God Justified in Bringing about Terrible Tragedy

Adam C. Parker

“There were present at that season some who told Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish. Of those eighteen on whom the tower of Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.” (Luke 13:1-5)

It is interesting to view the myriad of reactions the evangelical world has had to the terrorist attacks that happened over two years ago. I remember the reaction that the world had when Jerry Falwell said that the attacks were a judgment from God on America’s love of homosexuality and sinfulness. He was derided, and he was immediately the object of the wrath of nearly every TV and radio talk show. Indeed, I remember listening to Hank Hanegraaff on the Bible Answer Man the day after Falwell’s words became public. His first reaction was to distance himself from a person like Falwell who would easily become the target of vicious public ridicule and attack.

I don’t believe that the attacks were necessarily a direct message about any one thing, particularly homosexuality, since sins like that have been around for thousands of years. I cannot claim to know the mind of God, and do not plan to exegesis God’s thoughts, but what I mean to say is that I, myself do not think God was issuing judgment upon our country for homosexuality. As a matter of fact, I wish to prove in a way that is understandable to the common person that God is perfectly justified in causing terrible disasters (in this case, the World Trade Center attacks), and I also hope to clarify what I mean by “cause.”

Section I. God’s Sovereignty Clarified

With regard to God’s sovereignty, John Piper recalls the extent of God’s power over this world:

God "works all things after the counsel of his will" (Ephesians 1:11).

This "all things" includes the fall of sparrows (Matthew 10:29), the rolling of dice (Proverbs 16:33), the slaughter of his people (Psalm 44:11), the decisions of kings (Proverbs 21:1), the failing of sight (Exodus 4:11), the sickness of children (2 Samuel 12:15), the loss and gain of money (1 Samuel 2:7), the suffering of saints (1 Peter 4:19), the completion of travel plans (James 4:15), the persecution of Christians (Hebrews 12:4-7), the repentance of souls (2 Timothy 2:25), the gift of faith (Philippians 1:29), the pursuit of holiness (Philippians 3:12-13), the growth of believers (Hebrews 6:3), the giving of life and the taking in death (1 Samuel 2:6), and the crucifixion of his Son (Acts 4:27-28).[i]

Compatiblism

Certainly difficult to comprehend, a compatiblistic view of human free will with God’s sovereignty and divine ordinance is crucial to a Biblical worldview. If anyone regards God as sovereign, and yet human beings as irresponsible for their actions, they are denying a crucial element of God’s judgment of man and making God sin’s author.

God is in control of all things. His control is unending, so far as the laws of logic go. For example, He cannot create a square circle, violate His own character, or violate the law of noncontradiction. His control extends to all aspects of the created order and includes, most specifically crucial to this topic, 1) control over natural evils (hurricanes, tornadoes, meteor showers, etc. and 2) control over moral evils (Joseph’s exile into Egypt, the Death of Christ, etc.) These two things will be explored more in depth in the next section, but for the purposes of this section, these two points should be accepted in order for my logic to be followed appropriately. (If the reader is really curious, I recommend they read the next sections entitled “Control over Natural Evil” and “Control over Moral Evil.”[ii])

Man is responsible for his actions. If man is not responsible for his actions, then someone must be held accountable for sin, and the scriptures say that God can not tempt a man to sin, nor can He be tempted. This means that man is guilty of sin, and not God.

As responsible people, we must accept the words of revelation. The scriptures make two things (in regard to this subject) abundantly clear: God is sovereign even over human actions, and human beings must answer to God for their evil acts.

Control over Natural Evil

The first thing we will observe from the scriptures is God’s control over natural Evil or Physical injury, pain, death, disease, and natural disasters.

Diseases

God offers a rhetorical question to Moses in Exodus 4:11 when he says, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him dumb, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?” This verse appears to be God’s own affirmation his control over (at the very least) the inability of some to speak, hear, or see, does it not?

