Guest Post: The Love of God and Suffering- Pt2

Excerpt from the book Is This A God Of Love, 

by A. E. Wilder-Smith

Chapter V

The Problem of Rebuilding

Just what would we expect a God of

love to do after his creatures had chosen

the wrong road — turning their backs on

the only good?

The Scriptures say that even before

the wrong choice had been taken either by

man or angels, God, because he is omniscient,

knew all about it. He had even

drawn up careful plans in advance to cope

with the situation that would arise, even

though he was in no way responsible for

it, nor did he cause it (cf Rev. 13:8, Eph.

1:4, Heb. 4:3, 1 Pet. 1:19-20).

This last fact—that God, if he is God,

must obviously have been omniscient

with respect to the fall long before it

happened — has been a stumbling block

to many. Actually, few real intellectual

difficulties are involved in this matter if it

is considered carefully.

If I observe a person carefully over a

period of time, I may notice some of his

little idiosyncrasies. He may say “Ah,” for

example, as a prelude to every difficult

word he has to pronounce. Or he may

twitch his eyebrows (or his ears) before

relating a good joke. Gradually I learn to

predict just what he is going to do before

he actually does it. My previous observations

allow me to do this with a fair

amount of accuracy.

However, my ability to foretell his

actions in no way makes me responsible

for them when he acts. Similarly, the fact

that God was able to foresee what Adam

and Eve, the angels and mankind in

general, would do, does not necessarily

implicate him in the sense that it makes

him responsible for initiating their actions

and choices. The only implication is that

involved in his having given them a gloriously

free choice of action in order to

create the possibility of their love.

The Problem Of The Consequences

At this point many will maintain that,

if God saw in advance the chaos, misery

and suffering which would certainly follow

the gift of the possibility of love, why

did he proceed with his plans to create.

Was he not rather sadistic to have persisted

in these plans, knowing the consequences

in advance?

In principle, the same type of questioning

arises every day in our own lives,

but seemingly we don't recognize this fact.

Consider, for example, the decision we

must make on whether to marry. Even the

marriage ceremony emphasizes rather

drastically that the same question is involved,

for the clergyman says our marriage

vows are binding until death us do

part. Surely there is scarcely greater grief

than that experienced by a really devoted

couple when separated by death. We could,

of course, avoid this terrible grief by the

simple expedient of not creating a marriage

relationship at all! Avoid marriage

and its love relationship and no grief of

parting by death will ever overtake you.

Yet, we rightly go into marriage with

our eyes open. We know that in normal

circumstances, death and all its sorrows

will overtake us and will separate us. Most

of us fear this more than we could ever

say. In spite of all this we marry, because

we believe that the joy of love and the

ennoblement of giving ourselves to another

in the abandon of devotion even for

a day (and forty or fifty years pass like a

day) is better than no love at all. It is

written of Jesus Christ that he endured

the sorrows of death on the cross for the

sake of the joys which would result from

the sorrow. The same principle is involved

here. The joy of love, even "short" love,

because it stems from a God of love,

compensates for even the sorrows of a

cruel death such as that which Jesus

suffered for all mankind, and the death

which separates all lovers.

The enrichment and ennoblement of

the human character brought about by

the experience of even the brief joy of love,

as God intended it to be, compensate for

certain future death, separation and

present trials. It is a question of balance.

Those who know the love of God in Christ

and those who have experienced a faint

taste of that same quality of love in God given

marriage will confess that it is worth

the certain severe suffering which it brings

with it. The principle is that even a little,

short-lived love is better than none at all.

The reason is that even mortal love changes

the eternal human psyche.

Evidently the Creator, being love personified,

thinks this way too, for he did

indeed create us and the rest of the fallen

creation, in spite of the foreseen mess and

separation.

All the same, many people — including

ourselves sometimes — feel tempted

to say "God, forgive God"  when contemplating

the dire mess in which the world

finds itself. Yet if it is true as the Scriptures

assure us that temporal sufferings

can and do bring eternal recompense, if it

is true that suffering is not necessarily

punitive but can be remedial as well, then,

relying on the Scriptures, we are able to

accept the anguish, just as God did when

he crucified God to remedy the fall of man.

The next question is: what would we

expect God to do to pull us out of the mire?

The Problem Of God's Answer

Now that the fall has taken place and

sin and anguish are in the world, what

would we expect God's answer to be? The

answer we give will depend entirely on our

conception of God's character.

If God is a God of love, then he is our

loved one. What would we expect a true

loved one to do who had been misunderstood

and rejected? Perhaps the scriptural

answer is the best one here: Love

"suffereth long, and is kind...is not easily

provoked, thinketh no evil... beareth all

things... endureth all things... (love) never

faileth."

Surely that is the reaction we would

expect of someone who truly loves us.

Love endures all these things in the hope

of ultimate success in the wooing process

of love. God saw man's wrong choice and

all of its consequences which would lead

to chaos and anguish, long before the

wrong choice was made. When it did

come, however, we would not expect a real

God of love to impatiently and disgustedly

dismiss and destroy the object of his love.

