“Is God cruel?”

“Why does God allow evil in the world?”

“Is God upset with me for questioning Him?”

These profound questions nag at our soul and puzzle our minds.

I recently received an email from a reader who is struggling to wrap her mind around these and similar issues.

Here are her questions and my reply. May this help all of us in our quest for answers and a stronger faith.

God bless,

~Johnny

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(Here is her email)

Good Morning Brother Johnny!

I have a couple questions that seep into my mind from time to time. I have been in prayer over them, and I thought maybe you could help me out. A couple things that pop into my mind is when Abraham was supposed to sacrifice his son. I know it was a test and God never intended him to do it. I understand it is an example of God just wanting to see if we will follow Him and keep Him first above all. But on the other hand, I have this feeling of “how cruel is that?”

And when he allowed Job to be tested by Satan and he took out his whole family. I understand that Job learned to not question God’s motives and not always figure out why, but again, it seems cruel.

This kind, loving God that I serve allows bad things to happen to His children all the time. I do trust Him and love Him with all my heart and that is why I want to deal with these feelings of “that was cruel”. I don’t want to have a single negative thought about my perfect Father.

I understand that everything has an end. God is there and what is allowed to happen we may never understand, but we can trust that God was there.

But still, when I hear of a child abused all his/her life or kidnapped and tortured for years, my first thought is, “how cruel it is to allow it?” I guess my first thought should be, “thank you God that you were there.”

Am I on the right track? I certainly don’t want to question God like He is in the wrong, or like Job, trying to figure out His motives. Sometimes I feel like that is what I am doing and makes it hard to even send this (email).

Thanks in advance,

M.

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(Here is my reply)

Hey M., thanks for the email.

I appreciate your heart for God, that you are thinking, seeking, and searching for an even better relationship with your Almighty Loving Heavenly Father. Good job! You are on the right track.

The questions you are struggling with are perfectly normal and are asked by Christians and non-Christians alike all the time. These are difficult questions, and answers are not easily accepted in our hearts, even if we could understand them with our minds.

So, let me see if I can help you out a bit, and may the Lord continue to bless you with more questions, more answers, and an even stronger faith. Here are some short, concise answers to your questions:

 

ABRAHAM WAS TESTED WHEN ASKED TO SACRIFICE ISAAC:

God created all things and all people. He gave Abraham his son and had every right as God to take him back.  But that’s not the point of the test.

God asked Abraham if he was willing to give up his son for God. Abraham was willing, but God spared his son Isaac. And so God was also willing to give up His Son Jesus Christ for Abraham (and the rest of us), and God did NOT spare His Son. So the real cruelty was the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Remember John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

So Abraham and Isaac are symbolic of God the Father and God the Son, but there was no reprieve for Jesus.

Also the Bible tells us what Abraham was thinking at the time, and it was not that God is cruel. Hebrews 11:17-19 tells us that Abraham knew that even if he had to go through with it, God was bound by His own word to bring Isaac back from the dead, because he was the child of Promise.

So the test was not just whether he would give up his son, but whether he believed God would honor His Word and keep His promises.

 

JOB’S TRAGEDY:

Horrible things happen on earth to people all the time. This was a tragic, horrible, sad season in Job’s life and he did nothing to deserve it. Neither did God bring it upon him just to teach him a lesson.

The truth is, none of us are guaranteed another day of life and freedom from sorrow. Everybody we love has an expiration date, so it isn’t a question of how long a person lives, but how well they live the time that God gives them on earth.

Only when we get to Heaven will we understand just how much pain, suffering, sorrow, and heartache our good God DID spare the people of earth down through the millennia. If it were not for God’s protection, nobody would survive, nobody would be happy and content.

In the story of Job you’ll notice what Satan desired to do to him and everyone around him, but God drew limitations on what He allowed. (If you want to know what life on earth would be like if God didn’t restrain most evil and sorrow read the Book of Revelation.)

And while we wish God would prevent all suffering, that’s the nature of life on earth. Thank God we’ll be in a place of no suffering when we leave this earth.

Job had a couple of horrible years, but over all he had a great life, many blessings, and has been reunited in Heaven with everyone he cared about for over three thousand years now.

