thoughts and ruminations while in exile (1 Pet. 2:11)

I came across a church's website recently that had a FAQ's section. One of the FAQ's was this:

"Does [the title of the church] believe God creates devastation, kills people and brings hardship into the lives of people for His divine purposes?"

The church's answer went as follows: "NO! The Word of God teaches us clearly in the Bible that every good and perfect gift comes from God. It is Satan (a dark angel cast from heaven) who steals, kills and destroys. God sent His son, Jesus Christ to bring abundant life to all of us. We like to explain it this way: 'draw a line down the middle of your life, if it is good- it is God, if it is bad- it is not God!'"

My purpose is not to discuss the problem of evil; that would take way too long. I do, however, take issue with the final sentence in the answer given: " if it is good- it is God, if it is bad- it is not God." Really? Does anyone else find this a bit dualistic? Satan is not on equal-footing with God. Furthermore, what are we to do with certain passages of Scripture?

Here is a sampling:

“I also withheld the rain from youwhen there were yet three months to the harvest;I would send rain on one city,and send no rain on another city;one field would have rain,and the field on which it did not rain would wither" (Amos 4:7). Here God says he gives rain to one city and withholds it from another.

"When he summoned a famine on the landand broke all supply of bread . . ." (Ps. 105:16). Regarding the famine that led Joseph’s brothers to Egypt, the Bible does NOT say that God simply foresaw the famine; it says He summoned the famine. Are we to think everyone survived this famine?

"The Lord has made everything for its purpose,even the wicked for the day of trouble" (Prov. 16:4).

Despite king Nebuchadnezzar, and all the evil he would do, God calls him “My servant” (Jer. 25:9; 27:6; 43:10). In Jeremiah 25:8-12, God prophesies that He will use Nebuchadnezzar to punish His people Judah and take them into captivity. God says, “This whole land will be a desolation and a horror, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years” (Jer. 25:11). Then, in the next verse God says, “ ‘Then it will be when seventy years are completed I will punish the king of Babylon and the nation,’ declares the LORD, ‘for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans; and I will make it an everlasting desolation.’”

In context, God says He is going to use the Babylonians to punish His people, but then later punish them for their own sin (Jer. 50-51).

"I form light and create darkness,I make well-being and create calamity,I am the Lord, who does all these things" (Is. 45:7).

"Who has spoken and it came to pass,unless the Lord has commanded it?Is it not from the mouth of the Most Highthat good and bad come?" (Lamentations 3:37-38).

"Does disaster come to a city,unless the Lord has done it?" (Amos 3:6).

"What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means! For he says to Moses, 'I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.' So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, 'For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.' So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills" (Rom. 9:14-18).

I quote Scripture at length so you can see my point. My purpose in writing this is not to be polemical. Rather, it is pastoral. When tragedy strikes us are we to assume that Satan is having his way, and God is helplessly standing by? That he would like to intervene but is unable? This is not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that God brings pain and afflictions in our lives to conform believers more into the image of Christ (Rom. 8:28).

This is our comfort! Our comfort is that God is providentially in control of our lives. This is why our doctrine of providence is so important. In reflecting on this issue, John Calvin wrote:

" . . . there is nothing more calculated to increase our faith, than the knowledge of the providence of God; because without it, we would be harassed with doubts and fears, being uncertain whether or not the world was governed by chance. For this reason, it follows that those who aim at the subversion of this doctrine, depriving the children of God of true comfort, and vexing their minds by unsettling their faith, forge for themselves a hell upon earth. For what can be more awfully tormenting than to be constantly racked with doubt and anxiety? And we will never be able to arrive at a calm state of mind until we are taught to repose with implicit confidence in the providence of God."

Moreover, rather than attempting to comfort someone by saying, "If it's good it's from God, if it's bad it's from the Devil," Calvin said this: "until men are persuaded that all their troubles come upon them by the appointment of God, it will never come into their minds to supplicate him for deliverance." Calvin encouraged troubled believers to reflect deeply upon the Psalms. He said by reading the Psalms we learn to "renounce the guidance of our own affections, and submit ourselves entirely to God, leaving him to govern us, and to dispose our life according to his will, so that the afflictions which are the bitterest are most severe to our nature, become sweet to us, because they proceed from him."

The Scriptural position is outlined beautifully in the Heidelberg Catechism, questions 27 and 28.27.

Q. What do you understand by the providence of God?

A. God's providence is His almighty and ever present power, whereby, as with His hand, He still upholds heaven and earth and all creatures, and so governs them that leaf and blade, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, food and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, indeed, all things, come not by chance but by His fatherly hand.

28. Q. What does it benefit us to know that God has created all things and still upholds them by His providence?

A. We can be patient in adversity, thankful in prosperity, and with a view to the future we can have a firm confidence in our faithful God and Father that no creature shall separate us from His love; for all creatures are so completely in His hand that without His will they cannot so much as move.

If you are currently struggling or experiencing a difficult time, as the ancient church liturgy exhorts us, "Lift up your hearts!" Our sovereign God is ruling and reigning on the throne. Jesus promised in John 16:33, "In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”In Revelation 3:21 Jesus says, "The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne." Jesus conquered through suffering, and so must we. May we maintain a theology of the cross, and not a theology of glory.