I was in my early 20's working my way
through college in a local hospital. I
was the only orderly on the evening shift.
I floated from floor to floor and for the most part I enjoyed my
work. One task I didn't enjoy was doing
'post-mortems'. It was my job to arrange
the body of the deceased so he would be symmetrical before rigor mortis set
in. I was to assure proper
identification by tying a name tag to the big toe and then remove false teeth,
jewelry, etc. The first post-mortem I
performed I was so overwhelmed by the reality of it I nearly passed out. But then, after several more experiences, I
adapted to the emotional stress of performing such an unpleasant task and
before long it became 'old hat'.
Then
one day I was called to pediatrics. A
young child had passed away. Decades
later it's hard to find words to describe the feelings that surged through my
heart. I was overwhelmed with
sadness. It is one thing to prepare a
man who has lived his three score and ten for the morgue. It is quiet another to prepare a five year
old child who has been deprived of a life lived. Sadness turned to confusion. Why?
Why would a loving and gracious God in heaven allow something like this
to happen? When I failed to find an
answer my confusion turned to anger and anger to bitterness. For a period of time, I, like so many others,
questioned the very existence of God and if he did indeed exist then I
questioned the nature of a God who would permit such a tragedy?
We
experienced a horrible moment in our community last May when a mother driving
with three small children in her car crossed the center line of the highway and
caused a head-on collision with a car driven by a young, female college student
driving in the opposite lane. The mother
survived the accident but her two pre-school children and the driver of the
other car perished. If there is a God
and he really is good, why does he allow such tragedy? Why do babies die? Why does evil sometimes prevail? Why does a just God allow so much injustice
to exist in the world he created?
With
a little more maturity I was finally able to answer my questions about what
seemed to me to be inconsistencies in the nature of God. God is not the cause of tragedy. Sin is what has caused this world to spin
into a state of corruption and suffering.
Mankind has lived in a corrupt and depraved world since the Adam and Eve
chose their way over God's way. Since
their indiscretion, our world has been plagued by disease, death and
destruction. These things are not what
God wants for his creation. They are a
consequence of the sinfulness of his creatures.
Hear
the good news! This world is not always
going to stay this way. God has promised
to restore the hearts of those who are willing to repent. He was so earnest about his desire to save us
that he sent his only son to die on a cross to make salvation a possibility to
all and a reality to many. Not only has
he determined to salvage the souls of the penitent, he also is determined to
restore the earth and deliver his creation from the cancerous corruption she is
plagued with.
If
you want to know how the story ends, go to the end of the book. Revelation 20 describes the events that will
lead up to the one thousand year reign of Christ. (Rev. 20:4) When we visualize the great contest between
good and evil we tend to equate the opponents and wonder how the contest will
end. Satan is no equal to an all
powerful God. God doesn't sully his
hands with the filthy stench of the evil one.
He sends an angel (Rev. 20:1), just one angel, to seize that "dragon,
that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand
years." (Rev. 20:2) God doesn't need an army, he doesn't even need a group
of Navy Seals, he simply called on one of his angels to bind the enemy and drop
him into a pit with no bottom, lock the gate and lose the key for 1,000 years.
In
the millennial reign of Christ the earth will be healed and restored. It will be the time when God remembers his
throne promise to David and Jesus Christ, descendent of David, will reign for
one thousand years from his capital in Jerusalem. God will also remember his land promise to
Abraham and the land of Israel will be restored to those to whom it was
promised.
This
millennial reign was prophesied thousands of years ago by the prophet
Isaiah: "I will rejoice over
Jerusalem and take delight in my people; the sound of weeping and of crying will
be heard in it no more. Never again will
there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not
live out his years; he who dies at a
hundred will be thought a mere youth; he who fails to reach a hundred will be
considered accursed." (Isaiah
65:19-21)
Isaiah
speaks of a time when infant mortality will be non-existent. Has there ever been a time like that since
the fall of man? So, the time he speaks
of cannot be referring to time past.
Some would say, "He must then be speaking of heaven." Isaiah says that it will be considered a
tragic thing when men don't live well past one hundred. It will be quite normal for men to die after
having lived hundreds of years. He
cannot be referring to heaven because there is no death in heaven. The only period of history Isaiah could be
speaking of is the millennium, the one thousand year reign of Jesus Christ.
God
will soon embark on a new building project, a new construction project that
will bring radical reform to the entire creation. It would pay well to invest in that project
now while there is yet time.
Kevin Probst - Teaches History, Government and Apologetics at the high school level in Columbus Georgia.
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