Daunting season!

We are in a season of successive catastrophes hitting planet earth. Starting with global pandemic, to extreme hunger, now to locust swarms and then we hear the earth’s magnetic field weakening which means it can cause malfunctions in satellites and spacecraft.

Evil is surpassing to an unimaginable height. Even as things are culminating, the Bible records there will be a time when the earth will struggle and groan to keep the equilibrium and stability. In one place it is said that ‘the powers of heavens (sky) will be shaken.”. In most cases human beings are responsible for the disaster and evil, yet the age old question remains,  if there is a good god why does he allow suffering?

Hillary, an undergraduate English major commented, “God allows terrible suffering in the world so, he might be either all-powerful but not good enough to end evil and suffering, or else he might be all-good but not powerful enough to end evil and suffering. Either way the all-good, all-powerful God of the Bible couldn’t exist.” Some find unjust suffering to be a philosophical problem, calling into question the very existence of God. For others it is an intensely personal issue. They don’t care about the abstract question of whether God exists or not —they refuse to trust or believe in any God who allows history and life to proceed as it is.

What explanation suffices in the time like this? Let me point out a story from the history. It is said as recorded in the Bible that there was a time when the Israelites were in the bondage under Egypt for 400 years. Finally, the Israelite's were led to freedom by Moses a man chosen by God to lead them to the promised land called Canaan in 13^th- 12th centuries BCE. The movie Ten commandments portrays a glimpse of history. It is said the people of Israel quickly forgot the great deed and rebelled involving themselves in all types of debauchery. The Bible records they were punished with natural disaster. “He gave crops to the caterpillar and the fruit of their labor to the locust.”.

Most people in our culture believe that, if there is a God, we can relate to him and go to heaven through leading a good life. Let’s call this the “moral improvement” view. Christianity teaches the very opposite. In the Christian understanding, Jesus does not tell us how to live so we can merit salvation. Rather, He comes to forgive and save us through His life and death in our place. God’s grace does not come to people who morally outperform others, but to those who humbly admit their failures. God still loves us and is willing to forgive and restore things for us. We are the creation of the divine God.

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