To Call, Or To Be Called: Grace Found in 2nd Thessalonians

I recently had the very distinct honor to attend a small conference of around 100 men in the pastoral ministry where Dr. John MacArthur and Dr. Steve Lawson were both the keynote speakers. Dr. MacArthur has been a favorite of mine for many years now, so having the opportunity to meet him and listen to him teach from the Word of God in person was a special opportunity. Likewise, Dr. Lawson had a deep impact on all of us there in laying on us a sense of urgency to ‘up the ante’ in our preaching and worship ministries.

For any of you who are familiar with these men, the call to ‘up the ante’ was not to make a service more exciting, appealing, or modern, so to speak, but to make it more biblical. Dr. Lawson so wonderfully stated: “You cannot be too biblical. Whatever amount of Bible you use in your sermons…double it. Triple it!”

So much has been lost in the last few decades indicated by the Church’s waning dedication to the authoritative Word of God by buckling under the pressure of social, easy-believism as Dr. MacArthur detailed so well in “The Gospel According To Jesus”, perhaps one of the best books he has written.

The whole weekend just inspired me more to think like a Reformer in looking for the revelation of God in every single word of Scripture and to count it as authoritative over all else. With this said, let’s dive into 2 Thessalonians and see where God’s grace can be found in how he effectually calls us to Him for salvation. Let’s see what it is that God is telling us in the writing of Paul’s letter to the church in Thessalonica.

If you’ve read any of the earlier posts related to finding this concept of grace in the New Testament, then you know that we’ve discovered just how prevalent the doctrine of sovereign election comes through almost every book. Why study this topic? It is not to be hyper-Calvinistic because that would be wrong. It is to understand, though, what the Word of God says and in most of the NT books, God’s sovereignty, especially in salvation, is a backbone of the entire Gospel. This cannot be understated. I’ve said it before: if God were not sovereign then He would be no god at all.

We’ve gone through James, Galatians, & 1^st Thessalonians so far and now 2^nd Thessalonians is up next in chronological order. Reviewing my notes, I had counted six different mentions of the concept of sovereign election. Specifically, the Greek word for called, transliterated as kaleo, was used twice. We’ve seen this word before haven’t we?

It is used in our first reference, which is 1:11, but in a shorter form of kaleo, which is klesis, but the meaning is the same: “To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power…”

This verse is loaded from beginning to end with the overall utter dependence on God for everything. 1) God would make them worthy 2) of His calling 3) by His power. It is God who makes us worthy for His own gift of salvation in the first place and then He also empowers us to do good works afterwards. It is all through Him. Do you see the significance of this? Let us never forget how hopeless and helpless we are to do anything fruitful apart from His power and grace.

This letter is a lot like the first letter Paul wrote to the Thessalonians. It was very encouraging and commending, rather than corrective and condemning. The Thessalonians encouraged Paul greatly in their growing faith and love for the truth.

He says in this verse, “to this end…” What end? This indicates that we need to know what the preceding passage said. Verse 10 says, “When he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.”

He had also just finished talking about how the justice of God would one day prevail and inflict vengeance on all who did not believe or obey the Gospel of Jesus Christ and his judgment would give relief to those like them who were being afflicted in persecution.

“To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling…”

Here is where the word klesis comes in to show God’s sovereign calling to salvation just like we saw defined in the past few posts. By definition, it means to call by name, but more specifically can be meant as giving a name to someone, or for someone to bear a name or title.

The idea of God giving us a new name to indicate a newness in salvation is as old as the prophets and as new as the future. Pay attention to what Isaiah said in 62:1-2:

“For Zion's sake I will not keep silent,
    and for Jerusalem's sake I will not be quiet,
until her righteousness goes forth as brightness,
    and her salvation as a burning torch.
The nations shall see your righteousness,
    and all the kings your glory,
and you shall be called by a new name
    that the mouth of the Lord will give.”

Then in Revelation we are reminded of what is to come. This is remarkably beautiful:

“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it” (2:17).

“The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name” (3:12).

Fascinating, is it not? Let’s retrace our steps back to the verse. The Lord God Almighty is the one who makes us worthy of this amazing gift of faith to receive His grace by calling us by name and giving us a new one! We are, after all, a new creation as this same author, Paul, said to the Corinthians in his second letter to them. Wouldn’t becoming a whole new creation almost demand a new name? God thinks so. We are His now.

As Paul continues his letter to these dear children in the faith he comforted them by basically telling them he never said or wrote anything that Jesus had already come back. Apparently someone had spread that rumor and the Thessalonians were afraid it was true. Paul confirmed it was not and proceeded to explain the string of events that would preclude the second coming of Christ.

After saying these things and concluding, again, that all who do not believe will be condemned he says in verses 13 and 14, “But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the first fruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

The point is clear. They were chosen. Remember, in his first letter he even said it was obvious they were chosen because the Gospel came to them “not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction” (1 Thess. 1:4).

It’s important to see the difference between being chosen and being called. It comes down to a matter of timing in the whole scheme of things.  Ephesians 1 says that we were chosen before the foundation of the world. The choosing was done a long time ago. It was not done after you were born once God could see if He liked you enough to choose you. That would discredit and deny his sovereignty, by definition.

However, once you did finally come along, God called you. You are not born redeemed. You are born depraved. You can be elected, but not yet saved. God still has to call you to Him in order to fulfill his perfect will and purpose in choosing you before the world was created. It’s a divine process, divinely accomplished.

So, as our verse of discussion says, “God chose you as the first fruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. To this he called [kaleo] you through our gospel…”

He chose us and then called us through the Gospel. This is so incredibly important. Too many churches do not believe that this is the only way to legitimately call people to Christ, in repentance, for forgiveness of sins.

Romans 10:13-14 says, “For ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?”

The Greek word in this Romans passage for calling on the name of the Lord is not the same that we have seen of God’s calling us. The word is transliterated as Epikaleomai, which specifically means to call upon, blame, accuse, appeal to, charge something to someone, etc. In modern terms it could be like “calling someone on the carpet” or “calling someone out” for something.  It is not always negative, because it is used when we are making an appeal to someone, or calling out to someone. This is different than God calling (kaleo) us to Himself.

Now, if you are really perceptive you will notice that this word Epikaleomai has the word kaleo embedded in it. Both words are used for “calling”, but the different transliterations have different meanings, specifically.

What is really fascinating and most important in our understanding of these differences is that the word kaleo itself comes from the base word Keleuo, which means to command, or to order. Understand that when God calls someone to Him he is commanding it. It will happen. This is why when we see the word kaleo used it is always an efficacious call. The command will have the desired effect because it is God’s command and will.

On the other hand, going back to Epikaleomai, the epi indicates: at, over, against, across, etc. This is why the whole word means to call at, or call over to, or call upon the name of the Lord. Do you see these important differences?