Many who have difficulties with these

points apparently expect God to act like a

hard-hearted unforgiving tyrant rather

than a forgiving father. Such an expectation

probably arises from the fact that

such action is typical of short-fused people

like ourselves. But then, we are no real

examples of love in being short-fused.

In actual fact we would expect a God

of love to try to salvage what he could out

of the carnage. It takes the patience of

genuine love to set about this process. He

had warned in faithfulness and sternness

of the consequences of the wrong choice

—men would surely die of it—but neither

angel nor man heeded. One thing God

would not be expected to do, once the

wrong choice had been taken, would be to

block the way back to himself by attempting

to threaten, cajole or force us back.

Force cannot restore anything in the way

of love. That would be to cut off all possibility

of a way back.

How To Restore Love

Thus, in order to restore love, there

remains only one way open—the exercise

of further patient love. Accordingly, God

exercises long-suffering and patience in

trying to win us back freely to love and

reason.

Therefore, we should expect the consequences

of the fall not to be "fire and

thunder," but rather the "still small voice"

in the attempt to realize the word said

about God by the apostle: “who desires all

men...to come to the knowledge of the

truth."

But this attitude of quietness and

perseverance can be mistaken for passivity

or even inactivity. A large part of the

Scriptures is devoted to just this point in

fact. God is not inactive; he is not indifferent.

He is certainly not dead: “The Lord is

not slack concerning his promise, as some

men count slackness; but he is

longsuffering toward us, not willing that

any should perish, but that all should

come to repentance.” This means just what

it says: not all men will repent and come

to a knowledge of the truth. But it confirms

that God is a God of love and

patience who is ready and willing to receive

all who do turn to him.

The fact, then, that He has waited so

long before judging sinful man is, in reality,

another indication of God's true

character — loving-kindness, patience,

long-suffering, not being easily provoked.

Only by looking at the situation in this

way can I see any explanation of why God

has not long since exercised general

judgement on all of us and set up a

"puppet state" on earth and in heaven to

slavishly and immediately carry out his

every demand, just as any dictator would

do if he could, particularly if his will had

been thwarted as God's will certainly has

been.

Thwarting God's Will

Some will feel shocked. Can, then,

God's will be thwarted? The fatalistic

Muslims think not. Is it possible that his

will may not be done on earth as it is in

heaven? Anyone unsure about this point

should ask himself whether God planned

any act of sadism that has taken place.

Was it his will to kill six or seven million

Jews in gas chambers simply because

they were Jews? Was this not rather,

thwarting God's perfect will? And does not

any other sin also thwart it?

Sinning is one way of thwarting his

will. Another way would be to set up a

dictatorship to "restore order to the chaotic

creation." If this route to rebuilding

creation were adopted, it would just as

effectively thwart God's real purpose of

setting up a kingdom of love. Under the

present circumstances of freedom to do

good or bad, there are still a few people

who see the situation as it really is and

who turn to God to be refreshed by his

love, even in the midst of the general

anguish of creation. Even a little of such

love and refreshment is better than none

at all. If the Lord had judged immediately

after the fall or after any sin, how many

who have since drunk of the water of the

well of life and love would have been lost

to him and his kingdom of love for ever?

His patience has been rewarded with

responding love which would have been

impossible if immediate judgment had

supervened.

King George VI Of England

A story is told about King George VI of

Great Britain and how he won Elizabeth.

As a young man the future king fell in love

with the charming young Scottish lady.

After a long time of reflection he plucked

up his courage and approached her on the

subject although he was rather shy, especially

with the opposite sex. He had

never been much of a lady's man and was

neither very robust nor strongly masculine

in the film-star sense of the word.

Moreover, he had a slight speech defect,

which added to his difficulties. His proposal

was rejected.

The young prince, greatly upset over

this rebuff, asked his mother, Queen Mary,

for her advice. The Queen listened sympathetically

to her son's tale of woe. Then she

told him she just wanted to ask one

question before advising him. Did he really

love Elizabeth only? Would he be able

to find a substitute if Elizabeth proved

reluctant? After a moment's consideration,

he replied that he would marry

Elizabeth or no one else. "Well then," said

his mother, “there is only one way open to

you. Go and ask her again."

So the young prince put his pride in

his pocket, gathered up his remaining

courage, and arranged another interview

with Elizabeth. He probably stuttered as

he repeated his proposal, remembering

what had happened to him the first time

at her hands. She refused him again.

Not knowing what to do then, he

returned to his mother, Queen Mary, for

advice. Again she listened quietly—some

say, severely — to the whole story. She

showed him every sympathy, and, after

hearing all he had to say, indicated that

she had one question to ask before she

could advise him. The question was: "Do

you really want her after this rebuff?

There are plenty of other young ladies

around who would be delighted to have a

prince as a husband. I myself could show

you some.” But poor George was quite

clear about his feelings. It was Elizabeth

or no one at all. “Then," said his mother,

"in that case there is only one way open to

you. Go and ask her again."

So, after a considerable period of

mental preparation, the young prince

approached the pretty young Scottish

lady the third time. In the meantime, she

had noticed how serious the prince was.

