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October 2001, Page 6.
Index of articles.
Questions:
index,
Real Devil,
Sick visiting,
Who made God,
Harry Potter,
God after 11.9,
Healing.
In this issue:
(October 2001)
Vicar's Letter,
CW book,
Money,
Question,
History.
In our "Questions to the clergy" slot, John will try to answer any query you throw at him, without hesitation, deviation or repetition...
Is there a God after 11th September?
Q. The terrorist attack in America has made me wonder whether there is a God at all, particularly since religion seems to be at the bottom of all the hatred?
A. Although the news would have you believe otherwise, the world is basically no different now from what it was before the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre and Pentagon in America. There have been huge destructions of life in the past, most notably about 65 million years ago when 90% of life on earth was wiped out and the dust cloud in the atmosphere lasted thousands of years. The volcanic destruction of Pompeii was horrific, as was the flooding recently in India. There have also been huge acts of mass genocide: the Nazi atrocities, Vietnam, Yugoslavia, ... . The world has always been a place which contains great evil as well as great good.
The evidence for God’s existence, in creation and in the bible, is still there. The miracles of Jesus and his resurrection still show that God exists and is at work in our world. The bible does not claim that the world will get better and better as time goes on - in fact parts of it (e.g. Daniel, Matthew 24, Revelation ...) say clearly that things will get worse as the end time gets closer.
It’s easy to say that God should have moved in and stopped the terrorists crashing hijacked aircraft into buildings. But do we expect God to step in and stop all crime? Where would free-will be if every time we chose evil God moved in and stopped us? Would we grow up into mature people if he never let us commit sins and face the consequences of them? It was only the horrors of World Wars which taught my parents’ generation the importance of peace.
About “religion”: we don’t yet know that religion was behind the recent terrorism in America, but even if it was, there’s a big difference between religion and God. “Religion” is people’s attempt to find God. Many religious people may be sincere and deeply attached to their own beliefs, but that doesn’t mean they have found the real God. Sadly, that’s true for many who call themselves “Christian”, as Northern Ireland shows. Knowing the real God, and having his character within one’s heart, is entirely different. If you read what Jesus said about religious people of his day, I’m sure you’ll see the point. God doesn’t give us easy theory to answer our sufferings, but he can be there personally with us as we go through them.
John Hartley