Cell Block Tango?

Quite often during the last three weeks I've come home and complained that cell is hard. Cell this quarter has been centered around assigning a topic, then going into the bible to see what God says about it and removing our opinion from the matter. I can say my faith is being tested by this and I'm not sure if I like it. I want to stay ignorant, believe things as they are and disregard all the difficult questions that I've had for so long. I leave cell sad most of the time because there aren't answers to the most difficult questions and sometimes I don't like the answers. That's me not having the capacity to understand but I guess I'll have a chat with him when I get there.The themes that have given me the most trouble have been the last two: "The Old Covenant vs. The New Covenant" and the "Israelites". 


We did go off on a tangent with these two and the biggest problem we had was the use of "Hebrew", "Jewish" and "Israelite". They're all used interchangeably. We keep coming back to the same question because of those three words. God said the Israelites were his chosen people, and there's a verse in the new testament that says he purposefully blinded and deafened them to Christ until the Gentiles return to Israel or something. I'll find the exact verse next week. Does that now include the Jews? What about the Israelites that are christian? Does that mean that they have a 'get out of hell' pass until that day comes?


Then while we were discussing the Old Covenant vs. the New Covenant one of my friends said, "Didn't the Jewish people notice that there is a new covenant? I mean God's wrath has ended."
She was referring to things like Sodom and Gomorrah, the plagues and smiting people with lightning. Another friend spoke up and said, "Maybe his wrath is still here. We just explain it away with science."


That brought up numerous verses that said that God had stopped with the wrath because of Jesus and that we'd see it on judgement day. Now this is where the crap hit my fan and it broke.


Who is responsible for all the natural disasters now or even just death? Is it still God? 
Is it Satan? 


Adam and Eve sinned and released death upon upon us all, that's fair enough. In the Old Testament we see that Satan also held the key to our spiritual death because going to heaven or hell was decided by the rules defined in the Old Testament. When Jesus came he not only died for our sins but he stole the key for our spiritual death when he was resurrected. So if we're saved we never have to die a spiritual death. That makes sense but who is responsible for our physical death because sometimes our physical death leads to spiritual death if we're not saved. 


What about that Muslim boy who hasn't heard of Christ and gets shot? What if he lived for a few more years, managed to get out of Pakistan or whatever and finally hears the good news? Why doesn't he get a chance?
What about those random villagers that live on some secluded island? 
Why does God make it easier for some people to be saved and others not so much?


If it's God, then why does he make these people so that they can die spiritually? He knows the plan right? 


So I guess this is where faith comes in. I'm just going to close my eyes and believe that everything will be answered one day, otherwise I'll go crazy.


Other random questions that went unanswered:
- Cain found a wife and he complained that other people would kill him when he killed his brother. Where did those other people come from? Adam and Eve?   
- Why didn't God give anyone else the chance to be the Chosen People?
- When did the Israelites become Jewish?