A Question for Mr. Harris

I’m honored to be an adjunct professor of an evangelical Christian university. Every now and then, I am asked to teach a class about Christian faith and contemporary issues. I find the discussions that take place in this class (which occur mainly online) to be exhilarating, challenging, thought-provoking … and sometimes hard to deal with … because I feel like I should immediately know the answer or know how I feel about a particular question that comes up … many times, these conversations are with people who do not identify with Christianity, or, perhaps they identify with a native faith experience of their ancestry that is not Christian. Sometimes, I have to ask God, “Why have You seen fit to put me in this type of position … to represent for only a few short weeks your message of hope, love and forgiveness (the gospel) to people who aren’t aware or have any understanding of it?” That is a heavy responsibility. The amount of limited time I have with them may be the ONLY time that they engage with the gospel! I take it very seriously. You see, I think God knows that He has given me enough experience and background to wade into these deep waters, but at the same time, He also knows that I’m, at times, rather unsure of myself … a bit of a fumbler to the point that I know I need to be very reliable on the Spirit to speak where I feel like … well, a bit of a “dumb-dumb” on the subject. Maybe that’s why he has called me to this arena. Seems like that is his mode of operation … using weak people to do His good work. Anyway, it reminds me when I had an opportunity a few years ago to meet Dr. Reuben Welch, a well-known author and speaker … and one of his famous sayings was, “I think I think …” I find that I think I think something about a theological topic, and then I am challenged to where I have to re-think what I think I think.

Now, there are some things of which I am sure. So, stay with me. 

As part of my recent class, we watched together a brief YouTube video of Sam Harris. If you don’t know Sam Harris, he is one of the leading atheists of our day. He is a well-known author, speaker, scientist, philosopher … he is not an uninformed man. In fact, in his video, he is rather compelling. Here are some of the things (paraphrased) he has to say:

Nine million children die every year before they reach the age of five. These children, 17 every single minute, are dying in terror and in agony. The parents of these children are praying to “god,” but their prayers will not be answered. The “god” they pray to can either do nothing or doesn’t care to do anything … their “god” is either impotent or evil. The worst of it is that these people who are praying are probably going to hell, according to Christianity, because they are praying to the wrong god. Through no fault of their own, they were born into the wrong culture where they got the wrong theology. 

He goes on to say:

So God created people to be in isolation [in a certain part of the world], which in terms causes ignorance of this (Christian) theology, and then God created the penalty for not believing it. They are doomed. On the other hand, a serial killer and rapist who is on death row, after eating a plate of fried chicken, can come to Jesus in his last minute and have eternal life. God is cruel and unjust. He visits suffering on innocent people. (He mentioned the tsunami of 2004 that killed over a quarter of a million people.) We say that when bad things happen, God is mysterious … who can understand God’s will? 

I’ll stop there.

Good questions … compelling argument. I’ve wondered about some of these same things at times. Remember, “I think I think.”  But this is the question that I would like to ask Mr. Harris. 

It appears that your entire “blame” of the condition of our world lies purely within God’s agenda for all of mankind. Where does the role of the “antagonist” in the story of God play here? Not once did you, Mr. Harris, discuss “the devil,” “Satan,” the “enemy” … whatever word you want to use for him. Genesis chapter 3 clearly introduces us to a serpent who would have a discussion with the original human pair, and link in opposition with them to go against God. What do you do with that? Seems to me that he and humanity’s disobedience plays a role somewhere … right? Why are we letting Satan or even ourselves off the hook for evil in the world? Why is there the presumption that this is God’s initiative?

I get it. The kind of human suffering we see in natural disasters, human sex trafficking, terminal illness, terrorism, and the like, is something that feels unexplainable … and, if it were easily explainable, we probably should be skeptical of the answer that is given. We often say, “well, it is because of free will that we have to deal with evil.” That’s biblically and theologically true … we are the cause of much of it because of the choices we have made, but the question to many atheists is, “Why does God allow it?” That’s another good theological question. The concept and theology of free will is and can only be part of this discussion. In other words, it can’t just stop there. I think we all–Christians, Hindus, Muslims, Jehovah’s Witnesses, atheists and agnostics can all agree that corruption, poverty, plight, disaster, etc., is absolutely appalling. To have only a Sunday School answer is not going to cut it when it comes to being able to articulate a position that refutes the one who believes like Harris, that God is either impotent or evil himself, because He just lets it happen. Isn’t God powerful enough to overcome our free will? 

The answer is, “Yes … and He has.” Now, let’s enter into the rest of the answer.

God does indeed have a response to tragedy and suffering. Here it is … are you ready for it? 

He entered into it. 

This is what the Incarnation is all about. It is true that God can take what we (mankind) intended to be for evil and turn that into good. How? By entering into the depths of human suffering, God deals with the consequences of the sin of humanity by bringing forth a greater purpose. He’s able to do that … and that is why He is God and I am not. I’m not able to bring good to every mini-crisis I get myself into … but He is.  

Example: Genesis 50:20 quotes Joseph speaking to his brothers after they sold him into slavery and years later he rescued them from famine; he says, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good.” God allowed Joseph to be sold into slavery years before a major famine in that part of the world. Joseph’s family would have died of hunger. The hatred they possessed toward their brother, because he was their father’s favored son, and diabolically selling him into slavery to Egypt, was no match for God. He made a way for Joseph to be a leader in the house of Pharaoh and was able to rescue his people in the end. What a turn of events!

The Apostle Paul says in Romans 5:3-4: “We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.” Paul isn’t saying that God hopes and wills for us problems and trials … he says that, when we have them, God can use them to create endurance (perseverance), strength of character (integrity), and reminds us of the hope we have in our salvation—a greater purpose. Paul goes on to say in Romans 5:6, “When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.” He entered into our helpless state for a greater purpose–the redemption of humankind. This has to be the other part of the answer we are looking for … beyond just the answer that bad things happen because of free will. 

God, through Christ, has entered into the suffering and brokenness with us and brings about a greater purpose. We don’t always know what that greater purpose is in the moment. We are not as wise as the Almighty, but we do know that God is in control, keeping Satan at bay. God does not create human suffering. He suffers with us and works in our lives to bring a greater purpose to it. His greater purpose is most often something that is of eternal value. In other words, the economy of God is very different from how we measure what something or even someone is worth. It is true that He permits Satan to roam about, but He governs Satan—in other words, God does not allow Satan to have universal control. Plus, we know, according to His Word, that in the end … He will overcome all evil once and for all (see Revelation 20:10). 

The great theologian, Jurgen Moltmann said:

In Jesus, God entered into the depths of human suffering to take that suffering upon God Himself. Jesus identified with the godforsakenness of those who suffer when he cried out on the cross, “My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me?” … Through the Spirit, the Father reached into hopelessness to redeem the godforsaken. Through Jesus, the Son, those in the deepest distress are embraced by God.

So what are we to do? You and I can be the answer to many who perceive God to be other than what He is: good. When you and I enter into the hopelessness of the human condition, we are the hands and feet of God who has already entered into the hopelessness Himself. We demonstrate the incarnational nature of Christ when we enter in. We are called to enter into that suffering with others, with Christ, whether it is sitting with someone while they go through chemo treatments, walking the journey with one who has lost a loved one, visiting a prisoner who is in jail, volunteering to help clean up after a natural disaster … whatever the case, through our solidarity with suffering (as Moltmann puts it) we bring hope into a hopeless condition. In no way do we try to explain away or even justify suffering. No … we attempt to bring an end to when we enter into it with another, realizing that God has gone before us and is there with us. That is the Christian response.