Hebraic Musing –Can God be Good when we have a World of Suffering?
How
is it that the world is full of death and suffering and at the same time the Bible
says God called His creation “good”? “God saw
all that he had made, and it was very good….” Genesis 1: 31 NIV But how can one believe that God or His
creation is “good” if they have no
background knowledge of the Bible or Christianity? They might not have grown up in a Christian
home, never attended church, and/or were indoctrinated in the theory of evolution
through their education system? And they
were probably taught against Christianity by parents and/or teachers. So when a Christian meets this person and
tells them that God of infinite love made the world and He cares for us, that
non-Christian is listening, but thinking…:
·
I
don’t see any God of love. All I see are
children suffering and dying.
·
I
see people killing and stealing. Disease
and death seem to be everywhere.
·
If
your God does exist, He must be a sadistic ogre.
The problem is that this non-Christian only
sees and knows this fallen world. When
that person is told about the God of creation, he/she blames God for the
horrible world we live in. Without an
understanding of Genesis and the “fall”, they can’t comprehend that there can
be a God of love, much less that He called it “good”!
This is also a problem for
some Christians! When a loved one dies or tragedy strikes, they
understandably ask God why these things happen. Unfortunately many also blame God and are
angry at Him because they don’t understand the reason for the existence of
death and suffering. Why is that? Many Christians have been indoctrinated to
believe that God’s creation took millions/billions of years, and that death,
disease, and suffering are a part of this creative process. But this is not the God of the Bible. Remember that Genesis 1: 31 said God created
everything “very good.” If we look for
it, we’ll see a remnant of beauty from the original creation; however we deal
with the groaning, horrible world we have around us, for now. But this world is what we human beings in
essence have asked for!
What occurred in the universe as a result of Adam’s fall
into sin? At the time of the Fall God
gave Adam a choice – choose God and His absolutes, or choose autonomy (man
makes his own rules). Adam (just like us
rebellious creatures) chose to try life without God. We inherently don’t want God’s rules; we want
to determine truth for ourselves. So
God, as a righteous Judge, gave us what we wanted (and deserved). He withdraws some of His power so as to not
uphold the world in a perfect state. Look
what happened, everything is running down and falling apart. We are experiencing just a taste of the
judgment of what life would be like without God. So
this mess is really our fault!
God is so merciful to us. Even though we have a
predisposition to want life without God because of our Adamic nature, our
Creator has given us only a taste of what life without God would be like. He still upholds many things so we can live in
this world. If God were to withdraw even
more of the His power things would become much worse. Remember, God raises up kings and destroys
kingdoms (Dan.2:21) and the more God removes His restraining influence from the
nations the more we would see the horrible sinful nature of man expressed in
evil deeds. We already see examples of
this before our very eyes in the UK, Western Europe, Australia and even in America. These nations were foundationally Christian and were originally governed with God-based moral laws.
What happened? Romans 1: 25 states “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served
created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised.” This aptly describes the evolutionary
worldview. It’s also an apt description
of compromised Christians who deny God by going along with teachings of evolution. Paul describes those who do not acknowledge
God as - unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice, full of envy, murder,
strife, deceit, maliciousness, gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent,
haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish,
faithless, heartless, ruthless…. Rom.1:28-32 WOW!
Points
to ponder or RSVP
What would this world and our life be like without
God?
In how many ways do we try to be god, instead of simply
listening and obeying God? WWJD
“Return,
O faithless sons, I will heal your faithlessness.” Jer. 3: 22 NASB
Author: “Hebraic Insights – Messages exploring the Hebrew roots of our faith”
“Biblical Marriage (by Yosef)” Weekly “Hebraic Musings”
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