God loves us and has compassion on us all regardless of your thoughts, beliefs or actions. I believe that anyone who is transgender has suffered or is suffering great emotional harm and God wishes to heal them. I do not believe being trans is a sin. Every trans person should feel welcome in Church exactly as they are. If they are made to feel unwelcome that is the sin of the people in the church. God welcomes all people, has love for all people, and desires good for all people.

^
This sums it up nicely