Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Melt Down

Terrorist attacks, famines, floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, nuclear radiological hazards, violent political unrest and military interventions … all claiming innocent victims.

Why do some individuals seem singularly unfortunate, and why do natural disasters happen killing women and children? Typical responses are ‘How can there be a God?’ or ‘Why does God allow it?’ The assumption is that suffering in this world is inconsistent with the existence of a God of love. Either God is not all-loving or he’s not all-powerful, for surely – or so it’s presumed – he cannot be both when we see examples of innocent people suffering.

What’s the relevance of Christianity to the atrocities and tragedies of this groaning world?

The Bible tells us that suffering is a consequence of the separation that exists between God and man. And that this separation has been caused by sin. So we can’t blame God for human suffering. The Bible tells us that God created the world in love and that he loves us individually. But if God is good, and on the side of good, why do terrible things happen? What’s gone wrong? The Bible’s answer is: we did. The London Times leader column said the day after a massacre at an Infant school in Dunblane, Scotland (13 March 1996):

'Christ was born among innocent slaughter and died on the Cross to pay the cost of our terrible freedom - a freedom by which we can do the greatest good or the greatest evil'

The Bible makes it clear that God created us with free will ... but then we chose to disobey God and do our own thing. That broke our relationship with our loving Creator. It’s this separation between God and ourselves that's the cause of all the suffering that's in the world - and which will finally result in eternal separation from God unless we each personally obey the message of Christianity. For only God has the answer to this problem. And Jesus Christ is God’s answer. When Jesus died on the cross, he took on himself the consequence of our disobedience. His death made a way between us and God again. By rising from the dead Jesus conquered the power of death for ever. Now God requires that we each personally repent and receive Jesus, his Son, as our Saviour.

Malcolm Muggeridge, the British journalist and author, had once been giving such a message at All Soul’s Church in London, UK. There followed a question and answer time in which, as the speaker, he was called upon to defend his conversion to Christianity. After what had been described as the last question was dealt with, Muggeridge noticed a young boy in a wheelchair trying to say something. He said he would wait and take his question. The boy struggled but no words came out. ‘Take your time,’ Muggeridge said reassuringly. ‘I want to hear what you have to ask ...I’ll not leave until I hear it.’

Finally, after a real struggle, one often punctuated with agonizing contortions, the boy blurted out, ‘You say there’s a God who loves us.’ Muggeridge agreed. ‘Then - why me?’ Silence filled the room. The boy was silent. The audience was silent. Muggeridge was silent. Then, he asked, ‘If you were able-bodied (fit), would you have come to hear me tonight?’ The boy shook his head. Again Muggeridge was silent. Then he added: ‘God has asked a hard thing of you, but remember he asked something even harder of Jesus Christ. He died for you. Maybe this was His way of making sure you’d hear of His love and come to put your faith in Him.’

God is concerned about our pain - to the extent that in the person of his son, he came as a man, Jesus Christ, and 'joined us in suffering'. That was the expression used by a Church of Scotland minister when interviewed by a BBC News reporter on December 21, 1988, when flight Pan Am Flight 103 exploded in the sky over the Scottish town of Lockerbie. "It was like meteors falling from the sky," one resident there said. Others told how pieces of plane as well as pieces of bodies began landing in fields, in backyards, on fences, and on rooftops. Fuel from the plane was already on fire before it hit the ground; some of it landed on houses, making the houses explode. Twenty-one houses were destroyed with 11 occupants killed. The total death toll was 270, including those on the plane. The reporter turned on the minister and asked ‘where is your God now?’ To which the calm reply was: ‘God has joined us in suffering - in the person of his son, he came as a man, Jesus Christ, and joined us in suffering.’

Beyond that, Christ's sacrificial death on the cross for our sins laid the basis for bringing all suffering to an end, but the time for that hasn't arrived yet. And until it does arrive, God uses suffering to work out his higher purposes in our lives - in a way that's not very different from how a surgical procedure involves pain but is directed towards a positive outcome for us.

Many have come to discover true meaning, and purpose in their lives through tragedy. Their crises have brought them to faith. It was like that with a young Jamaican girl I heard a preacher talk about. She’d been terribly assaulted and her body left a real mess of marks by her attackers. She was understandably very bitter. The preacher spoke compassionately of his Saviour who also had marks on his body — the marks of the cross. She took his Saviour, Jesus Christ, as her own and later rejoiced in a joy she’d never experienced before.

Events like the attack on the Twin Towers on 11 September 2001 in New York are sometimes raised as an objection to the very existence of God. In responding to events like this, someone spoke for many when he said: ‘I want to sue [God] for negligence, for being asleep at the wheel of the universe.’ But we betray our instinctive morality when we react to things that happen by labelling them ‘good’ or ‘evil’. Can words like ‘good’ or ‘evil’ really have meaning if we don’t believe in God? One bold atheist, Oxford University's Richard Dawkins, would say ‘no’. Since he doesn’t believe in God, he also flatly says there's ‘no evil and no good’. At least he’s being consistent.

But suppose you were to accept there’s no God – and so basically no ‘good’ or ‘evil’, can we then accept that September 11 is just a morally meaningless event in a meaningless world? If we feel we can’t go that far, then we’re forced to draw the conclusion that a consistent atheist doesn’t appear to have any answers after all – and no basis for even asking the questions about the morality of such atrocities. The more you think about it, the more the existence of evil in our world points us towards the existence of God - and not away from it. Why? Because unless we refuse to label atrocities as ‘evil’, we’re still faced with the reality of God.

So, what’s the relevance of Christianity to the atrocities of this groaning world? Edward Shillito, while viewing the destruction of the Great War, helpfully wrote: 'to our wounds only God's wounds can speak'. Yes, there’s pain and suffering at the heart of the Christian message, but it’s not only human pain: it’s the pain of God. After all we've said, a question mark remains over human suffering, but we do need to put it in the context of the cross of Christ – which is the mark of divine suffering. We may have to wait for justice and peace in the world, but we can know God’s forgiveness for our sins on a personal level and be at peace with him right now. For God has joined us in suffering to give us the offer of ultimately being with him in a pain-free future:

‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.’

The Book of the Revelation, chapter 21 & verse 4.

Mar 2011 | Hot Topic