Does betrayal come from above?

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No. God is in the mind.

This is not a yes/no question. You are talking about someone’s belief system, a very complicated subject. Which god? Whose god? No god? No gods? Rarely does anyone get through his/her life unscathed, whatever his/her theologic views are.

Nope. It’s just chance.

Only of you do not want to take responsibility for your own actions and believe someone else is in control.
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I do not believe that there is a god who busies himself or herself with the day-to-day workings of our lives.

If you consult the Bible, you will find this oft-misquoted passage: ” Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.” (Prov. 16:18; KJV)

I don’t believe in any divine being, but even if I did, this verse would not tell me that it punishes our egos by delivering destruction to us or setting a stumbling block in our path. It would tell me that the attitudes of pride and a haughty spirit have in them the seeds of the opposite. If I behave in a too-egotistical way, I am the one who is setting myself up for a fall. It doesn’t take a god to do that. All it takes is the carelessness and blindness that come of overconfidence and self-absorption coupled with some number of pissed-off fellow mortals.

In other words, it’s a natural consequence.

When Benjamin Franklin invented the lightning rod, some people objected because they felt it was interfering with God’s will. Since then we have come come up with a number of devices to thwart God’s possible revenge, which has allowed people to live longer. We keep making things more difficult for God, though some would say that we do a pretty good job of messing things up without any assistance.

Well it’s not actually God doing it. He’s much too busy with the administrative duties of running heaven and all. He’s got a staff of a billion angels that take care of the little things like man’s ego. I suppose some of the tougher cases make it to his desk. But the lightning bolts you feel are just the result of him pacing back and forth in his carpeted office stirring up static electricity while trying to figure out how to take care of this problem in time for dinner.

If you’re a believer in the Christian God, then no. That negates free will.

We set ourselves up for lightening strikes. God just let’s ‘em happen. Cause we’re idiots.

I have had some terrible tragedies in my life; I believe neither that I set myself up for them, that God lets them happen, nor that I am an idiot.

@gailcalled Sorry Gail. I really wasn’t thinking that deeply. I’ve had tragic things happen that I couldn’t have controlled, too. However, I was thinking more along the lines of what the OP posted about our ego’s getting too big. Acting a certain way, like you’re better than other people or something. Or being hateful. Those are things you can control, but if you don’t, there will be natural, logical negative consequences because of your actions.

To further clarify my statement, and because I reread the question; If one were to be set up to take a fall due to one’s own hubris, I would not consider this a betrayal. this would be filed under the “Lessons needed to be learned” category, not a betrayal.
to further elaborate because of statements made by @Val123 and @gailcalled, just allow me to state that I must assume that the OP is of the Christian faith but not well enough versed in all the aspects to realize some things.
To blame God for bad things that happen is a mistake if one truly follows the Christian faith. According to the faith, God gave dominion of this world to Satan in the beginning, after the fall. When bad things happen, one need look no farther than the evil one. Evil serves no purpose other than evil. so there need be no purpose to evil, no justification or explanation. To look up into the sky and say “Why?” is a futility. Evil is random, and to expect to be “safe” from evil events by faith in God is a fallacy. God makes no such promise. God promises only fortitude and help in getting through bad times. The reward of the faithful comes after death.
Yes, according to scripture God wants his people to have life and have it more abundantly, but there are no guarantees. Job had it all, then he had it all taken from him.
Do not look for reasons for random negative events and do not make the mistake of thinking bad things that happen are “God’s will”. God withdrew his will from this world when he gave it over to the adversary. The bad things that happen go directly against the nature of a loving god, but he will continue to remain outside of the process until the final trump shall sound.
It’s a pity that more Christians are not aware of the finer points of this theology. It would help them answer some difficult questions for people.

I love @Trillian!

@Trillian , That is an interpretation of scripture that I have not heard. Can you point to a place in the Bible where it says that Satan has been “given dominion” over our life on Earth? For all of my complaints, I have to say that things could be much worse. Satan would not seem to be doing a very good job of making things awful.

It depends on who your god is, doesn’t it? Hence the reason I refuse to choose a religion and believe only in good morals towards others while accepting that I may be judged by a greater being if I choose to act selfishly.

God is a god of mercy, but he will sometimes allow us to suffer the consequences of our own willfullness, or of our own stupidity. God will seldom intervene in the laws of cause and effect, so that we sometimes are also affected by the actions of others. The christian believes that his or her paths are directed by God, so “whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.”

I have some passages that support this statement, but let me state here and now that I neither claim this to be true nor false. I make these statements from a pentecostal backgground and give what I believe to be a correct answer to the OP from the context of the OP’s question. I will also give space to scriptures which seem to dispute this in the name of fairness. I begin;
John 12:31 (NIV) Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out.
John 14:30 Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me
John 16:11 Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.
Eph 2:2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.
2 Cor 4:4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
1 John 4:3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and (I)now it is already in the world.
Luke 4:5–7 The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7So if you worship me, it will all be yours.”
1 John 5:19 We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.
Matthew 4;8–10 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour. 9 All this I will give you, he said, if you will bow down and worship me. 10 Jesus said to him, Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’

I have found people have two verses to dispute this. The first is:
Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, [a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” And
Psalms 91:11–13 For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. 12On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.
13 You will tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.
It is also stated regarding the temptation in the wilderness that Satan is the father of lies, and is therefore lying to Jesus when he offers him kingdoms in return for Jesus’ worship. The alternate point of view is that he is speaking the truth, and this is why Jesus does not refute that statement, but contends that the worship that Satan desires belongs to God alone.

i wouldnt put it this way, but this relates at least to me to my belief of everything happens for a reason.

things happen that you cannot control. it does little but stress you out to obsess over bad things that COULD happen to you. things happen and if they were meant to happen they will happen. all you can do is improve on your self-awareness and street smarts.

i do think that we do things that hurt people even if we don’t mean to, so in some way that i don’t fully understand, it makes sense that things will happen that hurt us and ultimately make us grow as humans – if we let it. it’s all some kind of cycle.

@Trillian , Thanks for the citations. There appears to be a difference between Old and New Testament viewpoints.

The lyrics to this song explain my answer much more eloquently, than my mere typed words ever could.

@LostInParadise Yes, Jesus had some issues with the Old Testament. That’s what he was all about, reform.

Actually, it would be more accurate to say that Jesus “had issues” with the way the religious leaders of his day interpreted the Old Testament. Jesus was the fulfillment of prophecy from the Old Testament. The OT was prologue to the New.

@CaptainHarley Right, but there were some things he flat out contradicted too, such as an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Jesus said “No. Don’t get revenge. Turn the other cheek.” Much of the Old Testament was really quite violent, and Jesus was about peace.

Very true. Perhaps those things were placed in the OT due to the intransigence of men.