That day will come, but not yet. After all, any close friend can do that. In Romans 8:18 we read: "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.". The way of the broad p… “Why did God allow this to happen?” This is often the question that runs through the minds of family and friends when tragedy occurs. Is the tragedy in Moore, Oklahoma this week evidence that God is evil, impotent or non-existent? "Why? He was sold out. Why do all of these horrific things happen if there's a loving and powerful God? There are very good explanations as to how these three things can exist together in harmony, but I’m not even going to try to do that yet. To anyone suffering right now I want to say that I am so sorry. It was programmed to say those words. If God is all powerful, he can stop evil. The short video below does a great job illustrating how freedom allows for suffering. What if someone read only half of it and then slammed it down and said, "Well, Lee did a terrible job with that book. Lee Strobel Delivered Sunday, July 22 at Cherry Hills Community Church in Highlands Ranch, Colorado. With the recent events in the news, the question raised in the title is something that's on my mind. So why does God allow … All of us at some point in our lives have asked this question and wrestled with it? This message is so timely - it seems it should be auto posted once a month. There are too many loose ends with the plot. Of course, God can go against the wishes of man. I'd say, "Hey! In Matthew 7:13-14, Jesus Christ told us about the wide path that humanity has chosen to travel and the narrow path that choosing life (as God wished us to) would take us on. Jesus told his followers, “Go and make disciples of all nations.” Pastors know well that no two people under their care are in the same place spiritually. Moral evil is the immorality and pain and suffering and tragedy that come because we choose to be selfish, arrogant, uncaring, hateful and abusive. Why Does God Allow Tragedy and Suffering? Why, then, would a good and loving God allow such a tragedy to happen? As harsh as it sounds, maybe God allows tragedy to come into our lives because tragedy is often the only thing that engages us with God. Subscribe to CT and Maybe you've never asked why our world is infected with pain and suffering, but my guess is you will when they strike you or a loved one with full force. Why Does God Allow Evil,Suffering and Tragedy in the World? When God is seen from this perspective, it is difficult to explain why God allows tragedy, because he is perceived as one who has the power to prevent it. is really not a question at all. Each day brings new tragedy. While that will not be fulfilled until the return of Jesus Christ, we can find comfort and hope through a relationship with God, even in the midst of tragedy. This Common Challenge covers ways you can introduce, initiate, and instruct the entire congregation into the life of allegiance to Christ. There are no words to describe the anguish being felt by those who are suffering today; our heart and prayers have, and will, go out to them. God allows tragedies in our lives in order to remind us of “who is in control”. It was through that cross that Jesus conquered the world for us. Maybe God allows heartbreak and chaos and confusion because through those things we finally begin to wake from our apathy. The other funeral was several months ago, again a car accident claiming the life of a young woman, leaving behind a husband, teenage children, parents. Some of us are evil. Through his own suffering and death, he has deprived this world of its ultimate power over you. In an attempt to acquit God of responsibility for evil in the world, a growing number of people think of God as a loving but impotent old man who would like to help us, but is incapable of doing so. Why did God let this happen? We were following the taillights of that truck when the fog slowly began to lift, the rain began to let up and we entered a town with some lights. If you ask me point-blank, 'Why did God allow the gunman to spray the Aurora movie theater with gunfire just two days ago? Suffering doesn't have the last word anymore. The answer is: He did! Many of you are parents. When God created mankind, he gave us a meaningful degree of freedom to make decisions and take actions. Say as Christians we didn’t even try to defend ourselves against this attack. If God is all good, wouldn’t he want stop evil ?And yet evil exists. Let's say that on the first day of 2012, you had an awful day. The memory of looking at the lifeless body of my son scars me to this day. I wrestled with these questions in my mind for many years and in my search for answers I ended up reading over 20 books on suffering. The Bible says that the story of this world isn't over yet. It was frightening! He was broken, like bread, for us. Romans 5:8 says, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”, And John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.”