Articles
WHY?
Why? Why do the innocent die? Why do good people die? Why do the evil prosper when the good die? Why did my husband die of cancer? Why did my child die so young? Why did my child die and another live?
I don’t know!
But I do know some things. First, God is the giver of every good thing (Jas. 1:17). He does not cause death, neither is He the author of death. God does not traffic in evil or cause man despair. He does not author discouragement. He does not author death. Death is His enemy. Jesus will have the rule the Father gave Him until the last enemy, death, is conquered (1 Cor. 15:25).
Death was introduced as a consequence of sin being introduced into the world. Physical death comes as a result of being separated from the tree of life. Sin brought death, both spiritual and physical. I die spiritually when I sin. I die physically because sin was introduced by someone else. That someone else is Satan. Satan introduced death and brings destruction to man. Yes, I realize Adam and Eve sinned by eating of that which was forbidden. But who made the solicitation with a view to seducing them? Who knew what eating it would do to them? Satan!
So that brings me to ask: why does God get the blame when death enters our lives? Why does God get the blame when my loved one dies? When my child dies? When my loved one suffers? Why do I spend time trying to figure out what God is trying to teach me when the enemy has conquered through physical death? God did not cause it. He is the author of life. Put the blame where it belongs. It belongs square on the shoulders of the enemy, Satan. He hates. He murders. He lies.
That brings up another question: “Does God know when I am going to die and how?” I don’t know! But I do know the false of view of God that comes from the Calvinistic view of predestination is not true. That view says that God marks our path and predetermines our course of life. So when whatever happens to us, it is God’s will. First, that violates the character of God. Second, that makes God the bully. Third, it infringes on my freedom to choose. Why would I possibly choose to serve a God who has already set the day of my death? If God caused the death of my loved one, young or old, how is that loving, merciful, long-suffering? There is nothing I can do about it; it is set. What despair that brings. There is no hope in that.
I do not propose to have all the answers. I have more questions than I have answers. I am sympathetic when people hurt because death has entered their life. I hurt with them. I wish I had the ability to undo it for them. But when death does enter our lives, let’s be sure to put the blame where it belongs and not make God responsible for that which He did not do. There are simply some things that happen because we live life under the sun in a sin-cursed world.
