The integrity of God
There was a story of a young boy running between a lion cage and other boys who were throwing stones at the poor lion in order to protect the lion. Did he need to do this ? Hypothetically to save the lion all he had to do was to open the door of the lion cage and let the lion out do his work.
When we talk about the integrity of God, this is like the lion in the lion cage, we don’t need to defend God with our limited minds and understanding, he is more than capable of defending himself.
Some people have posed the question how can a God of love allow a pandemic like the coronavirus to happen ? This is a question that people with a superficial understanding of christianity might ask. This question raises a number of complex issues and it might be helpful to break it down into three pieces.
First it is questioning that God is a God of love, which is totally wrong because there is no doubt that God is a God of love because he sent his son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. John 3:16 beautifully sums this up: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life”.
Secondly there is the problem of evil in the world which can be largely explained in that God has given mankind a free will to choose either to follow God and Jesus as Lord and Saviour or reject him. God has given mankind the very maximum of free will, he is a gentleman and he will not force anyone to follow him. God wants us to be his friends because we want to be and not to be like robots who have no choice in the matter.
Much of the evil in the world (apart from the devil and his evil angels, remember that Jesus is stronger than them) is not God’s fault, but can be directly blamed on sinful mankind, such as wars, selfishness and social injustice.
Thirdly there is the problem of personal or natural disasters. When a person gets cancer what can we say to them ? We can certainly pray for them that God will be with them and that they will be cured if that is God’s will for their life. There is no easy answer to this, these are issues I believe we have to accept by faith and trust in God. He knows what is best and sees the big picture.
In matters of faith and of course life in general we are never because of our finite human minds always going to have the answers for everything. Anyone who says they have all the answers to everything is preaching a false gospel.
There will always be an element of mystery in the christian faith where we can’t understand the ways of God, however God sees the big picture and we don’t. If we understood everything there would be no room for faith. In my own family I had a cousin who died of cancer. Thankfully he was a christian who knew the Lord and we had prayed for his recovery. At the time his death it didn’t seem to make much sense as he left behind his wife and young son, however through all of this my uncle and aunt became committed christians where previously they had been lukewarm in the faith.
Being a christian is not a guarantee that bad things will not happen in a persons life however Jesus has promised in Hebrews 13:5 “that I will never leave you; or forsake you.” God doesn’t normally spare us trials but he is with us always and brings us through difficulty.
I knew a christian who went through a period of bad health, he was not angry with God because God is good and without fault, however he questioned what he had done wrong in his life and tried to figure things out. On reflection this was a mistake, he eventually realised that he would have been better accepting everything in faith and trust in God and not tried to work things out which God does not expect us to do. God expects us to be faithful and carry on with our lives. God sees the big picture and we do not.
Natural disasters are difficult to rationalise, God sees the big picture and we don’t. However we can say in our modern world considerably less people are dying because of weather forecasting, people are warned of approaching hurricanes, where 10’s of thousands used to die now there are now dozens, building are made to resist earthquakes and there is much less famine with the green revolution. We live on a planet in which these natural disasters happen because this is the way the planet works. The planet uses weather and plate tectonics to dissipate heat and the human race has to live and adapt to it. We are grateful to God in that he has given us the gift of science to help with these problems.
In our world God cares very much about this world, this is why his son Jesus came into the world to die on the cross for our sins on his rescue mission to save humanity. Jesus in his ministry healed many people miraculously and suspended the laws of nature by calming a storm. His greatest miracle was his resurrection from the dead where he finally overcame the forces of sin and evil for all time.
What else can we say about the integrity of God, he is utterly reliable, always keeps his word and is consistent, he is a loving God and will always punish evil because he is a holy God and can’t tolerate sin. God is our Father and through faith we are adopted into the family of God and he loves us as his children.
Finally I finish with the story of Corry Ten Boom, her family was arrested for sheltering Jews during WW2 in Holland. Her father, herself and her sister were imprisoned. Her frail 84 year old father died 10 days later and eventually her sister Betsie became ill and was dying. A cruel guard threw Cory a shovel and told her to bury her sister when she was done. Corry cried out in despair and said Why God, why is this happening. Her sister in a gentle voice said that if you really know God, you would never ask this question. Her sister completely trusted in Jesus in spite of the bad situation and didn’t doubt the character and integrity of God.
A number of years later Corry was preaching in Germany and recognised one of the nazi concentration camp guards in the service. Would she forgive the guard for all the brutality. This would be a test of the genuineness of her christian faith and was she prepared to follow the teaching of the Lord’s prayer in that she can be forgiven her sins by God on condition that she is prepared to forgive those who have sinned against her. Would bitterness at her treatment rule the day. She was prompted by the Holy Spirit to hug the lady on her way out and say “Jesus loves you and so do I.” The former guard broke down and wept bitterly, she confessed her sins and came to Christ. This was a great example to the world about forgiveness and reconciliation from those who had experienced the inhumanity of the nazi concentration camps. Love had triumphed over evil.