. Read This Issue. Bible translation is about more than just technical accuracy. When my daughter was little, she had a doll with a string in the back, and when you pulled it the doll said, "I love you." I don't have God… Christianity Today strengthens the church by richly communicating the breadth of the true, good, and beautiful gospel. Here’s the classic statement of the problem: Either God is all powerful but not all good, and therefore He doesn’t stop evil—or He’s all good but not all … He also writes for Apologetics315 where he is a team leader. I wrote my first novel last year. We've all seen examples of how the same suffering that causes one person to turn bitter, to reject God, to become hard and angry and sullen, can cause another person to turn to God, to become more gentle and more loving and more tender, willing to reach out to compassionately help other people who are in pain. You can feel for them in that suffering situation. God is allowing humanity to see that our way doesn’t work. We saw the steeple of a church and the cross of Christ. ", I don't have God's mind; I don't share his perspective. In many ways, I wasted my suffering but by God’s grace I eventually healed and found hope again. As you all know, a major tragedy struck southeast Asia last Sunday. But then every other day of the year was just incredibly terrific. You might say, "No, he can't bring good out of my circumstance. Because God desires for all people to come to the knowledge of the truth. We can't understand everything from our finite perspective. Because he has conquered the world! Get weekly updates from the editors of CT Pastors: Full report from outside investigation to be released in January. Yet it's still important to grapple with the question of why God allows suffering in our lives. —1 John 4:8. God does not cause disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes, and floods. One answer is that he's actually delaying the consummation of history in anticipation that more people will put their trust in him and spend eternity in heaven. You only need to read 2 Timothy 3:16, John 16:13 and 1 Corinthians 2:9-10 to see this. I could barely see the white stripe on the edge of the road. Why Does God Allow Tragedy? The top 7 stories of the day, curated just for you! Reid asked him, "How old are you?" Second Peter 3:9 reads: "The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. While it may not seem like human freedom impacts natural catastrophes, I believe it still does and in two different ways: 1)   The laws of nature that allow us to choose good or evil also make natural catastrophes a reality. Jesus is there in the lowest places of our lives. A small child is diagnosed with leukemia and undergoes extensive medical treatment only to die in his mother’s arms. From the depths of a Nazi death camp, Corrie ten Boom wrote these words: "No matter how deep our darkness, he is deeper still." You get promoted at work to your dream job. A friend wins the lottery and gives you $100 million. Anyone who meets Tim easily remembers him as the tallest Filipino they've ever met. ", And maybe that's a good analogy for heaven. You have your first child and he's healthy and strong. If God can prevent such tragedies, why does He allow them to take place? And many people are asking the question, "Why? Mankind has always had a choice to love their neighbor or commit atrocities. It is very important that when someone is asking why God has allowed suffering, to ask them why they are asking. In other words, we've only read half the book! Your stock portfolio took a nosedive. Every tear we shed becomes his tear. I cannot stand in the shoes of God and give a complete answer to that question. He's delaying everything out of his love for humanity. Tim is the senior editor for the ABC Voices blog. ", you'd instantly react by saying, "It has been absolutely wonderful! I genuinely wondered how all the suffering and evil in the world made sense within my Christian faith. This is such an important and central question for us at Desiring God. We left the hospital with no baby and drove home in a blizzard on a cold, dark night. But unfortunately, we humans have abused our free will by rejecting God and walking away from him. The boy said, "Thirteen years." So far, we have been discussing intellectual problems of suffering, but in the next section I will address the emotional problem. Why? We may not be able to make out all the details of why certain things happen, but there are some key biblical truths that can illuminate some points of light for us. Some people ask, "Couldn't God have foreseen all of this?" And the 21st Century didn't start any better. And notice that the verse doesn't say we all will see immediately or even in this life how God has caused good to emerge from a bad circumstance. Are your most tender relationships broken? Do you cry out that you can't take any more? To me, that's evidence of a loving God, that he would care that much for us. Why did God allow this? Real love always involves a choice. He didn't say you might—he said it is going to happen. And perhaps you've been asking the question too. The fourth point of light: Our suffering will pale in comparison to the good things God has in store for his followers. So some skeptics would say maybe all-powerful good God does … Tragedies cause many people to question God’s goodness. Scripture: John 16:33. You'd probably say, "It was great; it was wonderful!" 