Unbelievers resort to a logical argument, which we
constantly hear from them during every major
disaster where innocent people die - mainly
children. “Why
doesn’t God intervene, if He really exists? Why does
He allow so many children to die helpless every day?”
And with this argument, they think they have found
the perfect alibi for their irrational disbelief.
Ill Will
Atheists who pose such questions are not unbelievers
on account of these questions; it is an option born
of their personal ill will. They use these questions
as an alibi, in order to justify the bad and absurd
choice that they made, of regarding God as
non-existent!
How can one possibly accuse a god, whom they assert
does NOT exist?
If they were truly well-meaning, they would
be seeking answers, given that answers do exist!
But they never had any interest in seeking
them.
Their questions on “God’s non-intervention” are not
formulated as an actual grievance - or at least as a
query - but instead, as an ARGUMENT intended to
cloak their disbelief! Thus, without any actual
interest in the answers, they have opined decisively
that God does not exist, using His
“non-intervention” in the world as proof of this.
Even after hearing the answer, they will
nevertheless reject it as a mere excuse, because
they are truly NOT interested. They prefer anything
that is negative and slanderous against God, rather
than the simple, pure truth.
The first questions that we should pose to those who
complain that God “does not intervene to save the
world” are:
“Are you
aware what an “intervention by God” entails for each
one of us? Do you yourself actually WANT His
intervention? And what did YOU do, in order for God
to intervene in the world?”
However, let’s begin by analyzing the question: “Why
doesn’t God intervene in the world and innocent
people and children die?”
The broad range of misfortune
So, WHY is God being accused?
Did God perhaps vote for Bush to bomb
Baghdad?
Did God instruct terrorists to kill civilians? Who
actually did those things? Was it God, or was it us?
Are we honestly blaming God for our own
carryings-on?
Why? Are we naive infants who are unable to
live appropriately on our planet and as such, always
need a “nanny” to spank our hand every time it is
stretched out with intent to commit a sin that will
harm our fellow-man?
The entire world is not riddled by one sole
calamity; nor is a sole territory, or a brief span
in history.
Nor is it only children who die. Misfortune
in the world has a broad range, and it has
manifested itself from the very beginnings of
History.
Thus, when someone asks: “why
doesn’t God intervene for THOSE children?” they
pose an absurd question.
Because, if God were to intervene for “THOSE”
children that the atheist has in mind, why shouldn’t
He intervene for the other ones that were killed or
are being killed EVERYWHERE ELSE in the world?
And not intervene ONLY for the children, but
for EVERY misfortune, every death, (violent or
“natural”), for EVERY sickness, for EVERY
psychological torture…
In brief:
for God’s intervention to be meaningful, it
should not be ONLY for one specific occasion or ONLY
for the children of a specific territory, but FOR
ALL THE WORLD.
There should be a cessation of EVERY malice
and injustice, and the end of pain and sorrow, even
of death!
So if we really want to ask a meaningful question
this is the right wording: “Why
doesn’t God put an end to human history so as to
bring perpetual bliss and life?”
Reasons for God’s interventions
God Himself revealed to Christians that He had made
two SIGNIFICANT interventions in human history, for
the salvation of the world. The first one was over
7.500 years ago, when God decided that the
spiritual
father of mankind was to be Adam, the
first-fashioned human, whom He introduced into
existence so that he could be the commencement of an
endless period of peace and bliss.
Adam however chose INDEPENDENCE, away from
his Maker.
Thus, regardless how God desired things, man
himself chose to deny God, preferring to lead “his
own way of life”.
God thereafter allowed man to live THE WAY HE
HAD CHOSEN TO, unhindered, and away from Him… which
has been the cause of man’s misfortunes!
“But God
never let man lead the life he had chosen for
himself.
God was constantly ‘in his hair’, sending him
famines, floods, punishments on his path…” we
were told by an atheist who was talking about God’s
non-intervention.
And this is where contradiction manifested
itself.
