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The Presence of Evil or the Absence of God? ~~~
As a missionary to a place like Sudan I have seen first hand the suffering of defenseless women and children. The suffering we see and read about on this earth seems to be a major stumbling block to many when the topic of God is discussed. Many times when I share Christ with a non-believer the question is this: How can a loving and merciful God allow so much suffering in the world? If He truly loves why doesn't He put an end to the suffering? These are valid questions. First of all we must look at how God intended the world to be. God created Adam and Eve to live in a perfect world where there was no suffering or death. They were provided with everything they needed to live and God only asked in return that they tend the garden and have fellowship with Him. But God, being loving and not a tyrant, desired they love Him from their own free will so He gave them the opportunity to exercise that free will by giving them the choice to choose to obey Him or to choose to reject Him. They choose disobedience and ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Thus Adam and Eve brought sin, death and suffering into the world, not God. Fellowship with God was broken because of their sin. And in today's world we still suffer the consequences. As the world and our nation continue to reject God we see the times grow worse and worse. In our own nation we have the ongoing holocaust of abortion. Just as the Israelites of old sacrificed their children to idols, we sacrifice ours to a false god called choice. Is this an evil that God created? No. This is not the presence of evil but the absence of God. Under the lie of "Separation of Church and State" which is found nowhere in the constitution, we have kicked God out of schools, out of government, out of hospital, and out of anywhere else the ACLU feels they can intimidate, threaten and influence; including private organizations. Just as darkness is not the presence of something real and tangible but simply the absence of light, the evil we see in the world is not something real and tangible but simply the absence of God. Man, left to his own devices and having no God in his life will always turn to evil. We saw that in WWII when people who were friends and neighbors of those of Jewish descent suddenly had a government who said "if you would to kill or beat your Jewish neighbor it's okay with us, there will be no consequences." And what happened? They turned on their Jewish neighbors and killed and beat them. During the time of the Judges n the Old Testament, God was not present amongst His people. This was a time of general lawlessness, violence and war both from within and from without. The Jewish people were pretty much left to their own devices because of their rejection of God and their worship of false idols. Over and over again in the Book of Judges you read this: "And man did what was right in his own eyes." And this is our world today isn't it? Left to our own devices and having rejected God we do what is right in our own eyes. Unfortunately, what is right in the eyes of men without God is never what is truly right. Look at our public schools. Our children, having the lie of evolution forced upon them when there is not a shred of evidence to support it, are told that they came from nowhere, they are going nowhere, and if you want to survive you need to at the top of the food chain; survival of the fittest. Grab what is yours and grab it now! And so, what has the absence of God and the lack of teaching that there moral absolutes wrought amongst our children? Abortion rates at an all time high amongst teenagers; one in four teenage girls have a sexually transmitted disease, abortion without parental knowledge of consent; the passing out of condoms in schools; children being persecuted and ridiculed for believing in abstinence; suicide rates at a level never seen before. I could go on and on with statistics but I think you get my point. And some will say: "Then why doesn't God come and end the suffering if He is loving and sovereign?" The answer to that is two-fold. First, God will, according to His perfect timing, come and put an end to evil and judge all sin when His Son, Jesus Christ returns to this earth to reclaim it. Second, those who are so bold to question God in this manner really do not want God's presence anyway. If God came today and imposed His rule and will on the earth, then those who question God would say: "He's a mean God, He won't let me do what I want. He took my free will from me." You are probably asking: "What does all this have to do with the mission field ... ?" Simply this: As I minister in Northern Uganda and Sudan with people who have truly suffered at the hands of brutally evil men, I am confronted with the question of suffering on a daily basis. Even I ask myself sometimes, "God, why?" But we have a loving God who one day will make all things right. The presence of God will usher in an eternity of the absence of evil. And those of us who in Christ look forward to that day. But we must be about the Father's business while we are here and share the hope of Christ with those whom God places in our path. Even David looked forward to the return of God to His people when he penned this in the Psalms: "You prepare a
table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; The question you must ask yourself is this: "What side of the table am I on?"
(the author is a pastor serving in South Sudan and Northern Uganda through an outreach based here in Southern California. His name is withheld for security reasons) ~~~
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© 2008 Christian Missionary Pilots |