April 25, 2024 Why Would God Do It

I guess I am known as being too vulnerable, at times. Yet, I can only be who I am with you. If you listen to PBNradio.com because you think I might have all the answers, you will be sorely disappointed. I have deep seated questions just like you. I struggle with finding answers just like you, except I will do it On The Air while you are there listening. Here is another one of those times, only it is in writing on my blog.

If you have listened to PBNradio.com for very long, you know I like to tell you some of the dreams I have, and some of the pictures that come in my mind from time to time. They will happen out of the blue.

As I have pondered the answer to “Why Would God Do It”, there is one picture that keeps coming back to mind, a picture I had several years ago:

“Claudia and I have been transported to Heaven. All of God’s people are there. Time on Earth is behind us. We look around, and we actually SEE many of the wonderful things about which we have read in the Bible. River of Life. Tree of Life. 12 Different Kinds of Fruit. Leaves to make tea for the Healing of the Nations. Streets of Gold, and so much more. There they are, RIGHT THERE. We could play “tag” if we wanted, touching each one and moving quickly on to the next.

One of the first things we encounter is the HUGE wall that surrounds the New Jerusalem. It is massive, so massive we can’t see the end of it as we squint and peer far in the distance on either side, nor the top, as it stretched far into the sky. As our Instruction Manual had said, it is 1500 miles long, 1500 miles wide and 1500 miles high. It is such a beautiful, expansive wall. The vibrant colors of the precious stones forming the foundation, are beyond description.

Claudia and I slowly approach it. I reach out my hand and touch it, feeling its coolness and strength. I close my eyes and put my cheek to the wall, as if I’m hugging the massive stones, just standing there for the longest time, listening to the sounds of Heaven, and feeling the closeness of the wall. I whispered to Claudia, “We are here, Claudia. We are ACTUALLY here!”

I have many years of education. Actually, I found I’m the most educated one in my family in decades, and from my research in my ancestry, even centuries. It sounds like I am bragging, yet I am not. It’s just a simple fact. I point it out to make the point, below.

I have a BA, a Masters, and I went back to school after my Masters in order to study for Medicine. As a result, I know a lot of facts. I know a lot of “facts” contained in the Bible. I know a lot of facts in Chemistry & Biology & Genetics & Histology & Physics. Yet, in spite of all that education, I remain disturbed and unsettled.

I am being serious. This isn’t a homily on the Wisdom of God or the Love of God. I just don’t understand “WHY”. Is there really anyone who does? I’m sure there are some. Yet, I believe most have been like me… they want to understand, yet, for the sake of those around them, we pretend to understand. People expect us to understand, therefore we will convince ourselves we DO understand. Yet, try and explain to someone WHY God did it, and your answer will reveal very quickly whether you KNOW, or whether you are guessing just like most.

Honestly, I’m tired of just knowing “facts”. Ask a Believer WHY God did it, and you will probably get practiced replies, or replies they have been taught. Those are the answers they will give until they are honest with themselves and have a deep determined desire to understand. That’s where I am.

I don’t question the goodness of God. I don’t question the existence of God. I have gone to Scripture and gathered an abundance of factual miracles and prophecies that could have ONLY happened because the Living God is REAL! I wrote them down in a document so I can review them when doubts of God’s existence start creeping into my mind. His existence can be explained from indisputable facts. Yet, my question remains. It's not a question that can be explained by noting passages in the Bible, or by pointing to events in history, but only which can be “experienced” by “something” or “someone” Who resides deep in my heart. I will know when this takes place. To pretend otherwise is just to try and fool others, but mostly to fool ourselves… To play the part of being a Christian around others who look to us for answers. It’s not enough for me to just believe it or to just accept it. I HAVE to know WHY!

“ That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you,” Ephesians 1: 17-18

God says He WILL show us. So, I ask, and I wait for the answer.

