Violent screams pierced the dark early morning
The other night we were woken at 3am in the morning by the petrified screams and shouting of a woman in the neighbourhood. On our social media groups we shortly discovered that there was an armed house robbery in the street just behind us.
We did not hear the shots fired … only the screams that went on and on for what seemed to have been several minutes.
These are some of the shocking realities when you live in a country where human rights are violated all the time and with no regard for human life, neighbourly love or well-being of others.
Why am I writing this post?
We depend on social media for effective communication in our community as well as getting some of the local news (newspapers, radio and TV have long stopped reporting on these matters).
Social media is both a wonderful and evil tool, on the one hand helping community members to get help fast and on the other spreading the bad news of a bad sadistic God that does what he wants, even molesting his children with all kinds of cruelty and harassment and then determining what the outcome should be and how severe it should be.
This is not my God, but the God portrayed in the chat groups of our social media accounts under the guise of Christianity.
The incident
One of the occupants of the house in question was shot.
Within hours of the incident, social media reported that the man was okay and the bullet missed all vital organs in his chest and abdomen.
Then came the comments
Christians in our community are quick to respond with messages of support, compassion, sympathy and speedy recovery … but they also offer “spiritual” explanations of what happened, which includes “God’s will and outcome”.
I previously posted on the sovereignty of God here and importantly, here.
And what about false knowledge. Check out this post if want to know more.
I guess that sometimes (actually always) we should think before saying something
Let me focus on one comment that was actually picked up by Charelene, who also raised a very important question.
The comment: one of our neighbours was shot in the chest in the early hours of this morning during an armed robbery. By the grace of God the bullet missed all vital organs.
“By the grace of God”
I gather that the grace of God was just enough so that the man didn’t die. He merely suffered some pain, agony and discomfort.
The question: If by the grace of God the bullet was guided through the body of this man to miss all the vital organs, why then didn’t God stop the bullet before piercing the man?
It also leads to many more subsequent questions:
If God could control the path of a bullet, then why didn’t He prevent the incident from happening right from the start?
Why did God permit this to happen in the first place?
Why doesn't God guide the bullet path for many other people that are shot?
Isn’t God in control?
What is the purpose of this incident and the outcome thereof?
The premise
To answer these questions above, I must firstly indicate that they are all asked from a position of misinformation and assumptions based on the very godawful information and religion fostered in the general Christian community.
The questions asked, represent God as the author of suffering and tragedy.
It moves from the premise that God is always in control. And therefore He is the one to blame.
God allowed the incident and then controlled the events and outcome. How absurd!
The problem with the premise
We acquire much of what we believe from a lifetime of indoctrination by the institutional church, schools, family and friends. We believe who God is because we are told from a very young age who He is and how He operates.
We are even told that no matter good or bad, all comes from God, even though the Bible explicitly states that it is the devil who comes to steal, kill and destroy.
We are told that God is always in control, even when His Word states the opposite and He specifically gave mankind dominion to rule on earth.
We are made to believe that God allows certain things to happen to his children so that they may learn and grow spiritually from these events, even though took these bad things on Himself on the cross.
None of these suggestions are true and none are Biblical.
In fact, they are all blasphemous.
The answer
God gave all mankind choice by placing before us life and death and then telling us to choose life. Some of us don’t. The bottom line is that we all have a choice. Incidents happen because of this. Not because God permits them in the lives of some of us and not in the lives of others.
God did not permit this incident in our neighbourhood to happen. It is the devil who came to steal, kill and destroy.
God is not in the bullet path guiding business. He is in the salvation business. And that business He has already fully accomplished in Jesus Christ.
God is not in control. He placed us in control and blaming Him to have been in control of certain situations where mankind should have exercised better judgement, is utter blasphemy and preposterous. It is going against His word.
God does not have a purpose with misadventure, affliction and suffering (the things He is being accused of orchestrating and the very matters that He has already fully taken upon Himself on the cross) and as much as He did not cause them in the first place, He also does not control their outcome the way we think.
The verdict
By saying that it is by grace that the bullet missed all vital organs and the man lives, we are not only attributing some of the characteristics and conduct of the devil to God, but we are at the same time accusing God of sadistic and malicious behaviour. This is how an unloving father acts.
What do we comment in a situation like this?
All we can say is: praise God that the man is alive, because in God there is only life and light and peace.
… and then let’s pray for those who hear the voice of the enemy rather than the Voice of God.
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