WHY, GOD?

Jonathan Gallagher

Cruising

Flying high. Just cruising along, far above the world. I'm sitting comfortably, and the story is just beginning.

"This is Captain Arbuthnot speaking. We're westbound at 33,000 feet, travelling at 550 knots--that's just over 600 miles and hour..."

Comfort. Ease. Just relax. "What would you like to drink, sir?" A smiling stewardess, trained in pleasantness. "Yes, we have your special vegetarian meal onboard..."

A beautiful, luxurious world

Outside the window the sky shimmers deep, deep blue; the sun shines golden-bright. A world apart, so different from the grey rain-soaked airport left far below. The blazing light lines each fluffy cloud silver in this magical place, a vision of everchanging brilliance. I close my eyes to dream. How wonderful it would be... If only...

If only things were always like this. All things bright and beautiful--with nothing to spoil the picture.

Across the aisle a real lady (why isn't she in First Class?) lounges in furs and jewels. Casually flipping through the inflight magazine she reads the ads. Exotic perfumes (only ### an ounce); flash sports cars (0-100 in minus 5 seconds); sparkling bottles of the finest wines (grown on the slopes of Olympia for the Greek gods).

In the next seat the businessman has given up playing on his hi-tech personal computer (only #4999 plus VAT). He lazes, plugged into the plane's stereo system, gazing out as the world floats by.

From this height, a beautiful place. Greenpatterned fields; autumn woods red-brown; lakes deep-blue, wave-ruffled white. This planet earth seen from spaceward as a swirled white-blue marble rolling across the dark glass of the void. God's in his heaven, all's right with the world. A perfect place. If only it really was...

"This is Rupert Molesworthy, your Flight Services Director. We are about to begin our entertainment programme. So if you would tune your headsets to Channel 9..."

Bad News

On the dancing video screen up comes the morning's news. Right there before me, feet away, are all the latest happenings from Planet Earth.

And how I wish I could stop seeing them, never see them again. Why, God?

Why all this pain and suffering? "Another 85 people were killed by a massive car bomb in the outskirts of Beirut today...The famine continues in the southern Sudan, with an estimated 2000 deaths since the beginning of the month...Yesterday's military parade in Moscow's Red Square to mark the anniversary of the Russian Revolution saw new hi-tech weaponry capable of annihilating Western cities 20 times over...The US Defence Secretary has announced a 30 billion increase in biological warfare techniques 'for defence purposes'...Last week's earthquake in the Puson region of China measured 7.6 on the Richter scale and left more than 5,600 dead..."

On and on in a never-ending litany of evil. I look out of the window to escape the images of death and disaster, of murder and hate. Somehow the clouds don't look so fluffy any more, nor the sky so blue.

So why, God? Why do you let it happen? If you can stop it, why don't you?

God the Sadist?

God's in his heaven--but all's wrong with the world. So if God is God, why doesn't he step in?

Either God isn't all-powerful and he can't stop it; or he isn't all-loving, and doesn't really care what's happening here. That's the argument--and for many a very persuasive one. In a recent compilation of ideas about God, most gave the problem of suffering as the main reason they rejected God.

Such views as:

* "I've steered clear of God. He was an incredible sadist." --John Collier.

* "We must be greater than God, for we have to undo His injustice." --Jules Renard.

* "God is a being cruel and severe,
And man a wretch by his command placed here;
In sunshine for a while to take a turn,
Only to dry and make him fit to burn." --Soame Jenyns.

* "I see little evidence in this world for the so-called goodness of God. On the contrary, it seems to me that, on the strength of His daily acts, He must be set down a most stupid, cruel and villainous fellow." --H.L. Mencken.

Many thinking people would agree with that analysis of God and his involvement with this world. He is either not there, or if he is, then he acts as a terribly cruel tyrant and consequently is not worth knowing anyway.

The Only Answer

But there is another, far more comprehensive and valid answer. One that does justice to reason, and which puts God in a good light. The only way of understanding why.

Consider. You are God (hard, but try!) Rebellion has broken put in your Universe. The Number One of your created beings has decided to set himself up in opposition to you. You could easily dispose of this trouble-maker by blowing him away--literally!