Claudia and I were both 4th Generation Seventh-day Adventists until we left that church about 40 years ago. That religion breeds distrust, fear, anxiety, skepticism, doubt, and a lack of confidence to name a few. As an SDA, one could NEVER know for sure their Salvation until Jesus comes and either takes us back with Him, OR we are left here, watching them go. THAT breeds FEAR and anxiety! SDAs will talk all day long about how loving God is, yet what was taught in the schools and from the pulpits was anything BUT a loving God Whom I could love and trust. This has left me with deep scars of doubt, and an intense desire to know and understand WHY God did what He did. WHY? I HAVE to know! I envy those who have already found out!

I know a lot of good people. I also know a lot of good Christian people. YET, is being a “good” Christian enough? Not for me, and as I read Scripture, not for God, either. Being “good” does not even begin to answer even that one simple, one word question. I mean, look at Israel. They were definitely NOT good, and we as Christians have made a poor showing, ourselves. Yet, in His Words He says He loves both Jews and Gentiles with an EVERLASTING LOVE. I just can’t comprehend it. WHY would God do it?

As I have gleaned “facts” from Scripture, I STILL haven’t found my answer. I HAVE to know! I mean, I have to KNOW – that unwavering belief and faith and immoveable KNOWING, as a “granite cliff remains immoveable when meeting the surging waves of a Cat 5 hurricane on the furious ocean far below”, type of KNOWING, that only comes from a deep personal experience with God, which cannot be obtained by just knowing “facts” about Him.

WHY did He do it? I am a “fact” person. That is what education has taught me. Yet, “Facts” just can’t answer this one. Way down in my heart and soul I NEED to understand this. I am a Homo Sapien – a Human, a Man. Humanly, in our vocabulary, it just makes NO SENSE!

Don’t try and make me understand by telling me God is LOVE. What on Earth does that mean? Don’t try by telling me He loved us so much He was willing to DIE for us. As hard as I try, I just can’t comprehend that meaning on any human level? If it is my brain that is supposed to make the connection, it FAILS! There just is not enough computing power in my brain. Smoke starts pouring out my ears. Who would do that? Those are just “facts”. Those answers are just learned responses: God is Love; God loves us, so He died for us. That is not to demean the action. It is a plea to understand “WHY”?

For me, facts of what happened are just words which are learned and rehearsed by Christians in order to give a quick answer to skeptics. It doesn’t take a DEEP understanding to be able to regurgitate facts that we have learned. It’s like memorizing a Bible verse. We can repeat it over and over, and faster and faster, yet, that has no correlation with being able to understand and experience it down in the secret chambers of my heart.

I HAVE to understand! The REAL answer MUST invade the questions in my mind and nestle in, as a mamma bird nestles down into her nest, completely covering her new born babies in order to keep them warm and secure, down deep in my heart. I want to understand to the point where His answer will cause an explosion of change directed at each and every atom in my body, physically and spiritually, settling in my heart, forcing me to bow my face low to the ground in tears of understanding, as it dawns on me the depths this answer will bring. I will hold it close where only death will release my grip on it. I want to tell others about this Gospel and KNOW what believing in it really means! I want people to be able to look at me and say, “WOW! Look at him. He is different. He has EXPERIENCED something I have GOT to have.”

Understand, this isn’t something I can stir up on my own, in my own heart. Only HOLY Spirit can give this, and only at a time of His choosing. I just can’t grow tired of searching and searching, and asking and asking until He gives it! I will KNOW when that is, as I will be radically changed, inside and out, with tears streaming down my face, as I beg for MORE!

Many years ago, Claudia and I were Missionaries in a little town in Tanzania, East Africa. As a Missionary from far away, I was asked to preach in their church. I was also invited to travel to a little village where moms and dads with little babies who sat on their laps or who were “fed lunch” from the breasts of their mamma, came and sat under the shade of a huge tree, in order to hear me tell them about Jesus and His Gospel. It may have been, for some, the first and ONLY time they would encounter Jesus. Yet, what I taught were just “facts”. I didn’t have His Gospel planted deep inside me, as I didn’t know how. I didn’t even know HOW to ask. Me, a Missionary, didn’t know Who God is, and why He did what He did. I did the best I could, yet I failed miserably, because I didn’t KNOW God. I didn’t leave them with any sense that I had radically experienced something, or someone, that changed my life forever, nor had I left them with any deep desire to have, what I supposedly had experienced and found.

