WHY DOES GOD ALLOW COVID-19?
A good friend of mine asked the question which is on the minds of a great many: Why does God allow such disasters as the Covid -19 virus to occur? My answer ran like this:
The answers to the issue you raise, of course, are at the heart of true faith. I think one has to hold tight to the very basic truths: God is love, and all his actions are motivated by what is really best for people; i.e., complete surrender to Him, to achieve complete repentance and that free-willed union with God which is His will (he is not willing that any perish), and the ultimate good of all people, the essence of bliss.
Since mankind is fallen and rebellious--there is no good in them--human quests are all wrong. The world as it is--fallen and filled with adversities–is the only proper home for such beings, and adversities, including stupendous disasters, are inevitable and proper. God allows them in his love.
Acting in love, with man's ultimate and only possible good in mind, God permits Satan (cf. Job) and sends his angels (cf. Revelation) to bring adversities and disasters. Alas, such extremes may not work (Cf. Rev. 9:20, 21), but given the realities that man was created with a free will, which God honors, if man will not have God, ultimate moral consequences must be met. Man's only possible good lies in glad union with God.
The Bible has many warnings that cosmic disasters are evidences of the end time and the coming of Christ (cf. Matt. 24; the Book of Revelation).
It is well to keep in mind--as Lewis said in The Problem of Pain--that "there is no such thing as a sum of suffering, for no one suffers it. When we have reached the maximum that a single person can suffer, we have, no doubt reached all the suffering there ever can be in the universe" (p 116). It is very helpful to read again those chapters entitled "Human Pain."
But how is it, it may be further asked, that loyal followers of Christ also fall victims to such experiences as the Covid-19 virus? It is a question not unlike that which Christ asked in the garden of Gethsemane: If it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will (Matt. 26:39). He suffered because it was God’s will that he share in human suffering, and so it is with true Christians: we are privileged to share in Christ’s sufferings (cf. I Peter 4:12, 13).
Thus the gist of my responses, and my thinking. I say, with emphasis,, keep looking for the grace,
The answers to the issue you raise, of course, are at the heart of true faith. I think one has to hold tight to the very basic truths: God is love, and all his actions are motivated by what is really best for people; i.e., complete surrender to Him, to achieve complete repentance and that free-willed union with God which is His will (he is not willing that any perish), and the ultimate good of all people, the essence of bliss.
Since mankind is fallen and rebellious--there is no good in them--human quests are all wrong. The world as it is--fallen and filled with adversities–is the only proper home for such beings, and adversities, including stupendous disasters, are inevitable and proper. God allows them in his love.
Acting in love, with man's ultimate and only possible good in mind, God permits Satan (cf. Job) and sends his angels (cf. Revelation) to bring adversities and disasters. Alas, such extremes may not work (Cf. Rev. 9:20, 21), but given the realities that man was created with a free will, which God honors, if man will not have God, ultimate moral consequences must be met. Man's only possible good lies in glad union with God.
The Bible has many warnings that cosmic disasters are evidences of the end time and the coming of Christ (cf. Matt. 24; the Book of Revelation).
It is well to keep in mind--as Lewis said in The Problem of Pain--that "there is no such thing as a sum of suffering, for no one suffers it. When we have reached the maximum that a single person can suffer, we have, no doubt reached all the suffering there ever can be in the universe" (p 116). It is very helpful to read again those chapters entitled "Human Pain."
But how is it, it may be further asked, that loyal followers of Christ also fall victims to such experiences as the Covid-19 virus? It is a question not unlike that which Christ asked in the garden of Gethsemane: If it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will (Matt. 26:39). He suffered because it was God’s will that he share in human suffering, and so it is with true Christians: we are privileged to share in Christ’s sufferings (cf. I Peter 4:12, 13).
Thus the gist of my responses, and my thinking. I say, with emphasis,, keep looking for the grace,
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