I have conquered the world.". get one year free. Reid asked him, "How old are you?" The next two points address the intellectual problem, and the last addresses the emotional. Karrie was alone, making her way on an early Halloween morning to her job at a preschool. When bad things happen, however, we can do one of two things: we can either be angry with God, or we can turn to Him in trust and faith. Answer: Why does God allow earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes, tsunamis, typhoons, cyclones, mudslides, wildfires, and other natural disasters? In Genesis 3:17 it says, “…cursed is the ground because of you.”. 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. Suffering doesn't have the last word anymore. All of us at some point in our lives have asked this question and wrestled with it? Why Does God Allow Tragedy and Suffering? Did that doll love my daughter? 2)   The Genesis account clearly shows that the natural world was impacted by man’s sin. After all, any close friend can do that. Why? Why Does God Allow Tragedy and Suffering? Does God allow suffering? | Fox News Fox News Even if they were right, here’s the fact: they would still utterly fail in their attempt to claim God doesn’t exist. 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. But why? Of course not. The third point of light: The day is coming when suffering will cease and God will judge evil. In the September 11 bombing of the World Trade Center buildings, it was not God who crashed those planes—it was the terrorists. Not because He created us that way, but because we choose to be that way. Because he has conquered the world! Anyone who meets Tim easily remembers him as the tallest Filipino they've ever met. Bible translation is about more than just technical accuracy. And that question was, “Why does Jesus love me?”, I’ve heard it said that there are two great questions in life: one is, “Why does God allow suffering?” the other “Why does God love us?”. 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.". ", And he will. It might be chronic. Tragedies cause many people to question God’s goodness. Maybe you're suffering from a physical ailment or heartache at this very moment. Every tear we shed becomes his tear. Because tragedy happened to you, it gives you a greater sense of oneness with others who experience tragedy. That cold and darkness seeped into my soul and didn’t really begin to go away until nearly a year later. We saw the steeple of a church and the cross of Christ. And the boy replied: "Well, God has all eternity to make it up to me. Tragedy forces us to struggle with God. I genuinely wondered how all the suffering and evil in the world made sense within my Christian faith. You might say, "No, he can't bring good out of my circumstance. I was ready to dive into the material, research, and think about all the possibilities. 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.”. Say we just gave up, admitted that they are right and we are wrong. Real love always involves a choice. The way of the broad p… Or He is all good but He is not all-powerful, therefore He can't stop evil. Even before you had children, couldn't you foresee that there was the very real possibility they may suffer disappointment or pain or heartache in life, or that they might even hurt you and walk away from you? To say, “I don’t believe in God because of all the suffering in the world” is actually an irrational jump in logic. I just want to point out one fatal flaw in the skeptic’s logic. So, why does God allow tragedy? But then a truck appeared in front of us and we could clearly see his taillights through the fog. Why does God let bad things happen to good people? His desire, His goal, His aim, is to have a relationship with everyone. 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." The fact is, these are serious questions. It was difficult at the time. God does not need the devil to correct His children! This Common Challenge covers ways you can introduce, initiate, and instruct the entire congregation into the life of allegiance to Christ. Then as the Christian tries to propose a system which explains how these three premises can all be true, the skeptic attempts to poke holes in the Christian’s reasoning. You can feel for them in that suffering situation. 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. God is allowing humanity to see that our way doesn’t work. First came the wildfires, which ravaged the houses of hundreds of our neighbors, prompting many of them to ask the same question, "Why? They hid their faces from him as if he were a leper. God allows tragedies in our lives in order to remind us of “who is in control”. 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. One question overcomes the other. January 2, 2005. Some who lose a child to a drunk driver turn inward in chronic rage and never-ending despair; another turns outward to help others by founding Mothers Against Drunk Drivers. In other words, they demand that the Christian makes sense of how an all-good, all-powerful God could allow suffering. Editor’s Note: Originally published in 2012, the following is adapted from a sermon preached in response to the mass shooting in Aurora, Colorado by author and apologist Lee Strobel on Sunday, July 22, at Cherry Hills Community Church in Highlands Ranch, Colorado. The boy said, "Thirteen years." 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 he did this because he loves me. To some, it sounds too hideous to say something like, “God killed your son,” when a child is killed in a car accident. Is the tragedy in Moore, Oklahoma this week evidence that God is evil, impotent or non-existent? 