Why would God let this type of Christian persecution happen?
When those 21 Egyptian Christians- yes CHRISTIANS- called out to God on the beach in Libya, why didn't God send in an angel army to help them?
If God is so good then why does He let such bad stuff happen?
Is God too weak to stop evil or does He just not care?
These are the types of questions that come up during these times of blatant evil expression. When we see evil paraded on the world scene we begin to question our beliefs and often our faith is shaken. So what should our response be?
First, God is aware of what is going on.- God is omniscient- He knows.
Second, God has the power to do anything...ANYTHING- God is omnipotent and sovereign
Third, God is good.- God is Holy- God does nothing that is flawed, tainted, or incomplete.
The bottom line is that God IS doing something about the evil we see displayed on the world's stage before us. God has been dealing with evil since He told Adam and Eve not to eat of the fruit from the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. He was preemptive then and he is proactive now.
We must see that God's plan for mankind involved giving him a free will to choose God. Otherwise, God would have been limited in receiving of glory. By allowing mankind to CHOOSE to follow Him or rebel, God was creating a situation to demonstrate the fullness of His character: loving, forgiving, long suffering, patient, kind etc.
If man had no choice and an alternative to pure goodness never existed- aka. evil- then the God of mankind would not have means to express the depth of Himself to His creation.
But, that choice by God to allow an alternative to pure good, in a way restrained God. He can do anything. He is bound by no laws, constraints, or dictates EXCEPT His own character. Just as God cannot sin because He is Holy, God also cannot violate His own character because He is faithful.
That means, since God chose to give man a choice, He chooses to live with allowing those choices even though it brings pain, death, sickness, dissension, and enmity towards God Himself. Those things are manifested as man living out evil.
BUT, God does not simply allow those forces to go unchecked. Ejection from the Garden of Eden, the great flood of Noah, the tower of Babel, Jesus' birth, and ultimately Jesus' return to judge all evil are all parts of God's plan with dealing with evil.
On a more personal scale, God also fights evil in the world everyday. The book of Romans teaches that as long as God has men and women of faith that are filled with the Holy Spirit, then evil will remain in check and subdued. To the extent that men and women of faith do NOT walk in that spirit of power, evil has freer reign.
Ergo, God is doing something about the evil in the world. YOU. ME. His church. Christians. God's design is that we are His instruments of good in a world that is inherently predisposed to pursue evil on a grander and grander scale.
So the question shouldn't be what is GOD doing about it. The question should be what am I doing about it. What am I allowing God to do with ME to fight evil? What am I allowing God to do through my life to express love to the hurting, sick, afflicted, lost, confused, frustrated, despondent world around me?
Am I standing up against the evil represented by ISIS? Am I making my voice heard in memory of the martyred and in protection of the endangered? Am I broken in prayer? Am I grieved of spirit?
The day has come for God's people to be the force He designed us to be to fight back evil. It's time for us to be the "boots on the ground" in the spiritual battle. It's easy to blame God. It takes more courage to put the blame where it belongs, on ourselves.
No comments:
Post a Comment