The text in Job 2:7 says that “Satan…afflicted Job with sores.” However, after his wife tells him to curse God, Job cries out, “Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?” (2:10). We ought to accept that yes, Satan did this to Job, but it would be wrong to think that Satan is not also presided over by the power of God. Job puts it rightly when he ascribes his misery to God, for how could this have happened but apart from God’s control? According to John Piper, “James makes clear that God had a good purpose in all of Job’s afflictions: ‘You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose (telos) of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful’ (James 5:11). So Satan may have been involved, but the ultimate purpose was God’s and it was ‘compassionate and merciful.’ ”

Death

In Deuteronomy 32:39 God says, “There is no god beside Me; It is I who put to death and give life. I have wounded and it is I who heal, and there is no one who can deliver from My hand.” In 2 Samuel 12:15 we see an act of God which displays his sovereignty even over the death of children. “Then the LORD struck the child that Uriah’s widow bore to David, so that he was sick…Then it happened on the seventh day that the child died.”

Natural Disasters

Over the centuries, millions have been killed by hurricanes, earthquakes, tempests, and the brutal winters which happen in most areas of the world. “He makes lightnings for the rain, [he] brings forth the wind from His treasuries” (Psalm 135:7). “He causes the wind to blow and the waters to flow… Fire and hail, snow and clouds; Stormy wind, fulfilling His word” (Ps. 147:18; 148:8). You will remember, of course, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, where “the LORD rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah – from the LORD out of the heavens. Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, including all those living in the cities – and also the vegetation in the land” (Genesis 19:24). Life is God’s to give and take away, and not only is it His right, but He is powerful and able to govern and command all that He has authority over. Still, some may question His power even over the sins and evil acts that are committed everyday.

Control over Moral Evil

Joseph

The first evidence is a powerful example of God’s control even over human evils. Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery and then lied to his father, saying an animal ate him. This was a terribly wicked and deceitful thing that they did, and yet Joseph could say, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many alive” (Genesis 50:20). Some may say that God uses the evil choices of these men to do what he can manage to accomplish after the fact of their evil, but as Piper observes, “this will not fit with what the text says or what Psalm 105:17 says.” Regarding this event in Genesis, the psalmist recalls, “He called down famine on the land and destroyed all their supplies of food; and he sent a man before them – Joseph, sold as a slave.” Piper says, “This text stands as a kind of paradigm for how to understand the evil will of man within the sovereign will of God.”

Other Events of His Control

Psalm 105:25, speaking of the Egyptians in the time period of the Exodus, says that God "turned their heart to hate His people, to deal craftily with His servants." In Deuteronomy 2:30 we read "But Sihon king of Heshbon was not willing for us to pass through his land; for the Lord your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, in order to deliver him into your hand, as he is today." In Proverbs 21:1 we read “The king's heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord; He turns it wherever He wishes.” Daniel 4:35 says “And all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, but He does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth; and no one can ward off His hand or say to Him, `What hast Thou done?'”

The Death of Christ

Another evidence that many theologians point to with regard to God’s control of moral evil is in nothing less than the death of Christ, the most evil act in human history. Jonathan Edwards declares, “The crucifying of Christ was a great sin; and as man committed it, it was exceedingly hateful and highly provoking to God. Yet upon many considerations it was the will of God that it should be done.” Acts 4:27-28 reads, “Truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur.” Isaiah 53:10 says, referring to Jesus’ death, “Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer…” There were many sins committed in the action of the death of Christ. Not only did he suffer physical pain, which was inflicted on him in many physical tortures (i.e. The beatings, the scourgings, he was spat upon, etc.), but also he suffered contempt and disgrace. Thus, even the sins committed in Christ’s sufferings were predestined. As Edwards rightly says, “Even the free actions of men are subject to God’s disposal.” He then says, quite boldly yet truly, “God decrees all things, even all sins.”

God from all eternity did by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass; yet so as thereby neither is God the author of sin; nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures, nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established. [6.014] – Westminster Confession of Faith

Along with the Westminster Confession, we should affirm that God does foreordain everything that happens[iii], and I also affirm that God is not the author of sin. When God orders and ordains all things, the liberty and responsibility of the agent is never violated.

