Well, for one thing, God has rules. In some religious sects, God decides the rules and can change them. Christianity is NOT one of these. Christian theologians noticed a long time ago that God Himself abides by the rules.

So if someone does something, or doesn’t do something, that results in harm to himself or to others, those consequences are not going to go away.

The best you can do is learn the rules. There are rules of physics, engineering, law, economics, medicine, personal relationships, etc.

Thanks, Sara, for making me think and for prompting this good discussion!

I recommend this interview with Elizabeth Edwards that appeared in Newsweek a few months ago. She explained why she is not praying for God to cure her cancer:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17889146/site/newsweek/

She talks about her crisis in faith after her son Wade was killed in a car accident. One thing she learned (which is a point John Piper makes in the piece Sara linked to above) is that any of us could die any day, and we shouldn’t put off the good things we are planning to do “someday.”

You wrote in your book, “Saving Graces,” that nothing can be as bad as your son Wade’s death 11 years ago in a car accident.
It’s odd to think of Wade’s death as having given us gifts, but it gave us quite a few. We just assume we’ll be able to do something next year or 10 years from now. How many of us have said, “I’m going to work in a soup kitchen next Christmas, I’m going to do that good thing”? And we all put it off. And one of the things that Wade’s death taught us is that we can control what we do during the day, during each day. Other than that, we really can’t control very much. Nothing we could do could change that one fact we wanted to change more than anything.

She goes on to explain how her came to believe that God does not intervene to cause everything that happens to every person every day:

You’ve kept God out of the public discussion of your situation. Why?
A Moment to Reflect ‘When I was first diagnosed, I was going to beat this’
Kristen Ashburn / Contact for Newsweek
A Moment to Reflect ‘When I was first diagnosed, I was going to beat this’
I had to think about a God who would not save my son. Wade was—and I have lots of evidence; it’s not just his mother saying it—a gentle and good boy. He reached out to people who were misfits and outcasts all the time. He could not stand for people to say nasty things about other people; he just didn’t want it. For a 16-year-old boy, he was really extraordinary in this regard. I wish I could take credit for it, but I can’t. You’d think that if God was going to protect somebody, he’d protect that boy. But not only did he not protect him, the wind blew him from the road. The hand of God blew him from the road. So I had to think, “What kind of God do I have that doesn’t intervene—in fact, may even participate—in the death of this good boy?” I talk about it in the book, that I had to accept that my God was a God who promised enlightenment and salvation. And that’s all. Didn’t promise us protection. I’ve had to come to grips with a God that fits my own experience, which is, my God could not be offering protection and not have protected my boy.

You didn’t lose your faith, you changed your faith? Or did you lose it for a time?
I’m not praying for God to save me from cancer. I’m not. God will enlighten me when the time comes. And if I’ve done the right thing, I will be enlightened. And if I believe, I’ll be saved. And that’s all he promises me.

As I said, Jake can speak for himself, but this idea of God who promises salvation and enlightenment, but does NOT necessarily intervene to cause car accidents, bridge collapses and so on, seems consistent with the idea of God “winning in the end.”

The problem with Piper’s explanation, it seems to me, is that people responsible for errors with devastating consequences (such as the 35W bridge collapse) might think, “Well, God is sovereign, and I’m sure he made that bridge fall for a reason, because He could have easily held it up if He’d wanted to.”

The idea that “God wouldn’t let this happen without a reason” could distract us from searching for the human causes of the tragedy and ways to prevent similar tragedies elsewhere.

Our Almighty God IS sovereign. We live in a fallen world. Some people struggle to see how He could allow pain and suffering in this world. Here are some ways that I have been able to make sense of this:

1. His ways are not my ways. I am glad I am not in charge of the world!

2. If there was no suffering, how would we ever be able to appreciate his mercy? Any suffering that we experience here is nothing compared to what Jesus suffered on the cross. And this He willingly endured for our sake. Praise God!

3. All suffering glorifies God, in that it points us to a place where there is no suffering, and every tear will be wiped away.

We choose how we look at this and by God’s grace alone we are able to see his hand in all things.

That’s my two cents. Thanks for letting me comment!

May I encourage you to read some of the following if you have not before?
topic index >>> the sovereignty of God

I don’t enjoy getting into debates (especially not face-to-face), but I feel this issue of God’s completesovereignty is extremely vital for us to grasp. If we don’t, we will be “tossed to and fro by every wind” of doctrine, and it will effect our every thinking about who is the ultimate (final) in our worship –man, or God. According to the Bible God intends His glory and our happiness as an outcome of worshiping Him more than anything/anyone else. I hope you can see that this is really a wonderful, loving thing!