Saturday, September 14, 2013
“Why standest thou afar off, O LORD? why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?” (Psalm 10:1 KJV).
One of the most common questions ever asked….
We in the United States of America recently marked the 12th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. In the twelve years since those events, the question has been asked myriads upon myriads of times, “Where was God?” That is, “Why did He allow such a tragedy?” There were no miraculous interventions of God, no guardian angels to help the 3,000 souls who would perish on that awful day. The Bible teaches “God is love,” and yet the heavens were silent as the worst disaster in United States history occurred. Why?
One of the most basic teachings of Scripture is that the Lord Jesus Christ created man as a “free moral agent.” Simply put, man is not a robot. He is a creature who can willfully submit to his Creator’s will, or he can willfully reject it. Man can choose to obey the Lord, or he can choose to do something else. This is how much God loves freedom.
Luke 7:29,30 is one of the Bible’s clearest examples of free will: “And all the people that heard him [John the Baptist], and the publicans, justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him.” Some people accepted God’s will: they declared God “just” (right) by accepting John’s baptism as true. The rest rejected God’s will: they declared God a liar by denying the necessity of John’s baptism.
As free moral agents, we have been granted the responsibility of making our own choices and bearing the consequences (whether good or bad). Again, God will not make our decisions for us. In His Word, the Holy Bible, the Lord Jesus Christ has already declared what is right, good, acceptable, and perfect. Nevertheless, He does not force us to agree with Him. We can push Him out of our thoughts and do what we want in life, pretending as though He did not exist (Romans 1:18-32).
However, God is still there….
333 Words of Grace 