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Why Does God Allow....?

by David A. DePra

"I cannot believe in a God who allows so much pain and suffering
in the world. Such a God must be either too weak to intervene
and stop the suffering, or so unethical that He doesn't care
enough to stop it. Either way, you cannot reconcile history to the
loving, Christian God of the Bible." -- unknown Agnostic.
 
     When a child is killed, or a spouse dies, or a sickness is
diagnosed, it brings us face to face with these fundamental
questions of life. Why does God allow such things? Or, to bring
it closer to home, how can He allow them to happen to ME?
     The atheist or agnostic will tell you that it isn't a matter of God
allowing such things. They will tell you that it is proof that God
doesn't exist at all. This presents a compelling argument. And
it's one which Christians must not avoid. How can a loving God
allow such things to happen to the world, and moreso, to His
own people?
 
The Illusion of Invincibility
 
     There are many of us, who, as Christians, cannot conceive
that anything bad could ever happen to us. Afterall, God is "on
our side." WE, personally and individually, are His "special one."
WE are just a notch ahead of the rest of the Body of Christ on
God's "List of Favorite People." Besides, we believe and obey
God. This ENTITLES us to His protection and provision. It
makes us almost invulnerable -- except for a few trials here and
there which God allows into our lives. Or does it?
     All we have to do is read history. Or better yet, look around
us. Do Christians ever get sick? Yep. All the time. In fact, if you
took a survey, you'd probably find that just as many Christians
get sick as do non-Christians. Do Christians ever die
prematurely? All the time. Everyday Christians face the tragedy
of accidents, murder, and terminal illness. Do Christian parents
ever have to face the untold agony of losing a child? Yes.
Despite the fact that some parents constantly pray over their
children for protection, and do everything in their power to guard
them against evil, sometimes tragedy strikes.
     How can this be? How can a "loving God" allow tragedy?
What about all of the promises in the Bible?
All the promises in the Bible really boil down to ONE promise.
When all of the arguing is over and the day is done, there is only
ONE thing which God promises us: HIS WILL. Get that. God
promises us HIS WILL -- if we will yield to it.
     Now, this creates a "problem." Why? Because even though
God promises us His will, He doesn't usually tell us what is
included in His will. And the fact is, both blessing AND suffering
are part of the will of God. Not only does a loving God provide
us with many blessings in this world, but at times, pain and
suffering are an intrical part of our experience with Him.
 
Inside or Outside of God's Will
 
     It is only natural for us to focus upon the blessing side of
God's will. This is not wrong to do. There are many wonderful
and enjoyable things found in the will of God. In fact, if we would
only understand it, there are ONLY blessings in the will of God
-- in the spiritual sense. But in the temporal sense, some of
these blessings aren't going to seem like blessings. They are
going to seem like the opposite. Our flesh is not going to like the
will of God in many respects. The will of God, for our flesh, will
include some pretty intense suffering and pain.
     There is pain and suffering which is IN God's will. But there is
also pain and suffering which is OUTSIDE of God's will. What is
the difference?
     The terms speak for themselves. Suffering which is within
God's will is NECESSARY suffering. It is caused by yielding to
the will of God, and is necessary to God's eternal purposes for
me. But suffering which is outside of God's will is caused by my
refusal to yield to the will of God. It is suffering which God did not
ordain for me, but which now MUST BE, because I have refused
to believe and surrender to God. It is, in that sense, completely
UNnecessary. There was a better way for me had I obeyed.
Note this distinction again: Suffering which is WITHIN the will
of God results from yielding to God's will. But suffering which is
OUTSIDE of God's will results from refusing to yield to His will.
     Of course, in the final analysis, there is no such thing as
suffering which is outside of God's will. Even suffering which I
bring upon myself because of sin is IN God's will -- as an agent
to chastise me and turn me to God. Indeed, ALL of the terrible
consequences which occur because of sin in this world are but a
testimony of the righteousness of God and to what happens
when we reject Him.
     But all of that being said, it is nevertheless a fact that I can
bring upon myself much chastisement if I rebel against God. I
can set consequences in motion which DID NOT NEED to
happen if I had believed and obeyed God. The solution to these
consequences is to repent and surrender to God NOW. If I do
this, God will take the consequences I've brought upon myself
and use them in a redemptive way. Our God is a redemptive
God. It is never too late to turn and surrender to Him.
     All of us are going to bring a certain amount of "unnecessary
suffering" upon ourselves. Hopefully, however, we will learn from
our unbelief, and these occasions will gradually decrease. But
even if we were to obey God perfectly, we will have our share of
"necessary" suffering. We will have pain, no matter how much we
trust God, or how much we obey Him. We enter the kingdom of
God only through much tribulation.
 
