God's sovereignty and the Boston Marathon Bombing ...

There is within theology an area of study called theodicy, which is the defense of God in light of the existence of evil. The question of why evil exists if there is a good and omnipotent God is for many a key argument against the existence of God - especially the Christian God. I find most of our objections come from our assumptions - especilly the assumptions we make about what a Good God should do. In effect, we are prosecutors putting God, as CS Lewis said, "in the dock" (i.e. on trial in the courtroom). But this is to judge God by our standards. And all of us would admit that we don't live up to our own standards. Some of us even see that our standards are affected by our imperfections and finiteness. Some would call that the "noetic effects of sin" or the effect our fall had on our minds. Thus, in reality, we should be suspicious of our own perceptions of ultimate good and evil, of true right and wrong. We need someone who sees more clearly than we do to help us see Truth - but alas, all human beings are in the same boat. Our glasses are broken, distorted, and warped. But if God is the Creator of all things and if the Universe is as a pebble to him, then it does us no good to rail against him. It is the definition of lunacy for a created mite to rail against the creator. We must accept and deal with reality, whatever it may be, and whether we like the God that exists is irrelevant. Only a fool rages against the sun. We need this God to reveal himself, for although we can find out many things by studying the creation that is his handiwork, we cannot use methods of this realm to study the One who transcends it. He must speak, and we must listen. And God has spoken - through His creation, through His Word, and through His Son. Creation is a true revelation of his power and majesty, but it is marred by the fall of man. And because our minds has been corrupted by our rebellion, we would misinterpret creation even if it was not marred. And we do not normally have access to the work and life of the person who is Christ, revealed to us in the God-breathed scriptures. But here agin, we must recognize that we must work to see accurately the scriptures, for our minds are still corrupted. We must conform our thinking to Scripture, starting with those things which are clear, and pryerfully thinking through the things which are unclear, being humble enough to consider other's thoughts on the same topic. In Scriptuure, it does not appear that God steps back from his responsibility as ruler of all: "If calamity comes upon a city, is it not I the Lord who has done it?" "All things work together for the good of those who love God and who are called according to his purpose ..." Joseph on being sold into slavery by his brothers: "you ment it for evil, but God meant it for good." In the book of Job, we see that Satan had to be given permission to touch Job's property, his family, and his health. God permits Satan to torment Job for reasons Job never finds out this side of heaven. And so on. God makes clear that Satan is not his adversary as much as a shamed foe on death row, who nevertheless rages against all that is good. The question we all have for this is why? And it's one of those questions which we cannot answer. Perhaps we could not grasp the reasons. Perhaps God wants us to trust him rather than have "all the answers" and trust them. Whatever the case, God is not ignorant of the pain and tragedy of the events in Boston. He knows who did the bombing and why. The hard part is that he knew beforehand that it was being done, and he could have stopped it. I can't tell you why he did that. But I can tell you that he did not intervene on another day 2000 years ago, on a day where His Son was wrongfully convicted, mocked, spit upon, beaten, crucified and killed. He even turned His back on His Son, who cried out to him. And God did this so that we might be brought into his family, into his kingdom. Jesus endured the cross for the joy that was set before him - for the joy of bringing many sons and daughters into the kingdom. For the joy of bring you and me into his family. We know that the most unjust event in human history was part of God's plan before the foundation of the world. If that is true, then can we learn to trust His heart when other tragedies occur "on his watch?" God is up to something, but his ways are higher than our ways. Let us all cry out to him in our grief and trust our Father's heart ..

The Boston Marathon Bombing and our fear ...

What do you do when your fears have merit? We love to label our fears: acrophobia - fear of heights; Triskaidekaphobia - fear of the number 13; Arachibutyrophobia - the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth. Sometimes, these fears have little connection to the reality of this world, but other times they reflect a real danger in the world which we cannot control. If you have a fear of flying, no amount of rational talk may calm your fear. Even though the statistics say that flying is safer than driving, it is still a fact that some planes do in fact crash. This fear or anxiety of flying is a pessimistic prediction about the future: I know the likelihood of a crash is low, but some planes do in fact, crash - and I'm sure that this plane I'm about to get on is one of those planes. You cannot rationally talk someone out of this fear, because there is logic in much of their argument. So what do you do when you live in a world where bad things do happen? What do you do when you live in a world where someone would bomb the runners and spectators of the Boston Marathon? How do we protect ourselves from this danger? The experts will do their best figuring out who and how and why this occurred, though that will be little comfort for those who lost loved ones and limbs in the attack. I suspect there will be far fewer spectators next year at the Marathon because it is nearly impossible to protect 26 miles of a public course through the city. The fear of "what if it happens again?" will probably lead to many watching at home on the TV. I know that fear - my family had to go to Dallas in October of 2001. I decided that we would drive rather than fly because I did not want to face the uncertainty of "what might happen." That turned out to be a memorable trip for us, travelling through a few states for the first time. Is there any other option? Is there any hope? Is the answer "You can't let them win by making us afraid" or "Just don't think about it" or even a fatalistic "if it is your time to go, you can't change that?" People who have a naturalistic world view must in the end deal with it in their own strength, for there is no one greater to appeal to. But for the Christian, we must remember that nothing that happens on this earth goes unnoticed. Our pain is not merely the electrical response to stimuli, but moves God's heart. Sure, there are hard questions to ask about the existence of evil, but in times of grief and fear, we need to know that Our Father sees, hears, and comforts us even in the most grievous circumstances. The only way to navigate this broken world where evil people do evil things is to know that there is someone greater than those who plot evil. The solution to our fear is not a technique, not denying the reality of life, and not finding strength in ourselves. Trust in the One who rules the Universe settles fear. That's not a guarantee that bad things will not happen, but that you will not be alone if they do. And nothing comes into your life that does not first pass through His nail-pierced hands. This world is not the way it should be, and it is not forever. One day, for those who trust Christ, when we see Him face to face we will be like Him - and all pain, all suffering, all sin, all death, all decay, all destruction, all seperation from what is good will be gone. And he will wipe every tear from our eye ...