Going back to the Romans passage, we see that God uses preaching as the means to explain the Scriptures to people, so they can hear the truth that will set them free. He uses people to spread the message. This brings the clarity to understanding missions in the context of what we know as Calvinism, or the doctrines of grace, which are other ways of distinguishing what was in the Bible all along. Just because God has chosen us, we still have an obligation to proclaim the Gospel so his elect can respond in the way he has determined. God’s method for evangelism is with his own revealed truth in Scripture. Use it!

In this verse, God’s chosen people are then called with an efficacious call, through the proclamation of the Gospel that draws people to Him. The initiation is always from the Holy Spirit and it is irresistible.

The next reference is in this same frame of thought that Paul has been in. It is only two verses later, so let’s read on to that point…

“So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter. Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.”

Remember, the best way to understand grace and the best way to define grace is in God’s calling us to him. We would not have the capacity to believe in Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection had it not been for God’s election.

This knowledge should instantly fill us with a sense of awe and wonder that fills us with unassailable joy. Knowing this, the Apostle Paul says, “God our Father […] loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace…” Eternal comfort and hope can only come through grace, the gracious gift that was given to us by Him.

Finally, in chapter three we see more of an indirect confirmation of what the writer knew to be true… that God is the one who enables us to glorify Him and live for Him in obedience. God is the one who makes us firm in our faith and steadfast in our obedience.

“Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you, and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. For not all have faith. But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one. And we have confidence in the Lord about you, that you are doing and will do the things that we command. May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ” (2 Thess. 3:1-5).

Paul said that the Lord was faithful to establish them and guard them from the evil one. He prayed that the Lord would direct their hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ. He knew where real perseverance came from. It was not from a human intellect or manly stamina. It was from the power of God.

Let us never underestimate the depth and breadth of the grace of God.

In His Sovereign Grip,

Ben

Wycliffe’s “Allah” Moment: Replacing the Name of God

As I was flipping through my emails the other day, checking out some links, articles, and messages I got from some friends and family about random things, I saw one article using the term “Muslim Friendly Bible”. Of course, that peaked my interest for obvious reasons, but I wasn’t too excited about it since I knew that all sorts of random material have been created for different branches of religious hierarchies and different sects of different denominations, or whatever else meets someone’s specific fancy.

Sure, maybe someone somewhere decided to cut out all references to Jesus’ incarnate nature and sole means to salvation like Thomas Jefferson did with topics like sin and Hell and the wrath of God, but people do all sorts of unfortunate and sinful things and it only makes me hurt inside for them since they will one day find out they were wrong.

Unfortunately, this article was not based on an individual or even a small organization that got some lucky national media attention. This article was sharing some actual quotations from a new translation of the Bible that came from one of the most respected Bible translation organizations in the world, Wycliffe Bible Translators.

Wycliffe is no newbie when it comes to linguistics and Bible translation. This year they will be celebrating their 70th year in operation, seeing more than 700 translations of the Bible come to fruition. When you do the math you can quickly see that they have been busy from the get-go, averaging about 10 translations a year.

It was in 1942 when missionary William Cameron Townsend founded Wycliffe after he was involved with evangelizing the Cakchiquel Indians of Guatemala. After discovering that they had no language in which they clearly understood the Bible, he set out to change that, and not just for the Cakchiquel Indians, but for every person in every language possible. He was a man with a noble mission and no small task before him.

Now, 30 years after his death, Wycliffe Bible Translators have, perhaps, made their most controversial translation yet…one that is meant for the Muslim communities.

The language that Muslims would need a Bible translated to is generally Arabic. There have been Arabic Bibles around for hundreds and hundreds of years, thought to be dated as far back as 924 AD, so what’s the big deal?

Well, specifically, Wycliffe is catching heat for certain passages in their new Bible that replace ‘God the Father’ with Allah. Even Jesus as the Son of God is obscured in key passages where the full trinity is referred to, like in Matthew 28:19, which says:

“Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”

This new translation that Wycliffe is in the process of releasing, says:

“Cleanse them by water in the name of Allah, his Messiah and his Holy Spirit”

Believe it or not, Wycliffe defends their position of using Allah in this particular passage. While I do not have an actual manuscript of this Bible version to read from and verify myself, the evidence of the controversy and subsequent statements from Wycliffe indicate the very real fact that they have an important decision to make on whether or not to keep their translation in the printing.

All over the web, the accusations of Wycliffe removing the terms “God the Father” or “Son of God” from the Bible is being debated. What could the logic be behind using such a blasphemous word for God? Why would Wycliffe do something like this.

In a statement they posted on their website, http://www.wycliffe.org/, they responded to the “Son of God” controversy by stating the following:

“Wycliffe is not omitting or removing the familial terms, translated in English as “Son of God” or “Father,” from any Scripture translation. Erroneous information and rumors on the internet have recently raised questions concerning this issue.

“Wycliffe remains committed to the same objectives we've held sacred for 80 years: accurate and clear translation of Scripture. Wycliffe never has and never will be involved in a translation which does not translate these terms. The eternal deity of Jesus Christ and the understanding of Jesus’ relationship with God the Father must be preserved in every translation.

“Wycliffe personnel are committed to working alongside language communities and other partners to translate God’s Word with great care from the original languages of Scripture into the languages of the world’s people so that all may know the redeeming love and glory of God--Father, Son and Holy Spirit.”

Make no mistake that this answer does not in fact answer the real concern that is spreading across the internet amongst fellow believers who care about the sacredness of God’s Word. Wycliffe has only tried to affirm that they would never remove these terms from the Bible and that their real effort will only be in translating these terms. Well, that’s just the problem. Their elementary decision to translate God into Arabic is, in fact, Allah. To them, they have not removed ‘God the Father’, but only translated it. Yeah, ok.

Basically, the logic behind the translation comes from the fact that the term “Son of God” for Jesus carries the implication of a sexual relationship between God and Mary. Because of this, the translators wanted to use different terminology that would not indicate a sexual relationship producing Jesus, but still show the status of Jesus as the legal son of Joseph and Mary as well as the divine Son of God. Their answer to this was to replace God with Allah.

This logic has been confirmed by close acquaintances who work under Wycliffe in other translation efforts, so I am confident in the information I’ve been presented with.

Here is where Wycliffe has fallen into grave error in their effort to make the Bible more palatable to Muslims. They have essentially stripped the exclusivity of the God of the Bible, Jehovah, and replaced it with a vague and (by all modern accounts) blasphemous term for the god of the Muslims, Allah. Just because the Arabic term for God can be generally translated as Allah, does not mean that the God of the Hebrews carries the same connotation. This is not simply a matter of terms that can be swapped around with each other as needed. This is a matter of definition and they are not equivalent with one another at all.

