IS IT POSSIBLE GOD HAS A GOOD REASON FOR ALLOWING SUFFERING?

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Part of being fallen is thinking we know more than we really do. Of all there is to know in the entire universe, how much do you know? Let's say you're the smartest human being who's ever lived and that you know 1 percent (of course nobody knows nearly that much). Now, is it possible that in the 99 percent of all there is that you don't know, there exists or will exist enough goodness and happiness in the universe to outweigh all the evil and suffering?

Is it possible that in the 99 percent you don't know, a good God exists who has legitimate reasons for not making his purposes clearer and for not forcing people to recognize his existence? Is it possible that some rational explanation exists--if you were smart enough to understand it--for why this good God permits evil and suffering?

Is it possible that God's redemptive goodness will in the end utterly overshadow evil?

Joe Gibbs, the NFL Hall of Fame coach and NASCAR team owner, tells lots of great stories. One is about flying into Washington, D.C., when he worked as head coach of the Redskins. His cab driver had immigrated recently, and Joe had to explain to him how to get to the stadium. The driver suddenly recognized his passenger and, with a thick accent, asked if he was the coach. Joe nodded, feeling flattered and prepared to hear some affirmation. The cabbie gestured excitedly and exclaimed to Joe, "You should throw deep!"

Here was a cab driver who didn't even know how to get to the football stadium and probably knew next to nothing about American football, yet believed himself qualified to to tell a Hall of Fame coach and winner of three Super Bowls how to run his team!

Even the most uninformed fans act as if they know more than the head coach.

And even the most clueless creatures act as if we know more than God.

(From Randy Alcorn's book, If God Is Good which I will be reviewing soon.)