A little girl is raped, tortured and beaten. Is this part of God's plan? A dictator commits genocide against his people. Is there nothing we can do? After spending her life helping and serving others, a mother is diagnosed with terminal cancer at age 39. How do you comfort her and her family?
We all know God never changes but can the future change? Is everything going according to plan? Is rape, genocide, murder and cancer part of the plan? Is God ever caught by surprise? If God is in control and does all things for his own pleasure according to the counsel of his will, what does that say to the recipients of such horrible suffering?
What about all the times when God changes his mind after someone prays and pleads with Him? If God already has it all planned out then what is the purpose of prayer? Isn't there a war going on that we should be participating in? Do our prayers have an effect on changing the future? If so, what does that say about God's predestined will?
I've asked a lot of questions and I've heard a lot of different answers in the past. I'll come back and do my best to answer them. As a teaser I remind you of the title of this post. There are two sides to every story. Things aren't always drawn in black and white. Often, deep things like this are more complex than we want to know about. It may make us uncomfortable but certainly the truth is worth knowing. We don't want half truths, we want the whole truth and I hope you, my readers, will settle for nothing less and join with me to sort out these things.
So, what is your answer to these questions?
I too have often wondered about these things and tried to reason them out, but it is beyond me. In the end, it does NOT matter what I think but what the Bible says. For example: Prov.25
ReplyDelete[2] It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter.
The Bible repeatedly shows that God perfects His plans through suffering, as in the case of Joseph, Job and ultimately Jesus Himself. We can't see the point in this, but we are limited in time and space. Reason will help only to a small degree. I recently read "Reason is to the philosopher what Grace is to the Christian."
God asks us to believe, to live in faith, knowing that He loves us. His Grace, He says, is SUFFICIENT for me. Shall we give up when trouble strikes? Rom.8
[37] Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Jesus will carry us through!
Ken Kalis
Ken,
ReplyDeletethanks for your thoughtful comment. I agree, the key to all this is faith and what I plan to explore more as I go on is what that faith looks like, what the truths are that that we stand on and how we act on that truth.
stay with me, I'd love to hear your take on these things as I go along.
For as long as we do not dismiss one of "two sides" true, the matter is settled with God and men?
ReplyDelete