Did God Allow the Paris Attacks?

To me, the question remains with what the Bible teaches us God can certainly do: raise people from the dead. History shows He can, but, He does so quite rarely, for reasons I don’t know. But I believe resurrection is the very heart of the gospel and indeed of our hope (read N.T. Wright). That being the case, I still don’t know why a God who can do this, doesn’t do it (yet). So I feel like I have to abandon my questions or my hope. That being the choice, I stick with my questions and look at the cross.

Both “Good (God) and Evil (Satan),” exist in the world but they are not co-equal. God is all powerful, all knowing, all present, unlike Satan and his minions who are limited. In Matthew [8:29], the demons cry out “What have we to do with You, Jesus, You Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?” The demons knowing their power is limited cry out for mercy, and in verse, 31 “begged Him, saying, “If You cast us out, permit us to go away into the herd of swine.” They chose wrong and perished.

Satan’s misconceived ambition to exalt himself and be like the most high miscarried; also, when tempting Jesus in the desert by offering Him the world if Jesus would worship him, both failed. We have another story of Satan after traveling to and fro trying to assert himself equal to God seen in the story of Job [2:3] “Then the LORD said to Satan, ‘Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil? And still he holds fast to his integrity, although you incited Me against him, to destroy him without cause.” By inciting God against Job Satan asserts his trivial power as if he can tempt God and that God should obey him.

Why God allowed this to happen, we will never fully understand. God does not have an entitlement program where a person believes they are entitled regardless of what they do. In Mt [5:45] God declares His impartiality “For He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” Difficult to understand God sometimes suffers Satan to visit his people, like Job with calamities, while He sustains them by his grace as to silence the doubts about God of foolish men. Are those things still happening today; I personally believe they are? Satan is still going back and forth seeing whom he can devour. Some on a smaller scale, and others on a larger scale; has God not declared there will be wars and rumors of wars. As in any war, the innocent suffer. We will never understand the Paris attacks, only which was carried out by evil men.

This does not mean that God has lost control, humankind will never understand the spirit world that we cannot fully see nor can know the why’s, where, or how’s of it. The scenes played out on the screen of life between Good and Evil is beyond our finite comprehension and is too complex to determine the outcome other than what the Bible has already provided about humankind. The Scripture reveals enough about our Creator, (His justice, mercy, grace, love, judgment, punishment, and wrath), Creation (Adam and Eve, free will, fall from grace, need of salvation, salvation provided, and our eternal destiny) based upon our choice. To dissect God and put Him in a test tube as some are intellectually doing today is misleading.

“A God who cannot control others”
“A God who chooses not to get involved, but could”
“A God who renders certain everything, including whatever we do”

Interesting choices. We might refuse to accept the third view because we suspect it may describe abilities we wish we had better than it describes the God we see in Christ. The second seems to be true from experience, but we do this kind of thing too often as well, so it still describes us. Again, are we looking in the mirror? In both these cases, we are playing the mystery card in essentially the same place. We still see horror and say God must know what he’s doing. Yet, it may well be the best we can do to accept that we can’t know, so we just let God decide. (It is puzzling that the proponents of the second and third view seem to think that there is a great difference between their views.)

While personally still thinking about the first view that flows from essential kenosis, I am sure that the God we see in Christ is not upset with us should we think that views two and three either seem too human, or too much like pious giving up. Interestingly, the first view, is also human-like, for we truly cannot control much that we would very much like to control. But, the reason we cannot control things is sheer inability, while in essential kenosis, the reason God cannot control things is due to the logical restraint of perfect love.

Is a logical argument sufficient to move the mystery goal post?

I’m completely on board with accepting that God’s perfect love is the very centre of who God is. I also agree that we should try much harder to imagine that perfect love can accomplish all of what God wants to accomplish. But because, in my opinion, rigorous application of logic has failed us so miserably by producing the deterministic, “rendering certain” view of God, I am currently cautious about relying on logic to go as far as saying God cannot control others because of the demands of perfect love. Though it is a rigorously logical view (says this amateur philosopher).

Yet, we need to think about these things. As we learn more and more about the universe in which we find ourselves, and with the exciting rate of expansion of our knowledge of that universe, orthodox, Jesus centred christianity will have to be much sharper than in the past at responding to much improved scientific understanding.

Many orthodox Christians may not yet see a big connection between how we think about God and the established facts of science, but it is profound and grand. A realist (as opposed to a nominalist) approach demands that it all add up. A realist cannot sweep truth from any source under the rug. So we need new, bold and love-centered thoughts to chew on.

Note: I’ve read and reviewed Tom’s new book and recommend that you read it carefully as well. Some of the thoughtful comments here might well be answered to your satisfaction, others, perhaps not. For those commenters using lots of Scripture to build your case, you will be glad to hear that Tom uses lots of Scripture in building his case as well. That’s as it should be, of course. You can find my review by following the instructions Tom gives. In this comment you have more of my personal position. In the review I just try hard to give you a good idea of what you will find in the book. I also try hard not to be a spoiler, so you will ultimately have to read the book 🙂

You’re welcome, Tom. Like you, I cherish our friendship the most and hence I’ll be sure to buy and read your book. I know you’re very serious about this and so am I. I really want to find a way to remain hopeful about God doing something new, and yet would love to know how love hasn’t done that yet.

Tom, I would like to go back to the story of Job for a moment. Let’s remove the conversation between Satan and God. What we have left is the atrocities that happened to Job with no explanation. Century’s later, theologians are discussing what God knows or does not know; what He allows or will not allow; random acts of evil and His power and limited power. A theory develops that God does not know the future; God cannot stop random acts of evil; God is limited in what He can do.

When we insert the conversation as recorded between God and Satan, the picture changes. Here God gives us an insight into the spiritual world, giving humankind first-hand knowledge that when things occur that we do not understand, we are reminded that God is still in control. God knows exactly what is going on; He limited Satan in his power over Job. Job’s faith in God nor his integrity wavered as should ours, even when we do not understand what is going on in the world. I am reminded that God does not have to give an account to me as if He is being judged for His actions.

I’m still wondering how we best explain how freewill fits in with this discussion. For God to intervene in the Paris attacks God would have had to violate the freewill of the those who perpetrated the attacks. God would have had to exert or coerce people’s behavior in this regard.

So it seems that we need to be thinking about more than just if God could have intervened or if God has the power to have changed events. I think we can rightly begin with the fact that God is a loving God, in fact I believe that we can rightly affirm that God is love. So since God is love, God will not, does not break with His conviction that our free will is crucially important to our identity as a human as well as crucially important to how we interact with God and how God interacts with God’s creation.

I struggle with how we adequately explain the dynamic of freewill in regard to our understanding the God who is love and always acts out of love which is at the core of God’s character.

Thank you, all of you, for providing me with your dialogue and your self-positions and/or projections into this discussion.
Hardly ever does one within the context of adult church community find this material being shared with the community.
Many of us are woefully unprepared to cope with the events and calamities of our days. A current understanding of
practical Christianity begs to be brought to the fore. Six decades of adult education in our churches does not come close
to the preparation we need to begin to speak up for the reasons why we believe. It is as if it all ended at Catechism’s demise
because there is no further plan to advance a greater agenda to the regular attenders in their deeper understanding of their relationship with the God of our creation. Theology seems to be a dirty word among most traditionals as if that world was meant only for the folks in seminaries, or those who have a D.Min, Remember the advertising: “….E F Hutton listens!?” We down here are needing answers. We also need to be smart as foxes. Jesus responded to Satan, “…It is written….”

I find it interesting that you rightfully take the blame off of God and put it back on the perpetrators.