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IT"S NOT FAIR !!! |
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Let’s be Glad that
God is not Fair - Part 2 of 3
In Part 1, Isaiah 57: 1-2 was given as a reference to remind us that sometimes God actually “takes away the righteous to be spared from evil.” While that by itself may not do much to offer immediate comfort to those who have suffered a tragic loss of a loved one who did not get to live a more normal life span, or who encounter ANY kind of suffering or extreme disappointment, this same verse does hint at something (or someone) else that God himself has to contend with when dealing with us humans. In other words, a “third party.” That, of course is Satan and his cohorts.
When we find ourselves asking “Why did GOD do or allow this or that?” it can be more helpful to first see that God does not necessarily “do” all acts of evil or tragedy himself, as though to suggest he doesn’t care about the parties who encounter the seemingly unfair suffering, etc. But he does certainly ALLOW it all to happen, even if it causes HIM great grief to watch. This is, in my opinion, because he has had a long-standing “deal” with Satan in which he has granted Satan limited control of the affairs on this earth for a limited time. In Luke 4 Satan was actually tempting Jesus with the lure of giving him the “kingdoms of the earth”! The point is that, contrary to popular assumptions, God is actually not in complete control of this world. 2 Corinthians 4:4 refers to “the god of this age”—who has enough power to actually blind people from seeing the truth. In John 14:30, shortly before Jesus’ being betrayed and crucified, he warned that the “prince of this world is coming, although he has no hold on me.” This could mean Satan himself or possibly and earthly ruler like Pilate, but either way, God was allowing for a great tragedy to take place in advance. This was done, of course, to achieve a much greater good in the long run—that of providing the only possibly way to save us sinful humans from the rule of Satan, and in the process, demonstrate the greatest kind of love heaven and earth could ever know. We’ll touch on that in Part 3, discussing its relevance to God’s allowing Satan to have such control in the first place.
For now, if you haven’t ever been open to the idea of other gods—that is, REAL GODS—with which God has been contending, try to reopen your mind to accept it. It need not scare you in the least. In fact, it should help make more sense as relates to what God is up against, and therefore why certain tragic things in this earthly life actually MUST take place. Meanwhile, don’t misunderstand me—our God, that is “Almighty God,” who is indeed the spiritual father of our Lord and Savior Jesus, the Christ, has been and always will be supreme to all other gods, and our eternal security through Christ is irrevocable by any other force. The Bible acknowledges Satan as a god, and in Revelation 20 assures us that Christ will eventually overcome him once and for all.
Part 3 will discuss just one more reason for God setting things up this way from before the beginning. Meanwhile, to get a better understanding as to what God (and Jesus) have to contend with in the heavenly (unseen) realm, I’ll be deep-diving into this in our church’s “OPINION” column, also posted under the heading, “The Written Word.”
Let’s be Glad that
God is not Fair - Part 1 of 3
Larry Pendergrass
Like Job from the Old Testament, many people still ask the same questions, wondering how our good God can seem to be so unfair, especially when we are certain, like Job, that we haven’t done anything to deserve the disastrous things that we encounter. And it doesn’t seem to do much to help us when the so-called expert scholars try to skirt around the issue by more or less saying that God has a reason behind it all to affect a greater purpose wherein we will eventually see how he somehow had a good reason for allowing the suffering and death of innocent children, for example. As the song says, “Farther along we’ll know all about it, farther along, we’ll understand why....We’ll understand it all by and by.” Words of sympathy are appreciated, but we’d much rather insist on an explanation—and it better be good. So far as we are concerned there is nothing in the world that can suffice as a fair tradeoff for some of the atrocities we may have to encounter.
In order to even begin to try to understand it, we would do well first to define just what “fair” means. And first, we must allow that God may define “fairness” in a very different way than we do. In common translations of the Bible, the word “just,” which is also associated with “righteous,” probably most closely represents OUR idea of “fair.” Presumably, God will exact vengeance on the wrongdoer and protect and bless the one who faithfully follows him. Or, we might even be willing to allow that if some hardship comes upon us or our family member, as long as it doesn’t involve something as irreversible as death or a debilitating lifelong handicap, then if we trust God he will “make right” on it eventually. “Fair enough,” we might say. We might even reason that God gave us the experience to make us stronger.
To be sure, there are many situations where God surely wanted us to simply endure for a season, to “keep us honest,” shall we say. But what about the REAL challenges, like when a young innocent child is taken before his or her time? Is that "just"? We might consider Isaiah 57:1-2:
The righteous perish, and no one takes it to heart; the devout are taken away,
and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil.
Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death.
I don’t know about you, but that does give me a certain satisfaction. This passage is not speaking directly about children, but ANY who are “righteous”—that is, people whom God considers as HIS children. God and his angels can see the dangers that lie "over the hill" before us that we cannot see or escape, so sometimes the best alternative from a loving God is to protect them from something we might find even harder to understand. So, while that does help me quite a bit, if you’re like me, it still leaves me wondering why God allows things like this happen in the first place. He could have prevented the whole thing if wanted to, couldn’t he? Yes! So, why didn’t he? That’s coming up in the next two articles. Prepare for an explanation that many people overlook today. And here’s a hint: This explanation can also be found to play a key role in Job’s plight. Another hint: It’s not all about us, nor job, nor even all about God.