I firmly believe God is infinite and eternal. He knows the end from the beginning. Before the foundation of the world, He KNEW what would take place. OR, did He have a moment of senility? Had dementia set in? Was it just a weak moment that God had experienced? Did He create Man/Woman before He really stopped to THINK about it? And then it was too late?

I am stuck on a passage in Ephesians that just doesn’t make sense, IF God knows the end from the beginning:

“…even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sonsthrough Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us…” Ephesians 1:4-8

In an attempt to understand, I have underlined nearly the whole passage. How on Earth do we explain this? We are CHOSEN by God? The riches of His grace which He has LAVISHED upon us? Redemption and the forgiveness of our sins? He predestined us for ADOPTION as sons?

What in the world does all this mean? It seems if I REALLY understood this passage, I would have no more fear, no more doubt, no more questioning God about tragedies in our lives, no more distrust, no more anger at wrongs done toward me or my family, no more passive reading as I “study” Scripture. And yet those things persist.

It is one thing to give birth to a child. Yet it is quite another thing to ADOPT a child. I would NEVER choose a child for adoption if I knew he would turn on Claudia and me and plot our death. WHY, if He knows the end from the beginning, and everything in between, WHY on EARTH would God do this? Why would He even THINK of creating MAN/WOMAN? If He knew what we would do, WHY even start the process?

Maybe it is all just a big joke which God has played on us as retribution for our lack of staunch, unwavering allegiance to Him. NO, THAT wouldn’t make sense, either. Not when I know the “facts” of what happened to God’s Son. He wouldn’t allow that cruelty toward His Son to take place, just to play a sick joke on us.

Many would say He went through with the creation of Man “Because of His LOVE”. What on earth does THAT mean? You might as well say, “Because of His stupidity”, or “Because of His advanced Dementia.” One does NOT adopt a child if he knows that child will be full of death and destruction. I don’t care how much you may think you love that child, or think how sweet and cute it is, or how your heart is drawn to him as it coos and babbles and reaches for you and hugs you, laying his head on your chest. If you KNOW the catastrophe that child will produce, you DO NOT, you WILL NOT adopt it. As he grows into adulthood, He will make your life, and the lives of all those around you, a living HELL.

What on earth is going on, here? WHY did God do it?

If He knew the unbelievable, horrible EVIL men would do and practice, and after just 1656 years of Earth’s 6000 year history, God had to end up destroying all living things except Noah and his family, why on Earth would He go through the trouble of creating MAN in the first place? It just makes no sense. Furthermore, after the rescue of Noah and his family, man would turn against Him again with even MORE EVIL VENGEANCE. This just makes NO sense. You can’t just tell me, “Because God LOVES you.” Those are just words which have little or NO meaning in this world where we live. HOW do I “understand” that?

The history of Israel is one of those “facts” of which I have talked with you On The Air. God HAD to know the people of Israel would choose Evil, and rebel against Him. He had to know they would complain in the Sinai Desert, screaming and crying in fear, demanding for Moses to take them back to Egypt, EVEN THOUGH they saw bold evidence of God’s presence with them in the Cloud By Day, and the Fire By Night. They saw the stark reality of His presence at Sinai. They even heard His voice. They NEVER heard the voice of any of the thousands of gods which they had worshipped in Egypt. Yet, they rebelled against Him, and worshipped the Evil, satanic gods of the land instead of the Living God of Heaven.

