Coincidence?

That'll be 10 bucks, sir. NEEEEEXT???? </font>[/QUOTE] What a rip-off! Ten bucks?!??!
Lucy only gets 5 cents for her counsel!
Although I think she charges
Charlie Brown double sometimes!!
In His grace,
Ed

 

TaterTot asked:

DO you believe in coincidence?

From a theological perspective, no. God orders everything, and so in the strictest sense there is no such thing as a chance event.

From a practical, everyday perspective, sure. Ordinary old probability says that unlikely events will happen. And they happen more frequently than you might realize.

There's a mathematical axiom known as the "law of large numbers," which says (more or less) that with a really large sample size, unlikely occurrences are practically inevitable. For example, for me to win a big prize twice in the lottery, assuming I played, would be extraordinarily unlikely. However, someone will win twice quite frequently, because of the number of people who play the lottery.

Similarly, given the huge number of things that happens to you, coincidences are nothing unusual. It would be weird if they never happened.

 

Ransom speaks wisely. To reiterate what I stated earlier, one's attitudes towards coincidence depends on how you define it. If one views coincidence as things happenning without any apparantly intended relation, yet still being under God's sovereignty, then yes, there is coincidence, as surely as the sun shining and the rain falling on the just and unjust alike.

Only in our self-centered arrogance do we assume that everything that happens, happens for us.

 

(blushing)

 

Not according to Scripture: some things happen against us, true, but all things work together/good things, bad things, for our good. All things actually are never coincidence no matter how we define the word, not even some things or any one thing, else you would have some other influence to gain contriol other than God.

Even when we make choices contrary to God's Sovereign will, God turns the tables on those and works them out for our good/ His glory: convicting us for sin through resulting circumstances in the case of the bad, comforting us through bad circumstances that might otherwise harm us in the event we fail to recognize Rom 8:28, and knowing that He loves us with an unfeined love that no matter what this life dishes out, it is only temporal and His eternal reward is not even yet appeared to us what we shall be. We have that promise of God!

Wanna base anything on coincidence? G'head. I'd rather give God the most earnest heed and give Him, the only wise God, Glory, Honour, Dominion and Praise!

 

I don't think believing there are no coincidences is saying you believe everything happens for us.

I agree with what some of the others have shared that certain people are more sensitive or have a discernment for such things that others do not have. Thus it seems odd to them when people talk of such things. But for those who understand it, it is not odd at all. It is just the things that happen at times in life.

I think some are scared of talking about such things because they appear so mystical, etc. But I just prefer to leave them in God's hands and let Him be responsible for them.

 

OK, you say? But who is in control of those coincidences then? If God isn't, then who is?

 

God is in control of them as He is in control of all things.

 

Then by that statement, "coincidence" doesn't exist except in the dictionary and for those who don't know God.

 

There really isn't such a thing as chance , luck or fortune . Those are pagan ideas , Christians shouldn't use that kind of terminology . Things happen by the providence of God -- He has decreed all things . There's not a chance .

I know Ecc. 9:11 can be cited . The last part of the verse ... " nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned ; but time and chance happen to them all . " But this is an exception in the Word of God .

 

I think Ransom and JohnV have resaonable answers. God created everything in this world including random occurances. Some things God has his hands directly on like whoever was thinking about what to do if a car swerved and was prepared when the car did just that moments later. Somethings seem to be just random like if I flip a coin right now does God really put his hand on it and make it come up heads. Just because somethings happen on random occurance does not mean they are out of Gods control, they are still working within the system he created in the first place.

So things can happen in random chance and still be under Gods control.

 

Oh, ok, then you belive God created all things just as they are and is still on sabbatical?

 

No, I said God has His hand directly on many things, just not everything.

Do you beleve that God decides who wins a blackjack game in Vegas? Is he deciding what number comes up on the roulett wheel?

 

What appears to be chance or random in our minds is an absolute predetermined certainty in God's mind.

 

Congrats

 

Rippon said:

Things happen by the providence of God -- He has decreed all things . There's not a chance .

Absolutely. But we still can't predict when a roll of the dice will come up snake eyes. From our perspective, it is a random event that will occur approximately once every 36 rolls.