A Renewed Conversation

I've had SO much fun over the last week emailing back and forth with one of my best childhood friends. It's been at least 15 years since we've seen each other, but we've nevertheless picked up quite a wonderful, personal conversation. He comes from a different faith tradition from mine and yet we've been able to share deeply about our experiences with God. With his permission, I'm posting some excerpts from our email interaction.

My hope is that as he and I share our conversation with you, you will be inspired to have conversations at a deeper level with your friends. It can feel intimidating to try to formulate candid, personal answers to people's honest questions. Something makes us feel as if we will certainly say something wrong and mess it up. But if we will have the courage to open our mouths and our hearts, God's promise is to use us (Mark 13:11).

My friend's questions are indented and my answers follow below:

Talk to me about God’s judgments on His people. The Old Testament is filled with stories of keeping the commandments and enjoying positive consequences (both individually and as a society) and NOT keeping the commandments and suffering negative consequences. First, I wonder where we are today as a society and whether or not the difficulties the world is experiencing will bring us closer to God or not.

Hmmm... I think that what God did in the Old Testament with the nation of Israel (as His chosen people) is completely different than what we see happening today. What God did to instruct and correct that entire nation that was called corporately to be a blessing / witness to the nations around them (Gen. 12:3, 22:18) is similar to how God instructs and corrects individual people under the new covenant who are called to similarly be a blessing / witness to the individuals around them (Acts 1:8). All of that to say, I don't think God is interested in choosing and using societies. That is / was a one-time deal with Israel.

Second, I wonder how instrumental God is in “directing” calamities and trials for the world OR how passive He becomes in “allowing” us to get into trouble and suffer our own consequences OR a combination of both. ??? What is your sense and perspective, especially in the context of today’s heightened feeling of war, natural disasters, economic peril, and crime?

I don't think God is directing any of that stuff. I do be believe that He is ultimately in control, but I don't think He is sending disasters as judgment / consequences for sin, etc. Jesus said "If anyone hears My sayings and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world" (John 12:47). Jesus just isn't in the business of judging anybody right now. There will come a judgment day, but that's not until the end. Right now, He's just trying to rescue everybody He can before we get to that day.

Isaiah 24:20 describes how the foundations of the world have been broken under the weight of sin. Storms, disaster, etc. are just the spillover of a world that has gone completely off-course... If I accidentally swerve my car when going 70mph, the results could be catastrophic... much bigger than the "sin" of the swerve. That's what I think pain and suffering is all about. It's not God's judgment... it's the readout of our sin that is way, way bigger than we can imagine. The way the world is supposed to work has been forever lost. It's been shattered and broken, and it won't be recovered until God remakes the world after this one has come to an end. Now instead of being a world full of life and blessing, this world tends to produce pain and suffering. The force of sin (which is way bigger than any individual person's bad choices), like gravity, is sucking everybody and everything toward death (not just physical). All of God's instructions and counsel are about rescuing people from that gravitational-pull.

If you're interested to read along, I'll post more of our conversation in the coming days...