No Justice
 
     Why do things work this way? How can pain and suffering
result from faith and obedience? Why do the good suffer and
the the wicked prosper? Is there no justice in this world? How
can a "just God" allow such things?
     The fact is, there is NO justice in THIS world. That's right. If
you are looking for justice here, or expect life to be fair, you are
going to be dissappointed. Life isn't fair. And our conduct and
faith before God, while it does keep us from much that is bad,
and carries with it many blessings, does not insure us of freedom
from suffering, pain, and even tragedy.
     The reason? We are living in a realm which is governed by
wicked forces. It is a dead realm; once which is already in the
process of passing away. And since God is in the process of
delivering us out of this realm into a brand new creation, we are
going to feel many birth pains. We are going to be in a constant
state of warfare. We are going to be pulled in many directions at
the same time. The result, on many levels, will be pain and
suffering -- all within the will of God.
     So what are we to do? Surrender to pain and suffering? No.
Walk through life in constant fear of what may happen to us? No.
We must do ONE thing, and ONE thing alone: Surrender to the
WILL OF GOD. We must unconditonally and irrevocably say the
words, "Into your hands do I commit my spirit." And then we
must go on, living in our complete surrender to God.
     If I will surrender to God -- unconditionally -- it will result
in many wonderful blessings. I will grow to experience freedom
in Christ. I'll get a taste of the eternal. But I'll also have to endure
the pain and suffering required to enter into these things.
     This is a cause for rejoicing. What greater freedom could be
ours than to know that whatever happens to us in this life is part
of the will of God? This was the confidence of the first century
Christians. And there is no reason why is should not be our
confidence now.
 
Unconditional Surrender
 
     God desires that we surrender to His will unconditionally. This
is why Jesus said we should pray, "Thy will be done, (not mine),
on earth as it is in heaven." Surrender to God's will means that
we will no longer live for ourselves, but for God. It means that we
will no longer be in love with our life. We will be in love with God.
It means that we will not reserve the right for ourselves to
determine the outcome of our lives. We will, by faith, leave that
to God.
     Now, if we will surrender to God's will by faith, God promises
that we will receive exactly that: HIS WILL. Indeed, It is
absolutely impossible for us to want the will of God more than
God wants us to have it. Therefore, if we pray for the will of God,
and surrender by faith to Him, we cannot fail to receive it. We
cannot. God will see to it that He gets His will in our lives.
     As mentioned, however, the will of God for us may include
some suffering, pain, and tragedy. But this does not mean that
God comes down and CAUSES terrible things to happen to us,
or appoints some wicked person to hurt us. No. It means that
He may allow these things to happen to us -- for purposes He
may not choose to presently reveal.
     God is sovereign. He promises that nothing can happen to us
without His permission. But He doesn't promise that He won't
give His permission. And yet if we will yield to His will, for
WHATEVER He allows, we will, in the end, see that He was right.
We will see that He does all things well.
     It has always been difficult for people to understand how God
could, on the one hand, ALLOW people to hurt us, and yet, on
the other hand, not be blamed for it. Afterall, if God allows
something, and has the power to stop it, then it is happening
ONLY with His permission. So isn't it His fault?
     "Fault" isn't the right term. But it IS God's permissive will.
Harm only got through to us because God permitted it. That is
as sure as God in heaven.
     This isn't easy to digest, to be sure. But the alternative is
impossible. If any harm and suffering which comes to us in this
life happens WITHOUT the permission of God, it means that He
is not all-powerful, or He is indifferent to our suffering. This
cannot be. God IS God. And He is God even when we cannot
understand Him.
     God has His purposes for what He allows, and He has not
seen fit to explain them all to us. But He does beckon us to
surrender to Him regardless. He does tell us that we cannot lose
if we fall unconditionally into His hands.
     Now, do not get the impression that surrendering to the will of
God automatically means you are going to experience some
tragedy. Most Christians do not. For most of us, the will of God
means tremendous blessing -- not necessarily in the physical,
temporal sense -- but in the spiritual sense. We have our trials
and sufferings. But through these, God builds into us the eternal
character of His Son.
 