Allah is specifically the so-called god that is worshiped in the Muslim world and it carries all of the implications that come with the Islamic religion. Allah is used specifically for their perception of God, but it is not a proper perception that is based on the truth of Scripture. Allah and the God of the Bible, Jehovah, are mutually exclusive.

Let’s take this a level deeper. Wycliffe is allegedly trying to overcome the notion that the term “Son of God” carries a sexual connotation in the Muslim community, which is, in fact, an unbiblical concept. However, this is the very reason that the doctrine of the virgin birth is so important and vital to any church of sound theological teaching.

Do we really think that the Muslims are unable to understand the virgin birth? Everyone has to be taught that Jesus was born of a virgin. Everyone has to be taught that the doctrine of the virgin birth is absolutely essential in order to understand the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy in both the legal and divine sense. Everyone has to be taught everything that the Bible claims in order for it to be understood in its proper context.

I’m positive that Wycliffe doesn’t think that Muslims are unable to understand these things, but I fear that they are acting as if they were by this theologically unsound translation of Scripture. Muslims are very capable of understanding the virgin birth, just like Americans, Russians, Australians, tribal people, etc. They just need to be taught from a translation of Scripture that holds true to the historical teaching of the apostles and teachers in the original languages.

Replacing “God the Father” with Allah, does no Muslim any good. It is a disservice to them and their proper understanding of Scripture. In all honesty, it only gives Satan a foothold in the area of biblical illiteracy, which is already a huge problem in the world.

Muslims need to learn about Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection and His sole means to salvation through faith and repentance just like anyone else. The beautiful thing about the Gospel is that it transcends all cultures and easily trumps all other false religions and schools of thought in its exclusive claims about Jesus as the Son of God, born of a virgin, fully man and fully God, the only way to inherit salvation through faith alone.

Muslims, like anyone else, need to hear these truths in order to understand that anything else is false and damning. Using Allah in Scripture, instead of “God the Father” only obscures the Biblical claims of who God really is and will only confuse some Muslims as to why evangelical Christians are saying they worship the same God as they do.

Jesus Christ is a great stumbling block for many people and their religious and philosophical thought. 1 Corinthians 1:18 says that “the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing…” Why? Because Jesus is the only way to Heaven. He is God. This flies in the face of Islam, in the face of the Jehovah’s Witness’, in the face of the Jews even--you name it.

1 Peter 2 explains this paradox so beautifully and is worth a quick reading, that Jesus is a stumbling block, but for those who are being saved He is the precious cornerstone. All at the same time, he is a precious stone to believers and a stone that causes others to fall. Why? Because you either believe and obey the message of the Gospel, or you don’t.

The Gospel transcends all cultural walls and boundaries and is capable of penetrating the hardest hearts. Only God can give the gift of faith to believe in Jesus for salvation. Only God can open the minds and hearts of people in order to understand the message.

In Matthew 16, Jesus asked his disciples: “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” The disciples indicated that many people thought he was John the Baptist, or Elijah, or Jeremiah, or some other prophet. Jesus got more pointed with his question: “Who do you say I am?” Peter answered: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon (Peter) son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.”

Note that they first admitted that some people were wrong in their thinking that Jesus could have been a man born of a sexual union between a father and mother, like John the Baptist who was born to Zechariah and Elizabeth. They also mentioned that people wrongly assumed he was just another prophet, or a great teacher.

All of these were wrong. They got it right when they said that Jesus was the Son of the living God, the Messiah. This claim is exclusive to historical, biblical Christianity. Anything that suggests otherwise is heretical and blasphemous.

Again, replacing “God the Father” with Allah only muddles the truth and either confuses Muslims, or perhaps frustrates them as even they know that Allah is not the same as the God of the Bible.

Islam will only recognize Jesus as a prophet, but not the Son of God--meaning He is God. Wycliffe is in danger of high treason if they choose to keep this translation in their rollout of this version. The stakes are greater than a simple translation. The stakes here threaten a real understanding of Jesus’ divinity, something the Muslims reject and something that the new Wycliffe Bible will be rejecting, should they persist.

A petition has been circulating the internet to keep “Father” and “Son” in the Bible, so that Jesus’ deity is not lost and so that Muslims will not be able to accuse Christians of tampering with the Bible in order to make it more palatable to the Islam religion. The link for this petition can be found here:

http://www.change.org/petitions/lost-in-translation-keep-father-son-in-the-bible

Jesus’ deity is what makes or breaks Christianity. Let’s not undo the efforts of the gospel writers who wrote such lengthy accounts of who Jesus was, so that people would know it. Like in Mark 15:39:

“When the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, saw how he died, he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God!”

UPDATE:

A few days ago, on February 7th, Wycliffe posted an update on their website regarding the “Son of God” controversy:

“Wycliffe USA is grateful to all those who have expressed their questions and concerns regarding reports that we have been removing “Father” and “Son” from certain Bible translations, particularly in Muslim cultures. Wycliffe USA is absolutely committed to translating the divine familial terms (Father, Son, and Son of God) clearly and accurately. The eternal deity of Jesus Christ and the understanding of Jesus’ relationship with God the Father must be preserved in every translation.

"While we have never intentionally sponsored a translation that neglects to properly communicate the divine familial terms, some observers have raised concerns about whether our methodology has consistently met our goal. We are listening to those concerns and are seeking God’s guidance as we re-evaluate our methodology and investigate to ensure that our commitment to accurate and clear translation is being reflected in every project. We are engaged in meaningful conversations with partner organizations, constituents, and church leaders to evaluate our standards, and expect to be prepared to issue a more complete statement soon. Thank you for your patience and prayer as we seek to fulfill our mission to make God’s Word accessible to all people.”

I am hopeful that they will correct the errors that are evident in certain passages of this new translation and I hope that you will join me in praying for a change of heart on their part. What may have started as a noble effort to evangelize the Muslim communities has turned into an effort that is relying more on man than on the power of God and His sovereignty in salvation to comprehend and respond in faith to the Gospel.

“…so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power” (1 Cor. 2:5).

In His Sovereign Grip,

Ben

Why Does God Allow Bad Things To Happen? Part 4: An Eternal Perspective

You know, if anyone knew of how miserable and unfair life could be on this earth, it was the Apostle Paul. The dude was imprisoned, beaten countless times (often near death), received the 39 lashes five times, beaten with rods three times, stoned, shipwrecked three times and adrift at sea for a night and a day, constantly in danger of different people, of Gentiles, of robbers, or false brothers, in danger of rivers, the wilderness, the sea, constantly experiencing toil and hardship and labors, had many sleepless nights, hungry, thirsty, often without food while in cold and exposure.

So, how is your day going so far? How does the rest of the day look? There’s a safe bet that you won’t be experiencing any of these things in the near future, if ever.