God is not Fair - Part 2 of 3
In Part 1, Isaiah 57: 1-2 was given as a reference to remind us that sometimes God actually “takes away the righteous to be spared from evil.” While that by itself may not do much to offer immediate comfort to those who have suffered a tragic loss of a loved one who did not get to live a more normal life span, or who encounter ANY kind of suffering or extreme disappointment, this same verse does hint at something (or someone) else that God himself has to contend with when dealing with us humans. In other words, a “third party.” That, of course is Satan and his cohorts.
When we find ourselves asking “Why did GOD do or allow this or that?” it can be more helpful to first see that God does not necessarily “do” all acts of evil or tragedy himself, as though to suggest he doesn’t care about the parties who encounter the seemingly unfair suffering, etc. But he does certainly ALLOW it all to happen, even if it causes HIM great grief to watch. This is, in my opinion, because he has had a long-standing “deal” with Satan in which he has granted Satan limited control of the affairs on this earth for a limited time. In Luke 4 Satan was actually tempting Jesus with the lure of giving him the “kingdoms of the earth”! The point is that, contrary to popular assumptions, God is actually not in complete control of this world. 2 Corinthians 4:4 refers to “the god of this age”—who has enough power to actually blind people from seeing the truth. In John 14:30, shortly before Jesus’ being betrayed and crucified, he warned that the “prince of this world is coming, although he has no hold on me.” This could mean Satan himself or possibly and earthly ruler like Pilate, but either way, God was allowing for a great tragedy to take place in advance. This was done, of course, to achieve a much greater good in the long run—that of providing the only possibly way to save us sinful humans from the rule of Satan, and in the process, demonstrate the greatest kind of love heaven and earth could ever know. We’ll touch on that in Part 3, discussing its relevance to God’s allowing Satan to have such control in the first place.
For now, if you haven’t ever been open to the idea of other gods—that is, REAL GODS—with which God has been contending, try to reopen your mind to accept it. It need not scare you in the least. In fact, it should help make more sense as relates to what God is up against, and therefore why certain tragic things in this earthly life actually MUST take place. Meanwhile, don’t misunderstand me—our God, that is “Almighty God,” who is indeed the spiritual father of our Lord and Savior Jesus, the Christ, has been and always will be supreme to all other gods, and our eternal security through Christ is irrevocable by any other force. The Bible acknowledges Satan as a god, and in Revelation 20 assures us that Christ will eventually overcome him once and for all.
Part 3 will discuss just one more reason for God setting things up this way from before the beginning. Meanwhile, to get a better understanding as to what God (and Jesus) have to contend with in the heavenly (unseen) realm, I’ll be deep-diving into this in our church’s “OPINION” column, also posted under the heading, “The Written Word.”
Let’s be Glad that
God is not Fair - Part 1 of 3
Larry Pendergrass
Like Job from the Old Testament, many people still ask the same questions, wondering how our good God can seem to be so unfair, especially when we are certain, like Job, that we haven’t done anything to deserve the disastrous things that we encounter. And it doesn’t seem to do much to help us when the so-called expert scholars try to skirt around the issue by more or less saying that God has a reason behind it all to affect a greater purpose wherein we will eventually see how he somehow had a good reason for allowing the suffering and death of innocent children, for example. As the song says, “Farther along we’ll know all about it, farther along, we’ll understand why....We’ll understand it all by and by.” Words of sympathy are appreciated, but we’d much rather insist on an explanation—and it better be good. So far as we are concerned there is nothing in the world that can suffice as a fair tradeoff for some of the atrocities we may have to encounter.
In order to even begin to try to understand it, we would do well first to define just what “fair” means. And first, we must allow that God may define “fairness” in a very different way than we do. In common translations of the Bible, the word “just,” which is also associated with “righteous,” probably most closely represents OUR idea of “fair.” Presumably, God will exact vengeance on the wrongdoer and protect and bless the one who faithfully follows him. Or, we might even be willing to allow that if some hardship comes upon us or our family member, as long as it doesn’t involve something as irreversible as death or a debilitating lifelong handicap, then if we trust God he will “make right” on it eventually. “Fair enough,” we might say. We might even reason that God gave us the experience to make us stronger.
To be sure, there are many situations where God surely wanted us to simply endure for a season, to “keep us honest,” shall we say. But what about the REAL challenges, like when a young innocent child is taken before his or her time? Is that "just"? We might consider Isaiah 57:1-2:
The righteous perish, and no one takes it to heart; the devout are taken away,
and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil.
Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death.
I don’t know about you, but that does give me a certain satisfaction. This passage is not speaking directly about children, but ANY who are “righteous”—that is, people whom God considers as HIS children. God and his angels can see the dangers that lie "over the hill" before us that we cannot see or escape, so sometimes the best alternative from a loving God is to protect them from something we might find even harder to understand. So, while that does help me quite a bit, if you’re like me, it still leaves me wondering why God allows things like this happen in the first place. He could have prevented the whole thing if wanted to, couldn’t he? Yes! So, why didn’t he? That’s coming up in the next two articles. Prepare for an explanation that many people overlook today. And here’s a hint: This explanation can also be found to play a key role in Job’s plight. Another hint: It’s not all about us, nor job, nor even all about God.