The one moment, he was complaining why God WASN’T
intervening and the next moment he was complaining
why God WOULDN’T LET MAN LIVE THE LIFE HE CHOSE!
For that atheist, the blessings that God
provides are not evidence of His existence;
apparently only the floods and the catastrophes that
the atheist UNJUSTLY ASCRIBES to God are proof that
God DOES exist, and
furthermore,
that He is actually unjust!
We replied to the atheist as follows:
After his exile from Eden, Adam continued to live - on
the path that he had chosen – away from
interventions by God.
He eventually repented, and sought God once
again.
Except that Adam was thereafter in anticipation of
Christ, in order for that plan to be fulfilled.
Likewise
unhindered lived all the people who had chosen the
path that led away from God… to the degree that
their chosen path did not destroy nature.
Noah’s Deluge had not targeted unbelievers.
It had targeted mankind of Adam’s descent,
who had a made a covenant with God and were supposed
to work towards bringing Christ to earth.
And the Deluge which did in fact take place
(like every catastrophe), was because GOD WITHDREW
HIS PROTECTION from those who abandoned Him.
Even so, God had warned them in advance of
the impending Flood.
Creation punishes the irreverent, not God.
That is how the world functions; God always gives
prior warnings and therefore cannot be blamed on
account of those who do not heed His warnings.
It is because God respects man’s free will that He
doesn’t intervene in the world. That is the reason
why so many tribulations exist in the world: it is
because we don’t want Him to “interfere”.
And instead of calling out to Him, we fight
Him, by becoming paganists and atheists and enemies
of His.
WE are the ones who regard Him as an enemy – not the
other way round. He came and He died for our sake,
and yet we still don’t accept Him.
But to those who do accept Him and who adjust
their lives according to His instructions He becomes
their helper, their guide and their Father, and He
guides them towards deification and
incorruptibility, thus conquering death, until the
day that EVERYONE will seek Him and Christ
eventually comes to them. Otherwise, if we don’t
invite Him, He will not come, out of respect for our
freedom of choice.
That was to be God’s second, major intervention in
the world:
Christ’s advent - an advent that was being
prepared straight after Adam’s fall!
God never abandoned His world, even though
the world had abandoned Him. God had fashioned man
for a purpose: to live a life of bliss and love,
together with Him, and it is only man’s volition
that hinders God’s intervention.
“But then why
didn’t God leave disobedient man to his own, doomed
destiny? Why does He get in man’s way, by asking him
to believe in Him?” was the question posed by
that atheist; and with that amazing query, he again
displayed the same contradiction, inasmuch as he had
only just previously complained that God
had abandoned man, and now he was complaining
about God continuing to concern Himself with us!
Judging by his comments, it was perfectly
clear that the atheist’s problem was God’s
existence, and not His “non-intervention”!
When God fashioned man “He looked at all that He had made, and it was very good” as the
Holy Bible says.
Everything was as it as it was supposed to
be. Man was free, created in accordance with God’s
image, and he had the POTENTIAL to be saved and
corrected, even in the event of his fall.
Adam is now with God, repented and
resurrected through the Holy Spirit after Christ
descended into Hades and had taken away the dead
with Him.
Obviously God’s plan for salvation has never
ceased; it is an opus in progress and it continues,
until every tribulation in the world is ended.
The world belongs to God, not to mankind. And in
this world, there are not only those poor souls who
hate Him; there are also the righteous, who beseech
Him to also save their beloved fellow-men, along
with themselves.
And of course this is what God Himself wants,
which is why He DISCREETLY gives them all they need
in order to believe in Him, without ever extorting
their faith.
He never appears imposingly in the sky,
demanding that they all believe in Him, as that
would be a violation of their free will.
Instead, to those who love Him He does
appear, and becomes their friend.
To others, He always makes allowance for an
outlet to reject His existence, if that is what
their ill will prefers.
