Good post.
I think a question to ponder might be "Is God OBLIGATED to protect His children?" If not, then under what circumstances is He 'obligated'? Or is He ever 'obligated' at all?
There seems to be scriptures that say He is, BUT, there always if not most of the time seem to be 'conditions'. If so, what are these conditions?
For example, take Psalm 91. From reading that it seems that we are under complete protection IF we meet the conditions. Can any one of us say that we perfectly live the conditions of Psalm 91? And as you pointed out, and Colonel brought up, (
especially his children who didn't disobey his according commands) and you saying God doesn't necessarily reveal things to us about others (I remember Hagin saying once when he saw Jesus and asked why something happened to a particular person that Jesus told him it 'was none of your business'), we never know somebody's heart. We never know they're personal life. Even if we lived with them and everything seemed outwardly perfect, again, we still don't know the heart.
And there is also an interesting point that Bookie brings up from time to time. And I think I'm interpreting his question right. If we say 'God protected me' in a certain situation, then couldn't we equally say 'God didn't protect me' in a situation that seems like He didn't 'show up'? There are just a lot of theological questions surrounding this whole subject. The questions can go on and on.
You can answer them in your next post.