My Answer for Why God is Not a Sinful Being, In Spite of His Control of Sin

The Westminster Confession says that God does not sin, nor is He the author of sin. The Scriptures tell us “When tempted, no one should say, ‘God is tempting me.’ For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone” (James 1:13). In view of total depravity, it is clear that when a man sins, he sins, he does so on his own volition. Every man sins precisely because he wants to, not because God makes him sin. If that were true, God would not be Holy and if God were not Holy, we could not trust the scriptures, and if we could not trust the scriptures, then we would have no Faith at all. Thus, the scriptures declare that it is absolutely necessary that God be without sin or evil, completely. It would actually be a misstatement to even say that it is necessary for God to be without sin, because the truth is that sinlessness is an essential attribute of God’s character. It is impossible to refer to an absolutely infinite being as needing to be evil, since all good and evil is known up against the goodness of God. The only way we know that evil exists is because there is something (or someone, in this case, God) to compare it to and thus know that it even is evil. The point of this is that it is an essential and assumed thing that God is perfect and sinless.

The question is still, “How can God govern and even cause evil acts if He cannot (and will not) sin?” One answer can actually be derived by an example from the Old Testament in the book of Exodus when the people of God are fleeing from Pharaoh, preparing to cross the Red Sea. God says, “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them” (Exodus 14:4).

Let’s work through this… First, (1) we know that God did not create fresh or new unbelief (hardness) in Pharaoh’s heart since that would be God directly (or “positively”) causing disbelief. He could no longer hold him responsible for the sin of unbelief since He would be a party to Pharaoh’s sin! (James 1:13-15)

Second, (2) we know that Pharaoh is a fallen individual who is resistant to God and undesiring of closeness with the Almighty. When anyone follows God or desires Him, it is because God has worked a change in their heart. If Pharaoh’s heart toward God is hard already, God does not need to cause Him to resist since he is already a sinful adversary of the Almighty. Because of this, I propose that our correct understanding of God’s hardening of man’s heart must fit with two things that we know about God and man:

1) God cannot cause fresh sin or resistance in man’s heart without violating his holy character.

2) Man without God’s grace in any measure is wholly lost, an enemy of God.

Thus, God’s act of hardening must actually be what Paul speaks of in Romans 1:26, “God gave them over…” The hardening occurs when God removes his graceful restraint on someone’s heart, giving them over to the evil which they so dearly love; sin that has always been present in their heart. Thus, this hardening is done with no violation to God’s holy character and is scriptural, being presented by writers of both the Old and New Testaments.

D.A. Carson explains it like this: "To put it bluntly, God stands behind evil in such a way that not even evil takes place outside the bounds of his sovereignty, yet the evil is not morally chargeable to him: it is always chargeable to the secondary agents, to secondary causes [i.e., those who actually do it]. On the other hand, God stands behind good in such a way that it not only takes place within the bounds of his sovereignty, but it is always chargeable to him, and only derivatively to secondary agents...If this sound just a bit too convenient for God, my initial response (though there is more to be said) is that according to the Bible this is the only God there is."[iv]

In The Freedom of the Will, Jonathan Edwards, my current favorite theologian says: "It would be strange arguing, indeed, because men never commit sin, but only when God leaves them to themselves, and necessarily sin when he does so, that therefore their sin is not from themselves, but from God; and so, that God must be a sinful being: as strange as it would be to argue, because it is always dark when the sun is gone, and never dark when the sun is present, that therefore all darkness is from the sun, and that his disk and beams must needs be black.”[v]

The reader may need to peruse this statement by Edwards a time or two to really grasp what he is telling us. He is saying that it is true that “men never sin, but only when God leaves them to themselves, and necessarily sin when he does so [that is, leaves them to themselves].” This much, Edwards is saying that he affirms. However, he says that it would be incorrect to conclude from that necessary truth, that “therefore their sin is not of themselves, but from God,” thus rendering God “a sinful being.” He is saying that this reasoning is “strange, indeed,” and thus incorrect.

