March 17, 2011

A Little More On God And Evil

I really had planned on being finished with the topic of God and evil. In a real sense I was not enjoying it. Spending a few weeks thinking about, reading about, and writing about pain, suffering and evil is not what I like to do to relax. Plus I have a new daughter and I am stressed enough without being starkly reminded just how bad things can be on a daily bases. Besides for the most part I felt like I had said it all I wanted too.

But then Japan happened. A 9.0 earthquake, a massive tsunami, countless homeless during cold winter conditions, a shortage of food, water, and fuel, and the very real threat of a nuclear disaster. Anyone of these should cause us to drop to our knees and pray for those who are suffering.

But as it turns out if all of the above happens it causes us to search for blame.

Glenn Beck is far from toping my list of people worth listening to (if anything, he tops my list of people to ignore) never the less he makes a lot of noise. Lately he has been suggesting that the disasters in Japan was a message from God, a short of shape up or watch out message.

Now I will admit that I said that one possible explanation for why bad things happen was punishment  And I stand by that. However from our vantage point I do not think we will ever be able to say with certainty what the cause of any given evil event that happened was.

Our inability to know for sure why event A happened is no doubt frustrating. We like to have everything tied up nice and neat. But the real world simply does not work that way. Furthermore blaming victims of disasters for being victims of disasters is just not an acceptable Christian response to pain and suffering. If people need to be punished, lets leave that to God. If anything it would be best to put aside the whole concept of blame and let us try and learn the lesson of the man born blind.

Instead we are called to; 1.Pray. 2. Provide whatever aid we can, be it money, materials, or service. Prayer does a number of things. One of them is that it helps us to align our hearts to God's heart. God does not take joy in the death and suffering of people. We ought to be just as heart broken as he is. Once our hearts are aligned with God's the next step is to do something. When we finish praying we must get off our knees and go pick up a hammer, or write a check, or make a phone call, or book a plane ticket, and on and on I can go.

Jesus' death and resurrection means the final war with sin and death (including pain and suffering) will be won. However between now and then we are called to fight the battles. We are called to meet pain and suffering head on and drive it out. So Glenn, stop searching for who to blame and start looking to see how you can help.

Also, shut your pie hole.



4 comments:

  1. Montana- Thank you for reading an commenting. What you have described happening is just plain horrific. You are right when things like that happen we must stand out, and speak out to put an end to them.

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  2. Hi Chris, Yes we should pray and let the Lord lead us in our giving how ever that may be.
    About the blame game, who is at fault concerning Japan. We agree that God is in control of all things and yes He allowed the earthquake to happen. The warning is for all of us who are still alive. Jesus spoke in Luke concerning the tower of Siloam that fell and killed 18 people, Jesus said to them who were listening "I tell you unless you repent, you will all likewise perish"
    We do not know the time of our death but we can be assured that God has appointed us die once and then the judgment. So isn't the primary goal as Christians to go and witness the Gospel. Are not their spiritual needs greater than their physical needs?

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  3. Jim,

    I suspect that you are correct that in the grand scheme of things Spiritual needs are 'more important'

    After all what is starvation and radiation sickness compared to being eternally separated from God.

    That being said I think the words God loves you and wishes to save you from Hell carries more weight if Christians are willing to help with the more immediate problems.

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  4. The immediate problem is their souls and I'm not saying we don't help their physical needs. But by our helping them does not indicate to them that they need Jesus more. The whole bible points to Christ Messiah and Jesus points to eternal life by the power of Holy Spirit. (Romans 10:17)
    If you were the only person in Japan helping the hungry and the sick then yes you should be doing all that you can. But the whole world has responded to the needs of these people so that has given us a greater opportunity to speak to their souls. It is heart wrenching for us to see a person die without hearing the Gospel. If we are more concerned for the body than we are for the soul then don't we misunderstand the gospel.
    (Acts 17:30-31)(2Cor 1:3-4)

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