This week’s blog post begins with a provocative question: When terrorists strike, are they doing God’s will?
Before we come up with an answer off the tops of our heads, let’s think about this for a moment and ask a question concerning the nature of God. “Is there anything the Lord cannot do?” Biblically, the answer to that question is, “No.”
Stay with me.
Second, we could ask, “Is there anything the Lord does not know?” Again, the answer must be, “No. There is nothing the Lord who created everything does not know.”
The third question is related to the first two: “Is God Almighty sovereign? Does anything happen on the earth or in the universe which He does not cause or allow?” Well, if we believe in a God for whom nothing is impossible, whose knowledge is perfect, then the answer to these two questions must be, “Yes, He is sovereign,” and “No, nothing happens anywhere which He does not cause or allow.”
If we are certain of these fundamental truths about the nature of God, then we can return to our beginning question: “When terrorists strike, are they doing God’s will?
The answer is yes.
And no.
Let’s deal with the second answer first, so those reading this article won’t think that I should be placed ever so gently under the wheels of a rolling bus. People who kill others for any religious reason—regardless of religion—are murderers. It is a sin, and that sin is clearly condemned in Scripture as well as in secular law.
Now to the first answer. In Scripture, it was not unusual for the Lord to raise up a country to deal with another nation which He had determined should be punished for their grievous sins. One example is in Jeremiah 25:8–9, where we are clearly told that God sent Babylon to wreak destruction on Israel and the surrounding nations. “Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: Because you have not obeyed my words, behold, I will send for all the tribes of the north, declares the LORD, and for Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants, and against all these surrounding nations. I will devote them to destruction, and make them a horror, a hissing, and an everlasting desolation.” 1
However, Babylon would likewise be destroyed because of their iniquity: “Then after seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, declares the LORD, making the land an everlasting waste. I will bring upon that land all the words that I have uttered against it, everything written in this book, which Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations. For many nations and great kings shall make slaves even of them, and I will recompense them according to their deeds and the work of their hands” (Jeremiah 25:12–14).
These events were all God’s will. He planned them. He raised up Babylon for a purpose, and He brought it down for a purpose. Persia, which He raised up to defeat Babylon, was later conquered by Alexander the Great.
So. Are terrorist attacks, terrible as they are, God’s will? Somehow, yes, they must be. The Lord would have prevented them if they were not. Does that indicate that God is “on their side?” No. It means that He is bringing to pass what He determines must come to pass, in His sovereignty. It is also within His will that He will cause those who perform such deeds to suffer downfall as well, as He did Babylon and Persia.
Are we able to see His will in all of this, clearly?
Not so much.
I live in the United States. God has raised this nation up for a reason, known to Him alone. It is not outside the realm of biblical thinking to entertain the idea that He would allow an attack by a person or organization to move His plan for this nation and all nations forward. Would those attacks be a result of the sinfulness of the U.S.? Well, show me a nation without sin, and we’ll discuss it. No, God will perform what He purposes. The obedient duty of Christians of any nation is to put their trust in the One who already knows the future and to seek a city whose builder and maker is God, eternal in the heavens, regardless of what occurs in their countries.
God is sovereign. He always has been. He always will be. He is the King—capital K—eternal.
1All Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.
6 comments
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January 2, 2017 at 6:05 pm
Lois Degan
Here are questions I am always asked:
1. Is it God’s will that babies and children are raped?
2. Is it God’s will people are killed by drunk drivers?
3. Is it God’s will that His children are hideously tortured before being
raped and murdered?
4. Is it God’s will that women have abortions?
5. Where does our “free will” begin and God’s will end?
So on and so forth.
January 3, 2017 at 8:10 am
jlthomson
Lois brings up questions she has asked that should challenge all Christians. These are difficult questions, and we must answer them thoughtfully, sensitively, and wisely. I’m thinking about whether I should address them in the next article. Any input?
January 3, 2017 at 8:11 am
blogsense-by-barb
Excellent reminder, Jim, that God is still on His throne. His ways have always been higher than ours & always will be … or He is not God! He is God & rules over eternity from beginning to end! Amazing thought … 😊
January 3, 2017 at 8:18 am
jlthomson
Thanks, Barb. Coming to a better understanding of God’s sovereignty has been a long time coming in my walk with Him. The answers are rarely comfortable and easy. Lois brought up some very tough questions she has been asked. But ultimately, God is either the supreme ruler or He is not. I often think of His response to Job in such cases, but only when I’m dealing with someone who is aggressively going after God. Sometimes these questions arise during tragedies and losses, so we must deal with them with sensitivity. In such cases, it may be best to just listen.
January 6, 2017 at 6:47 am
bcmbear
God in His sovereignty has chosen to give all human beings free will; that being the case does it necessarily follow that humans as individuals do what God wants? I believe the answer is NO! God allows events such as terrorism to occur for His divine purposes of which we (as humans) actually know nothing about. We all ‘fall short of His glory’ and therefore (as fallible and sinful human beings) seek to somehow make sense of events that Lois describes above, or put another way seek to explain the Divine. God is in control of the universe but we (humans) are in control of our own thoughts and the dreadful happenings that we see in the world today. This is probably a very inadequate response, but then again I’m just a ‘normal’ human being!
January 6, 2017 at 9:35 am
jlthomson
Hmmm. Bruce Michael is a normal human being. Let me think about that for a moment…
You’re correct, in my view, that the answer is “no.” However, we must–as you assert in your comment–acknowledge that nothing happens on the earth that the Lord doesn’t cause or allow. If He is not sovereign, He is not God. That’s why I reasoned that the answer is both no–yes, free will, sin, and all that–and yes–He is sovereign and somehow works all of this stuff for His own purposes.