He HAD to know the majority of the Kings of Israel & Judah would lead the people away from Himself, and they would start participating in the Canaanites’ lewd sexual, EVIL rituals including the murder of their own babies, which were used as offerings to a pretend god in order to appease him, instead of offering their sons and daughters as LIVING sacrifices to the Living God, set apart for service to Him. Yet, He created them and called them His Chosen People. He had to know they would bow down and worship the mythical gods made of wood and stone as their creator, instead of the LIVING God Who actually DID create them. Why on earth would He even consider at the outset, creating them, if He knew?

He HAD to know His Son would have to leave the absolute majesty of Heaven, and come to earth to be hated by many of His own people of Israel, would be tortured, stripped naked and murdered on a cross by the people He had chosen as His own. HIS OWN PEOPLE! Yet, in order to negate the Covenant He made with them at Sinai, GOD had to DIE! I can just hear Jesus in Heaven talking with God, “You want me to do WHAT?”

He had to know Christians would grow tired in their beliefs and worship of Him. After all, it’s been a couple thousand years since Jesus was here. Maybe He has forgotten us. OR, maybe those stories were just fairy tales, fanciful yarns to make us smile and dream, like Peter & the Wolf or Hansel and Gretel or Snow White. While our Pastors tell us how Israel turned against God, and how Israel would just go through the motions performing the requirements and duties at the Temple, we shake our head in unbelief at their stupidity and hard hearts. Yet knowing all the stories, even WE have come to the point of just going through the motions of attending church each Sunday, and we became “one day a week” Christians, and even at that, just for a few hours before the ballgame. Yet, He calls us Gentiles “the Mystery of the Ages whom He CHOSE before the foundation of the world.” We, too, are CHOSEN by God! WHAT?

He had to know, even as things are wrapping up here on Earth, Israel is being attacked by the nations surrounding them, just as if we are today, experiencing the same stories we read in the Old Testament. As if that is not enough, the world has turned against Israel, unbelievably plotting with Israel’s attackers for their demise and destruction. Christians are still, for the most part, unaware of the Biblical significance of what is happening here on Earth. We have become more concerned and absorbed with the entertaining and satisfying “things” of Earth, than the “Spiritual Blessings” and warnings from Heaven. All because we do not KNOW God, and are confused by the many voices we are hearing. Did God make a mistake? Has He realized it, yet?

Why, if He knew most Christians, which He says He Chose before the foundation of the world, would take the easy, lazy highway that supposedly connects with Main Street in downtown New Jerusalem, instead of the difficult dirt path that leads through the dark, foreboding, overgrown forest where unsuspecting deadly danger awaits us, WHY would He choose to create man, anyway?

Why, if He knew most men would develop NO FEAR of Hell nor Him, giving Him little or no thought as we plot our daily decisions, WHY would He even create man in the first place?

Why, if He knew Pastors and Ministers would stop preaching the holiness of God and His great power toward us who turn to Him, and instead start preaching that God will make us rich, and we can order and demand Him and His angels to act on our behalf … wanting the enticing “things” of Earth rather than learning to “Be Still and KNOW” the mighty God of Heaven, WHY would He even create man in the first place?

I just don’t understand. What is this “love” God talks about? It can’t be the kind of ‘love” we know here on Earth. The “love” here is transient. It is fleeting. It is “love”, until it isn’t. It can be tampered with and manipulated, and it can vanish by the simplest of thoughts or actions.

God, I have GOT to understand this passage….

“For God soooo loved the World, that He gave His only begotten son…”.

What in the world does this mean? It’s not enough for me to be able to recite it. I want to KNOW it? I want to “Experience” the WHY of God.

I don’t need any more “facts”. I have an abundance of facts. I need a change of heart. I need Him to invade my soul, reside there, shatter and chase out all pretense to evil, and break me until I hear and pay attention to ONLY His voice, and deeply and truly understand WHY.

THEN I can share what I KNOW, what God means by,

“Be Still and KNOW that I am God!”

“That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of ALL Grace, may give to us the Spirit of Wisdom and of Revelation in the knowledge of Him.”

THAT is what I Want! That is what I Need!

I can’t go on without it!

I will NOT go on without it!