THE PONENTE: Why Pains and Suffering

(An Apostolic Theodicy – Part 5)

As of this writing, thousands of Jewish people died and suffered a lot after the terrorists group called Hamas and Hezbolah invaded Israel. Children were killed. Both Israelis young and adults suffered, devastated due to the on going war while thousands of Palestinian civilians also were killed as a collateral damage from Israel’s counter-attack. Even hospitals which shall be the refuge of both were bombed, destroyed and was ruthlessly massacred beyond description.

I cannot fathom the feelings of the Heavenly Father as He watched the war between His creation. I cannot fathom the silent cries and tears of heaven as people fell to the ground as the fiery bullets and flaming scud missiles flew through the aerospace and hit the bunch of people underneath.

Almost two thousand (2000) years ago, Jesus in His sermon on the Mount of Olives spoke these words in Matthew 24:6-9 and I quote:

“6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

“7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.

“8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.

“9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.”

Also in the Book of St. Luke 21:5-24, I quote:
5As some of the disciples were remarking how the temple was adorned with beautiful stones and consecrated gifts, Jesus said, 6“As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”

7“Teacher,” they asked, “when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are about to take place?”

8Jesus answered, “See to it that you are not deceived. For many will come in My name, claiming, ‘I am He,’ and, ‘The time is near.’ Do not follow them. 9When you hear of wars and rebellions, do not be alarmed. These things must happen first, but the end is not imminent.”

12But before all this, they will seize you and persecute you. On account of My name they will deliver you to the synagogues and prisons, and they will bring you before kings and governors. 13This will be your opportunity to serve as witnesses. 14So make up your mind not to worry beforehand how to defend yourselves. 15For I will give you speech and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict.

16You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you will be put to death. 17And you will be hated by everyone because of My name. 18Yet not even a hair of your head will perish. 19By your patient endurance you will gain your souls.

20But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, you will know that her desolation is near. 21Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those in the city get out, and let those in the country stay out of the city. 22For these are the days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written.

23How miserable those days will be for pregnant and nursing mothers! For there will be great distress upon the land and wrath against this people. 24They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive into all the nations. And Jerusalem will be trodden down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

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Most of us know that during World War II, many Germans participated in the murder of six million Jews. But few realize that an almost equal number of Poles, Ukrainians, Russians, Gypsies, handicapped, and so on were also killed. And this doesn’t include those actually killed in combat, or those who died in cities from bombing, etc. We read of millions of Jews and Slavs arrested in Europe by battalions of police and Gestapo.

In some countries, such as Poland, the Jews and Slavs were first forced into ghettos. But, sooner or later, millions of them were herded so tightly into sweltering rail cars that often there was no room to even sit. They traveled for days without food, without water, with not enough oxygen; often they urinated, defecated, and vomited standing up.

Thousands died on these journeys. During one four-day transport in July 1944 of 2521 prisoners from France to Dachau, 984 people perished.7 When the captives arrived at the camps, they were separated by guards who decided who could work and who would immediately be exterminated. Children were almost always exterminated because they couldn’t work and their mothers’ attempts to hide them in their clothing failed.

We read of many thousands, often entire families, stripped naked and forced to lie in ditches on top of just-shot people, many of whom were still moaning. The newcomers often spoke in low voices and tried to comfort the dying until they too were shot, and on it went.

A German bystander recalled a naked “girl, slim with black hair, who, as she passed me, pointed to herself and said, “twenty-three years old.” Of course, we read of gas chambers, some holding as many as 2000 people at once; of Zyklon-B gas dropped through small openings in the ceilings; of guards who said they knew the victims were dead when the screaming stopped.

When the guards opened the doors, they found piles of naked men, women, and children in the corners of the rooms. They had climbed on top of each other in attempts to flee the choking clouds. Other prisoners then took their bodies to the ovens. It is estimated that the ovens at Auschwitz were able to cremate 4756 people a day.

