Is God Fair?
The question of God's fairness is one we all deal with in a number of ways. Invisible and inaudible, we're forced to employ a variety of criteria when considering the goodness of God. Far from just a religious or philosophical exercise, over a lifetime thousands of daily decisions hinge on our willingness trust our Creator. For modern Christians, the amount of time and energy we invest in serious Bible study and prayer, service and devotion may reveal more about our deepest feelings on this subject than what church we attend or the choruses we sing.
Reasonable Expectations
The concept of what's good and fair is fairly relative. We tend to judge fairness by our lives meeting or exceeding our level of expectation. In the modern world, many of our expectations are predicated on achieving lifestyles that exceed our own. Such thinking seems quite reasonable, particularly for we immersed in today's consumer culture driven by Madison Avenue advertising and Hollywood glamour.
Yet relatively few in 1st World Nations take the time to consider the Big Picture. Through the meteoric rise of knowledge and technology, even the poor among us enjoy amazing blessings past generations could have hardly imagined. For example, today only 7% of the world own's a car. Factor in our ancestors and the figure drops to a fraction of a single percentage. Even so, how easy it is for various forms of "road rage" to replace the wonder and thankfulness that we should feel who are fortunate enough to get behind the wheel. King Solomon, for all his wealth and wisdom, was never carried along at 70 mph in leather bucket seats in the comfort of air conditioning, enjoying his pick of thousands of musical artists while conversing with anyone anywhere in the entire world.
Such advances as this, not to mention airplanes and cruise ships, grant us lifestyles that in many ways exceed all those from the past but that of the mythical gods. All the more so when you throw in modern education and business, housing and health care, food and recreation. Something as mundane as shopping at a grocery store would be considered a miracle to billions today and throughout history. Easily taken for granted, few figure our modern wealth, and the responsibility it brings, into the equation when deciding if life, much less God, is fair.
The question of fairness grows more interesting when considering the vast gulf between humanity's have and have nots. Just a few sobering statistics reveal the great disparity between reasonable lifestyle expectations among the modern, verse developing world. Annually, over one hundred billion dollars is spent on alcohol in Europe alone and globally illegal drug sales total nearly half a trillion. Meanwhile a billion people live on less than a dollar a day with someone dying of hunger every 16 seconds.
Understandably, suffering has long raised serious questions as to the fairness or goodness of God. Yet when the modern world points a finger at Omnity, few notice those pointing back at us. When it comes to taking issue with God over global poverty one might well ask would Christ have multiplied the fishes and loaves had half his audience had warehouses overflowing with food within walking distance yet refused to share.
Equally troubling is the lack of appreciation we "haves" have. The original sin of entitlement permeates the world and much of the modern Church. Rather than heading the Apostle Paul's admonition that "Godliness with contentment is great gain" hundreds of millions have "pierced themselves threw with many sorrows" in the pursuit of accumulating even greater wealth.
Given human frailty and the precariousness of our mortality, it's reasonable that mankind has issues with God. Loneliness and depression, bitterness and loss, illness and disease as well as pain and death conspire to paint a picture of our Creator as silent and distant. Yet the Bible offers another explanation for evil. An Evil One, an architect of a heavenly rebellion overflowing onto the earth. By temptation, deception and resistance scripture reveals Satan (the Adversary) reeking havoc throughout human history with the worst yet to come.
Standing in the Supreme Court of Creation, the former archangel Lucifer, turned Devil or Prosecutor accuses mankind day and night for high crimes against God and one another. Tragically, the Arch Deceiver and "god of this world" has also succeeded in blinding the eyes of men to his part in inflaming human entitlement and misery while attacking the character, nature and nature and existence of God.
Judging With Righteous Judgment
Daily challenges and opportunities so captivate 1st World citizens that most, even among the Church, spend little time pondering life's ultimate questions. Instead of pursuing truth and seeking God through Bible study and prayer, righteousness and service we focus our attention on wealth and entertainment. Yet, for those willing to invest the time and effort, scripture's full of astounding revelations. It's overview of the history of eternity sets the stage of a whodunnit play that few believe today. As in the story of Job, some layman level Biblical forensics uncovers a cosmic drama encompassing all creation and it's Creator. Revealing the end from the beginning, the authenticity and authority of the word of God is being made even more certain in our day as scriptural prophecies of the last days begin to unfold.
