Resources - Leadership

December 2004

God of Grace & Mrecy
Studies on the Canons of Dordt
 

Inspiring Answers to Present Day Issues

 

Rev. Geoff van Schie

“Why does God allow millions to starve in the Sudan?”

“How come God stands by while millions perish and suffer in war and acts of terrorism?”

“Where was God when the one I loved was killed by that drunk on the road or died from cancer or a hemorrhage?”

We are all familiar enough with the questions. They are often heard if your are regularly engaging people as you share your faith. These are questions that arise from time to time in Bible Study fellowships or Youth Group topics in camps and other groups where our youth meet. Besides these there are many more we could list.

Behind these questions lies the charge that God is unjust and unmerciful. That He does not care about our world and in particular with those who are vulnerable and powerless. The world is seen to be an ‘unfair’ environment and any being who reigns supremely over this situation is then understood to be an ‘unfair’ or ‘unjust’ God since He does nothing about it. This being the case it is important that we know clearly for ourselves how the Bible’s teaching of a just and merciful God meshes with a world so aptly described by the preacher: "Again I looked and saw all the oppression that was taking place under the sun: I saw the tears of the oppressed - and they have no comforter; power was on the side of their oppressors - and they have no comforter. And I declared that the dead, who had already died, are happier than the living, who are still alive. But better than both is he who has not yet been, who has not seen the evil that is done under the sun." (Ecclesiastes 4:1-3, NIV)

Like Israel in Isaiah’s day, those who believe in the existence of God – in Australia that remains a majority even though who or what this God is to them varies considerably – may be led to ask pretty straightforward questions when viewing our world: "But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me.” (Isaiah 49:14, NIV). Indeed in years gone by there were those who promoted the view that God had wound up the world like a clock and had uncaringly abandoned it to run down – the absentee landlord.

How do we as the ‘light on the hill’ and the ‘salt of the earth’ proclaim the Good news to a cynical and pessimistic world? There are many who believe in no God or profess they are agnostic – they do not know what to believe. Nick Miller, a journalist wrote the following: “… anyone who applies the debatable dictates of an imaginary bearded father figure in the sky to the way they are going to vote frankly scares me. Religious voting is a fundamental attack on democracy. Suddenly we have a mass of believers who are going to influence the leadership of the country and the direction of our economy and society, on the basis of a massive self-deception. Yep, that's right, God doesn't exist.

That niggling feeling that tells you there must be something or someone who created us, and all of this, and is watching over us and guiding us and cries when a sparrow falls is just a psychological manifestation of a bundle of instincts and genetic drives. He's an infallible father figure, a reassuring structure that makes a big, complicated world easier to handle. Choosing the future and direction of our society on this basis is clearly irrational’. (The West Australian: November 11th, 2004)

Miller is honest enough to make an admission:

“All right, what if God exists? If so, my whole argument falls flat”.

Though written some 400 years ago, it is amazing how refreshingly candid and clear are the insights of the authors of the Canons of Dordt as to our ‘miserable’ world and this ‘bearded father figure’ way up in the sky. This wonderful document in breathtaking statements takes head on the questions as to God’s justice without pulling any punches and moves on to speak of mercy that alone restores human hope for today and eternity.

Come with us on a journey of discovery through this exciting document that helps us to understand our world and our God. In a continuing series of articles we will rediscover answers to the questions of the grieving human heart caught up in the misery of exile from God. We will find clear and helpful answers so that we can continue to effectively be ‘a church reforming to reach the lost for Christ’. A church that in Christ restores hope to those who by God’s grace and the Spirit’s leading are seeking answers.
 

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