As Christ had said, “Whosoever
wishes to follow Me…” He does not force
anyone. But on the other hand, He doesn’t deprive
anyone of the ability to display their intentions -
be they good or bad.
After all, the world was made for the faithful and
not the faithless.
The world likewise has a destination:
perfection and incorruptibility. Its destination
will sooner or later be reached and everything will
be fulfilled, whether the irreverent want it or not.
And they too will be there, always free to deny Him,
even then - except that the world will be different
then, and they will no longer be able to abuse it.
That will be their “hell”, and their “gnashing of
teeth”, on account of their unquenched hatred for
their benefactor and their unsatisfied desire for
injustice.
God has no needs whatsoever. We the faithful need
Him and we call for Him; and when He does intervene
in Creation, He does so as an answer to the prayers
of the Church’s faithful.
The obscureness of the promises
The faithful person, who seemingly undergoes
whatever the faithless does, WILL NOT PERISH. Only
the body will perish. The soul will remain alive,
united with the Holy Spirit, provided that during
this lifetime it had taken the necessary steps to
attain that union, which Adam had failed to preserve
originally.
“ 4 And God
shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; there
shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor weeping.
There shall be no more pain, for the former things
have passed away.” 5 Then He who sat on the throne
said, “Behold,
I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.”
(Rev. 21:3-5)
That is when Creation will be completed: when, from
‘very good’ it becomes ‘perfect.’
“All these
things pertain to another life, and no one can prove
to us that it exists, beyond the narrations of
people who belong to that conspiracy”, as the
atheist in our discussion insists on asserting .
But this doesn’t mean that no one can prove its
existence, given that there are witnesses who can
verify it. It merely means that the ill-willed
insist on seeing this arbitrarily as a “conspiracy,”
in spite of the testimonies.
The reason this happens is because God leaves
them to their delusion, since they have chosen to
live without Him “meddling in their lives.”
But, they too will inevitably see Him –
except it will be IN THE END. Only then, will they
realize their mistake. But by then they will have
already revealed the ill will in their hearts, and
they will have lived in ways that had perpetuated
injustice in the world, without ever asking for help
from God, or giving Him the opportunity to put an
end to misfortune on earth. God will have merely
respected the choice they made.
However, He is ALWAYS with His own people;
they see Him and they know Him and love Him. He
Himself said:
“19 Go forth and make disciples of all the nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to
observe all things that I have commanded you; and
behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the
age.”
(Matt.28:19-20)
Christ was victorious for His own people, who, after
a brief life on this earth, will savour Paradise
near Him. The others, who do not want Him, will stew
in their own juice, both in this life and the next.
The choice will have been theirs; He respects their
desire, and He does not get in their way, seeing
they don’t want Him. Therefore THEY ALONE ARE
RESPONSIBLE for the prolongation of injustice and
wars and of Satan's continued authority on earth -
not God, whom they didn’t want “meddling in their
business”. After all, they are the ones who dreamt
of “a godless society”, as the atheists put it.
Indeed, nothing has changed for those who don’t want
Him, because they will not be partakers of the
salvation brought by Him. They will experience only
sorrow; they will never, however, experience the
beneficial consequences of the “recipe” that He gave
us, because they not only won’t follow it, they
won’t even want to acquaint themselves with it.
Many have however followed this recipe; the
centuries are full of Saints, who had lived “in
Christ” and have become examples for all.
Perhaps they are relatively few, but they are
definitely existent. If they
were many, Christ would have already come again;
but, while the majority of the planet doesn’t want
Him, He won’t come. (Democracy, not theocracy).
Throughout the ages, there are saints and devils,
even among self-professed Christians. In a garden,
there are flowers as well as manure, and, just as
there are
flies,
there are bees also.
Flies will inevitably notice the manure, and
that is where they will prefer to remain, whereas
bees notice only the flowers and head straight for
them, not the manure.
Thus it is with people also: there are those
who have the bee’s disposition and thus can see holy
Saints, but there are also those who are like the
flies, who see only manure and flowers to them are
nonexistent.
