God Of Injustice

           Operating under the assumption that there is a God, we encounter from time to time a question regarding God's providence, namely: why?  This question is continually asked.  In hard times, man questions why God has brought this upon him.  In good times, it is sometimes asked, "Why would a God who is self declared to be of tender mercies permit such chaos and ills as those that unceasingly afflict this world?"

Of the inability of Earth-bound man to comprehend the nature and intricacy of divine motive we have already spoken previously.  Yet, as this is such a common question, it demands further scrutiny.

            Having been personally asked this question, I illustrated the following scenario to help explain this particular aspect of God's design:

    - If you were able to create your own society of smaller humans with all power to control all of its aspects, would you create the attribute of pain in that society?

    - To this the individual answered no.

    - Would you make all things happy and bright with no rain, disease, or displeasure?

    - The individual assented.

    - After this I added my final question:  Would they thank you for it?

    - At this point, the person gave no answer, as it was most assuredly a resounding no.  For how can one show gratitude for something when one is not aware he possesses it?

        If there were no evil in the world, would we even know that we lived in a good world?  We would not.

• Light is a substance and so it has a name.  This is well.  Yet darkness is not a substance and it also has a name.  How is this possible?  Is it not astonishing that we recognize and name something that is physically non-existent!
• Heat is a substance, for it can be measured in a caloric fashion.  Cold cannot be measured because it is not a substance.  How, then, do we know of it?  Like darkness, only because of its opposite can we recognize what cold is.
• If all in the world were blind and were always blind from the beginning of time, would we have a word for sight?  We would certainly have no concept of it, nor ability to imagine what it would be like to see.  We would have no language to describe it.  But the clincher is that neither would we have a word for blindness, living in a state of blindness.  Having no recognition of sight, we could not either recognize what blindness is.

          How many terms might God have for us that equate to our words of blindness or deafness but refer to senses that He alone possesses and we cannot so much as fathom?  Perhaps the closest word along that line that we can conceive is "unholy."

          Upon this premise, I make the statement that if I were to create humanity, I would create sickness, so that by the remission of their pain, they might appreciate my desire for their welfare.  I might give them constant welfare because that is my will for them, but then they would not realize that they had constant welfare.  I would no doubt in their mind sink to the level of a mediocre god, but more relevant than that, they would not know the true nature of my goodness.  Certainly if I were to create my own people, I should expect them to know something about me!

1. If the true nature of my will was peace and goodness, then they would know nothing about me unless they could recognize peace and goodness.
2. For them to recognize these things, they would need to experience their opposite frequently.

This is the case in our cosmic situation.  To the end of our happiness, it was necessary for God to create a source of disturbance of that happiness.  We call him the Devil.  There is a very ironic truth about mankind concerning providence on this subject.

• God and the Devil are infamous enemies from the beginning of the world, more drastically and violently opposed than any tale of any superhero and villain.
• God's desire is for good, edification, and joy.  The Devil's desire is for evil, death, and ruination.
• Somehow, in spite of these known dispositions, every time a catastrophe on any scale occurs, mankind has always laid the blame at God's feet, never the Devil.

       What is the cause of such an egregious error?  Man's excuse is that since God is omnipotent, He could have stopped it and is therefore responsible for its occurrence.  This is a dangerous accusation for several reasons:

1. It never comes full circle to call the Devil on the carpet for his principal role.
2. It assumes that there was no purpose to the disaster beyond what the human mind can perceive.
3. It disregards God's limitations which consist only of one category: that by which He has bound Himself.  One of the ways in which God has bound himself is that he cannot (by His own decree) circumvent the will of man.  So, where the will of man comes into play, God has precluded himself from intervention.
4. It assumes that because God can do all things, He should do all things.  Simple contemplation for even a brief moment can discredit such an assertion, and once we have established that God SHOULD NOT do all things, we are obliged to humbly surrender the idea that we should choose for God what He ought to do.

There is one more aspect of God's graciousness along these lines that has yet to be stated: the fall of man.

             According to the story in Genesis, God actually did create a world with no death and no disease.  Willing to forsake the possibility that man could appreciate even that aspect of His goodness, He allowed man to live in perfect peace with only one way to end it, and that way He clearly marked.  So, in essence, it was truly man that brought evil and pain into the world, by means of the Devil.  God is the last one on whom culpability can be placed.

Taking in all these facts, it is clear that God has not operated according to the dictates of justice.  If God operated under the philosophy that "fair is fair," we would most certainly have been given less privileges, opportunities, and understanding of all that is good.  God has been unjust - in our favor.

Final thoughts:

• God never gives.
• God is the sole proprietor of the universe.  This means everything is eternally His.
• Everything we call our own is on loan from its true owner.  While a gift is made useful, God permits it to remain borrowed, but ultimately, He will reclaim it, though it be our most prized possessions, our family, or even our lives.  God is in the lending business; He never gives.

As a result of this truth, it is evident that any remission of good that we retained was only there in the first place because God allowed it.  Its repossession only took you out of debt.