Paul’s resume of disaster, which is found in 2 Corinthians 11:23-27, is quite impressive, unfortunately. This list of events that he gives us are very much real and true. Most of them are recorded in detail throughout the book of Acts. Paul, by no means, had a good life by the standards we would use today.

Let’s also consider the prophet Jeremiah, commonly referred to as the “weeping prophet”. He was no exception to the miseries that often came with faithful ministry. While I am not trying to center on the hardships of ministry, per se, it is important to know that whether we are in the ministry or not, we will have very difficult moments in our life that our sometimes hard to understand and do not seem fair.

Jeremiah was set apart at birth and sent into ministry at around the age of 20! What were you doing at the age of 20? Probably not acting as a spokesperson of God to an entire nation, eh? The few friends that Jeremiah had, scorned him and ridiculed him, hoping to see him fail. No one liked him. They all hated him and his message of repentance and the warning of devastation that would come to Israel and Judah if they didn’t.

You know what happened? Well, the book of Lamentations is believed to be written by Jeremiah and it is lamenting about the destruction of Jerusalem, which means that none of his warnings were heeded and no one responded positively to Jeremiah’s message. Just think about how it might feel to dedicate your life from 20 years old to confront a nation that is steeped in idolatry and fornication, only to see no fruit come from it and have a history of persecution and ridicule. The culmination of all these things is the destruction of his beloved city, Jerusalem.

By definition, the word lamentation means “the process of lamenting”. To lament is to grieve, or mourn, or regret deeply. This, we can be certain, is what Jeremiah did and not just once, but constantly. Pay attention to Jer. 9:1-3:

"Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people! Oh that I had in the desert a travelers' lodging place, that I might leave my people and go away from them! For they are all adulterers, a company of treacherous men. They bend their tongue like a bow; falsehood and not truth has grown strong in the land; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know me, declares the LORD."

Is it any wonder we know him as the weeping prophet? He was devastated at the life of Israel and no doubt heavily burdened with his own emotions of seeing nothing come to fruition because of his ministry, yet he was faithful to proclaim what the Lord told him to. Why? Because the Lord told him to. It’s that simple.

After Jeremiah was beaten and placed into the stocks overnight at a city gate in Jerusalem (by the priest of the temple of the Lord, no less!) Jeremiah said, “the word of the LORD has become for me a reproach and derision all day long. If I say, “I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,” there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.”

The man had a divine mission and was faithful to complete it regardless of the outcome. He knew God was sovereign. He had an eternal perspective.

He echoes later in Lamentations 1:13, “From on high he sent fire; into my bones he made it descend.” Jeremiah was passionate.

“My eyes flow with rivers of tears because of the destruction of the daughter of my people. My eyes will flow without ceasing, without respite, until the LORD from heaven looks down and sees; my eyes cause me grief at the fate of all the daughters of my city” (Lam. 3:48-51).

With these two amazing men of God we see a constant theme. That is, the Christian life is not a guarantee of an easy life. In fact, it is often going to be filled with great trials and we can certainly expect some persecution, albeit light persecution in today’s world, for the faith that we hold unwaveringly to. Life will certainly have its draining periods that hit us emotionally, physically, financially, etc.

In our previous posts, we’ve already talked about how the world in its fallen state will be in a constant state of destruction and groaning until it is made new again. We’ve talked about the sovereignty of God and how He is in control of both the good and the bad and even causes them both to happen. We have also talked about specific examples of bad situations that can rock us to our core.

Now, how can the Christian cope with such devastation, even when we understand that God is sovereign? Is there any other practical view that we can hold that acknowledges God’s sovereignty, but also brings more clarity to it all?

I’ve touched on it in Part 3 briefly, but in this post I want to drive home the point that having an eternal perspective is key when working with this subject. Again, not everything is revealed by God for us to know as far as all of His purposes, but He does give us some hope and peace that we can easily apply to all of our situations in life no matter how dire.

Welcome to the Woodshed. Get your double-edged sword out, ‘cause we’re going in…

The Apostle Paul (the same guy with the resume of disaster) offered some amazing words of comfort when writing to the Italian believers in Rome. Of all the people to understand the kind of unfair things that can happen to us, Paul would be the best to ask for advice on how to handle it, no?

He has already helped us in our recent posts in understanding God’s sovereignty and that, no doubt, was the at the core of his beliefs about God. If God is not sovereign, then God is no god at all. In fact, people who deny God’s universal sovereignty by rejecting the fact that He is omnipotent (all powerful), omniscient (all knowing), immutable (unchanging), etc, then they really have a lame faith. That’s putting it mildly. Think about it. God, indeed, is sovereign over every single (if you will) noun: person, place and thing.

In our recent posts I have hammered the reality about God’s sovereignty. Assuming I’ve convinced you that God is indeed sovereign and does in fact cause both good and bad things to happen and does in fact allow Satan to cause other bad things to happen, then it should be safe to say that you no longer curse God or get mad at God for these bad things because you know that God is infinitely wiser than we are.

Now that you know He allows them to happen and even afflicts us for certain purposes, whether hidden or revealed, we will no longer be left wondering why life is unfair. It’s not that life is unfair, it’s that God is sovereign. That fact that he allows us to keep living our sinful lives without smiting us from this earth is essentially unfair in the light of a holy and perfect God. We don’t want fair and just, or else we’d all end up in Hell. Do you realize that? God is just, yet he is merciful. He is fair, yet He is gracious.

With all that said and given our acceptance of God’s sovereignty, how can we cope for the mean time? I said before that understanding God’s sovereignty takes the wind out of the sails of our anger when bad things happen to us like losing a family member at a young age, or losing our job, or watching our house burn down with all of our cash and assets, etc. Yet, even with no wind in the sails we can sometimes seem to be left to float in a sea of nothingness, with a constant wet dew on our clothes that leaves us cold. We may not get angry, but we may feel depressed and anxious and full of doubt and fear, even though we recognize that for some reason, God allowed this event to happen in our life.

When Paul was writing to the Romans in chapter eight, he was talking about God’s sovereignty in salvation and how He predestined us, called us, justified us and will glorify us. Then he goes on to say, “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?”

Yes, God will sometimes afflict us with hardships, but for someone who chose us before the creation of the world and called us to repentance of our sins and justified us in the presence of His holiness and will soon glorify us in eternity… Even though he may add some hardships along the way, we have an eternal, heavenly home to look forward to where no pain or hardships will ever exist. Tears will cease flowing. Anguish will disappear as if it never existed in the first place. Hardships? What are those in comparison to the infinite, magnificently prearranged splendor of God’s holiness in what is to be our future and permanent home? This is the eternal perspective! Do not lose sight of it or else the waves of the sea of life will suddenly look bigger than they are and our running around in fear will cause more rocking on the boat than our actual circumstances.