Should the Biblical version of reality prove true, the question of fairness takes on much greater depth of meaning. Life, being far more than simply what meets the eye, has a spiritual dimension we are wise not to ignore. Like a chess or checker board with three layers, comprehending the movement of pieces on the middle layer requires understanding the strategy being played out above and below.
In fact, according to scripture, present human joy and suffering is not worthy to be compared to the eternal rewards and punishments awaiting mankind:
"Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later. For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay." Romans 8:18-21
"For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us. We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don’t need to hope for it. But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.)" Romans 8:22-25
"Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good." Romans 8:26-28 The Message
"That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, 'No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.' But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets. No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us." 1 Corinthians 9:10-12
"These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There's far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can't see now will last forever." 2 Corinthians 4:17-18 The Message
Put simply, the Bible explains that the incomprehensibly costly atonement of Christ assures those continuing to please God though living faith will experience only earthly sorrow mitigated by the comfort of the Holy Spirit. On the other hand, for those rejecting God's gracious gift, the pleasure and pain of this life is the nearest heaven they shall ever be.
Viewed through such a perspective, mortal life becomes a means to an end vastly more important than our daily concerns. As a drop of water hardly compares to a vast ocean, so our short time on earth is swallowed by endless eons of eternity. Scripture assures that with this in mind God closely watches over us. From the vantage point of heaven, not even a "sparrow falls to the ground" without Omnity's notice. With the very "hairs of our head numbered." the Bible assures that "all things work together for good for those who please Him and are living according to His will."
Even with such "great and precious promises" circumstances can conspire to make it difficult, if not at times next to impossible, to believe God is fair. Recognizing this, Omnity sent Christ into the world as the ultimate example being unfairly treated. By His costly incarnation and atonement, Jesus revealed the true nature of the Godhead that dwelt in Him bodily. Through his willingness to suffer the greatest pain and indignities, "God made him who knew no sin to become sin that through him we might have the righteousness of God in Christ." By modeling His passionate love for God and sinners alike, Jesus "disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross." While Christ's triumph was a victory on many levels, an important one was regarding the question of the goodness of God. Who, while witnessing even just the last day of Christ's life as portrayed in Mel Gibson's "The Passion" can deny that the love, mercy and faithfulness of Jesus towards mankind didn't excel all human examples of fairness?
Even so, Jesus Himself understood the challenge that faith is a constant battle. After feeding the 5,000, the disciples were caught in a storm while crossing the lake to Capernaum. Walking on the water, Jesus rescues the twelve and the boat immediately reached the shore. The next day, motivated by the multiplying of the fish and loaves, the astonished crowd sought out Christ. Jesus warned them to be more concerned with feeding their souls than with perishable food. When asked what the true work of God was, He replied, "believe on Him who God has sent." Far from merely mental assent, genuine belief requires our mind, heart and will working in concert while embattled by temptations deceptions and resistance of this "present evil age."
The Bible warns that only to the degree we are willing to see our lives through God's eyes do we have the means to judge what is truly good. With this in mind, what is and isn't fair takes on a whole new meaning. Scripture states that moved by divine love and mercy, the Heavenly Father uses a variety of life's circumstances to improve and reprove those He loves. This suggests that some of life's unpleasantness may in fact be part of God's plan to bring about an eternally greater good:
"As you endure this divine discipline, remember that God is treating you as his own children. Who ever heard of a child who is never disciplined by its father? If God doesn’t discipline you as he does all of his children, it means that you are illegitimate and are not really his children at all. Since we respected our earthly fathers who disciplined us, shouldn’t we submit even more to the discipline of the Father of our spirits, and live forever?" Hebrews 12:7-9
Odd Blessings
Judging earthly experiences from a truly heavenly point of view is clearly one of life's greatest challenges. The Bible declares that worldly desires and those of the Holy Spirit are not only incompatible but hostel to one another. Warning no one can serve two masters, scripture explains that like Moses, we all must choose between the future eternal rewards for serving the Kingdom of God or the immediate gratification from the"pleasures of sin for a season" and everlasting punishment for our rebellion.
