Good Morning!
I was studying Sunday’s lesson Saturday morning, putting together some thoughts on what I think Peter is telling us in the opening of his letter. I wrote last week about seeing the phrase “testing the genuineness of faith”. I had pulled out the book “The Case for Faith” written by Lee Strobel to share with the class … and thought how to relate the story of Charles Templeton.
Briefly, one of the founders of Youth for Christ International was Charles Templeton. One of the first evangelists on staff was a fellow by the name of Billy Graham. Many people thought that Charles Templeton was the more gifted of the two in speaking for Christ. Yet in 1957 Charles Templeton announced that he was agnostic. Eventually he would renounce Christianity and become an atheist. What led to that change? The answer was a photograph in Life magazine. The picture was of an African woman holding her dead child. And this caused Templeton to question why God would let this happen.
Bad things happen to good people all the time. Why? Why doesn’t God intervene? Why do we have to go through these crises in our lives? Why can’t it just be an easy life?
Well this thought crossed my mind.
Romans 5:12-14 (English Standard Version)
Death in Adam, Life in Christ
12Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— 13for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. 14Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.
We live in a world where someone (else) has to be at fault. And one “person” we often blame when good things go bad is God. But who is really at fault? Well, I am going to blame Adam – because he was the one who sinned at brought death into this world. Actually, “bad” things have their root in sin. Here is how I explained it in my thinking Saturday:
Point 3: The trials we go through prove the genuineness of our faith. A frequent question is why God will allow bad things to happen to good people. Well, first, let us understand that bad things happen because of sin … not necessarily our personal sin but of the original sin of Adam. The best way to explain is to understand weeds. The Garden of Eden had no weeds. It had no thorns. Those came as a result of Adam’s disobedience. In short, we can blame Adam when we have to weed the garden. Sin brought death into the world – Adam’s body was created to last for eternity – and all the underlying causes of death. So when “bad things” happen, is it God’s doing? No – but God can use the bad things to test and to prove our faith. But doesn’t God already know the depth of our faith? Of course He does. Who needs to know the depth of our faith? We do! So our suffering serves to refine the faith that is in us so we can know the strength of our faith.
As our faith grows stronger, we can expect to encounter even more difficulties. Why? Well, I do believe in Satan and I do believe he is active trying to defeat us – to make us turn from God – not necessarily to him but to turn away. So the watchword is to stay strong in the faith, endure the test and learn that God will provide strength to endure.
Agape’
Mr. Jim
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