By REV. LUNA DINGAYAN
www.nordis.net

“My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? I have cried desperately for help, but still it does not come.” — Psalms 22:1

Responses to questions of Cathryn Taylor of Australia
First of six parts

1. How do you explain the problem of a God who is both good and powerful in a world of brokenness?

To affirm our faith that God is both good and powerful in a world marred by so much evil is a theological problem, indeed. Perhaps, it is far easier to understand the brokenness of this world if we say that God is powerful but not good, loving, or compassionate; That God is powerful but cruel; that God doesn’t care for the innocent, for the victims of injustices; That God is impassable as philosophers say. Or, we may say that God is good but not powerful at all. And so, God cannot tame the unruly powers of this world. God cannot stop them, although God is good, compassionate, and caring; simply because God is not powerful. This would explain, therefore, why there is so much suffering and brokenness in this world.

Perhaps, it is easier to solve the brokenness of this world if our God is like the God of Prophet Jonah who would like his God to rain fire and brimstone to the people of Nineveh and end their evil ways, or of today’s doomsday prophets who keep on scheduling the catastrophic end of the world but never happened as expected. However, the writer of the Book of Jonah believes that God is compassionate not only to the Israelites, but also to the people of Nineveh, their enemies whom they considered evil. Prophet Jonah has no franchise for God’s compassion.

Hence, the Biblical God is affirmed as both good and powerful. But why is it that there’s so much suffering in this world, especially among the innocent? At the height of Typhoon Sendong in Mindanao last December, communities along the Cagayan River were literally wiped out into the sea. People who had nothing to do with logging in the mountains of Iligan suffered immeasurably. I’m sure many of them were religious and faithful to God. In fact, some UCCP churches in these communities were among those washed out by the raging flash floods. Does God really care for the innocent?

The Book of Job deals with this problem of theodicy more deeply. The Writer believes that not everything that happens in this world is God’s will or caused by God. There are evil forces in this world, represented by two monsters called leviathan and behemoth that are causing people to suffer (Job 40:15-41:26). God has been dealing with them, although at the moment they are not yet under God’s effective control.

God cares for the innocent. I don’t believe it is God’s will that innocent people are washed out into the sea by flash floods. I do believe God desires everyone to live an abundant life, a life overflowing. But the forces of evil manifested by the greed of politicians who used their powerful connections and influences to obtain logging concessions in the forest reservations of Iligan, resulting to the denudation of the forest reserves, inevitably caused the flash flood as shown by initial investigations.

But nevertheless, God has a way of turning tragedies into blessings. The Story of Joseph and his brothers clearly drives out this point (Gen. 37-50). He was sold to slavery by his own brothers because of their consuming jealousy against him. It was a tragic event, indeed. Joseph suffered a lot, until he became one of the rulers of Egypt in charge of the food of the Empire. Then, there was famine and his brothers were forced to go to Egypt to buy food. They never realized that the person selling them food was their own brother whom they sold to slavery. Joseph’s words to his brothers reveal his faith in God: “You plotted evil against me,” he said, “but God turned it into good, in order to preserve the lives of many people who are alive today because of what happened” (Gen. 50:20).

Sometimes, we have to learn our lessons in life the hard and painful way. This is one of the wisdom of the ages. Typhoons and flash floods painfully teach us a lesson or two about being good and responsible stewards of God’s creation. Good governance must tame the insatiable greed of politicians. Those thousands who died due to flash floods have died in vain, and flash floods would continue to happen, if we have not learned our lessons and change our ways.

God, indeed, can turn evil human intentions and their impact into something good. This is one of the great paradoxes of the Biblical faith: that it is in the midst of brokenness and powerlessness that God’s power and goodness is concretely shown. God deals with the world’s brokenness not by the love of power, but by the power of love. # nordis.net

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