If God truly loves His creation, why would He allow His chosen ones to suffer, to experience pain and sorrow? Why would He allow innocent children to suffer? To be maimed? Would He truly allow loving Christian parents to die needlessly, long before they lived a full life, leaving young children behind? Why is God so mean?
These are common questions asked by skeptics, atheists and even believers who are struggling with their faith. How can a loving God not love us?
Isaiah writes in 55:9
"For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts."
I admit, I too have asked these same questions and struggled with the answers. It has taken years of Bible study to finally understand the nuances of God. To be able to see clearly that God is not mean, unable to control His creation or arbitrary in His miracles. These questions call into question the fairness of God. I think we all go there one time or another. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 1:25:
"For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men."
In other words, here is Biblical evidence man has been questioning God forever. The truth be known, we all deserve to die, don't we? There is not one of us on this planet who deserves to live. Romans 3:23 says "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."
But according to the Bible, it is a miracle God saved anyone. Not only have all sinned, but Romans 6:23 says "the wages of sin is death." We all should die. But we all do die. So this death must not mean death as we know it, but must refer to a spiritual death, to eternal separation from God. Sin is awful, it is horrible to God. It cannot be in His presence. God cannot allow sin to coexist with Him in Heaven. He is Holy. At the extremes, sin causes great cruelty and destruction. Man's inhumanity to man is documented throughout history and is being repeated today. War is but one example. The Bible says God causes hurricanes and tornadoes and other natural disasters. God is no respecter of persons, the Bible says.
The Bible tells us, however, that God is in charge of every detail. Nothing escapes His attention. Nothing happens that He does not ordain or allow. Why? What type of God would allow such horror or grief, we might ask?
Romans 8:28 tells us the answer. "All thing work together for good, for those who love the Lord and are called to His purpose." If God is indeed just, merciful, loving and almighty. If He truly "loves the world and gave His only begotten son", then He will work all things together for good. But according to His purpose, not ours.
Asking "why" has caused a spiritual crisis in more than one life. And if you are in that place, some of it may be due to poor Biblical training. We must remember, evil exists. Evil is real. Satan is the great deceiver. He and the demons are a force that is opposed to God and hates you and me. Ephesians 6 talks about the battle between "the powers and principalities in the high places." Paul also says that it is not a battle between flesh and blood. So he acknowledges it looks different than it truly is. Man hates man - but only because of spiritual warfare.
1 Chronicles 29 tells us the God raises up leaders and makes them fall.
The Bible says God is constantly working His plan of salvation and sanctification among His people for one purpose and one purpose only, according to scripture - to gather His sheep.
When sin entered the world, it was pervasive. So bad that God sent a flood. But notice He raptured Noah and His family. He protected the only believers in the world at that time. And He gave others a chance to come. But they did not come giving them no excuse. He said He would never do it again and evidenced His covenant with a rainbow. But that did not mean evil was expunged. Sin continues in the world.
Just read about the Jews and the passover. The Jews, even though they had full evidence of God's power, continued to worship other Gods, continued to sin. God showed His anger and wrath at sin clearly in the OT. He eradicated sin from Israel to keep it pure. But there is leaven that keeps rising. Sin remained. And sin caused heartache and misery even among God's people as they disobeyed Him.
When God leds His people to the promised land from Egypt, what did they do? They were told to remove all of the people living there. Eliminate every last one of them. Did they do it? No! They were merciful and their sin, their mercy, violated God's command and came back and got them. They began to worship foreign gods and marry foreign women. Had they obeyed, their history would have been different. Was that a surprise to God? No.
God knew there was only one way to save the world, so He gave His only begotten son and whosoever will believe in Him will have eternal life. But who is whosoever will?
Many believe faith comes by doing. But the Bible says it comes by hearing. Everyone of us is spiritually dead in our sins. The Bible calls it depraved. How can a dead person come alive? They can't, unless they are born again. John 3:3. God elects who will be made spiritually alive and who will not, according to His will. Read Romans 9. What shall the clay say to the potter? Whosoever will are those whom God has called to His purpose.
Those made alive in Christ will have eternal life. Those who aren't will get exactly what they deserve, what we all deserve is eternal separation from God - death. Those made alive did not get what they deserved. God spared them for His own purpose. God, through His mercy saved them from eternal separation, spiritual death.
I deserve to die. I deserve to be eternally separated from God. We all do. But for whatever reason, having nothing to do with me, my character, my beliefs, my works, nothing - God chose me and gave me eyes to see and ears to hear. Jesus, in the NT says several times He has hidden the truth in parables from those He does not want to know. But calls those He does. I will never know why, but I am eternally grateful.
In Romans 8:29, The Bible explains what is referred to as the golden chain. God foreknew, predestined, called, saved and glorified His elect. The Greek word for foreknew means He determined and selected before the beginning exactly who He would call. He elected them.
This means we have no free will in election. It is God's providence alone. This means God predetermined who He would save and who he would not save. It means that those who reject God, are blind to spiritual truth and nothing we can do will change it. We can tell the story. But they cannot hear, because they are spiritually dead - for now. Are they spiritually dead for eternity - who but God knows? They may have a chaotic event come into their lives where they plead for God and God touches them because their time has come. I do not even pretend to know.
Does that mean we stop witnessing to them? Stop praying for them? Stop telling them the story? May it never be. We are the means God uses. They see our life, our reaction in times of stress. They see how we live in times of great chaos. We are the way God draws them to Him. The way God opens their eyes. If they do not come, they are without excuse. Romans 1.
Sin is a constant battle. Sin has its consequences. But God works all things together for God. When someone falls, someone rises. The miracle is there is any good left in this world. And that good is only there because of God and the Holy Spirit. Without God there would be no good.
So, the Bible gives us a clear picture of God's grace. He saves some, not all. He promises peace and rest. But He never promises protection from sin in this world. Christians can get swept up in the chaos and be hurt, killed, maimed, paralyzed. But in their misery, in their tragedy, they are a witness to the power of God to those who not yet come. They cling to their knowledge there is one, true God who loves them. They know life here is but a small blip on the timeline of eternity. And that what happens here is nothing compared to the glory that awaits them.
Some ask, "Why the Holocaust?" I could only speculate. But what occurs to me is that if God wanted the Jews back in Israel, how might that happen, unless they were motivated to leave their homes? When the Jews were dispersed around the world, Israel was no longer theirs. The Romans took it from them. Eventually, the Muslims got it. For Israel to take it back, they would have to come in droves and would have to present such a problem that the world would recognize the problem and react.
This is exactly what happened in 1946, with the Balfour Declaration. The Jews were given Israel back, much to the consternation of Palestine. This has been the heart of the middle east problem ever since. But did God know? Did He plan it? Was it part of His ultimate plan of redemption? I don't know, but it surely would seem so.
Remember, God is God. If He is who He says He is, then why would we question His plan? His ways are higher than our ways. His foolishness confounds the wise of this world. We can never possibly know why He does what He does.
All we can do is rest in the knowledge of what He has shown us, what He has revealed. We can never know His secret will. But one day, we will see through the mirror less darkly and we will come to know it all. That is His promise.
All of the angels in Heaven cheer His justice and mercy. They proclaim He is not Holy. But He is Holy, Holy, Holy. He is so Holy, we cannot comprehend it. One day, there will be no more tears and no more sorrow.
I would rather give God the benefit of the doubt on all that I cannot possibly know, than I would try and say that I can know and God is wrong.
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