Category apologetics

Dec 3 2012

Why Does God Allow Painful Loss of Life Among Believers?

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This may be the most difficult question for the Christian believer to answer. Why does our loving God, the One who ransomed us with the life of His own Son, allow His much-loved children to undergo painful loss, such as in the case of the Saratoc family from Oradea, Romania?

A young Christian mother and her 1-year-old son died in a car accident last week, and their funeral brings this painful question to mind. The image of a lifeless infant lying in the arms of his breathless mommy broke the heart of the evangelical community in Romania and abroad. It is difficult to read about this or watch the video without being overcome by tears.

Why does God allow this much loss of life, in such a painful way?  The standard answer given by Christian apologists is to invoke the fall of man into sin, and explain the consequences of disobedience in the garden of Eden.  Even though we will never have a satisfactory answer, I will attempt to mention a few things to help us gain a biblical perspective.

First, it is imperative we understand that these precious lives are not lost to God the way the family and dear ones may see them for a time, as they are grieving.   From God’s perspective these lives are in His hands.  He alone is the Author of life, and He has full control over the life and eternal destiny of His children.  Jesus proclaims the eternal security of believers in John 10:28 “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.”  Therefore, to Him these lives are not lost.

Apostle Paul also mentions that life is not lost in the way the world sees loss, but life actually continues after death.  In 2 Cor 5:6-8 he writes “we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord… …and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.”  The children of God will be with the Lord when they leave this earthly realm, no matter what age they die.

Second, God uses these difficult events to make Himself manifest as the Comforter of his children.  In great loss, God makes Himself available to strengthen, comfort, and ultimately draw believers closer to Him by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit who dwells in them.

The example of John Owen, the great man of God and theologian, stands out as I write this.  He and his wife had 11 children and 10 of them died while they were infants.  It is difficult to imagine so much loss in a family.  But despite these trials God strengthened and used Owen to write many theological masterpieces of the Puritan era, but specifically a series of works centered on the mortification of sin in the life of the Christian, which have stood as reference for us until now.

Ultimately we could resign like Solomon when he said in Eccl 8:17 “then I saw all the work of God, that man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. However much man may toil in seeking, he will not find it out. Even though a wise man claims to know, he cannot find it out.”

But I think a better approach is to accept the will of God in our life as in Romans 8:28 “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

Therefore let us not be like the skeptics who stand on ungodly moral presuppositions and ask “God, how could you?” Let us accept the will of God for us, and understand the comfort and security that He provides through His Word and His Holy Spirit.

Nov 30 2012

A Closer Look at Romans 1: the Nature of Human Relations

Rom 1:26 “Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones.  27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another.  Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.”

I will preface this article by saying that the Bible forbids us from hating any group of people.  We are commanded to love our neighbor, and at the same time to preach the truth about God’s love, and the repentance from any and all sin.

Whenever an in-depth look is undertaken into any Bible passage, one must use a word-for-word translation like the ESV or the NASB, and possibly look at the Hebrew or Greek text using tools such as Strong’s dictionary among others.  We will take a look at this passage and focus on the way apostle Paul uses the derivatives of the word “nature” in the context of homosexual relations.

One of the most important points of the gay agenda is to proclaim the idea that homosexual relations come naturally to the persons who subscribe to that orientation.  This has been implied even by some evangelical leaders like Rick Warren… but not in so many words.  A closer look in Romans 1 reveals that same-sex relations are not only sinful, but they are against nature the way God ordained it.

The context of Romans 1:18-32 is very important because it further solidifies this position.  The theme here is God’s wrath against the depravity of mankind, making the point that idolatry is unnatural.  It says that men committed an unnatural act in that they “exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man. (verse 23)”  We see the contrast here between the natural and the unnatural, the glory of the immortal God and the images resembling mortal man, respectively.

Paul points to the transition between the natural worship of God, and the unnatural worship of man and idols.  He also points to how men unnaturally “exchanged the truth about God for a lie (verse 25).”

Continuing in the same pattern of natural vs unnatural, Paul gives an example of human depravity: homosexuality.  Just like the exchange of the “glory of the immortal God” for idolatry, and truth for lie was presented earlier, Paul now presents two more unnatural exchanges:

1. The phrase “their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones” references lesbianism as being unnatural, therefore against nature

2. The phrase “men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another” references homosexual relations among men and specifies that these men abandoned the natural state, that is the relationship ordained by God between man and woman in Gen 2:24.  Paul makes a clear case that an unnatural relationship is now taking place between members of the same sex.

The final analysis is the result of depravity: “the due penalty for their perversion” which is the result of God giving  “them up in the lusts of their hearts.”

Romans 1:26-27 is abundantly clear that homosexuality is not only sinful, but unnatural in the context of human relations ordained by God.  The argument that homosexual desires are natural, as any other sinful desire like lust, hate, anger, and greed directly contradicts Romans 1 Scripture.

Related click here: Can one repent of these unnatural desires?

Also: Biblical case against gay marriage

Nov 9 2012

In the Wake of Sandy: Is God Still Love?

In the case of people who do not know God, natural disasters present one of the most difficult barriers to believing in the Triune God revealed in the Bible.  If God is all-loving and all-good as described in the Bible, how can He allow such destruction as hurricane Sandy to ravage His creation and the people He loves?

How can a just, compassionate, loving, and caring God who died for His creation allow this level of pain and death?

Atheists and agnostics who ask these questions have not come to know the truth about our God, and truth about the fall of His creation.  They do not understand that God’s attributes cannot be separated, that His love is rooted in His justice, and His compassion streams out of His love.

The atheist loves to mock the believer with accusations that Christians worship a sadistic God who ordains atrocities and natural disasters.  He points to the unfairness of life, the death of innocent babies, the sorry state of humanity, and ultimately he blames a God in whom he doesn’t even believe!  All this without a single observation of the wickedness that exists in his own soul!

The Bible unveils the unfair reality of our world as a direct result of Satan’s action and the disobedience of man.  As a result evil prospers, and natural and biological calamities plague us.  Paul elucidated the fallen state of creation in this passage:

Romans 8: 20 “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.”

Then Paul proceeds to explain that the “whole creation has been groaning” as a result of man’s disobedience and fall into sin.  So what right does an ungodly man have to question the unfairness of the universe?  What right does he have to question God’s love?

The truth is that the single most unfair event that has ever taken place on this planet was not hurricane Sandy and the death and destruction it left behind.  It wasn’t the tsunami which killed hundreds of thousands.   It wasn’t even the dreaded Holocaust in which 6 million Jews were murdered because they were Jewish.

The single most tragic and unfair event that ever happened, the greatest crime and sin ever committed, but also the greatest act of love ever performed, was the torture and murder of a perfect, sinless and holy Man two thousands years ago on a cross outside of Jerusalem.  That Man was God Himself.  His name was Jesus.  Transcending the result of man’s fall, and the suffering that creation endures because of it, God showed his perfect love to us in redemption.

 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”