Where did that come from?

One of the most common “mantras” I’ve discovered in society is, “If God is so all-loving and all-powerful, why does He allow war, suffering, starvation etc etc?” Many people who asked me this on the streets did not want my biblical answer, they used it only to justify their own position or stand in life. Even if they worked hard at covering it up, some were very warlike and hostile in nature – belligerent and arrogant.  Sometimes  the only appropriate explanation to give was one that highlighted their belligerence and arrogance. 

I used to respond with something like, “You’ve got a war going on within you right now.  Where did that come from – God or you?”  I was never overly concerned as to whether that would make me their enemy, knowing that if Jesus had them, I could expect them too as His representative.  After spending much time in prayer before I went out, I simply embraced the promise of God from Exodus 4:12 each day, knowing that if His words were good enough for Moses and Aaron, then they would be good enough for me.  To publicly proclaim Jesus’ gospel is a great way to be delivered from the opinions and thoughts of others about you.

The biblical answer for all people as to, “Why does God allow………?” can only ever be satisfactorily given from the Genesis account where we read of what is known as the Fall of Man.  The first man and women originally lived in peace and harmony with God and themselves, under His protection, guidance and direction in a God-given perfect world.  But they then made a choice to yield to the serpent’s (Satan’s) temptation by doubting the word of God.  Their doubt then progressed to disbelief and finally to disobedience.  Rebellion was the root cause.  

Originally they lived dependent upon God, now they became rebels who chose independence from God.  The Bible calls that sin.  The Bible also tells us that we are the offspring of those two people and that we have inherited their nature.  That means, we have inherited a nature of sin and rebellion too and have added much of our own to it.  The Bible then goes on to show us that independent living from God results in nothing but trouble at best and tragedy and disaster at worst.  That’s the way it is.  That’s the way it’s always been, with no better example than the one given at the beginning with Cain and Abel.

With sin, we are told that death came into the world.  The biblical meaning of death is separation.  The day God judged those two people, they were sent away from Him – separated from Him – spiritually, as well as physically.  That too is our inheritance – separated (cut off) from God as the result of a dead (dormant) spirit.  Not only that, but the Scripture tells us that we are at enmity with God Romans 8:7.  That means each human being inherits and carries a feeling or a condition of hostility, hatred, ill will, animosity; antagonism and opposition towards God and we can only be released from such by the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus speaks to this condition of the human heart best in the seventh chapter of the gospel of Mark.  He tells us that it is what comes out of a person that defiles them – evil thoughts of lust, theft, murder, adultery, wanting what belongs to others, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, pride and all other folly.  What a list!  No wonder we have enmity with God.  He tells us all these vile things come from within and, these are what pollute us and make us unfit for God.  But that was the last thing these many people wanted to hear from me as they spewed out their accusations and bitterness.

Often I was abused when challenging them about their own war within.  More than once I had a door slammed in my face when I asked, “If God was to come back in half an hour’s time to rid the world of evil, would you still be here?”  The gospel of Jesus Christ is very confronting.  Unlike human beings, Jesus Christ does not play games with words.  He was hated and rejected by most of His own people for not playing that game and it’s no different for us today and it will be no different tomorrow.  A messenger of the gospel must chisel that truth in stone at the beginning otherwise he or she will give up and walk away.

The Bible declares that we are living in the age of God’s grace.  That means we are living in a time whereby reconciliation with God can be a reality for all who will receive it – for all who will humble themselves and and make their peace with God.  He is not at war with us, we are at war with Him.  We don’t have to remain in that state of war.  But we can never be at peace with God, or ourselves or anybody else until we make our peace with God.  It is only when we make peace with God are we then able to experience the peace of God.  Once we experience the peace of God, we are then able to be at peace with everyone else.

Mrs James understood that truth.  She found it out late in life even though she’d been a faithful church member for many years.  When I met her she told me that her husband had died one year earlier, but she was just getting over it in recent times after experiencing a nervous breakdown.  She said that four years before his death he was run over by a train as he took a shortcut across rail tracks on the way home from watching the football.  This dear old lady in her seventies told me he never got over that incident.  She did her best to nurse him back to health, but when he died her mental state gradually grew worse. 

After trying doctors and medicines and the advice of the experts she said decided she would get real with Jesus Christ.  The moment she did so things began to change dramatically within her mind and body.  Mrs James could have remained in her nervous state, justifying such a condition because of the great tragedy she experienced.  Well could she have fired off a bitter, “If God is so all-loving, why did He allow….?”  There was nothing to separate her from the others who did so – except choice.  Mrs James chose to believe in God’s promise of peace upon being reconciled with Him.  Her face and speech gave witness to it.

Sarah is another one who could have bitterly thrown at me, “If God is so all-loving why did He allow……..?”  She told me she got married at seventeen years of age but was divorced one year later.  Some time afterwards she remarried and remained so for the next twenty-three years, until her husband died of cancer two years prior to our meeting.  As if that was not sad enough to cope with, she also had a twenty-seven year-old son to look after.  He was in a car crash at some stage in his life which left him completely incapacitated in both mind and body. 

She was never able to attend church services or do Biblical studies with a home group, but Sarah had developed a heart for God in the midst of her troubles and in return He honoured her humility towards Him.  Sarah told me that if it were not for her faith in the love, power and reality of Christ she would, “have given up long ago.”  Sarah also lived next door to an older lady and when it was possible for her to do so she did cleaning and other housekeeping acts of kindness to make life a little more comfortable for her neighbour.  

David gave witness to the, “all-loving, all-powerful God.”  He was in a war – the Korean war.  He knew better than to accuse God for the sinful, rebellious actions of man.  He came into our church fellowship with a desire to learn more about the God he’d surrendered his life to some months earlier.  We were doing a Bible study one night, talking about God’s promise to not only forgive all confessed sin, but His promise to forget all confessed sin.  David had trouble accepting this, especially the “forget” part.  He could not come to terms with that, even when we showed him from the Scriptures.

He said he was living with a sin that he was not able to speak to anybody about.  He once told his mother, but she was never able to understand or know how to help him.  He once told his wife too, but her response was much the same as his mother.  This thing David did, helped destroy their marriage, because the guilt of it was destroying him mentally and physically.  He thought that this was the one sin that maybe God could forgive, but never forget.  At first he was reluctant to share with us what it was, but we suggested to him that he was devaluing Jesus Christ and the blood He shed for all sin.

The Holy Spirit came upon him and with many tears and much brokenness; he opened his mouth to confess before God.  The moment he did so, David knew in an instant just who the God of the Bible is and that He keeps His promises.  When he was in Korea on patrol, he heard the snap of a tree branch behind him.  He turned around and immediately fired his rifle.  David did not kill an enemy soldier however, it was a twelve year-old boy.  He had lived with the pain and guilt of that act for thirty-seven years, right up until the night Christ met him in that room.  But from that night on, he lived with God’s almighty peace for the rest of his life, which was not long sadly enough.

Not long after that David developed prostate cancer.  But he used that to tell others on the street with me, about the peace and forgiveness he was experiencing with God.  Some people looked and listened in amazement.  He told them he was aware he may be facing death, but he had no fear whatsoever.  He suffered immensely in the last few months, but in it all, he was still able to thank God and give Him all the glory.  “For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many noble, are called.  But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty…….”  1 Corinthians 1:26-27.