Complaints
July 31, 2024
Out of the blue, this occurred to me, but I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of this reasoning before. You see, as a Bible Believing Born Again Christian, I try to correct misinterpretations and their precipitating errant conclusions about God, Jesus, and the Bible. Maybe by clearing the smog, I am hoping individuals can freely breathe in the fresh air of the Gospel of Jesus.
Maybe not, but I believe it is my responsibility to try.
Often confronted with the question, “If God is good, and God is love, and God is all-powerful, why does he allow evil, hurt, and pain?” Often I have not answered properly, trying to apologetically answer with as many intellectual reasons that I can muster. However, this tactic is now obvious to me to be futile and unnecessary.
Why?
Because God is plainly not in the “allowing” business. He created the Earth, set it aspinning, and it has been spinning ever since.
Please understand, I used to challenge God with those very same types of questions.
So, I cannot presume to blame anyone when they, too, don’t quite get the dynamic of our spinning free will — our freedom to choose what we think and do and where that freedom fits into our daily living and our relationships with God — or lack thereof.
Truly, we are riding a spinning carousel — up and down, round and round…
You see, we individual humans are the ones in the “allowing” business.
So, from now on, I think I’ll respond to the one question with another question, “What truly is love without free will?”
Nobody needs to answer. You know why? Because the choice to love is instinctive!
Everybody knows love is a choosing, even though everybody doesn’t write essays about it, we all simply know it. There have been many songs confirming this, if I remember correctly.
Free will is really the pivotal answer. God does really love us, but He also wants us to choose to love Him back. At that juncture, He begins to show us what His love really is.
Freedom to choose to like someone or for the brotherly love of becoming bosom buddies is a basic, intrinsic, and natural element of our human nature.
We are socially needful.
People need people.
All the same, many people cannot come to grips with the fact that it is people who choose to do evil, cause hurt, harm, and pain. The sad thing is that this, too, is an intrinsic part of our human nature… Whether or not you accept the Bible as the inspired word of God, just for wisdom’s sake, there are some discussions quite insightful and have some universal truths contained within them. For instance, “What causes conflicts and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from the passions at war within you? You crave what you do not have; you {hate} and covet, but are unable to obtain it…” — James 4:1–2, Berean Standard Bible, { } my edit.
Isn’t that true?
God hasn’t made the mess that we are in — neither socially, personally, nor existentially.
We did. We make the messes. It’s us. It’s our own doing, and the consequences are all our own responsibility — not God’s… Nevertheless, God has offered to save us from our own consequences. Jesus came to help us clean them up, to save us from them, to redeem us.
Quite plainly, God isn’t pulling our strings. People have been given the levers of power, and some abuse them more than others. Some groups amass such great socio-political power, they do much worse than individuals, having always been causing much more hurt, harm, confusion, oppression, division, hate, and even wars.
Quit blaming God.
Other people may be pulling your strings or “yanking your chain,” but God is not, and God does not.
As a famous cartoon quote from the comic strip “Pogo,” says, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”
So, what’s my newfound answer to the question, “Why does God allow…?”
Again, He doesn’t “just allow,” and He has provided a different path we can choose to walk on.
“…Beloved, do not let this one thing escape your notice: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise as some understand slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance.” — 2 Peter 3:8–9, ibid.
“…how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? This salvation, first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard Him…” — Hebrews 2:3, ibid.
Choice…
We can either choose to turn to Jesus, or we can reject God’s provision, following our own preferences. That is how God’s love and our freedom to choose works.
If a person rejects God’s offer, whatever his questions and objections are, they will never be answered, and they will continue to stumble around in the dark, grabbing for tenuous and fragile answers.
Just quit the Blame Game.
Think.
It’s you and I and all Mankind that are to blame. We are to blame, because we often choose our paths so very, very badly. That is not playing the Blame Game. It’s called “responsibility.” And it’s not a game.
Consequences are hard to swallow, because deep down inside we know who’s to blame: me, myself, and I — our own exalted little trinity.
Let me suggest instead, choosing this course of action:
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. Be not wise in your own eyes…” — Proverbs 3:5–7, ibid.
Is that an odd combination of thoughts? Not really. You see, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so My ways are higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.” — Isaiah 55:8–9, ibid.
Then, being wise in our own conceits is actually making this choice: choosing to reject both God’s intelligence and God’s provision for rescuing us from the consequences of our own decisions.
Besides, then too, we fail to recognize God’s omniscience. It’s like when we were rebellious teenagers, disrespecting our parents’ sage advice and practical wisdom and guidance.
Maybe you’ve heard the adage, “As I got older, my parents got smarter.”
After I turned to God and after walking with Him for a while after accepting His guidance, I realized, too, God also “got smarter.”
My challenge questions began to get answers… like this one: “Why does God allow…?” The answer is that we — both as individuals and as all of Humanity — we alone have the power of free will to make our own choices — with consequences, good or bad, which will inevitably follow.
I hope this little essay encourages all to start making wise choices and to choose the right path to walk on:
Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life…”
Of course, you will never know unless you choose to turn to Him.