If God is for us, who can be against us? We have salvation! We have an eternal perspective.

If anyone reading this has come to place their faith in Christ’s resurrection and repented of their sins, seeking forgiveness from Him, then he is a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). Paul is telling his readers in Rome that life in the Spirit is what counts. God is the one who called and justified us. Nothing can change that, or reverse that. Paul constantly urges his people to stop living in and of the flesh and the law that brings death, but to live by the Spirit that brings life (Rom. 8:2).

Pay attention to what he says in 8:35: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?” Sounds a lot like the list of things he personally experienced, does it not? Paul has been there on multiple occasions.

The next phrase in verse 36 is so fitting as Paul quotes from Psalm 44:22: “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

What’s so significant about this? This verse is oozing with God’s sovereignty in their affliction. “For your sake we are being killed…”

Paul just got done asking if persecution, or sword, or anything else could separate us from Christ’s love. Then he quotes a Psalm that is strictly acknowledging God’s hand in their disaster even though they were being faithful to God in the first place. The whole time, here, Paul is not abandoning God’s hand in disaster, even among the faithful Christians back then, during Paul’s time, and during ours.

John MacArthur commented on this Psalm passage and said that the Psalmist writer “had no specific answers [as to their suffering]; only this inescapable conclusion that, by God’s sovereign will, they were allowed to be destroyed by their enemies.”

Paul brings his thought to a glorious conclusion in verses 37-39. After asking if we could be separated from Christ’s love even if God allows us to be afflicted in suffering, he answers his own question: “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

That deserves a hearty ‘amen’! We need to remember this. This will help our eternal perspective because when it comes down to it, we’re not going to be on this earth forever, but we will go somewhere forever. Eternity is pretty simple. There are two places: Heaven and Hell. That’s really all that matters and we need to be living in light of that reality.

The moment we start pondering Christ’s return and the end of the age and what Heaven will be like, etc. it immediately puts our other fears and thoughts and earthly sufferings into an interesting perspective doesn’t it? They are suddenly diminished in the light of the very real truth that the Lord is coming soon and eternal life in either Heaven or Hell will be the final destination for every single person that has ever lived. Just read Revelation sometime soon and see if you come out the same. There is no way you can read that book without gaining a better perspective on what really matters.

Paul went through a lot of hardships. What we don’t want to do is think that just because he didn’t list our specific painful issue in his writings, that he couldn’t understand what we’re going through. Again, when you consider his list of disasters, along with Jeremiah and other Bible figures, then you’ll soon see that it didn’t always seem fair for them. So it is with us and our circumstances.

Having an eternal perspective is what will console us because the eternal perspective is real. The Christian will really be in Heaven someday in the presence of Jehovah. Someday, we will see the loved ones we lost if they were also believers; we will see the babies that never made outside the womb to breathe fresh air; we will forget the possessions we lost; we will forget the pain that people caused us; we will forget the little amount of money that we could barely live on. When we really remember how temporary this life is on earth, the size of the painful burden on our shoulders will begin to shrink as we trust in the Lord for that day to come.

The pain we experience here and now is certainly real and as I have said in prior posts, I am not belittling the real fact that emotions are inescapable and inevitable. What we need to do, though, is to keep our eternal perspective in the midst of our crises and in the midst of our traumatic experiences. It’s the only thing we’ve got. Our God is for us.

In Paul’s opening to his second letter to the Corinthians church, he said, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too” (2 Cor. 1:3-5).

Let’s be clear that most of the time when Paul is speaking of afflictions and hardships, he is referring to persecution for their faith in Jesus. While I do not want to lose sight of Paul’s original point in the face of persecution, we can still read these truths about God and know that in any hardship He is still a comforting God. As he said here, our affliction is sometimes used to comfort others who are going through the same thing. This is timeless. We should always be learning and growing from our hardships that the Lord provides and then use them to comfort others.

I have personally been on both sides of this process and it reveals a beautiful truth about… what? God’s sovereignty! Paul said to the Romans: “We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (8:28).

Knowing all of this, let’s take a giant leap into a perspective clarifying, abbreviated tour through Revelation. Let me just give you a portion that will really make you think in the long term, or eternally. Keep in mind that this stuff is really going to happen. Really. Take a look:

“Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lamp stands, and in the midst of the lamp stands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength” (1:12-26).

John was searching for words to try and come close to explaining the glory of the Lord God Almighty. This God is who called us to salvation and ordains our good times and bad times. This God has us in His grip. This God is who we should be obedient to and show works that show our repentance. This God is who deserves our worship and our submission.

As if that wasn’t gripping enough, read slowly about what will literally take place in the future. Again, this is prophecy, yet to be fulfilled. It will happen.

“When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand” (6:12-17)?

There is almost too much to list. You have to read the whole book in one sitting. It is gut-wrenching, yet it is something that we can read about and know where we stand with God. All of the bad things listed will not be our fate. There is a real confidence that comes from reading through these pages and knowing that we who are Christians will not suffer from our unrepentance. At the same time, it is an immediate call to check your life and get right with God if there is anything we are doing that is sinful or unholy. This eternal perspective is good for us in more ways than just one!

Additionally, Revelation has some pretty amazing imagery for what Heaven will be like…

“And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass. And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb” (21:21-23)

And finally, with some instructions in the last chapter:

“And he said to me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near. Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy. Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”

The Lord is coming. It is imminent. He will come to judge the living and the dead. Why do I go over this stuff? Because the Word of God is true and if these things are true, then our very understanding of our temporary issues on earth right now will easily be overshadowed by the infinite greatness and holiness of God.

I know I cannot speak to every single heartache that happens in this world, but let’s not forget that God is in control of everything. While we have a natural tendency to become fearful and disheartened in our weaknesses and afflictions, we have God on our side who is walking us through every single one of those moments.

If you have not repented and placed your faith in Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, then I encourage you to do so now. By repenting of your sins, acknowledging Him as your Lord, and trusting Him as your Savior, you will inherit eternal life in Heaven with Him as well. It is only because of this that Paul can speak with such assurance and perfectly wrap up this post:

“So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (2 Cor. 4:16-18).

Keep your eternal perspective.

Four Ways the Gospel Comes: Grace Found in 1st Thessalonians

For the moment, I am breaking away from the "Why Does God Let Bad Things Happen?" series so that I can publish this third post in our Sovereign Grace series that will continue our search for all the references in the New Testament that points to our being sovereignly chosen by God to be His children. We’re continuing down the chronological timeline of when the books were written in history.

The third book that was written in the New Testament was a very special letter from the Apostle Paul to one of his most beloved congregations, the Thessalonian Church. He wrote two letters to this church as most of us may know and obviously 1st Thessalonians was the first one. This was the place that motivated him and encouraged him more than any other. In fact, he didn’t have anything bad to say to this church like he did to other churches in his other letters, i.e. the Corinthians.