The Fundamental Choice
 
     All of God's dealings with us are unto one end: That we be
conformed to the image of His Son. That is the general will of
God for us in this age.
     Herein we see a fundamental choice each believer must
make. That choice is this: Am I going to allow God to decide
how to bring His will to pass. Am I going to allow HIM to decide
what pain and suffering He will allow in my life? What blessings
He will allow? Or will I reserve the right to myself to determine
the outcome of my life?
     We never reserve for ourselves the right to decide in an open,
rebellious way. The way we do it is by partitioning off parts of our
life and making them "off limits" to God. And then we refuse to
admit they are there. We don't want to talk about them. But this
gets us nowhere in God's plan and purpose. It simply leaves us
barren spiritually.
     There are many ways in which we do this kind of thing. Some
of them can be quite subtle. Take the example of protecting
one's family. This is a terribly important issue to be sure. But
we must ask ourselves the question: WHO do we trust for the
protection of our family? Do we trust God to decide about the
protection of our family? Or do we reserve that right for
ourselves?
     Many Christians say they trust God. But then, just in case, we
have our contingency plans in place -- just in case God
doesn't come through. The issue here, of course, is not the
things we do, or don't do. It is where our faith is. Is it really in
God? Do we trust Him to know best for us, and our family?
     The bottom line is this: Either God is there for me exactly as
He has promised, or He is not. Either I believe Him, or I do not
believe Him. There really isn't any middle ground. And I must
decide one way or another, and keeping deciding. HOW I
decide will then determine how I will live, who will govern me,
and whether I will grow spiritually.
 
Who Do I Trust?
 
     Having read all of this might make surrender to the will of God
seem scary. It might make you say, "I never considered the
possiblity that yielding to God's will might involve pain, suffering,
or harm. It really makes me hesitate to yield to Him."
     Part of the solution is to look at the alternative to yielding to
God's will. The alternative is to trust yourself; to rely upon
yourself for protection and wisdom. But is THAT any guarantee
of safety? Do you really think YOU can do a better job than God?
     Actually, God gives us complete freedom to rely upon
ourselves instead of upon Him. We are free to fend for ourselves
if that is what we want to do. But Jesus had one word for that
kind of decision: Foolish. He says that God even cares for the
birds of the air and the flowers of the field. How can we therefore
doubt that He is there for His children?
     If the realization that you are not invincible has come upon
you, and shaken you, you have actually seen the Truth. You are
seeing that complete surrender to God for whatever He wants is
not a recipe for disaster, but the only truly safe place to be. Thus,
rather than scare you away from God, this realization should
make you want to trust Him.
     We must get these issues settled. Either God is there for us or
He isn't. And either we believe or we don't. We must stop all
fence-sitting and get these issues resolved and settled.
 
But What If....?
 