The second half of this paragraph is also tricky to truly grasp, as Edwards’ rendering of complex ideas is not always simplified into “plain English” for all of us to understand. He uses in the second half of this paragraph, the example of the sun and says that God is like the sun, and the good is like the sun-beams. When darkness comes, it is because the sun is not shining forth, but not because “his disk and beams must needs be black.” In other words, God [the sun] does not cause evil [black beams], but simply stops His goodness [the light of the sun] from shining forth. He does affirm that it is an act for God to stop sending forth His good, but he says that the evil [or darkness] is a direct result of its own existence, not because He makes the evil in a positive or active sense. The point, for Edwards, is that God can cause evil events, and yet be untouched by the stain of sin.

Therefore, God can be the cause of an evil act, and yet not violate the will of the creature that sins, because the sin is really the result of God’s withdrawl of His grace in that person’s heart. God does not cause sin positively, but negatively, not by an act, but by a refusal to act. And yet this refusal to act is in itself an act, and therefore God is sovereign over sinful acts, even though He Himself does not sin, nor does He author sin. In addition, as Carson pointed out, since man gets all the credit for his evil acts, God is the author of all good acts, as man needs Him for any and all good deeds that we may ever commit.

“The absolute, universal, and unlimited sovereignty of God requires, that we should adore him with all possible humility and reverence. It is impossible that we should go to excess in lowliness and reverence of that Being who may dispose of us to all eternity, as he pleases.”[vi]

Thus, coming to the end of this section, we can see that God is sovereign, that He controls any and all events, and yet He is completely absolved of the stain of sin, as it is an actual impossibility for God to commit any transgression, that is, violate a law that He Himself has established. Now we can move on from here, now that we have a clear and applicable idea of God’s Sovereignty in any and all evil acts.[vii]

Section II. God’s Goal is His Glory

Jonathan Edwards’ book, “Concerning the End For Which God Created the World” can be summarized in one sentence: “The End For Which God Created and orders all Creation is this: that all aspects of His glory be manifest to the world.” Before Edwards goes very far into his work, he is extremely careful to make one thing abundantly clear:

That no notion of God's last end in the creation of the world, is agreeable to reason, which would truly imply any indigence, insufficiency, and mutability in God; or any dependence of the Creator on the creature, for any part of his perfection or happiness.[viii]

What is he saying? God does not need man for any part of His completion, “perfection or happiness.” The reason this is impossible is that if God needed anything form humanity, then God is imperfect, incomplete, and therefore not God. If the reader will meditate on this thought, I am quite confident he will find this point quite agreeable as well as necessary.

It is a popular thing in Christian circles today to say that God created us to have a relationship with Him. Now, this may be true in one sense, at least from our perspective. Our life can have no meaning apart from communion with the almighty. If we didn’t have that, our existence would be futile and pointless. In that respect I agree with the popular evangelical position. However, if there is an assumption in this statement that God also needs us in the same way that we need Him, I reject that. God has created all things for His own glory, and nothing can “complete” God, including the communion with His creatures.

We commonly forget that God is outside of time, and often get the idea that He experiences in much the same way that we do. We imagine that God created the universe because He got “lonely,” or because He wanted “fellowship.” This the Bible rejects, and this Jonathan Edwards rejects also, as he sets out to prove his point. Now, obviously I am not writing a this paper with the purpose of stating and completely proving that Edwards is right, regarding God’s end in creation, and because of that, I will only touch on Edwards’ thought in his book.

And if it was God's intention, as there is great reason to think it was, that his works should exhibit an image of himself as their author, that it might brightly appear by his works what manner of being he is, and afford a proper representation of his divine excellencies, and especially his moral excellence, consisting in the disposition of his heart; then it is reasonable to suppose that his works are so wrought as to show this supreme respect to himself, wherein his moral excellence primarily consists.[ix]

According to Edwards’ logic, because God is a pure and perfect being, God did choose to create the world so that imperfect beings would behold His own perfection. God’s goal, Edwards is saying, is that creatures receive knowledge of Himself. Although someone might ask “Why did God want to create us, though? Doesn’t this mean he does need human company?” Edwards says, essentially, this desire for human beings to have knowledge of Him was something that was a necessary aspect of God’s character. In other words, God is a knowable God, and He cannot not be known. He cannot keep Himself or His glory secret. When discussing this with a student in one of my classes, they asked, “Well doesn’t that bring you back to a contradiction with Edwards’ first statement that God doesn’t change?” This was a very good question, but Edwards has a response to that charge:

For though these communications of God—these exercises, operations, and expressions of his glorious perfections, which God rejoices in—are in time; yet his joy in them is without beginning or change. They were always equally present in the divine mind. He beheld them with equal clearness, certainty, and fullness, in every respect, as he doth now. They were always equally present; as with him there is no variableness of succession.[x]

Absolutely brilliant! In all of these things, human beings forget that God does not ever change. God takes delight in these things in an eternal way. God perceives, knows, and orders all events. Because of this, He also knows all things, including the delights of being delighted in and glorified through the means He established (In our case, the entire universe: a tool for God’s glorification). We cannot from a finite perspective, comprehend how God can enjoy these things if He is eternal, but it is amazingly true that God does enjoy things, but He enjoys them from the perspective of eternity. In other words, He always enjoyed them! A hundred million years ago, God was reveling in the glory which would be brought to Him through events millions of years later.[xi]

Referring to this intellectual journey by Edwards, Dr. James White says:

Led by Scripture, and aided by logic and reason, Jonathan Edwards gives to the world an answer to the ultimate question: "Why?" Few, of course, like the answer, or understand it at all. Some might feel he has gone too far, that God has not deigned to reveal the particulars. No matter what perspective one takes, one must be truly respectful of the effort made, and the consistency of the answer given.[xii]

If my reader finds the information I have presented lacking or at least, not extensive enough, I strongly encourage them to read Edwards’ actual dissertation, as it is quite extensive and he deals abundantly with many objections the reader may at this moment be raising. For the purposes of this essay, if the reader is to continue following my logic, an acceptance of this point is necessary: that God’s glory is His end in all things, including suffering and death.

Section III. Human Suffering is Just

All human beings are sinful and thus, justice for us would be death. God would be perfectly justified in allowing all of humanity to perish (spiritually and physically). When Adam and Eve sinned against God, death was introduced into the human race. Now, God’s warning against Adam and Eve before they fell was that if they took of the fruit, “you shall surely die.” I suggest that the moment Adam and Eve took the fruit (or at least, you could say, the moment they Fell) they should have died. Death was not to be an eventual thing, but they should have died, according to God’s justice. The moment they ate of the fruit and yet lived was a moment of grace, and every moment after that was also of grace alone.

Every human being is under God’s condemnation, redeemed or not. The comfort for the redeemed man is the presence of God in this life and in the next. The sinner’s only comfort is in this life in whatever comforts he can somehow afford for himself in this oh-so temporal life with its temporary comforts. Nevertheless, we know from experience that even if a man is redeemed, he still faces the sting of death. Because of this, I set forth that so far as justice in this life goes, all human beings, either regenerate or reprobate, face death in this life. All human beings face the sting of death; “it is appointed unto each man once to die, and then judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).

Not only does man in this life deserve death, but he deserves immense sufferings and torture. Obviously, not all human beings face this sort of justice from God. However, once again from experience, we know that people do in fact, face terrible torturous deaths, sometimes in spite of their faith, but other times specifically because of their faith. I further wish to prove this point through the biblical doctrine that all human beings deserve Hell. If you deny that any mere human being, since the beginning has not deserved Hell, this exploration will be of little use to you. Hell is a place of terrible suffering and desertion from God.

If Hell is justice for all who are sent there, then it must also be true that any experience on earth that could be compared with Hell is also deserved, just as it is deserved in the afterlife. Divine Justice tells us that God would be perfectly justified and indeed a righteous and just God to save no one. Therefore, I say that death and Hell are the deserts of all human beings.[xiii] Therefore, God is perfectly justified that human beings suffer terrible pains and tortures in this life, even if said person to suffer will be redeemed in eternity.

Section IV. How is God Glorified by Evil?