Right away, in verses 2 and 3, he starts off with a very loving and endearing encouragement. “We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Why do I mention this? Paul continues right on with the reason as to why the Thessalonian Church was so faithful.

“For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.”

The Greek word for chosen, here, is eklogh (Ekloge), which means “the act of picking out or choosing; Of the act of God's free will by which before the foundation of the world he decreed his blessings to certain persons the decree made from choice by which he determined to bless certain persons through Christ by grace alone; A thing or person chosen.”

This is the first instance in 1st Thessalonians that we see God’s sovereign choice being revealed by the Apostle Paul. Here, there is no guessing, no pondering, no speculating, no conversation about whether or not the Thessalonian believers were God’s chosen children. Paul is authoritative and clear: “For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you…”

How is Paul so sure of this? Well, as we will find out in his other letters to various churches, he already has a strong stance on God’s sovereignty in salvation. He does give some indication, though, as to how it could only be God who selected these people.

In verse 5 he says, “Because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.”

This portion is so rich and so compelling when you understand what Paul just said. He said the gospel didn’t just come in his articulation, which is the first way that it is presented, it came in power, it came in the Holy Spirit, and it came in full conviction. Let’s just unwrap the significance of this.

What does it mean that the gospel came in power? As Paul indicates in his later letter to the Romans, he was not ashamed of the gospel “because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes.”

Paul says to the Thessalonians that he knows they were chosen because the gospel came not only in Paul’s word, but in power! The power of God was at work in the gospel. The gospel is the power of God for salvation. To the Corinthian Church, he wrote to them saying “the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

Again we see the crucial underlying point here that these people weren’t convinced or persuaded with anything humanly clever. The only way people respond to the Gospel in faith is when God works his power through the unadulterated and un-watered down Gospel.

Remember what else he told the Corinthians in his first letter?

“And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. (2:1-5)”

This is a beautiful and harmonious summary of a legitimate Gospel presentation and it takes us right to the second point that Paul mentioned earlier in our 1st Thessalonians passage. Paul says that the Gospel also came to the Thessalonians in the Holy Spirit. This passage we just read brings light to the fact that the gospel is effective because of the Holy Spirit, the power of God.

In the case of the Thessalonians, Paul can say that he knows that the Thessalonians were chosen by God because of how it took hold of them in power and the obvious work of the Holy Spirit. It was not just because Paul presented the gospel in some kind of lofty and persuasive speech, which caused people to dedicate their works of service to the local church. It was deeper than that. It was divine. It was true repentance and faith in Christ for salvation from sin and death.

Paul’s final point was that the gospel came to them in full conviction. Again, this is a revealing indication that the Lord God had opened the hearts of the people to be receptive to the message, which convicted them greatly. This is why Paul knows they were chosen by God because God did the work and initiated the relationship with them and convicted them with the gospel message, which again is the power of God Himself and the power of the Holy Spirit. Paul happened to be the humble vessel that the message came in, for as it says later in Romans 10, “How are they to hear without someone preaching?”

Paul knew it wasn’t him that made it happen. It wasn’t Paul’s words that won them over, though he did preach the Word, which is necessary for people to hear it (Rom. 10:14), but he knew that the real work of conversion and repentance was because of the power of the Holy Spirit.

Just as we saw in James, how our assurance of salvation can only come from understanding this powerful work of God, we can see here that it helps us to not place our faith in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

What does Paul indicate here in the beginning of his first Thessalonian letter? That these people were clearly chosen because they heard the Word of God and were moved by the Spirit of God in the power of God and were genuinely convicted and moved to repentance and salvation. Amen.

This first verse had so much richness to it that I am going to stop here for now. The next post will touch on the other areas of 1st Thessalonians and we’ll continue to see how much the doctrine of election is weaved through Scripture.

Stay tuned!

Feel free to post any comments relating to the topic at hand. Stuff like this is oftentimes best “discussed” to get a good grasp on it and to clarify anything that needs to be clarified. God bless!

In His Sovereign Grip,

Ben

Why Does God Allow Bad Things To Happen? Part 3: Natural Disasters, Terrorism & Miscarriages

In just the last 10 years, we have witnessed, or personally experienced, some record-breaking, mind-blowing tragedies. You can probably guess from the title of this post, which ones I’m referring to.

No matter who you are or what you believe, there’s generally a typical response to the “Breaking News” of a devastating event, which usually starts with some jaws dropping and ends with some lips moving to the tune of, “I can’t believe this is happening!” or “Why?!”

We all know these things happen and are merely natural events, or better put, natural disasters, but when we see the carnage and wreckage that Hurricane Katrina wove through the south-eastern states by demolishing enough homes to displace over 1.5 million people we can only stand aghast.

When we see the ravaging waters of a tsunami sweep into the countryside of Japan and reach metropolitan areas, killing 20,000 people, we stand helpless, glued to the TV wondering why it has to happen.

Then we watch in horror as innocent young children and babies are pulled from the rubble of a massive earthquake that struck the country of Haiti, killing roughly 230,000 people total. Again, helpless we stand watching and wondering.

Then we think of things like cancer, which according to the American Cancer Society killed over half a million people just this year so far. Why is it that cancer is so prevalent, yet so incurable? Why do such wonderful people have to die such an agonizing and painful death? Even if they survive, then why the anguish in the first place? What’s the point?

Finally, as Americans, we get furious when we remember the events surrounding September 11, 2001. An act of sheer hatred, malicious intent, and blood-seeking terrorists does not get forgotten easily, especially for those who will forever be affected by the loss of a family member or friend.

Nearly 3,000 people were killed. Nearly 3,000 children lost a parent that day. 1,717 families received no remains of their lost loved ones. About 422,000 New Yorkers are suffering from post-traumatic-stress-disorder as a result. The economic loss to New York in the month following the attacks was $105 billion. This day was unreal.

People of all faiths are demanded an answer by a world that has largely rejected the concept of a sovereign god, let alone the God of the Bible. All faiths are giving answers and asking questions at the same time. It is a time of trial as we wrestle with how such terrible events can happen to such innocent bystanders who were either poor already, or had no defense whatsoever.

Larry King was interviewing a religious panel on CNN once when he asked the question, “What Happens After We Die?” The panel consisted of a number of people from various religious beliefs and faiths, including reformed evangelical pastor, John MacArthur, of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, CA.

Throughout the conversation, John MacArthur had mentioned that death for a Christian is ultimately a good thing because they inherit eternal life with God in Heaven. The question of 9/11 came up and Larry wanted to know why God would let that happen. He asked, “Where was God on 9/11?” You can see that a couple of hot topics were in the air of the CNN newsroom that day.

