Part 7: Today's Questions and Problems
When outrages such as the attack on September, 11 of 2001 against the World Trade Center, natural floods, tornadoes, etc., people always ask, "Where was God when this happened?" The answer is that He was in the same place when His beloved Son, Jesus, was crucified.
But, they ask, "How can a good God permit such awful things?" Bad things do happen to good people, even to God-fearing Christians. There is no easy answer, but perhaps a quotation from God's Word, the Bible, will help us begin to understand. Read Matthew, Chapter 5, Verse 45 (in part):
...He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
Doubtless this verse is speaking about all things that happen to mankind. Thus we begin to see that, in our earthly life, God does not completely shelter even believers from the trials, temptations and tragedies common to mankind. He will, however, give His children spiritual protection. Read I Corinthians, Chapter 10, Verse 13:
No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.
Please note that the writer is, here, speaking about spiritual matters, earthly concerns are only indirectly addressed.
Lamentations Chapter 3, Verse 33: tells us that God does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men. There are many earthly calamities such as tornadoes, floods, earthquakes, etc. But God does not cause these. (We should not discount the power of prayer for, in His wisdom He will answer an individual's prayer in accord with His plans and infinite knowledge.) Read in James, Chapter 1, Verses 5 through 8. Too, consider that if God protected His followers from all physical harm and granted their every wish, the people of the world would quickly notice. All would suddenly flock to the Lord without real conviction. They would only be seeking the long, rich, untroubled lives associated with church membership. But their service to God would be shallow. People must come to God through faith, not greed.
The apostle John in the Book of Revelation, Chapter 13, Verse 10 advises us that patience and endurance in the face of earthly troubles are necessary, for such these things will occur:
If anyone is to go into captivity, into captivity he will go.
If anyone is to be killed with the sword, with the sword he will be killed.
This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of the saints.
In this reading, "Saints" are, of course, saved, believing Christians.
Romans Chapter 8, Verses18 thru 21 tells us:
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
The writer of Romans, probably the apostle, Paul, considers that our sufferings and bereavements are nothing when compared to our future glory. Does this mean that our pain, illnesses and bereavements are unimportant to God?
John, Chapter 11, Verses 33 thru 44 describes a compassionate Lord God who wept at the death of Lazarus:
When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. "Where have you laid him?" he asked. "Come and see, Lord," they replied.
Jesus wept.
Then the Jews said, "See how he loved him!"
But some of them said, "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?"
We see here that even those who had seen Jesus' miracles had questions about His power.
From His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus has promised in Matthew, Chapter 5, Verse 4 that:
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
For if we believe, we will be comforted. 2 Corinthians, Chapter 1, Verses 3 thru 5 tells us, again, that we will be helped:
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows
Even under extreme stress from continual persecutions, Paul was comforted. He said in Second Corinthians, Chapter 1, Verses 8 & 9:
We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.
The scriptures assure Christians that God's compassion will see us through even through persecution, disease and natural or man-made disaster.