I watched the News earlier, I usually don't because I find it sad as they only ever seem to report bad news and it is just too much for me after a hard day of work. Tonight I caught some of it and I saw some of the horrifying pictures from Japan. I dislike all of the patronising, pointless comments by many of the media and the world, proclaiming how sad and awful it must be for them before they move onto another story and forget about it within a few weeks.
Anyhow it makes some wonder, why does God let these things happen?
I will try my best to answer this.
When God created the world He declared it 'good' (Gen 1:25). He had made everything perfect. As part of this perfection, His biggest and best creation...human beings were given a free choice to obey God or disobey God. This fitted in with everything because in a perfect world, human beings would choose to obey God rather than be forced (after all, wouldn't you rather friends & family who chose to love you rather than being forced to love you?). However, as we all know, the first humans disobeyed God and brought sin into the world. This sin has corrupted the whole world. The world wasn't perfect anymore and disease, earthquakes etc. began to happen.
Any pain on this world is down to sin, either our own sin..somebody else's sin or because of the sin that was brought into the world from almost the very start.
God doesn't stop any of this because He has given us free will to make our own decisions...to obey Him or disobey Him.
Of course, God also has a greater plan (Jer 29:11) one where those who, even though they have messed up, can be perfect in God's sight through faith in His Son who paid the price for all their sin...and go to a new world where there will be no death, mourning, crying or pain (Rev 21:4).
I speak this message not only because God has changed my life through it and commanded me to do so but because I genuinely want all to know the joy of knowing their Creator and join me in this wonderful place.
Revelation 21
A New Heaven and a New Earth
1 Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” 5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
If you want to know God and have a safe eternity with your sins forgiven, just ask Him for that tonight :-) Let me know if you do!
"Any pain on this world is down to sin, either our own sin..somebody else's sin or because of the sin that was brought into the world from almost the very start."
ReplyDeleteSo... Whose sin was it that caused the pain the Japanese are experiencing?
Romans 8:28 :)
ReplyDeleteJosh, it was the sin that was brought in from almost the very start by Adam & Eve, although I believe anyone of us would have made the same mistake as we have all gone against God at points in our lives.
ReplyDeleteThis sin has corrupted the world, making it imperfect and clearing the way for this to occur.
Caitlin - AMEN!! I'm going to do another blog on this with Romans 8:28 and other verses included :)
I fail to see your logic... I can see if I murder someone, then my sin has caused pain. But there doesn't seem to be a link between a creation myth and the real suffering of people in Japan
ReplyDelete1. God created a perfect world
ReplyDelete2. God gave us the choice to obey Him or disobey Him
3. Mankind disobeyed God, this is called sin, this imperfected the world.
4. Sin has been brought into the world and corrupted everything in it/made it imperfect.
5. Natural disasters would not happen in a perfect world but do happen in am imperfect world.
I'd also say that actually Creation is the best theory out there when it comes to the beginning of the world, not a myth. But that's a discussion for somewhere else.
Schmeh, apparently it borrows clearly from Babylonian myths, and the things which were being emphasised were the differences; namely, things like the existence of one God, the lack of a struggle/conflict to create the world, its goodness and purpose etc. etc. But as you say, a discussion for somewhere else.
ReplyDeleteDo you not concede that God could have prevented the disaster? Why, then did he not? His doing so would not exactly violate anyone's free will, and it would have been a step towards correcting the imperfections which you highlight.
Apparently? Babylonian myths could have borrowed from Genesis too.
ReplyDeleteI believe that God is all powerful so yes. But I also believe that God is all knowing and has His reasons for not doing so. I refer you to Job 40-41 - http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job%2040-41&version=NIV
Imperfection is Imperfection no matter how imperfect or perfect it is. As my post states, God has a future planned with no tears or pain for those who choose Him now.
Yeah, true, but the Genesis story only came into being after the Babylonian exile.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm afraid I'm still of the opinion that Job is a poor treatment of the problem of suffering - the message seems to be "Good question, glad you asked it, now stop asking it".
Still doesn't have to mean anything. There is way much more to the Genesis account than the similarities anyway.
ReplyDeleteI think the message is that we cannot possibly understand why but that God will work through all things for our good - as per Romans 8:28 :)
You're missing my point... The important thing about Genesis for the Christians is (or rather, should be) the differences to the Babylonian myth; certainly, that's how it was viewed by the Jews and early Christians. It was never intended as a literal description of how the world was made, and was almost never interpreted as such until much more recently.
ReplyDeleteAnd if you're content to believe that, then that generally works, but it still raises the question of the people who died. It doesn't seem to have been for their own good, unless they all were automatically granted admission to Heaven, which sounds awful close to universalism ;)
I heavily doubt that. It was written at the time of the Exodus with God wanting to explain where the people come from, who they were and how they got to where they were. Anything but a literal interpretation would be pointless.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good point! I guess I'll just have to say then that the message is that we cannot possibly understand why. If God is small enough to understand then He isn't big enough to worship.