And remember the message of Job is that bad things happen to everyone, including the best of the best. Just look at what happened to Jesus when He was here.

Everybody suffers. Some suffer in faith and some don’t.

And also remember that the point of Job is that there aren’t answers to every question. These questions of why God allows bad things to happen to good people is an ancient one, and there are no simple, easy, or satisfying answers.

But I have found that what we need in bad times are not answers to “why”, but we need faith, and His grace and mercy, and His strength to endure and remain faithful, that we may trust His Heart when we cannot see His reasons.

 

IS GOD CRUEL?

God is complex. He is infinite in all characteristics. He occupies many places in the universe and among mankind. He is creator, sustainer, judge, holy, giver and taker of life, demanding, gracious, wrathful, forgiving… and the list is endless as He is.

You have to see God as revealed in the entire Bible. There is a very big distinction in the character and nature of God that is revealed in the Old Testament compared to the New Testament.

In the Old Testament, God is shown to us as powerful, the Almighty, terrifying, unapproachable, demanding, mighty warrior, judge, jury, and executioner. He wipes out entire nations for their wickedness, requires unquestioning obedience to exactly what He commands. He is “a consuming fire”.

God in the Old Testament seems to be long on wrath and judgment, and short on grace and mercy.

But then there is the God of the New Testament, where we live. Same God, same holy, righteous, Judge, same creator and sustainer, but we see another completely different side of the one true God.

In the New Testament we see God as gentle, loving, kind, approachable, merciful, forgiving, sacrificial, and all the other attributes of God we see revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ and in our Almighty loving, heavenly Father.

Same God; different sides of His personality.

So yes, the Old Testament is a cruel, bloody, hard, demanding Book full of Laws we are unable to keep, and God’s requirements we are unable to measure up to.

But the Bible tells us that the Old Testament was written for our training, to see how God did treat His own people, how to find grace in His sight, how to live by faith, and how to transcend the legalities and live a genuine close relationship with the Almighty in spite of our weakness and His Holiness.

(By the way, you see both sides of God united into one Person when you read about Jesus Christ in the Book of Revelation. There He is both Lion and Lamb, both Warrior and Servant, both Destroyer and Rebuilder.)

 

BUT STILL, BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO THE MOST INNOCENT AMONG US.

Why does God allow evil?:

Free will, the human ability to choose between right or wrong, good or bad, righteousness or wickedness, is so important to God that Jesus died on the cross to guarantee it to all mankind. He guarantees and protects our right and ability to choose not only whether we will accept Christ as Savior, but how we will live our daily lives.

So, to the degree that mankind is free to choose what is good, kind, loving, helpful, and compassionate, we must also be free to choose what is cruel, wicked, evil, hateful, and ungodly.

If we are to be free to choose to save a life, we must also be free to choose to murder. If we are to be free to choose to lift others up, we must also be free to tear others down. If we can speak the truth, then we can also lie. You get the idea.

But again, God must still restrain the wickedness of mankind to some degree or we would destroy ourselves and the planet with us.

That’s why the horrible things that happen make the news and cause us such anxiety in our hearts. It is the very fact that these tragedies are uncommon, unusual, and don’t happen very often that makes them newsworthy. Otherwise we would get used to hearing about it all the time and it would cease to be “news”.

So in a way, when something horrible happens and it is deemed newsworthy, even shocking, that is proof that God is having mercy on us and is restraining evil and tragedy. Or else we’re all done for.

 

QUESTIONING GOD?

God is secure in His place as the Almighty, and He is not intimidated by our questions. In fact we are encouraged to bring to Him everything on our hearts and minds.

Like any good father, He invites us to question anything and everything… as long as we do it with respect. (The Psalms and Job are full of questions about the nature and whereabouts of God, and God clearly loved both Job and David)

So yes, you are on the right track. You are seeking, thinking, growing in your understanding of the Lord your God, holding Him in highest regard, honoring Him as Sovereign, and growing in your faith. Good job! Keep it up.

And don’t be surprised to find that every answer reveals more questions! He is infinitely complex, and getting to know Him better is a never-ending path to faith and life.

I hope this helps you in your Christian growth.

Prayers,

Bro. Johnny