I know it is Shannon's day to post his thoughts, but this has been on my mind and will grow stale and disappear if I do not type it up. Since I am in the middle of a series on kingship, it would be a while before I posted it. So here it is. I am sure Shannon will be around later today with his thoughts on something else.
Tragedy recently struck where I live. An EMS crashed and exploded while running two people to the hospital. 5 people in the EMS died. It was terrible, and my thoughts on it should not be taken in any way as belittling to that tragedy and the feelings of those involved. People were hurt, lives were changed, and kids are left without parents. It's horrible.
One thing that struck me during this time of town mourning is that our society is Calvinistic at heart. Throughout the last few weeks, I often heard "It must have been their time." That line of thought is apparently comfortable to many people. To me, it seems like a copout because we always need to have answers. We are afraid of mystery. We need answers and saying that it was their time to go seems to be the only good answer outside of mystery for why people die when a bridge collapses or an EMS explodes.
The problem with this line of thinking is that we cannot be sure that the deaths were in fact God's will. We do not know why God intervenes and saves someone at some point and allows others to die at another time without an ounce of intervention.
God is completely in control whenever he wants to be, but we see throughout Scripture that he frequently does not intervene despite events going against his will. At the end of Hebrews 11 we see heroes of the faith that suffered death. It seems to be a warped faith that says God worked so that those faithful to him could be persecuted and killed, but that is what we are saying if we say "it must have been their time" in regards to every tragic death.
God desires the faithful to prosper. That does not mean that the faithful will always prosper. There will be rough times. We will all eventually die. Many Christians around the world face persecution. We live in a fallen world where sinners, sometimes even unrepentant sinners, are in control. Many Christians have been killed by corrupt leaders throughout history. I do not think we can conclude from the evidence that everything that happens is God's will. The big picture will always go God's way. In the end He will be victorious. In the meanwhile, we can be assured that every terrible event will be worked by God for the good of those who love Him. That should not be twisted to say that everything that happens is God's will.
I am reminded of John the Baptist rotting in a prison cell while wondering if this Jesus he proclaimed as the Messiah was really the Messiah. What sort of Messiah would let his herald suffer in jail? Deep despair started to grasp at John. He even began to second guess that which he knew for a fact due to the miracle at Jesus' baptism. During our times of despair, we sometimes do the same.
I wish I could say that things will always work out for our personal best, but they will not. John was beheaded. Jesus, Peter, and Paul were all crucified. Life seems to be more of a bed of rose bushes rather than a bed of roses. We cannot control whether we will suffer; that is a guarantee. We can only control how we respond.
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4 comments:
First, I do not mind you posting extra posts whenever.
Now, I will warn you that you are coming off a bit insensitive here. It may be a 'cop-out', but it is also people in the worst moment of their lives grasping for faith, grasping for God. They are communicating some very true and important things. 1. God is in control. 2. He and his plan are good. And they are finding comfort in those truths.
I know I was comforted by these sorts of things when Jason died. It was only years later that I could look back and realize that these things were cop-outs.
I'd give them time. Reinforce the true parts, and be very careful about how you address it in the future.
Also, consider this: The death may not have been his will (Though we should be slow to rush to judgment on what God's will is), but we can at least assume that not preventing it was his will. And we must beleive that His decision was the best one, right?
I do not hear it from the people personally impacted (I did not have any conversations with them), just from people in casual conversation talking about it.
FYI, I did not include this in the sermon I worked on for that Sunday in case you were worried about that. This is just here where nobody from Antwerp that I know of visits.
Is what happens always the best thing to happen? I do not think so, but I could be wrong. It would be comforting to say that is the case, but I do not know if it is. Does the Bible support that idea? God allows things to happen, but I do not know if everything that happens is for the best but it will be used for the best outcome that situation can provide.
Oh, I would say many tragedies might be outside of God's plan which are caused by fallen people living in a fallen world. Maybe I have gone to far into Open Theism
This is a topic that I frequently have to deal with and struggle with. On the one hand I want to believe that God is in control. Otherwise, why serve and worship Him? On the other hand, we live in a fallen world full of free will. So, at what point does God's will (desire for us and this world) give way to our will?
For me, the confusion often lies in the inability of some to distinguish between God's general and specific will. There are general things that happen and that God wants to happen. He wants us all to live full, joyful, blessed lives. And for some people, this may mean that God will directly intervene to make this happen. In others, he might not and the result is that they are open to getting cancer, being killed in some tragic way, dealing with poverty, etc. So when people say that someone's tragic death was in "God's will", I don't buy it. I don't think (could be wrong, but...) bridges collapsing, and families being kidnapped and daughters raped, and ambulances blowing up are events that are in "God's will" - specific or general. If that is the case, then the goal of the kingdom is to overcome these events and reverse the current cycle of sin and alienation from each other, God, and His desire for the world.
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