Question:Thanks for the advice, teaching and inspiration I have received from PTM and CWR over the years. You somehow inspire even the "down and out." You are the only rational "religious" personality I have come across so far. You may not claim to answer all questions, but somehow that even makes it better. Here’s my question:

Is God active in human occurrences nowadays? In the last decade we have seen horrible disasters -- wars, terrorism, tsunamis, earthquakes, epidemics, famines, starvation, riots, political turmoil and economic troubles. No matter how we strive to make it better, all seems to go awry. Isn’t man the ultimate controller of his own destiny -- or hapless victim of time and chance -- and God merely watches what we become? Sometimes my existence seems to be a big joke. What is there to hope for when everything is bad and you can do nothing about it?

Answer: God has a plan and he is active in the world – but "active" is by his definition, not ours. Some people think God must not exist, or if he does, he doesn’t care because he allows disasters to happen. But God never told us in the Bible that bad things would not happen – in fact, he said that they would – to those who are believers as well as those who are not. The rain falls on the just and the unjust (Matthew 5:45) – Jesus used the example of a tower that had fallen in Siloam (Luke 13:4) to explain that accidents happen, time and chance is part of this human life that we all lead – and God has designed our lives that way. Jesus said that those who followed him would have to take up their cross – their lives which often include sadness, sorrow, accidents, dysfunctions, etc. – and follow him (Mark 8:34).

There are some who present Christianity as a life of physical abundance – of health and wealth, of success and prosperity. But the Bible does not guarantee this. God’s plan for us is not centered on the here and now. This life is not all there is. There is more to life than what we see and understand and experience. God’s plan is for eternity – the reality that he offers to us all (John 3:16).

Others interpret disasters and downturns as God's punishment for individual and national sins. This notion is actually a corollary to health/wealth/prosperity teaching, which states that God blesses us physically when we do certain things to get on his "good" side and curses us when we get on his "bad" side. With every disaster, it seems that some leaders in Christendom proclaim that this is "God's judgment" for homosexuality, abortion, failure to support the nation of Israel, etc. While it is true that God allowed disasters to fall on various nations in the Old Testament -- often as recompense for their national sins -- Jesus makes clear in Matthew 5:45 that such is not the case in New Testament times. God is no longer in the business of "counting people’s sins against them," but rather is in the business of "reconciling the world to himself in Christ" (2 Corinthians 5:19).

But the world is not yet completely reconciled to God -- so in this life we still experience pain and suffering (Jesus said, "In this world you will have trouble," (John 16:33) but in this same verse he said, "Take heart! I have overcome the world.") God, in the person of Jesus, came to us and lived as one of us – being born of the virgin Mary. Jesus was God in the flesh. He humbled himself and experienced all that we do, including suffering, heartache, betrayal and pain – to save us. Not to save us from this physical world, but to save us that we might enjoy eternity with him.

We humans need God – we are not independent of him. We do not have eternal life. We do not decide or control how long we will live – whether we will be involved in an accident or whether we will be the victim of a virus or a disease. We need God – God is sovereign over nature – not humans.

We humans like to think that we are so advanced that we do not need God. The bad news for us is – without him our life is futile and hopeless. Apart from him, this life is all there is – we have no hope beyond the grave without God. But because of God, and because he loves us (John 3:16) and because of Jesus Christ who died that we might live, we have hope – both now and forever. This is the central teaching of the gospel – and why the word gospel means "good news"! None of us needs to despair – Jesus Christ is the answer for the emptiness and meaningless lives that we experience apart from God.

In Christ,

Greg Albrecht