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. Let me share one with you. Does He descend into all of our hells? A small child is diagnosed with leukemia and undergoes extensive medical treatment only to die in his mother’s arms. Your relationship with God is close and real and intimate. When God created mankind, he gave us a meaningful degree of freedom to make decisions and take actions. And, therefore, your sufferings are his sufferings; your sorrow is his sorrow. Copyright 2021, Allendale Baptist Church. Let's say that on the first day of 2012, you had an awful day. So we have seen that Satan’s trickery and Adam and Eve’s wrong choices introduced suffering into the world. He is the chapter director of Ratio Christi, an apologetics ministry, at Grand Valley State University and has a BA in Worldviews and Apologetics from Boyce College. Subscribe to CT and In 1 Corinthians 13:12 we're told, "Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity.". God is not the creator of evil and suffering. Yet it's still important to grapple with the question of why God allows suffering in our lives. and no doubt he did. And it’s a question that arrived in the inbox from a young man. These are questions almost everyone asks at some point in their lives. Relationship with God Jesus Christ This is a more difficult question to answer. I already “knew all the answers” in my head, but they didn’t comfort me as my heart was broken in two. Christianity Today strengthens the church by richly communicating the breadth of the true, good, and beautiful gospel. And God isn't some distant, detached, and disinterested deity; he entered into our world and personally experienced our pain. Some of us are evil. 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? You only read half the book!". Words can't describe the joy and the delight and the fulfillment! Why Does God Allow Tragedy? Tim, his wife Alexandra, and children MaryKate, Oliver, and Sunny attend Allendale Baptist Church where Tim also works as an administrative assistant. 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. Time magazine puts your photo on its cover as "The Person of the Year." Then next New Year's Day someone asks, "So, how was your 2012?" And frankly, the people suffering from the Aurora tragedy don't need a big theological treatise right now; any intellectual response is going to seem trite and inadequate. He had been in and out of hospitals his whole life—and yet he made the astounding comment that he thinks God is fair. That day just sort of fades away. He didn't say you might—he said it is going to happen. How can God be good and sovereign over all things and also allow intense personal suffering into our lives? Once Leslie and I were driving from Chicago to Door County, Wisconsin, which is that thumb-shaped peninsula that juts into Lake Michigan. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. To anyone suffering right now I want to say that I am so sorry. Taylor Halverson | May 18, 2017. If you ask me point-blank, 'Why did God allow the gunman to spray the Aurora movie theater with gunfire just two days ago? In other words, we've only read half the book! An earthquake registering 9.0 on the Richter scale set off tidal waves that hit 12 countries including India, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia, where the death toll from that country alone is at least 80,000, or more than three times the population of Aberdeen. Of course, God can go against the wishes of man. Usually, people who are suffering need a counselor, a pastor, or a friend—not a philosopher. One of the most difficult aspects of following God is when we see something bad happen to people that we love. Why did God let this happen? It all happened just 21 miles from where we're sitting. If their argument is successful, all it does is “prove” that God is either not all-powerful or not all-good. It is distressing that natural disasters are often termed “acts of God” while no “credit” is given to God for years, decades, or even centuries of peaceful weather. Are you broken? I'd say, "Hey! But just as most people experience personal tragedy at some point in life, my time eventually came. The difference between answering these questions intellectually and emotionally, How suffering and tragedy are not good reasons to become an Atheist. My wife had to give birth. So in this way, the blame of natural catastrophes lay at the feet of mankind once again, and not on God. Why me? Remember, we only see things dimly in this world. ", And maybe that's a good analogy for heaven. God has the last word! In many ways, I wasted my suffering but by God’s grace I eventually healed and found hope again. God has appointed the Holy Spirit to … You'd probably say, "It was great; it was wonderful!" Alexander & the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, RZIM Confirms Ravi Zacharias’s Sexual Misconduct, When A Word Is Worth A Thousand Complaints (and When It Isn’t), Home delivery of CT magazine and CT Pastors special issues, Over 120 years of magazine archives plus full access to all of CT’s online archives. But when I look at the totality of the year, when I put everything in context, it's been a great year. Guns kill people, car's kill people, people kill people. But anger only leaves us bitter and hopeless. A friend wins the lottery and gives you $100 million. And what happens if we run to him? While many disagree on how to interpret Genesis, most would agree that man’s sin did, in fact, affect the world we live in. I couldn't stop because I was afraid someone might come along and rear-end us. Because you knew there was also the potential for tremendous joy and deep love and great meaning. This message is so timely - it seems it should be auto posted once a month. 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