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One time, Jesus was confronted with a very difficult question man could think, let’s read:

LUKE 13:1-5, and I quote:
Verse (1)- Now on the same occasion there were some present who reported to Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. (2) And Jesus said to them, “Do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered this fate? (3) “I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. (4) “Or do you suppose that those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them were worse culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem? (5) “I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT OF LUKAN ACCOUNT

The Lord continues his solemn warnings. Israel pictured in the parable of the barren fig tree. Verse 1. – There were present at that season some that told him of the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices; better rendered, now there were present at that particular time; namely, when the Master was discoursing of the threatening signs of the times, and urging men to repent and to turn and make their peace with God while there was yet time, for a terrible crisis was impending on that doomed land.

Some of those then present, probably Jerusalem Jews, specially told off to watch the great Teacher, struck with his grave foreboding tone, when he spoke of the present aspect of affairs, quoted to him a recent bloody fray which had taken place in the temple courts. “Yes, Master,” these seemed to say, “we see there is a fierce hatred which is ever growing more intense between Jew and Roman.

You know, for instance, what has just taken place in the city, only the victims in this case were Galileans, not scrupulous, righteous Jews. Is it not possible that these bloody deeds are simply punishments of men who are great sinners, as these doubtless were?”

Such-like incidents were often now occurring under the Roman rule. This, likely enough, had taken place at some crowded Passover gathering, when a detachment of soldiers came down from the Castle of Antonia and had dealt a red-handed “justice” among the turbulent mob. Josephus relates several of the more formidable of such collisions between the Romans and the Jews.

At one Passover he relates how three thousand Jews were butchered, and the temple courts were filled with dead corpses; at another of these feasts two thousand perished in like manner On another occasion disguised legionaries were sent by Pilate the governor with daggers among the Passover crowds. These wild and terrible collisions were of frequent occurrence in these sad days.

We prefer to think great evil is limited to a few depraved individuals, but that’s not true. Large populations commit heinous evils. In the examples that follow, I am going to tell some tales that are graphically violent. Because of space constraints, I will limit the examples of human evil to those occurring since 1900. You will find this information upsetting, but sometimes, frankly, we need our comfort in this world, our ease in this world, to be upset.

And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans, because they suffered such things?

Verses 2, 3. – And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans, because they suffered such things! I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. “Yes,” answered the Master,” these, you are right, are among the dread signs of the times I spoke of; but do not dream that the doom fell on those poor victims because they were special sinners. What happened to them will soon be the doom of the whole nation, unless a great change in the life of Israel takes place.”

Luke 13:3
I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

Luke 13:4
Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem?

Verse 4. – Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? “You remember,” goes on the Master, “the catastrophe of the fall of the tower in Siloam; the poor sufferers who were crushed there were not specially wicked men.” The Lord used these occasions, we see, for something more than the great national lesson.

Men are too ready, now as then, to give way to the unloving error of looking at individual misfortune as the consequence of individual crime. Such human uncharitable judgments the Lord bitterly condemns. The rigid Jews looked on the catastrophe as a retribution because the workmen who perished were paid by Pilate out of the sacred corban money (see Josephus, ‘Bell. Jud.,’ 2:09. 4). The works were no doubt in connection with the aqueduct to the Pool of Siloam.
Luke 13:5

I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

Verse 5. – Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. The words were indeed prophetic to the letter. Thousands of Jews perished in the last terrible war by the swords of the Roman legionaries, like the Galileans of vs. 1; not a few met their death in the capital among the ruins of the burning fallen houses. We know that Jerusalem in its entirety was destroyed, and the loss of life in the siege, and especially in its dread closing scenes, was simply incalculable. Within forty years all this happened.

Usually, when there are NATURAL EVIL OR NATURAL DISASTERS/CALAMITIES happened and many perished, some “judgmental people” may say, “maybe, these people who died were sinners that the judgment of God befall upon them…”
Then, Jesus will answer, “Nay, except you repent, you (judgmental people) will also perish.”

Let’s further read:
JOHN 9:1-5:
Verse (1) As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. (2) And His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?” (3) Jesus answered, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him. (4) “We must work the works of Him who sent Me as long as it is day; night is coming when no one can work.

BIBLICAL CONTEXT

The idea of the possible sinfulness of the child while in the womb of its mother – a theory based upon the supposed moral activity of Jacob and Esau in the womb of Rebecca, and the statement that John the Baptist leaped in the womb of his mother Elisabeth (Luke 1:41) – may have co-operated with other vague views floating in their minds with sufficient intensity to explain the first part of their question.

