A Good Father (?)

Is God Always Good?

It was recently reported that a father, acting alone, deliberately gave his own child a life-threatening illness that could cause permanent damage to his liver and possibly other internal organs. The child, a well-liked, outgoing, star basketball player, is now in intensive care. When asked why he did it, the father is reported to have said, that his child was in danger of becoming prideful; the illness, he hoped, would teach him humility, and remind him of what is really important in life.

The above story, thankfully, is fictitious. But what do you think should happen to such a father who would do this to his own daughter, or son? I'd say he should be evaluated for psychiatric problems, if not simply jailed on charges of child abuse. Would you agree?

Yet, this is the very thing folks sometimes say about God, when someone gets a deadly illness: "I got sick, because God must be teaching me a lesson."

A few years ago I'd led a group in this responsive declaration: L:"God is good!" P:"All the time!" L: "And All the time," P: "God is good!" (maybe you've heard or done this too). Someone challenged me by saying, sometimes what God brings into our lives isn't good. He then went on to talk about some of the hardships he and his family had faced. I wasn't quick enough then to challenge him in return by reminding him that maybe it wasn't God who was the source of that hardship. But I recognized the perspective. Some of the following is a result of my pondering that discussion.

There are ways of construing the Calvinist idea of Providence, Predestination, or God's Sovereignty that effectively makes God the source of the pain, suffering and hardship of His own children. In my opinion, it takes God's sovereignty too far, attributing to Him what the devil is doing, what a fallen humanity is doing, or what is the result of the fall into sin has done to a perfect creation, or whatever other source of suffering their might be. It can even construe God a responsible party in the sinful behavior of human beings (e.g., "It was God's will that the drunk driver hit my car and put me in the hospital."). The idea that God causes sinful behavior would be vehemently denied by those who assert it, but you can't have it both ways: either God does not cause murderers to kill people, or there are some things that happen that God does not cause to happen.

I grew up within Calvinism and know the mental gymnastics performed to get out of the above conundrum. Such convoluted logical systems never satisfied me, however many times someone might invoke the word "mystery." Something can't be both a cause and not a cause at the same time and in the same way. The argument often sounded to me like this: "God caused it, but God didn't cause it in such a way that He is the cause of it." Huh? That doesn't make sense.

I've come to understand the Bible's teaching on God's sovereignty as it intersects with the evils of this world this way:

All that happens is within God's will, but not all that happens is God's will.

In Romans 8:28 we read "...in all things God works for the good of those who love him..." Notice it does not say that everything that happens to those who love him is good. Nor does it say that whatever happens, it is the best thing that could ever happen to us, once God gets a hold of it. It certainly doesn't say whatever happens to us is God's will. God doesn't kill babies in their sleep (SIDS), give people cancer, or Alzheimer's, blow the legs off of young soldiers, direct the insane to throw their children off of bridges, or any of those things! That's not God our Father's best plan for His children!

What we do read in Romans 8:28 is that whatever happens, God will work it out for good. In other words, no matter what happens to us, no matter it's source, no matter how evil, God will work it out for our benefit. I wouldn't want to use this verse as a sort of "quick-fix" for genuine emotional or physical pain, or anything of that sort. But as a statement it does ring as a promise to hold onto, as the good God will workout of the situation unfolds, often slowly, over time.

Sometimes the good that comes out of it is that those who were the objects of evil behavior become advocates or counselors for others who are. That in no way suggests that God wanted someone to get bullied, beaten up, or raped. It does mean that God will find a way to turn it around for some good. It certainly doesn't mean it will be easy. It just means that (unless we resist Him) God meets us wherever we are and brings us out of brokenness into wholeness; making us stronger in the end than we were before, and perhaps able to be a part of His ministry to heal others who have shattered hearts (cf. Isaiah 61:1).

I don't believe our Father in heaven ever gives His children illness or injury.

God is a Good Father to His Children

In one parable, Jesus compares God to a human father who is asked for bread, or fish. Such a father would not respond to the request with something useless (a stone) or harmful or unclean (a snake). Then he says that since human father's, who are evil, know how to give good things, "...how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him?" (Matthew 7:11). There's that word "good" again. God our Father gives good and perfect gifts (James 1:17); whatever isn't good and perfect isn't from Him.

In Jeremiah 32:40, we read this promise from God "I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them..." This promise is for us. In fact all God's promises are "Yes!" in Christ (2Cor.1:20). This promise tells us of God's character and His plan. He is good! He is good to us! He will never stop doing good to us! I think that makes it pretty clear: if it's not good, it's not from God.

It's certainly true that there is more of God than we can know. But it's also true that what God reveals about Himself to us we can know. God knows how to speak our language. When He says He's good and won't stop doing good, we can take Him at His word, without trying to redefine "good" to include "bad stuff." No! Good means good. God knew what He was saying. He didn't fudge on it or leave room for ambiguity. It's as plain as it could be. If it doesn't fit with our theology, then what should change: our theology, or His word? I trust I don't have to answer that for you.

Some might suggest that if there are things that happen here that God isn't doing, then I feel less secure or certain. Okay. I get that. If God controls and is the source of everything that happens, then I can rest easy. It would be nice (though we still would have to figure out how to talk about sinful behavior, etc.). The bigger issue though is that it's not what the Bible teaches.

But I've got good news for you: the devil may be active, people may do bad things, creation may be disordered enough to give illness, earthquakes, tornadoes and the like, but God promises that whatever comes at you, He can turn to your good. I also believe that nothing can happen that will thwart His ultimate plans or purposes for you or all of humanity.

But doesn't God chasten His Children? Yes He does. Hebrews 12:5-13  reaffirms that truth. Notice what's going on here though. In this passage the author, in the context of resistance to living faithfully before God, perhaps persecution against the church, encourages us to endure whatever happens as discipline. Further the term for discipline here means to train, instruct, correct (it doesn't mean punish). That is, endure it as if through it God were training you to become a better person. In other words it's saying the same thing as Romans 8:28: whatever happens, God will make you a better person out of it.

Now, if we sin against Him, there is another kind of discipline that comes (for example, 1Cor.11:32). In these cases, God seems to withdraw His protective covering over us so that we get a taste for the reality we are living out of when we sin. But He only does that in a way that He knows we will ultimately be driven back to Him. Let me put it another way: if we begin walking away from Him, at some point He let's us go, so that we'll find out how dumb that was and run back to Him. There may be painful consequences to our choice to walk away from Him, but He will limit even that to what He can turn into something to ultimately benefit us!