“No Such Thing as
a God of Love!”
Dear Mr. Wilson:
Recently, our daughter
who has a PhD and is antagonistic
toward religion, and I had a
discussion while watching TV. We
happened to see the news about the
cyclones that hit Myanmar (leaving
130,000 + dead and two million
homeless). Later, we saw a report of
a deadly earthquake in China (leaving
70,000 dead). I have been a Christian
for the past eight years and my
daughter and I have had many
discussions about God recently. She
said, “Mom, there may be
a “higher power,” but there
is no such thing as a “God of
love.” She said, “If there
is an all powerful ‘God of
love,’ He would not allow
the weather and earthquakes to kill
thousands of innocent people. ‘A
God of love’ would not
allow human misery to grind on and on
as it does in Darfur and Zimbabwe.
Loving parents (she has two children)
do not let siblings hurt each
other and neither would ‘a God
of love.’” She added.
“’A God of love’ is an
imaginary god. Christianity is no
different than the other religions of
the world. Since the beginning of
time, people have created mystical
gods. Religion is a perpetual curse.
It masks the realities of life at
best and at worst, it justifies
killing with whom it disagrees. I
could not give her a good response.
Can you help me sort this out?
__________________________________________________________________
Hello Karen:
Thanks for your
e-mail. The basic problem with your
situation is that your highly
educated daughter does not understand
the curse of sin, therefore,
the title, a “God of love”
is inconsistent with what she thinks
a “God of love” should be
doing. To make matters worse, your
daughter confuses God with religion.
God is one topic and people’s
behavior (religious practice) is
another. If your daughter would open
her heart and mind to consider the
plan of salvation, she would find
answers to her objections, as well as
overwhelming joy, because God is love
and unbelievably generous! She is a
prisoner of skepticism and this
attitude can hold her in a
self-imposed wilderness of darkness
for a long time. “The man
without the Spirit does not accept
the things that come from the Spirit
of God, for they are foolishness to
him, and he cannot understand them.
Because they are spiritually
discerned.” (1 Corinthians
2:14) Nevertheless, do your best to
engage her in a spiritual discussions
whenever possible. Here are a few
issues you may be able to discuss:
Through the ages,
people have wondered why God permits
evil people to torture, kill, and
maim others. People have also
wondered how a “God of
love” can permit earthquakes,
tornadoes, hurricanes, and fires to
destroy people’s possessions and
their lives if He is in control of
Earth. How can a “God of
love” permit cruel men, like
Hitler, Stalin, Idi Amin, and Pol Pot
to impose so much suffering and
death? These are rational questions
and the Bible offers some profound
insights into these difficult
questions. However, to understand
anything about God’s actions, a
person has to first understand that God’s
highest priority is to prevent
suffering and death on a tiny spec of
a planet called Earth. God’s
highest priority is to prevent the
third occurrence of sin and He has a
very thoughtful way of achieving this
result. (The first occurrence of
sin involved Lucifer and a third of
Heaven’s angels. The second
occurrence involved Adam and Eve and
their offspring. For an in-depth
discussion on God’s plan to keep
sin from happening again, please see
Chapter 10 in my book, The Seven
Seals and the 144,000.)
God’s love,
God’s omnipotence, and
God’s willingness to let
injustice abound appear to be in
conflict, but these conflicting
concepts properly align and make
perfect sense once a person
understands ‘the rest of the
story.” Many people find a
certain satisfaction in condemning
God for everything that is bad. After
all, it is easier to condemn God
than to understand God. What
would you say of a court where only
the plaintiff’s side of the
argument is given? Would that be
fair? Of course, not. And judging
God’s actions (or lack of
action) without hearing His side of
the story is also unfair!
Many good-hearted
people have erroneously concluded
that God is not loving because He
permits evil to exist. However, the
presence of evil proves that God
grants the power of choice to His
subjects! If He were a control freak,
He would not let His subjects make
any choices. So, the presence of evil
speaks volumes about human beings and
the choices they make. If we
were as loving and wise as God and
could see each situation as God sees
each situation, I believe we would do
the same things that God is doing! I
make this assertion on the basis that
God is both selfless and consistent.
In other words, God never deviates
from doing what is righteous and
loving in every situation.
(Psalm 89:14) God is not arbitrary.
He does not violate or circumvent
justice and fairness for personal
advantage. We cannot see the big
picture right now, so we must
“trust God” until the time
comes for “the rest of the
story” to be told. When that day
comes, we will see in each
circumstance, God’s actions were
loving and appropriate. Think about
this: Faith in God, when seen in
reverse, proves that God is love.
That is why we have the Bible. It
tells us over and over that trusting
God is trust well placed. As a
Christian, you know that God so loved
the world that He gave His only Son
to die in our place. While there is
no greater display of love in all the
universe than this, there’s more
to God’s love than Jesus dying
on the cross – it is called
“eternity with God.”
Let us take each
argument your daughter presented and
address them. First, she claimed,
“A God of love would not allow
weather and earthquakes to kill
thousands of innocent people.”
Tornadoes, floods, hurricanes, and
earthquakes have killed millions of
people through the centuries. These
horrific events have been ongoing for
thousands of years and their presence
tell us that God rarely interfere
with nature’s violence. In fact,
Jesus predicted Earth would become
increasingly unstable near the time
of the Second Coming, “…There
will be earthquakes in various
places, and famines. These are the
beginning of birth pains.” (Mark
13:8) From the human
perspective, death is caused by these
calamities is horrible because (a)
the amount of death is overwhelming,
and (b) death represents the end of
the most precious thing there is
– life! According to the Bible,
God’s perspective of death is
quite different. The Source of Life
does not view death as the end of
life. Rather, God sees death as a
temporary condition – a state of
suspended animation! (1 Thessalonians
4:13-18) Because human beings are
under the curse of sin, we must die.