If all of these things I have said are true, then it must also be true that God is glorified when evils occur. This includes death, and suffering. I have already set out that God is justified in his judgment of men and that His judgment is executed in this life, and also in the next life. I have also set out that human beings, regenerate, or reprobate, are all subject to incredible sufferings in this life. My end in setting out these points is that God is not unjust in causing these things, and that He remains a good God (in fact, He is so good that by Him we measure all that is good). This fact of God’s goodness is not just a neutral sort of goodness whereas God barely scoots by under the sin radar by the skin of His teeth as it were, but God is actually more glorified that the world is the way it is than if there were no sin, evil, suffering, and death. God’s goal is not to cause sin and then find a way to not get in trouble for it, no, God is incapable of sin. It is such a foreign thing to Him that He utterly hates it!

This does bring forth the question, “If God’s end is His glory, and He controls all things, then how is He glorified when evil events happen?” According to Matt Perman, “many of God's attributes can be more clearly and brightly displayed to us if there is sin and therefore evil in the universe.” Edwards says,

Evil is an evil thing, and yet it may be a good thing that evil should be in the world...as for instance, it might be an evil thing to crucify Christ, but yet it was a good thing that the crucifying of Christ came to pass. As men's act, it was evil, but as God ordered it, it was good.[xiv]

If we consider this world and the mighty God who created it, it should come as no surprise that God is glorified in everything, even in terrible tragedies. The obstacle we put in our hearts to such a belief is a pre-existing notion that God is only glorified when good things happen. We think that God must be glorified when everyone is finally saved, and there is finally peace in the world, and the fighting stops, and no more suffering happens. I declare that if that were the case, then God would not have created the world at all, for He would have foreseen the evil things that would occur and know that it was better that human beings not exist than evil occur in the world.[xv]

Indeed, we know likewise, that God created the world, knowing that evil would happen, and that in spite of that knowledge, He knew that for evil to exist is better than for it to not exist, otherwise, there would still be nothing in existence because He wouldn’t have made it, because God is all-good and never does evil. Therefore, it is safe to say that if God is not glorified in all things, and if it is not even in some sense good that evil exists, then you must either concede that God has failed to carry out His plan, or with the open theists, you can declare that His hands are tied and He is utterly helpless at the hands of human beings and that we are greater than He is: utterly untouchable by the “sovereign” God.

If you believe that God is only glorified when “good”[xvi] things happen, then your God has failed to be glorified. You may say, “But it will be righted in the end!” I still say that with all of the cumulative sufferings in the world, with all of the deaths and wars and diseases, natural disasters, nuclear bombs, executions, and mutilations; if God is not still glorified in everything, then God has not been completely glorified, and therefore, God’s ultimate purpose in creating the world could have been done better, and therefore, God needs improvement. And my friends, if God needs improvement or can ever do something better than He has already done it, that is blasphemy, for such a statement declares that God is imperfect.

Section V. Repent, or You Will Likewise Perish

As selfish human beings, we see these sufferings and often would describe them as “evil.” This has happened with reference to what is now called “9/11.” In the terrorist attacks, two planes, hijacked by Islamic terrorists, collided with some of mankind’s greatest architectural feats, killing around 3,000 people. This tragedy, though much grander in scale, is no different than this recorded history in Luke 13:4 where Jesus is asked about a terrible tragedy in His own time, when a tower fell on some people, in a fashion quite similar to what we call “9/11.” In that event, 18 people were killed by the falling tower.

Now, if there is any person in all of history to talk to about the terrorist attacks (or anything for that matter) I suggest that it would be Jesus that we ask about his thoughts. Well here, we have it: Instead of words of compassion or patriotism or focus on whose fault it was, Jesus gets to the universal problem and bypasses all of the secondary issues (The Romans who slew the Galileans, the architect whose fault it may have been that the tower fell, making the victims and their families feel better) and gets to the universal matter, the heart of the matter: If you don’t repent, you will die in like fashion.

Now, He is not saying that if you repent, then you will not physically die. This is because we know that Jesus did not expect His followers to live forever (or even live without great pain or torture) because of His words later on in Luke 21:16, where he is warning his disciples of future persecution. “You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death.” We can see from this, now, that even those who are Jesus’ disciples will die, and often in terrible ways. What Jesus is doing in this verse is saying, “Don’t you realize that you could have been crushed by that falling tower?” There is a very real danger we all face, and this danger we all face is something that we would each be equally deserving to receive, for “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). Nonetheless, I believe we can infer that Jesus was pointing to the reality of the possibility we all face that death is around the corner, and many are not ready to face death. Jesus asks all of us, “Are you ready to die?”