     What if I DO trust God, and something bad happens? Well, if I
am really trusting Him, and something bad does happen, then I
can know that it was within God's permissive will. That may not
make what happens much easier to take, but it is nevertheless
the Truth. God has promised, "Trust Me, and nothing can get
through to you unless it has come to Me first."
     The conclusion from all of this is rather revolutionary, but true.
That conclusion is this: It is better to trust God and fall into the
hands of the wicked, than it is to trust yourself and remain "safe."
     Does that seem shocking? It is nevertheless true. If, despite
my complete trust in the protection of God, God does -- for
reasons known only to Him -- allow harm to come to me or my
family, I am in His will. I am where I need to be. And if I really
understood it, I am actually free from real, spiritual harm. I
cannot lose trusting God.
     In the final analysis, the argument is rather silly anyways.
Who among us could possibly have the slightest idea of how
many terrible tragedies God has prevented in our lives because
we have trusted Him? We only know about the tragedies which
DO occur, and rarely know about the ones which don't. And who
among us, can imagine that we have the ability to prevent pain
and suffering through our own efforts -- pain and suffering
which God may want to allow for our eternal good? Why would
we want to prevent such things? God forbid we are that
temporal minded!
     A tremendous freedom comes to a person when they give all
of this up into the hands of God. When you do that, you will
know that the only pain and suffering which gets through to you
has first gotten through God, and has been allowed for His
purposes. And you have the confidence of knowing that nothing
can hurt you which is not part of His eternal plan for you and
your family.
 
The Job Issue
 
     The question of "bad" things happening to "good" people is
addressed directly in the book of Job. Job believed that the
blessings or curses in a man's life should correspond to his
relationship to God; to his conduct. He could see no other
alternative in the universe of a just and righteous God. And then
God allowed HIM to be struck down. He lost everything. And
God offered no explaination at all. Only silence. Job spends his
ordeal trying to sort this impossible situation out. How could this
be? How could a righteous man be subject to such pain and
suffering?
     You and I may have never verbalized it, but the chances are,
we believe exactly what Job believed: The believer should
prosper and the unbeliever should not. The good should be
blessed and the wicked cursed. You and I almost demand that
this be so in the present world. That is our idea of justice, and it
surely must be God's idea of justice.
     Job had to learn a lesson which we all have to learn. That is
why the Book of Job is written -- to instruct us in that regard.
God is telling us that our conduct guarantees us nothing in this
world. It will not necessarily spare us suffering and pain. It will
not even guarantee us the blessings we want. There is only one
thing our trust in God guarantees us: The will of God. If we
believe God, and then obey Him, we will have His will. We will
have exactly what He wants us to have, no more and no less.
     Now ask: What more could we want? Job got the will of God.
Indeed, he actually BECAME the will of God. He saw God in a
light which he never knew existed. It was an eternal result from a
temporary suffering. And if that is what God wants do to in us,
why would we want to refuse Him?
 
Why Doesn't God Intervene?
 
     The refusal to accept a God who allows pain and suffering is,
of course, rooted in some ignorance. Once I assume that this
present age is "normal," or that God actually created it this way,
then of course I can then blame God for pain and suffering. But
the Truth is, God did not create this world to operate the way it is
operating. This present age is the consequence of man's
rebellion against God. It is the result of man living independent
of His Creator.
     So why did God let all of that happen? Indeed, if He is really
loving, why doesn't He intervene and stop it all?
He has. He sent His Son to bear the sin of the world. He now
says to us, "I want to save you out of all of this. My Son is the
Way. Believe and receive Him."
     The reason some have trouble with this is that all of the
benefits are not immediate. Becoming a Christian, as
mentioned, does not immediately rapture you to heaven, or
elevate you to a place free from pain and suffering. But as
Christians, we need to get it settled once and for all: God's
purpose and plan are not limited to THIS age. This age is
preliminary. It is UNTO another realm where the reality of what
Jesus has done WILL be realized.
     An agnostic will have no frame of reference for this Truth.
That is why it is usually pointless to argue about it with some.
But the people of God should have it straight: God is NOT trying
to fix this age. He is not trying to bring reform. Not politically or
in any other fashion. He sent Jesus to save us OUT OF this age.
And even at that, we will not realize the fullness of that salvation
until Jesus Christ returns to earth.
 