John MacArthur responded:

“I’ll answer that very simply. No one died in those towers who weren’t going to die anyway. Death is a reality and the message is that you don’t know when you’re going to die and you better be ready. Jesus told a story: there were some people worshiping in a temple and Pilate’s soldiers came in and sliced them up and their blood mingled with the sacrifices [Luke 13:1-3]; it was Passover. They said to Jesus, ‘Were they worse than everybody else?’ Jesus said, ‘You better repent or you’ll also die and perish’. And they said a tower fell over and killed 18 people in Siloam [Luke 13:4-5], ‘Were they worse than everybody else because they were crushed?’ and Jesus said, “You better repent, or you’ll likewise perish.’ The Bible says you die, then after this, the Judgment, then Heaven and Hell. You’re not going into eternity as energy, you’re going as a person.”

MacArthur took the emotions out of the questions surrounding the event and centered on one central truth that cannot be overlooked: We all die, but we do not know when, so we better be ready for Judgment. This is something that we must remember when dealing with a question like “Why does God let bad things happen?” Aside from the fact that God is sovereign and we do not understand all of His ways (which we covered more thoroughly in Part 2), we must remember that no matter the method of death, we will still someday face it. This is inevitable. This will take some of the wind out of the sails of being mad at God for letting something bad like 9/11 happen.

Even if a dear loved one was killed in cold blood, or a small child was trampled by a herd of gazelles in Africa, this does not mean that God is less good, loving, or just. We will all die anyway. When we really think about it, when we question God’s goodness because of an “untimely” death, then we are really trying to usurp His authority and sovereignty with our own, which is a silly thought all at once. We are forced to ask ourselves a few questions: When will I not question God’s goodness or love when He takes the life of someone I love? When is the perfect time for someone to die, in my opinion? When would I be content to lose a loved one?

You see, when we ask these questions we feel a little sheepish for even considering them, but this is the corner we force ourselves into when we decry God as unjust and unloving for taking the life of a baby, a parent, or a friend at a time we don’t expect. How is it that we are more content with someone dying at a ripe old age, who had no health issues, but died from natural causes, than we are a young one who couldn’t live a longer life? Is it only because we don’t think it’s fair for us? Emotionally it isn’t fair, is it? But who are we to make an large claim about how God is less good because of it?

Now let me just say that I am in no way saying that there is no validity to grieving the loss of a loved one. Romans 12:15 says to mourn with those who mourn. Emotions are real manifestations of our feelings, which God gave us to be good stewards with, like anything else. However, what I really want to be clear here is that you ought to read and try to understand these things from an eternal perspective. From God’s sovereign perspective, as best you can. We have to break away from our personal circumstantial perspective in order to get close to wrapping our minds around such horrific events that this world faces.

I lost a dear grandpa a number of years ago who had a vital role in my adolescent life. He was a hero in a sense to me because of how he stepped in for my family when it seemed like nothing else was going for us. When he passed away, I was very sad by it. He had smoked for many years and contracted lung cancer and I witnessed him becoming more and more frail. The grandpa that used to hike Mt. Rainier with me in Washington State was becoming a grandpa who had to have breathing apparatus on in order to stay alive. I was sad when he died. It was an odd feeling thinking that someone who was just among you is now incapable of any more communication. He was just gone.

While my heart was saddened by his death, I expected it. I always knew he would probably get lung cancer from smoking. When he finally contracted it, I knew he would certainly not live as long as other grandpas I had. I knew that he was old and he was severely sick. His death was more imminent than others, it seemed. When he finally passed it came as no surprise and I was somewhat prepared for it. I was not asking the question “What’s the point of this death?!” “Why did this have to happen?!” I expected it. He was not going to live forever even if he hadn’t contracted lung cancer.

Contrast this with when my wife and I lost our baby. Different story.

People may argue about the degrees of severity for the different points in pregnancy for when you lose a baby, but when it comes down to it, it is a crushing feeling. My wife and I lost our first pregnancy when she was two months pregnant. The process is nothing that anyone would want to go through, whether at home, or at a hospital. We were at home and the impact was mainly on my wife who obviously had a much more personal connection to this little one than I did. It devastated her and all I could do was give her my shoulder and try to console her tears. We wanted kids so bad and were so excited for this one to come! Now we had to start all over…?

While I never cursed God or found myself mad at Him, per se, I was greatly perplexed for a while. I did ask the question “What was the point of that?!” “Why would God let us get pregnant, just to lose the baby?” “Why did this have to happen?”

Well, I learned quite a few things through the whole ordeal and I’m not sure how else the lessons learned could have been more poignant, or meaningful, had this not happened. Does this take away the sadness? Of course not, but it sure brings clarity and perspective to a dismal situation when we think of things like this in the light of eternity and God’s sovereignty.

So what was the purpose? Why does God allow things like this to happen? One day I was driving along in my car listening to Mercy Me and their song “Bring the Rain” came on and I almost cried once I really paid attention to the words of that song, especially the chorus:

Bring me joy, bring me peace
Bring the chance to be free
Bring me anything that brings You glory
And I know there'll be days
When this life brings me pain
But if that's what it takes to praise You
Jesus, bring the rain

I underlined the last four lines because they capture the essence of the why behind what God does many times. We tend to think from a very self-centered point of view when it comes to asking why something so terrible would happen. I use the words self-centered because oftentimes we are not Christ-centered in our examination of the circumstances in our life. We, in short, forget His sovereignty in the bad things. Again, this doesn’t mean that our grief is wrong, but we cannot forget about the big picture of what God is doing. It is not going to be a wasted trial.

I find great solace and comfort in King David's words when he lost his son: “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept. I thought, ‘Who knows? The LORD may be gracious to me and let the child live.’ But now that he is dead, why should I go on fasting? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.”

Keep in mind that David's baby was only a few days old, yet he knew he would see the baby again in Heaven. My wife and I look forward to seeing our baby someday. For the Christian, we can find peace in the midst of these circumstances. Like David, we should recognize God's hand in the birth and death of every person.

Isaiah the prophet also said something remarkable in chapter 48 when speaking of how God was refining Israel to become more pure. That process was not always easy for that rebellious nation as the purity consisted of getting rid of their false gods and pagan worship. God says through Isaiah: “Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another” (vv. 10-11).

Effectively, He says “I have afflicted you to refine you for your benefit, but for My glory.”

Israel was a nation handpicked and created by God to be His special people. Only Israelites served the true God. All other nations were considered pagan and idolatrous. What God is saying here is that he purposely tried them in the furnace of affliction to refine them. This reminds me of Hebrews 12:6 where it says that the Lord disciplines those that He loves. In this case, we are seeing the affliction as an act of discipline, or a wake-up call for the nation. We need to understand that “bad” things happen sometimes for the sole purpose of drawing us closer to God, be it discipline, or not.

