Gary,
I am deeply sorry for your loss of Andrew’s companionship. My imagination cannot approach the emotions that you and Marie must be feeling.
I write with some reluctance because I am awkward at consolation. Having said exactly the wrong things on so many occasions, my response to grief in these later years has been to look at the ground, drop a tear, say a prayer and remain quiet. But to fail to respond to your email, or to respond with worn-out clichés, seems to me even less desirable.
So I will do my best, and hope for the best.
In your letter, you say, “There is no way to make sense of this tragedy. I have spent hours searching the scriptures. Over and over I read about pain and suffering. Jesus said in this world you will have troubles. Solomon said all life is vanity, a chasing after the wind. Then there is Job.”
In the closing of your letter, you write, “My faith is strong but being tested. I can’t find in the scriptures a reason to hope for the future.”
These are the things about which I will write to you.
Are you ready to look at some familiar but unusual scriptures with me?
All my life, I’ve heard people speak of God “permitting” bad things to happen. They say, “He didn’t do this horrible thing, but He ‘permitted’ it.” And then they say, “Everything happens for a reason.” And then they sing, “He’s got the whole world in his hands.”
I believe these ideas represent, at best, a woefully incomplete theology because when tragedy rears its sudden and ugly head, these ideas cause us to believe in our hearts that God was somehow complicit. Whether He did it or merely “allowed” it, He is to blame. Christians rarely say it plainly, but I believe “Why did you let this happen, God?” is always the cry of the heart.
Gary, I believe the scriptures teach us that we are trapped on a planet that is spinning wildly out of control. Things are not as they should be. We are strangers in a foreign land. We live in an insane place, where wonderful boys can get hit by trains while they are out playing.
And this was never God’s plan. In fact, He is doing all He can to correct it.
Let’s look at what we know:
“Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion…”
– Genesis 1:26
To be created “in the image of God,” means that he gave us the ability to look him in the face and say “no.” And he gave us dominion – authority – over this planet.
In Psalm 8 we read, “What is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? … You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet.”
God gave Adam and Eve authority over all the earth. And then they turned that authority over to the enemy of God when they obeyed the voice of Lucifer instead of the voice of God.
This explains three big mysteries of the Bible:
1. Why the first covenant? Why did God need Abraham, a human partner?
Answer: If you read the scriptures as though they are a series of legal documents regarding ownership and rights, you will discover that one consequence of Adam’s Fall meant that God needed to create a reciprocal agreement – a covenant – with a human that would allow him back onto his own planet. Essentially, his agreement with Abraham was, “Whatever you need, I’ll give you. And whatever I need, you’ll give me, okay?” Abraham said, “Okay.” Later God said, “I need you to give me your son, Isaac.” You will recall that at the end of that incident, (Genesis 22: 15-18) God said, “I swear by myself, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, … all nations on earth will be blessed.” Abraham’s giving of Isaac provided God with the legal right to give his son, Jesus.
2. Why did Jesus have to come as a human?
Answer: Because humans are the legal agents – the authority – of the earth.
3. What did Lucifer mean in Luke 4 when he led Jesus up to “a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And said to Jesus, ‘I will give you all their authority and splendor; for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. If you worship me, it will all be yours.’” (Question: Given to him by whom? Answer: By Adam and Eve, when they obeyed Lucifer’s voice instead of the voice of God.) Keep in mind that Jesus knew that what Lucifer said was true, because if it was not true, it would not have been a temptation.
Three times in the Gospel of John (12:31, 14:30, and 16:11) Jesus, himself, calls Lucifer “the ruler of this world.” In 2nd Corinthians 4:4, Paul calls Lucifer “the god of this world.” (Some translations say, “the god of this age.”)
Again, I believe Jesus came to earth on a rescue mission to save you and I and all of mankind from a planet that is spinning wildly out of control.
Psalm 102 – quoted in Hebrews chapter 1 – speaks of the ending of this planet, along with the entire universe that holds it:
“In the beginning, Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will roll them up like a robe; like a garment they will be changed.”
I am fascinated by these verses because they speak of God rolling up all of time and space “like a robe,” to be put away.
2nd Peter 3:10 says,
“The heavens will disappear with a roar… and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth…”
Not only a new planet, but a new universe surrounding it! Gary, this is our reason to hope for the future! You and me and Pennie and Marie and Andrew have been given eternal life. We’re just waiting to leave this tragic place and go to a place unspoiled.
You know that I often speak of duality – enantiodromia – the tendency of things, beliefs, etc., to change into their opposites. And I often quote Niels Bohr, the Nobel prize-winning physicist who said, “The opposite of a correct statement is an incorrect statement. But the opposite of a profound truth is often another profound truth.”
I mention this because yes, I am aware that in the book of Job, Satan asks God’s permission to afflict Job. We know the book of Job is the oldest book in the Bible because it is always the hardest to translate. The book of Job mentions several creatures and conditions that seem to have been commonly known at the time of its writing, but we have little to no idea what they are now. Also, hard-to-explain phrases are very common in Job, even more so than in Genesis. Lastly, Job is about a good man who wasn’t a Jew or an Israelite. To my knowledge, there is no other Old Testament book that doesn’t mention Jews or Hebrews. This suggests that Job predates Abraham, Moses, and all the other books of the Bible. Is there a chance that the writer of this book was narrating the conversations between God and Satan in the way that he imagined they probably happened?
One writer says, “Think of Job like a biblical Beowulf. It’s the first written journey/poem of a people in a certain language and it’s so old that parts of it are not immediately clear to translate in that language. This book was old to the ancients.”
Some translations of the Bible interpret Luke 22:31-34 as Jesus saying to Peter, “Satan has desired to sift you like wheat…” These translations make it sound like Satan needed permission. But other translations say, “Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat…” This makes it sound as if God had no choice. [English Standard Version, Berean Literal Bible, New American Standard Bible, Contemporary English Version, NET Bible, GOD’S WORD Translation, Darby Bible Translation]
Maybe the truth is as I say: God has no choice but to “allow” tragedy to rear its sudden and terrible head, because He turned the planet over to us and we turned it over to the enemy of our souls. Or maybe it is as the book of Job would indicate, that God “allows” tragedy for reasons beyond our knowing. Or maybe it is as Solomon says in Ecclesiastes chap. 9, “The race is not to the swift, or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise, or wealth to the brilliant, or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all.” Or maybe Niels Bohr was right, and all of these things are true.
I share all of this only as a frame of reference. Because the screaming, unspoken question in our heart is “Why?”
Gary, I have never felt what you and Marie are feeling but I am well acquainted with depression. When I feel myself being pulled deeper and deeper into the darkness, my thoughts turn inward toward my own life – my memories and my current circumstances – and that always makes me feel worse.
Fortunately, I have discovered a ladder that lets me climb out of this downward spiral: I find someone who needs help – any kind of help – and then I help them.
Although I don’t “feel” like helping someone else, this is exactly what I’ve learned I must do if I am to escape my own depression. So, by an act of willpower, I rise up, put a smile on my face that I do not feel, and then turn all my energies toward helping someone else. It doesn’t matter what they need. The only thing that matters is that I turn my heart and mind toward changing something in their life for the better. This gets me outside my own head. Then, after a little while, the smile is less forced. And a little while after that, I am in the sunshine again.
My hope and my prayer for you and Marie is that you will find the sunshine again, and know that Andrew is walking under an even happier sun.
Yours,
Roy