(Romans 3:23, 6:23) Earth itself is
cursed and it will be destroyed
eventually. (Genesis 3:17, Revelation
21:1) God does not actually disrupt
the geophysical laws that he created
to govern Earth. He sees death as a
temporary state, and He will
resurrect every dead person at the
appointed time. God has an incredible
plan to rescue human beings from the
curse of sin, but this plan takes a
long time (in human terms) because
God is resolving the sin problem to
that sin’s curse will never
surface again. To help us deal with
the inequities and chaos that sin
produces God sends love and grace to
all suffering people. (John 16:7,
Romans 3:29,30) Contrary to the adage
that “Time heals all
things,” it is God’s
Comforter, the Holy Spirit, who heals
all things.
Your daughter said,
“A God of love” would
not allow human misery to go on
and on as it does in Darfur and
Zimbabwe.” The misery index in
many countries is deplorable. For
thousands of years, evil people have
flourished and imposed much suffering
on others. Jeremiah asked God about
this: “You are always
righteous, O Lord, when I bring a
case before you. Yet I would speak
with you about your justice: Why does
the way of the wicked prosper? Why do
all the faithless live at ease? You
have planted them, and they have
taken root; they grow and bear fruit.
You are always on their lips but far
from their hearts.” (Jeremiah
12:1,2) The Lord’s response was,
‘” if any nation does
not listen, I will completely uproot
and destroy it,’ declares the
Lord.” (Jeremiah 12:17) In
other words, God generously gives
nations a measure of time and
resources to thrive. If the
leadership of a nation embraces
righteousness and fairness, it will
prosper and the standard of living
will improve for everyone. If a
nation becomes decadent and
degenerate, that nation will be
uprooted and destroyed. (Ezekiel
14:12-21) God manages the nations of
Earth according to His “full cup
principle.” (The full cup
principle is: When a majority in a
nation becomes degenerate and
corrupt, God sends a warning message.
If the message is rejected or
ignored, God then raises up a
“destroyer” to impose total
destruction.)
Sin brings ruin.
People in various places are growing
desperate. Inhumanity and injustice
are increasing. God sees every
injustice and He does not forget. The
Bible promises that God will raise
the wicked from their graves at the
appointed time and extract
restitution. “Do not take
revenge, my friends, but leave room
for God’s wrath, for it is
written: ‘It is mine to avenge;
I will repay,’ says the
Lord.” (Romans 12:19)
Foolish people may think there is no
God; they may think that God does not
see their murders, thefts, or hear
their lies; they may think that God
does not concern Himself with
violence, cheating, and dishonesty.
This is self-deception. Jesus said,
“Indeed, the very hairs of
your head are all
numbered….” (Luke 12:7)
“Are not five sparrows sold
for two pennies? Yet not one of them
is forgotten by God.” (Luke
12:6) God records every injustice and
at the appointed time, a God of love
will apply the golden rule: “As
you did unto others, the same will now
be done unto you.”
Your daughter said,
“Loving parents do not let
their siblings hurt each other and
neither would a “God of
love.” Her statement is true to
a point. When children are minors,
parents are charged with the
responsibility of training their
children to love and respect the
freedom of others. But parents cannot
stop adult children from hurting each
other. Adam and Eve experienced this
with their first son two sons! Cain
killed Abel. So here is another way
of looking at her argument. God gives
human beings a great deal of freedom!
We can hurt one another or help the
hurting. We can be of service to
those less fortunate or we can seek
fame and fortune. We can choose to
please self or we can live to help
others. We can manufacture guns and
bombs or we can build schools,
hospitals, and churches. Because God
is love, He has given us the freedom
of choice. Because we have the power
of choice, God has imposed a golden
rule on all of us. If we violate this
rule, we will have to pay its
penalty. What your daughter does not
understand is this: The penalty for
wicked behavior is not imposed on
people who choose to live wickedly
until the end of the 1,000 years.
This distant date provides little
solace for those who want to see
justice “right now.” I wish
more people understood that Judgment
Day is surely coming. God has
set a date when all mankind will
stand before Him. (Acts 17:31) In
human terms, this date may be slow in
coming, but God will resurrect the
dead and he will ensure that every
person receives his due reward.
God’s love is the perfect
balance between justice and mercy. On
Judgment Day, mercy will be shown to
the merciful and justice will be
imposed on the unjust. “Blessed
are the merciful, for they will be
shown mercy.” (Matthew 5:7)
In closing, your
daughter said, “Religion is a
perpetual curse. It masks the harsh
realities of life at best and at
worst, it justifies killing those
with whom it disagrees.” History
also proves that this comment has
some validity, however, her comment
does not encompass the whole topic.
Whether she realizes it or not, each
person has a spiritual dimension. God
created us with a desire to be near
Him, to know Him, and to love Him.
This natural desire is the reason
that religion flourishes all over the
world in various forms. Of course,
the practice of religion is not to be
confused with the attributes of God.
God is the source of truth and no
religion understands the whole truth.
The two are separate and distinct.
Religious practice is an expression
of what people think or believe about
God. Our actions, even the actions of
your daughter, reveal our beliefs
about God. Everyone practices a
religion of some kind. Agnostics,
Catholics, Moslems, Jews,
Protestants, Eastern Mystics, and the
Heathen have beliefs about God and
each person acts accordingly. History
demonstrates that many good things
have happened because of
people’s love for God. So, do we
determine whether God is love by the
harmful deeds of the many or by the
generous deeds of a few?
I hope this helps!
Larry Wilson
