One of the challenges facing the church today is credibility. In a post-modern world, an ancient faith doesn’t always connect or even make sense. The church preaches that God is all-powerful, all-knowing, all-kind, and all-loving. Our culture wonders where God is when the events of this world seem to be at odds with that description. Why doesn’t God use that power to still life’s storms or prevent wars and tragic accidents? If God is all-good, why is there so much pain and suffering in the world? If God is all-loving, why do the innocent suffer and die?
In his play JB (think the Job story), Archibald MacLeish wrote: “If God is God, he is not good; if God is good, he is not God.” While some might say MacLeish’s view of God is bad theology at best and unchristian at worst, I think many people outside and even some inside the church might nod their heads in agreement. One of the questions I often hear when I’m talking to people who aren’t Jesus-followers is, “If God is so good, why do bad things happen to good people…and good things seem to always happen to bad people?” How do you answer that question? Many of us respond in 1 of 3 ways: by talking about the power of prayer, the evil of the world, or God’s divine plan.
For people of faith, our natural inclination is to turn to prayer in times of tragedy and suffering. Who among us hasn’t said at some point, “I’ll keep you in my thoughts and prayers”? Why do we pray? Because we believe God is listening and God will respond. The Bible says, “Whatever you ask for in prayer with faith, you will receive” (Mt 21.22). And sometimes, it seems like God does answer our prayers – a patient with a terminal diagnosis survives…a bullet narrowly misses its intended target…our team (or candidate wins). We attribute those moments to God because God loves us and we believe God is all-powerful and all-good. But what about when things don’t go our way? The treatment doesn’t work…the bullet hits our wife or husband or child…our team (or candidate) loses? Does God play favorites? Did God love the person who was healed more than the one who wasn’t? Is winning or losing a sign of divine blessing? Why does it seem like some prayers are answered by divine intervention and others aren’t? Did we not pray hard enough? Was our faith not strong enough? I know some Christians who would say God did answer those prayers…it’s just that sometimes God’s answer is, “no.” If that’s true, why does God say “yes” to some and “no” to others?
Another answer I hear tries to absolve God of any responsibility whatsoever when bad things happen or for the evil of this world. If you believe the story, it’s all Adam and Eve’s fault human beings are the way we are. They broke the covenant with God. They brought sin and evil into the world. Have you ever thought about the fact that God made the serpent that tempted the first humans to sin…that God basically created the temptation to sin against God, as well as the free will to sin against God? I’ve heard Christians talk about the power of evil in our world today and the hold they believe Satan has on God’s creation. Does that mean God can’t break Satan’s grip; that God can’t change the outcome? Does the nature of our fallen world or the existence of evil prevent God from acting in some situations? I’ve heard people attribute terrorist attacks or mass shootings or other evil acts to Satan. “The devil made me do it” is an easy way of saying we aren’t responsible for our own actions. Or, maybe there are times when God simply shrugs his shoulders and says, “You win some, you lose some.” Does God let Satan win sometimes? If that’s the case, God seems pretty callous and unreliable.
I think the favorite response of many Christians to why bad things happen is captured in the phrase, “It’s all part of God’s plan.” That’s what we say when we don’t know what to say. God didn’t save that innocent bystander, Corey Comperatore, because it wasn’t part of God’s plan (or maybe it was). I don’t know how many Jesus-followers (and how many pastors, me included) I’ve heard say, “We might not understand it right now, but God has a plan.” Really? Are poverty, illness, greed, selfishness, and war just part of the plan? If so, it doesn’t seem like a very good plan to me. I mean, God is all-powerful, all-loving, all-knowing, yada, yada, yada…can’t God do a little better than that?
One pastor I’ve been reading calls this a “theology of convenience.” No matter how things work out for you, it always works out for God. When things go well, God gets the credit and you’re a living example of God’s divine intervention in the world today; but if you’re on the losing side, you’re just collateral damage as part of God’s plan or because you didn’t pray hard enough or your faith wasn’t strong enough or the devil made you do it.
The truth is divine intervention (or at least our understanding of it) doesn’t work the way we think it works or the way we want it to work. If we’re honest, we don’t know how to balance the idea that God is “all-the-alls” with the evil that exists in the world…but we can and do try. In part 3 of this blog, which will be published tomorrow, we’re going to try and shine some light on God’s interaction with human pain and suffering as we seek to understand how God interacts with the evil of this world. I hope you’ll keep reading!