If God Did Prevent Pain and Suffering
 
     Let's assume, for a moment, that God did continually
intervene in this world to prevent all pain and suffering. What
kind of a world would that be?
     First of all, we would have a world of immortal human beings.
Afterall, death cannot occur without pain and suffering of some
type, whether it be on the part of those who die, or on the part of
those left behind. So God would have to make sure no one ever
died, for any reason.
     This would then require several things. First, it would require
that God prevent all accidents from happening. That would
mean He would have to suspend physical laws ever time we
broke them. He have to make gravity stop working so we would
not fall, or He'd have to keep cars from crashing so we would not
be injured. Thus, we'd have a world where physical laws would
really not exist. The moment injury was possible, the natural
laws would not work. God would have to see to it.
     Complicating matters is the fact that physical laws are not at
fault in many accidents. Some accidents are the result of human
error and choice. Therefore, if someone chooses to be negligent
or reckless, resulting in their injury, or in the injury of some other
person, God would have to stop them. He would have to literally
grab them and make it impossible for them to choose.
     Here we see the issue of free will emerging. If God intervened
to prevent all pain and suffering in this world, He would have to
take away from us our free will.
     This is especially evident once you are asked to define pain
and suffering. How about the pain of having someone you love
reject you? Should God intervene and prevent that? How? He'd
have to literally get into the mind of the other person and make
them choose differently. How about the pain of losing out on a
job opening? That is pain to some people. Should God see to it
that you get the job? How about the other person? Should He
make a way for both of you to get it?
     And then, of course, there is war. And crime. God would
have to come down and force nations to stop fighting, and keep
human beings from breaking the law. Indeed, take this argument
to it's logical conclusion, and to prevent all suffering God would
have to make it impossible for us to sin -- not only outwardly,
but inwardly.
     The kind of world which would exist if God prevented all pain
and suffering is not a world in which human beings could exist.
There would be no free will and no physical laws. There would
be no consequences for sin. It would be a world of physical,
moral, and spiritual chaos.
 
Proof of God
 
     The irony is this: The fact that the world is the way it is
PROVES there is a God. How?
     First, consistant physical laws demand that someone created
them. Even if you insist that physical laws popped into existance
on their own, you must then explain what physical law allowed
THAT to happen. If you believe life sprang from nothing, then
some physical law made that possible. WHO created that law?
law? Where did it come from? WHY does it work that way?
It is here that the agnostic will say, "These are scientific facts
which we have yet to discover. Someday we will."
     But wait. Is our agnostic friend saying he is exercising FAITH?
Sure he is. He is saying that he doesn't know the answer to
these questions, but that he nevertheless holds firm to his
conclusion. Now, that's faith.
     My point is this: Unless an agnostic is willing to claim that he
has all of the answers, and can prove them, then he is guilty of
the very thing which he will not accept from Christians: That faith
is often necessary when God does not explain what He is doing.
     The Truth is, it takes MORE faith to deny God's existance than
it does to believe God exists. That's because where Christians
cannot understand, they can rest in the fact that God
understands. But if an agnostic doesn't understand, he has no
where to turn but back upon himself and humanity. And
humanity hardly has a track record which provides confidence.
     The fact of pain and suffering in this world also shows that
God exists, and that He is loving. How?
     Pain and suffering are aspects of this creation which fall short
of perfection. By DEFINITION they are that. This is a universal
concept in the sane and normal sense. We know, instictively,
that there is a higher good; a higher perfection. Evil is only
possible if there is a good it contradicts. And all of this points
once again to a Creator. A good Creator.
     A messed up world is not proof that there is no God. It is
proof that there IS a God. It is proof that everything God says in
the Bible is true -- that we need a Saviour to save us out of this
mess. It is proof that Redemption is the only solution.
 
The Realization of God's Will
 
     We are born into a fallen, broken world. It is not a world which
God originally designed or created. It is one which has been
overtaken by the realm of death and darkness. But God has not
left us to die in this state. He sent His Son to make it possible for
us to be born out of this creation into a brand new eternal realm.
     However, none of this is to be fully realized until Jesus comes.
Until then, we will experience many of the blessings and realities
of God. But we also experience many of the elements which
have come to rule this world: Pain, suffering, and then finally,
death. But if we are living, not for ourselves, but for Him who
died for us and raised us up, then the only blessings and the
only sufferings which we will experience are those which are part
of the one thing God promises us, and wishes for us: HIS WILL. *

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