A little further back in chapter 45 we read, “I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the Lord who does all these things” (vs. 7). Put simply: the Lord does what the Lord wants to establish the Lord’s will. Sometimes, His will is not known. Sometimes it is. He creates prosperity as well as disaster. He is sovereign over all these things. What we cannot do is equate calamity and dark times with evil. Just because something bad happens does not mean that evil is around us. We must be careful not to mush these concepts of evil and bad circumstances haphazardly.

God always has a purpose and that is something that we cannot lose sight of. He always has a purpose. Lamentations 3:31-33 says: “For the Lord will not cast off forever, but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for He does not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men.”

He doesn’t randomly afflict people with no purpose in mind. God is just and sometimes His character trait of being truly just needs to be remembered more than the fact that he is loving and merciful. Why? When we remember that he is sovereign and just, then the bad things do not shake our faith in the fact that He is also loving and merciful. Like this passage said, “though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love.”

If we do not consider God as sovereign or just, then we will doubt His love and goodness when something bad happens. However, if we do consider God as sovereign and just, we will never doubt His love and goodness, even in the midst of affliction and great trials (Psalm 23:4).

Going on into verses 37 and 38 it says, “Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come?”

This is a perfect nutshell articulation of God’s sovereignty, again. When we ask the question “Why does God let bad things happen?” or “Where is God now?!” then we need to remember that “bad” events do not immediately indicate a lack of the presence of God.

Again, let’s consider the hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, and other natural disasters. When they occur, we should never think that God isn’t there or doesn’t care. He was going to take their life someday anyway, right? No one lives forever. These very events should wake us up to the fact that we do not know what the next hour holds. We must be ready to face the Judgment of God. Once we die, there is only Heaven or Hell left for the souls who repented and believed in Christ, or did not. Don’t let the methods of dying and how “fair” they may or may not be, become a distraction from the eternal reality that every soul will face.

Pay attention to Amos 3:6b: “Does disaster come to a city, unless the LORD has done it?” or to Job 9:6, saying that God “shakes the earth out of its place, and its pillars tremble.”

Nothing is done without God’s sovereign control and will in power. While the fact that natural disasters have and will continue to happen, this does not mean that the nations inflicted are necessarily being punished by God in discipline. The very fact that there is sin in this fallen world, however, indicates the curse that is on every nation’s piece of land, which could be viewed as a punishment of sorts for Adam’s original sin. In either case, that is beside the point we are making now.

Paul says in Romans 8: “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 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. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now” (vv. 18-22).

I remember when right after the Haitian earthquake, Pat Robertson, American televangelist and host of “The 700 Club”, said that Haiti was "cursed by one thing after another" since they "swore a pact to the devil." He was convinced that they were continually being punished for that deal. He also linked 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina to the possibility of retribution for the abortions committed in the United States.

Listen, it is a little presumptuous to say that a specific disaster was related to a specific “deal” of sorts with the Devil. That is nothing short of speculation. The world is cursed to begin with and Satan is causing problems everywhere anyway. Additionally, as we have seen, God is the only one in control of the weather and everything else in our lives, even Satan. We do not always know the purpose to these disasters, though they do inevitably turn our minds and eyes to Him, don’t they?

Jesus tells us in Mark 13:8, when speaking of the signs of the end of the age, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. These are but the beginning of the birth pains.”

These kinds of things are inevitable and they certainly invoke hardships on its victims and their families and friends. If we pay attention to history, we’ll see that it has shown us that 100% of people die. Sometimes we see God using “natural” disasters for specific reasons and other times we see Him referring to them as signs of the end of the age, or as examples that you don’t know when you will die, so the moral of the story is to be ready!

In either case, these events do get our attention. John MacArthur says in his book Hard to Believe:

“Sometimes God has to shock us into obedience by knocking us off our foundations. Possibly the only good thing about earthquakes in our California community is that they drive people to Christ. Rich or poor, famous or anonymous, they are petrified by their inability to control even the ground on which they walk. They come face-to-face with their powerlessness over the Creator Lord. Church attendance always goes up after a big quake, and in every case we see individuals, families, and couples come to Christ. Of course, some merely go through the motions, but for others it’s the final push they need to repent before God’s power.”

Fox News posted an article on the one year anniversary of 9/11, titled, Church Attendance Back to Normal. In it, they say that “a surge of spirituality occurred as Americans examined just how fragile life was and evaluated what was really important. Answers were hard to come by in the months that followed the attacks, and many sought solace in a higher power.”

Of course, in just two months following the attacks the attendance went back down to almost exactly what is was before. Events like this rattle our core and shake us in ways that we didn’t think possible. We either look to God in reverent fear, or curse Him for our bad situation. In both cases, we seem to have God at the forefront of our minds for some period of time, which seems to be indicative of the fact that He does indeed have control of such things!

The thing we should not do is to consider why God lets bad things happen with a mindset that “bad” things are not fair. This would be missing the point entirely and, again, subverting God’s will to our own, which is an amazing waste of time.

A final piece of clarity and hope that we can have in the untimely death of people in the world is that God has always known who are His and who are not. If you have not come to grips with God’s sovereign work in election, then I highly encourage you to do so. He will never lose one of His sheep. If someone dies suddenly, that doesn’t mean that they had no chance to repent and turn to God in faith. It would be a type of oxymoron to say that God would kill someone who He meant to call to salvation. That doesn’t happen.

Aside from this breakaway series on “How Could God Let Bad Things Happen?” I am working through the New Testament books on where they refer to God’s sovereignty in salvation. I’ll tell you what…nothing has helped me more in my faith in God than by really learning and believing in God’s sovereign election. I’ve written some prior posts on it and encourage you to stick around for upcoming ones as well.

As far as our current question, the two biggest takeaways from a study like this are: 1) We will die but we won’t know when; and 2) God can use anything to turn our attention to Him, even natural disasters and hate crimes. While this is probably the weightier of the posts so far, I think it will be important to talk about how the bad things are sometimes inherently good, when viewed eternally. I will do this in the next post.

For now, let’s look at the big picture and remember that life is indeed short and precious and we have a responsibility to be ready for whenever God takes our life. The way that we die and the means to that end is of no consequence. When we’re dead, we won’t be thinking about how unfair it was for us that we died so young or that we left family and friends behind. It won’t matter that a plane flew into our cubicle window at the 95th floor or that our whole village got wiped out by a tsunami, etc. Our final and eternal destination will be in view and will suddenly far outweigh the life on Earth we left behind.

For the unsaved, they have the wrath of God to face. For the Christian, they have the glory of God’s presence to behold. That is what it all comes down to.

Why does God let bad things happen? To fulfill His purpose and will.