2)   The Genesis account clearly shows that the natural world was impacted by man’s sin. In other words, they demand that the Christian makes sense of how an all-good, all-powerful God could allow suffering. But then a truck appeared in front of us and we could clearly see his taillights through the fog. The same is true in understanding why there is tragedy and suffering in our lives. When skeptics or atheists bring up the problem of evil and suffering, the core of their argument usually surrounds these 3 premises: Then they conclude that these three premises cannot all be true. The next two points address the intellectual problem, and the last addresses the emotional. Unlike some other religious leaders who wrote off pain and suffering as mere illusions, Jesus was honest about the inevitability of suffering. In other words, all it does is attack an attribute of God, not God’s existence. But what if tragedy isn’t a result of human choice? You might think, that was a bad day, no denying it. First, we must remember, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:9). Things were becoming clearer, we could see better, and as we rounded a curve, silhouetted against the night sky, guess what we saw? It was difficult at the time. Let the words of 1 Corinthians 2:9 soak into your soul: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.". Several years ago, I commissioned a national survey and asked people what question they'd ask if they could only ask God one thing. The World Trade Center Twin Towers which fell on September 11, 2001 after a terrorist bombing. How? Once Leslie and I were driving from Chicago to Door County, Wisconsin, which is that thumb-shaped peninsula that juts into Lake Michigan. Stream Room For Doubt: Why Does God Allow Tragedy & Suffering? Delivery: Weekdays. In Genesis 3:17 it says, “…cursed is the ground because of you.”. In fact, He has intervened occasionally throughout history when His plan required it. In Romans 8:28 the Bible promises, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.". The number one response was: "Why is there suffering in the world?". Before we speak to the question of why God allows children to suffer, we need to ask the bigger question: Why does God allow suffering to happen to any person, whether he’s two years old, two months old, or twenty years old? That cold and darkness seeped into my soul and didn’t really begin to go away until nearly a year later. Simply being in a world that allows for freedom makes natural tragedies possible. Skeptics often lob this argument into the Christian’s court and challenge them to come up with a way to make these 3 truths logically consistent. the only answer I can honestly give consists of four words: "I do not know. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Now let me give you the entire verse: "I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. I just want to point out one fatal flaw in the skeptic’s logic. The harm was too great, the damage was too extreme, the depth of my suffering has been too much.". Guns kill people, car's kill people, people kill people. Introduction. Rather draw closer to him. So we have seen that Satan’s trickery and Adam and Eve’s wrong choices introduced suffering into the world. Makes You Think. He apparently had fog lamps in front, because he was traveling at a confident and deliberate pace, and I knew if we could just follow those taillights, we'd be headed in the right direction. You had an emergency root canal at the dentist—and then ran out of pain-killers. Well, God has existed from eternity past as the Father, Son and Spirit, together in a relationship of perfect love. But if they are asking in light of current, personal suffering in their life, you need to be a conduit for Jesus’ love in their life. How can God be good and sovereign over all things and also allow intense personal suffering into our lives? And what happens if we run to him? And if we follow those lights, they will lead us toward some conclusions that I believe can help satisfy our hearts and souls. There are so many tragic stories, so much pain. We made announcements, prepared a room, and expectantly waited for our baby boy. This is an adaptation from an earlier essay published in RELEVANT Magazine about God in tragedy. Yes, he does. Christian responses to racial injustice, prayers during a pandemic, and more. No, Jesus is much closer than your closest friend. Because love always involves a choice. Romans 3:23 says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” So much of the world’s suffering results from the sinful action or inaction of ourselves and others. This is critical for you to understand: If someone is reeling in shock from a recent tragedy, don’t jump into intellectual justifications for the existence of evil. and no doubt he did. That day just sort of fades away. And Jesus said they are coming. A friend betrayed you. Each weekly CT Pastors issue equips you with the best wisdom and practical tools for church ministry. I believe there are good reasons as to why God allows tragedy. And that was true in my case. In summary, why does God allow tragedy? If God can take the very worst circumstance imaginable and turn it into the very best situation possible, can he not take the negative circumstances of your life and create something good from them? Whatever actions man takes, he does so willingly and is responsible for his own actions. It was asked in the Old Testament by Job and the writers of the Psalms, and it was especially relevant during the 20th Century, where we witnessed two World Wars, the Holocaust, genocides in the Soviet Union and China, devastating famines in Africa, the killing fields of Cambodia, the emergence of AIDS, the genocide in Rwanda and the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo. Did they come from long-term perspective this way, but everyone to to... 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