Many times, we take God’s grace for granted, and because He gives us many good things frequently, we begin to see His grace as the norm, instead of the exception. Here in Phoenix, near the beginning of August, a pipeline, which carries gas into the Valley, was broken. We were used to paying around $1.60 for a gallon of gas. That all changed about two weeks after the pipeline broke, because not only did the gas price soar far above $2.00 per gallon, but there was a terrible gas shortage. The problem was so severe that lines at gas stations that did have gas extended far around the block and could be at times as long as a hundred cars. You see, we took our constant supply of fuel for granted. Before, we always knew that if we wanted to go somewhere and our gas was getting low that we always had the ability to go and get gas to fill our tank. In reality, we were at the mercy of the gas company which owned the pipeline which extended from Tucson to Phoenix, but we never even thought about it!

I think that this is a perfect example of how we as sinful human beings take the grace of God for granted. We receive life each and every day, even though justice from God would certainly mean instant death for each and every one of us. We also receive salvation in spite of our sin and ill-desert. This is the greatest example of God’s grace. It is great for what it accomplished. It is also great because of its cost, the life of one very near and dear to the Father, His own Son, Jesus.

When those planes collided with the towers, the people of the earth cried out, “Why, God? What kind of a God are you, anyway? Were you unable to stop it, or do You even care?” Humanity’s eyes are darkened to the answer. Even if they did hear this answer, which I have put forth, someone who does not love God and His Holiness would simply scoff at this answer, completely unsatisfied.

My argument can be established thus:

1) God controls all things, even evil.

2) Human beings deserve the worst sufferings, including death.

3) When human beings die, God is Just.

4) When God causes evil events which include suffering and death, He remains a good and just God.

5) God is glorified by everything that He causes.

6) God must be glorified, even by evil and suffering.

Conclusion:

Therefore, I conclude that no human being is exempt from terrible tortures and death in this life. Likewise, anything God does is good. Because of all of this, we as human beings have no rights to complain at all when horrible tragedies and great suffering strike our families, since every single day that we are alive is of God’s grace. Lest, because of my words, someone may think me a monster, a person who is heartless or does not understand suffering, I want my readers to know that I am well acquainted with pain and suffering.

I was married in July of 2001. Three months later, my father died from leukemia. He fought that terrible disease for almost an entire year. He lost his hair (he had a nice head of it!), he underwent radiation treatment, and he was injected with some of the most awful chemical concoctions that many people would not come within ten feet of. And I was there through all of it, and I watched as my father disintegrated, until one day I came to the hospital, only to receive the news that my father had died.

How do we deal with this? What kinds of answers to we give to someone who mourns as I mourned that day? Do we tell the victims or the people who suffer because of it, “God did His best.” Do we say, “God is in charge, I guess you just didn’t pray enough.” Do we spout theological language, philosophizing and trying to make sense out of it? Maybe, but I do propose that it is not in these things that suffering takes on its meaning or we feel reprieve from our loss.

Now, like Job, we may cry out to God in our emotional torment, “Why?” But we have our answer in God’s Word, and this is His reply: “There is no one righteous; no, not one; no one understands, no one seeks God…and reverence for God does not enter their thoughts” (Rom. 3:10-11, 18 REB). In our hour of grief, such words give us no comfort. In times of pain, such words don’t make sense, and even if they did, we would not be satisfied by such words. That is because these truths of the deserts of humankind’s sin are uncomfortable. They represent a lack in our loved ones we have lost. They represent an emptiness and a darkness in ourselves, and they cast a shadow of melancholy on an already difficult experience. These may not be answers for the mourners, nor are they for the widow or the man who is dying of cancer. This may very well be true. There is a place for grief (Ecclesiastes3:4), and sometimes such answers may not be helpful. However, if we remove ourselves from the emotions of such situations and look with the eyes of scripture on our human predicament, we will find out that there are indeed answers, and that a very great and glorious God who loves His creatures dearly is at the helm, guiding us and directing as He wills.