Now if you are a tyrant, who rules by force and cruelty, such a violent act poses no problems. But if you are as God says he is--a God of love who wants trusting love from his children--then you must think again. For even if the Rebel deserves such a fate, how will your other created beings see your killing him? Difficult.

Answering the Rebel

Especially when the Rebel has clearly stated that you are a vindictive and arbitrary dictator, who would just love the opportunity to start zapping his children with death rays! How can you deal with such charges of being unloving, merciless and dictatorial and show yourself to be a truly loving Father? How can you make sure your created children worship you from love and not fear? Only by fully demonstrating your true character, and allowing the Rebel to demonstrate what he is really like--and what his way leads to.

Sound amazing? Truth is stranger than fiction--for that is what has happened in God's Universe. The Devil was once called Lucifer, the Light-Bringer. But he chose to rebel against God, to set himself up above God (see Ezekiel 28:12-17 and Isaiah 14:12-15.). He accused God of everything evilÄÄthat he was harsh and legalistic, an unloving selfish Being who ruled the Universe through fear. That is, the Devil accused God of being just like the Devil!

To answer these charges God has permitted the Devil to work out his evil programme, so that everyone may know where such rebellion leads. The whole story of the book of Job is a living demonstration of the truthfulness of God and the lies of the Devil. And so that all may see God as he truly is, God came to this world in human form. Jesus suffered and died and rose again to reveal God's love, and to show us the way back to him. "Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." "Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father." (John 17:3; 14:9 NIV).

So 'Why, God?' Why is there so much pain and suffering?

What God Says

God replies something like this: "Not because I cannot prevent it, or do not wish to prevent it. Not because I do not care, or that I am unmoved by so much pain. I weep with you, and every second this evil world continues is agony to me. But I wait before I end it for a supremely important reason.

"I wait so that all may see what sin really means and where selfishness leads. I wait so that all can see the Devil in his true character. I wait so that all who will may come to me for salvation, salvation into the arms of a Father God who loves them with an undying love.

"If you want to know my answer to your question, 'Why God?' go to the Cross. There you will see me as I really am, two arms outstretched to save, bleeding and dying for all the suffering, misery and pain in the world."

Just like Jesus who wept while on this earth, God weeps. Not as a powerless being, but precisely because he has the power. His heart aches to cleanse this world from sin, to wipe away every tears from every eye, to be with his people and be their God, face to face. (See Revelation 21 and 22). But because he is God, and he wants all to understand him and love him without compulsion, he waits. "He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance." (2 Peter 3:9 NIV).

If the truth be told, all of us would be perished long before this if God was not there, "holding back the wings of strife," restraining evil from its full self-destruction until all have had some opportunity to respond to the God of love. How can we say that God is uncaring, that he willingly allows sin and suffering? So often we or the Devil cause evil, and then all of us blame God! How insane!

No Alternative...

Think for a moment. What is the alternative? For God to intervene in every situation? To stop the car crashing, to prevent the earthquake, to defuse the terrorist's bomb? The result: a world in which evil is never seen for what it truly is, for it never has its diabolical consequences. A world where God by his power takes care of every problem, every possible pain and death; a world of eternal evil that can have no end.

Only as the conflict is resolved through the unmasking of evil's real face, only as God is demonstrated to be the loving, compassionate Being he says he is, only as all his creation agrees with him that he was right all along--only then can God bring this rebellion to a close. Those who have chosen the Devil's way will be allowed their choice of final non-existence in the end-time destruction.

And then, and only then, can God create a new heaven and a new earth, a place where righteousness dwells and the goodness of God reigns supreme (see 2 Peter 3:13).

Back on the plane the news was still rolling. The endless carnage, the mindless violence, the pointless deaths. I didn't ever want to land back on such a world! I wanted to call out:

"Lord, you are right. I agree with you. Come back soon, and re-make this sin-sick world. End the suffering...

"But for now, make me an instrument of your peace to care for those who suffer, and point them to their only consolation: the embracing arms of a loving, caring God."

The God who suffered and died that the suffering may have his real comfort now, and life everlasting in the world he remakes.

Why, God? I know why. Because God is God.

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