The supposition of some , that the disciples may have thought that the man’s sins were foreknown, and that the blindness was punishment beforehand, is so abhorrent to any notion of the justice of God, that we cannot suppose that it ever entered into their inquiry.

The fact that no fewer than five distinct hypotheses as to the possibility of culpability before birth having had some place in Hebrew and contemporary thought, is an adequate explanation of the fact that they should have put this ever-recurring problem of evil in the particular form in which we find it.

Jesus answered, “neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.”

Verse 3. – Jesus answered, neither did this man sin, nor his parents (that he should be born blind). There was no immediate connection between the special sin of the parents and this calamity. Our Lord does not assert in those words the sinless-ness of those people but severs the supposed link between their conduct and the specific affliction before them. But (he was born blind) that the works of God should be made manifest in him.

The disciples will soon see in the history of this man the meaning of his lifelong blindness. In the man himself’ the grace of God will work mightily, both a bodily and spiritual illumination. Evil in this case is to redound to greater good. This provides no opportunity for any to fasten on one or another some charge of special transgression, but, as all evil ought to do, it provides opportunity for the redeeming work which Christ came to accomplish, and which he permitted his disciples to share.

There are times that evil may be happened, so that the glory of God will be revealed. Meaning, we will re-focus on the greatness and the wisdom of God instead of the happenings of evil.
On March 25, 2020, I celebrated my birthday in a funeral service.

We have buried the 3-day old baby boy of one of the couples in our Church. The Baby was delivered by his mother (premature) with infection in the blood. Then, questions propped up our minds, “why God took the baby in that stage and that age?”

Maybe, in the wisdom or mind of God, He is willing to prevent the prolong agony of the child or His parents seeing that the former will grow helplessly or with deformity either physically, mentally or physiologically. Job has this statement, “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD” (Job 1:21). Or in the words of St. Paul, “for we brought nothing into the world, so we cannot carry anything out of it” (I Timothy 6:7).

In my 45th Birthday, I never imagine and expect that God will lead me to a graveyard just to pray and console the bereaved family who lost a child. I cannot fathom. All I can say, Lord, thank you for lending to us this Baby Boy named Ethan for a matter of three (3) days. Thank you for the gift of life. Thank you for giving us a lesson how to love, how to value life and how to reflect that we are just “dust” in your sight.

God sometimes withheld an explanation to us, the reasons for pains and sufferings because of our human nature. One of the gifts God has given to us is the gift of memory. We can recall the past. However, He didn’t give us the ability to know our future. Why? Probably, in the wisdom of God, though I cannot speak in behalf of God, we cannot accept our fate and/or destiny the moment God will reveal to us our tomorrow. That’s the essence to be human. We are finite. We are limited. Our minds cannot fathom the hidden secrets of life’s mysteries. We just live leave everything into the hands of God.

The moment He (God) reveals to us our fate or future, and if we see that tragic accidents, horrible crimes or disasters that will befall upon us or to our loved ones, then, we will not be happy living our lives. We will be under the cloak of fears, worries and trauma. We will be in bondage of our own fate.

In the Sacred Book, God only reveals some general statements like prophecy to have some glimpse of what the future may be like so that we can cling on to His Divine promises. Amos 3:7 tells us: “Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealed his secret to his servants the prophets.” But He is referring that to the Prophets of the Old Testament. In the New Testament, God gave gift of prophecy to the Church only to edify the Body of Christ.

Usually, prophecy came through the exposition of the Word by Preachers or somebody God will used during the service but with proper interpretation as explained by 1 Corinthians chapter 14. Anent to this, God can give vision to the young men (Joel 2:28-30) and even to the faithful men used by God. For without vision, the people perish (Proverbs 29:18). However, God did not intend to reveal to us the fate/destiny of individual as to the “specific timeline” (day and time of occurrences) of our lives.

He never do that.

Except in some “special cases” as in the dream of Joseph, dream of the Egyptian Pharaoh (about the 7-year famine), Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream of the great image, etc., God laid the general perspectives as His divine design throughout the ages to fulfill what was in His mind before the foundation of the world.* (Pastor Jerry C. Delicano)