Those responsible for misfortune
Christ is the unique God Who revealed Himself to
both the righteous and the unjust. He healed,
nourished, taught, resurrected... Those who didn’t
want Him “meddling with their lives” CRUCIFIED Him.
People have always wanted (and still want) to live
as they please, without a God “in their way”
according to our atheist’s words mentioned earlier
on. They don't want ANYONE TO CHECK THEIR ACTIONS.
God leaves them alone, to become the cause of
their own misfortune.
The fact is, most people desire the same
thing, so He simply doesn’t impose His will on them;
only those faithful to Him are the ones who will
partake of His Kingdom.
It is certain that none of those who complain about
God's “non-intervention” would enjoy having Him
constantly watching over them like a policeman; they
would definitely not like being hindered from
coveting a fellow-man’s wife, or getting their hand
slapped by Him when they move to steal, or getting
their cigarettes extinguished when they destroy
their bodies, or blinding them when they watch
obscene things, or taking away their alcohol and
drugs when they become addicted, or being humiliated
by Him when they become arrogant.
Because, if God had full control of the
world, ONLY then would they (the ones who complain)
be unable to plunge the world into a bloodbath and
sink it into even more desolation.
24 Which is the reason God gave them up to the desires
of their hearts towards the uncleanness of
dishonoring their bodies among themselves; 25 they
who changed the truth of God within a lie, and
revered and worshiped creation rather than the
Creator, who is blessed forever. (Rom.1:24-25)
Time goes by, but people continue to suffer and
children continue to die unjustly, because THOSE
VERY DENIERS OF GOD, WHO MOCKINGLY ASK “WHERE IS
GOD?” ARE THE ONES WHO ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE SORRY
STATE OF THE WORLD, simply because they refuse to
allow Him to guide their lives.
8 But in this do not be mistaken my beloved, that one
day to the Lord is as a thousand years, and a
thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slow in
keeping His promise, as some understand tardiness;
instead, He is very tolerant with us, not willing
that any should perish but that all should come to
repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come as
a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass
away with a great noise, and the elements will melt
as they are being burned; both the earth and the
works that are in it will be burned entirely. (2 Peter 3:8-10).
Yes, this period of humanity’s sorrow and suffering
is long by our standards; but not for God, because
He is beyond Time.
And He knows that His own people, as well as
all those who are suffering here, will inherit
Paradise, after which their suffering becomes
laughter and joy. Only His deniers will remain dark
and forever complaining at the end of Time, because
only they will not be enjoying any benefactions from
Him, whom they didn’t want “meddling” in their
lives. The children who died and are dying will
smile again and they will be happy again during the
resurrection.
But the others will never see God’s
countenance, BECAUSE THEY HAD PERSONALLY CHOSEN NOT
TO.
The Church traverses the centuries and invites
people to become members of Christ and establish
Christ’s authority over all of mankind, so that
sorrow and death cease to be.
However, She
always encounters OBSTACLES in Her opus – i.e.,
those same enemies of Christ, who are the reason
that misfortune and sorrow are perpetuated.
Video:
Atheist
Regime Destroying Orthodox Christian Churches in
Russia
We do not know how much longer they will be holding
back the salvation of the world. We do not know how
much longer they will be steeping humanity in blood
with their faithlessness. But the Church will
continue through the centuries and will continue to
preach. She will invite people and will integrate
them in the holy Body of Christ. And She will call
out to the Lord and Master of the world IN AN
INCREASINGLY LOUDER VOICE for help and Salvation,
until one day, all of mankind will UNDERSTAND AND
BELIEVE, and together we will all unite our voices
in a majestic prayer, which will be heard to the
ends of the world.
THAT IS WHEN CHRIST WILL COME AND WILL SAVE
US!
17And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let
him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts
come. Whoever desires let him take the water of life
freely. (Revelation 22: 17).
Yes! Come, Lord Jesus!