The choice between eternal life or death sounds simple enough, yet given the distractions and temptations of modern life, even genuine believers meet tremendous resistance when attempting to understand and accept God's concepts of goodness and blessing. Perhaps some of the greatest examples of this spiritual paradox may be found in Christ's famous Sermon on the Mount. Here Jesus reveals it's the that circumstances that cause us to acknowledge our neediness and dependance on God that are in fact life's greatest gifts:
"You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule. You're blessed when you feel you've lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you. You're blessed when you're content with just who you are—no more, no less. That's the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can't be bought. You're blessed when you've worked up a good appetite for God. He's food and drink in the best meal you'll ever eat. You're blessed when you care. At the moment of being 'care-full,' you find yourselves cared for. You're blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world. You're blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That's when you discover who you really are, and your place in God's family. You're blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God's kingdom." Matthew 5:3-10 The Message
Here we find the horns of our dilemma. Impoverishment of spirit and mourning, spiritual hunger and persecution are blessings few hope for. While it's comforting that God promises to reward the faithful for their endurance, it's human nature to long for immediate deliverance. When relief fails to appear or our circumstances worsen, God can seem silent, distant and unfair. At such points, it may be more our faith than the goodness of God, that is being judged. Have we taken the demands and promises of scripture seriously? Have we adopted the habits and lifestyles described in the New Testament? Have we settled the decision and committed to follow Christ regardless of the cost?
C.S. Lewis beings his insightful book entitled The Problem With Pain with an interesting quote from George McDonald. "The Son of God suffered unto the death not that men might not suffer, but that their sufferings might be like His." Yet today, the concept of embracing of suffering is anathema to the me-ism of our times. Even within the Churchianity, it's Christ's cross rather than our own that gets the attention. Unfortunately, such thinking has left billions ill prepared to "fight the good fight of faith" within even their own hearts in minds, much less with their society, as Jesus and His apostles did:
"While Jesus was here on earth, he offered prayers and pleadings, with a loud cry and tears, to the one who could rescue him from death. And God heard his prayers because of his deep reverence for God. Even though Jesus was God’s Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered. In this way, God qualified him as a perfect High Priest, and he became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey him." Hebrews 5:7-9
Few today are willing to follow the example of Jesus, even in regards to prayer. All but a lost art within modern Christianity, even serious intercession's fallen out of favor. With devoted prayer times averaging but a few minutes a day, those willing to invest themselves heavily in being still and waiting on God are a dying bread. Yet without fervent and frequent seasons of prayer and fasting it's highly unlikely we will realize the will or experience the power of God in our lives.
Scripture advises those of us struggling with the circumstances of life is to "fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." We are encouraged to "take a new grip with your tired hands and strengthen your weak knees. Mark out a straight path for your feet so that those who are weak and lame will not fall but become strong." Or as another version puts it:
"Don't sit around on your hands! No more dragging your feet! Clear the path for long-distance runners so no one will trip and fall, so no one will step in a hole and sprain an ankle. Help each other out. And run for it!" Hebrews 12:12-13 The Message
The issue of how good and fair God is may be the greatest question on the minds of mankind. Even those claiming to deny Omnity's existence often do so for less than scientific motives. Truth is there are relatively few true atheists today. Given our generation's ability to evidence the fantastic fine tuning intricacies of creation, intelligent design's more fact than theory. Such being the case, it behoves concerned Christians to pray through and experience the fullness of God to answer the skepticism of agnostics and doubt of believers. It's up to the remnant of the remnant of the Church to care enough to lay siege to heaven, asking day and night for an unprecedented global outpouring of the presence and power, provision and protection of the Spirit of God. Those willing to pay the price of the pre-revival repentance must arise, crying out to God for a lost and deceived generation.
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