Many people ask, “Where was God when thirty-two students and faculty
died at the hands of a mad gunman?” This is a natural question and one
that both unbelievers and believers may ask. It seems sometimes that God
is asleep and that He is passive when such tragedies happen. But the
child of God knows that God is not impotent and helpless, and that
indeed He does have a plan. But the only way we know this is by looking
at the road map, the guide book, the revelation of the Word of God! It
must be added however that even after we have seen the biblical verses
and the truths about this subject in the Bible, we still struggle
because of our human limitations. We are so small, and God is so big!
With such events that just happened in Virginia, believers in Christ
have to look at the Scriptures in an orderly and systematic fashion to
understand all that God is saying about such happenings. Here is a
doctrinal progression we need to keep in mind:
- Sin is real. Evil is not the figment of our imagination. And yet evil, and Satan, are not loose canons on deck! Nothing happens outside of God’s providential domain!
- Humans are responsible for their actions one hundred percent!
- And yet, God is one hundred percent sovereign! He has a plan that will not be thwarted or hindered. And His plan includes the evil actions of humans and of the fallen angelic world. How can mankind be one hundred percent responsible and God one hundred percent sovereign? I DON’T KNOW! But this is what the Bible proclaims. We cannot say: God is seventy percent sovereign and mankind thirty percent responsible, or even the other way around!
- Even death is in a mysterious way, included in God’s sovereign purposes. The apostle James wrote that we can’t even say what were going to do next year, for what we should say is: “If God WILLS we shall LIVE and also do this or that” (James 4:13-17). To deny His sovereignty over our lives and our death is arrogance. James adds, “But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil” (v. 16).
King David died when God was through with him (Acts 13:36). Our days
are numbered and we do not go beyond those assigned to us (Job 14:5).
God in an absolute way, controls nature and the nations as He wishes
(Job 12:13-25). For His purposes He can allot “months of vanity” to us
and appoint “nights of trouble” as He sees fit (Job 7:3). He leaves
illness with us in order to humble us (2 Cor. 12:7-10). No one can stop
God from doing what He wishes, and, nothing happens outside the scope of
His providence (Dan. 4:35). And yet we trust in His absolute
righteousness and goodness. He knows what He is doing!
Those who do not believe God is sovereign in all things, even in death, need to read Arthur Pink’s Sovereignty of God.
The sovereignty of God in all things is one of the forgotten and
misplaced major doctrines of Christianity. Those who deny such just have
not studied thoroughly the whole Word of God.
