Moving Toward a Good God

29 Mar Moving Toward a Good God

Our current blog series is titled, “Why believe in God?” It is subtitled, “If you reject God, you’ve only done half the job!”  The other half of the job is that we have to explain reality without Him. And we can’t. So when we meet obstacles to our ability to believe in the existence of God, our only answer is to move toward God, not away from him.

An example I’ve used before in this blog is of a CBS news correspondent on the show 60 Minutes years ago, reporting on a tragedy in the Vietnam War. At the end of his heart-rending report he said, “If there is a God, he has a lot of explaining to do.”

The reporter felt that the pain, suffering, and evil that he was reporting on was sufficient cause for him to doubt the existence of God, that is, a God who could be called good and powerful. And, that response is easy to understand. I’ve had it myself, in times past.

But it’s a shortsighted response that, if held to, doesn’t take his assumption to its ultimate conclusion, for, as we’ve seen in this series, reality cannot be credibly explained without God. Doing away with God, does not explain what is.

Now, conceivably, he could come up with the explanation that either God is not all good, and he does not care about the evil, or that he is not all-powerful, and he cannot do anything about it. But he cannot conclude that there is no God, without denying all the evidence to the contrary.

Typically though, people are only really troubled about His goodness. So, how is it that we can believe – as Christians do – that God is good, in spite of the pain, evil and suffering in the world? I have written on this subject before, but will summarize the main points here, giving, not a comprehensive explanation of the subject, but rather, a lean core of information that points to and reaffirms our conclusion that God is good. I list resources at the end of the blog that give a fuller treatment of the subject.*

The Bible insists that God is good

• “Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.” 1 Chronicles 16:34
• “Good and upright is the Lord.” Psalm 25:8
• “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who trusts in Him!” Psalm 34:8
• “You are good and do good.”   Psalm 119:68
• “No one is good except God alone.” Mark 10:18

God’s goodness is validated

We must admit that the pain and suffering in the world is a challenge. But pressing ahead toward God rather than retreating from Him, we can consider these things: even though God allows evil for the present time, He nevertheless stepped into it and allowed the consequences of evil to touch Him. He did not, and does not, leave us here to suffer alone (Hebrews 4:15-16).

First, Jesus, God’s Son, died to deliver us from evil (“…while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8).

And He didn’t have to die! He could have chosen not to. So why in the world did He? Because He loved us and was willing to pay whatever price was necessary to deliver us from evil.

Second, the Father also stepped into the evil for our sake.

The Father made the decision to send Jesus to die for us (“I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent me.” John 6:38).  Jesus willingly came down from heaven, but it must have been a terribly painful decision for the Father to ask Him to do so.

Then, He witnessed the plan unfold – the suffering and death of His son – something any loving parent would recognize as an agonizing thing to do.

Why did God endure that? Love seems the only conceivable answer (John 3:16).

God is not a maniac

Is God perhaps a maniac, creating a system of senseless suffering that even He has to endure? I don’t believe that, and here’s why. I look at the evidence that points to just the opposite:

1. Love, rather than insanity, can explain His actions (John 3:16).
2. His teachings are of the highest order:
   • Love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:37-39).
   • Do unto others as you would have others do unto you (Luke 6:31).
   • Love does no wrong to a neighbor, therefore, love is a fulfillment of the law (Romans 13:10).
3. Everywhere, in all places in all times of history, when God is followed authentically, goodness, peace, love, and joy bubble up, spill out and overflow.
4. There is not another source in the universe that could explain where goodness comes from. Is goodness natural in the world? No. Are humans, without God, the source of goodness in the world? No. Is the devil the source of goodness in the world? No. There is not another possible source of goodness in the world except for God.

The Bible promises that God will ultimately resolve the pain, evil and suffering in the world

Revelation 21: says, referring to heaven, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain…”

Conclusion

So, why did God create a world in the first place, in which evil would be present and innocent people would suffer terribly? The fact is, we don’t know. The answer is either something we have not been told, or having been told, we do not yet comprehend.

However, for the above reasons, we can believe that God is good, in spite of the pain, suffering and evil in the world.  And, there is not another possible source of goodness besides God.

So, we see that the answer to our very hard question lies in moving toward God and not away from Him. That is always the answer. Next week, we’ll look at how we can answer the question of whether or not we have the right God – the God of the Bible.

*Three books I’d recommend for further study on this subject are:

• Where is God When It Hurts, Philip Yancey
• The Problem of Pain, C.S. Lewis
• Walking With God Through Pain and Suffering, Timothy Keller

Share this Blog