His love and determination to win her had

indeed been constant. She saw that the

great effort he made in coming the third

time, putting his pride in his pocket demonstrated

his singleness of purpose. And

she began to recognize something new in

herself. His undoubted love toward her

was beginning to kindle an answering fire

in her own heart. His warmth of love, even

though he was awkward and not very

good at courting a young lady's affection,

was beginning to warm her affection towards

him. In short, his love was beginning

to kindle her love, and she began to

transmit some of the love she received

from him. She began to feel she was able

to say that she loved and admired him in

his singleness of purpose and constancy.

Thus, the story goes, began one of the

really happy families in the annals of royal

households. This love lasted until the

king's death.

Love begets love. But it often has to be

very patient, longsuffering and kind until

the fire is kindled in the prospective

partner's heart. The Scriptures say that

God woos in one way or another every

man and woman ever born. Through the

circumstances of life, or through the

Scriptures, he quietly goes on as the years

pass, until we begin to return to him some

of the warmth of love which he has for us.

For we are told that God has his delight

among the sons of men.  He loves us,

indifferent or rejectors though we have

been of his overtures towards us. He is

working toward the day when we may

begin to return to him the same love, and

to delight in his friendship as he will

delight in ours.

Once kindled, this love must be regularly

tended in order to maintain the

warmth of the blaze which God intends

our love to be — warming and refreshing

to both partners, so that both can rejoice

in the happiness which love brings. God is

love and we were so constructed in his

image that we can only flourish when

bathed in such love—breathing it in and

giving it out.

But it would be one-sided to leave the

story here. All love stories do not end this

way. We must look at one other less

pleasant possibility.

The Final Refusal

There comes a time in every love affair

where a final answer toward the wooer

must be made. This final answer may be

either yes or no. One day the wooed one

may make a rejection which, although she

perhaps did not know it, was the final one.

It turns out to be permanent. In the one

case, she may, of course, die. That finishes

the wooing of a mortal man—when

immortality lays hold of the prospective

bride.

Another possibility is that the wooer

may cease to woo. The “wooed” is not the

only one who has a free will to accept or

reject the wooer. God as the wooer has a

free will too — to stop or to continue

wooing according to his infinite wisdom.

He can decide how long to woo and be

rejected and also when to stop wooing

altogether. Even this final decision to stop

wooing, will, we are told, be made on a

basis of love. It will, accordingly, be put off

as long as possible.

There is a third and last possibility. If

the wooed marries another, then further

courtship by the first suitor would be

thoroughly out of order and outside the

confines of love. The Scriptures say quite

clearly that this state of affairs may be

reached in the spiritual sense. There comes

a time when a man “marries this world,”

and after that God no longer offers his

salvation, his "marriage relationship" to

him. His Spirit strives with him no longer.

A man's spirit and God's Spirit become

forever estranged, for man's spirit finally

"marries another," selling itself to this

world and its rebellion against the Most

High.

We humans can seldom clearly see

when such a final act takes place. We

cannot determine when God's Spirit gives

a man up forever. But that such does

occur is perfectly clear, even though it is

invisible to man's mortal eye. We can give

ourselves entirely over to material things

such as a career, money or social standing.

It may be the love of things more

definitely sinful that cuts us off. In extreme

cases, we can "sell ourselves to the

devil'' quite consciously—as many Nazis

did when they knowingly cooperated with

Hitler in liquidating human beings in the

interests of their own promotion within

the party. Many do the same just as

effectively when they value promotion in

their jobs before promotion in the kingdom

of heaven. They do not seek "the

kingdom of heaven first.” Some men resolve

never to discuss spiritual matters

again because "they disturb." For them,

the courtship is over; they're married to

another.

The New Testament letter to the Hebrews

speaks of that cessation. "Today,

when you hear this voice, do not harden

your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day

of testing in the wilderness, where your

fathers put me to the test and saw my

works for forty years. Therefore, I was

provoked with that generation and said,

‘They always go astray in their hearts;

they have not known my ways.’ As I swore

in my wrath, ‘They shall never enter my

rest.’”

The context of this statement shows

that the Lord spoke and spoke again, and

wooed and wooed again, but the Hebrews

of that generation closed their hearts and

inward ears. In the end, God gave them up,

and that generation, except for Joshua

and Caleb, never entered the promised

land but perished in the wilderness. This

serves as a parable for us, to whom God

also speaks. We can be so occupied with

the joys and trials of this life that we, too,

do not hear. We, too, can miss the joy and

rest of his love by acting as did the Hebrews.

"For it is impossible to restore again to

repentance those who have once been

enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly

gift, and have become partakers of

the Holy Spirit and have tasted the goodness

of the Word of God and the powers of

the age to come, if they then commit

apostasy, since they crucify the Son of

God on their own account and hold him

up to contempt (Hebrews 6:4-6, RSV).”

This warning is to those who have at

one time responded to God’s wooing, and

have therefore tasted his goodness, and

then cease to respond. A time comes when

it is impossible to renew them, for the

striving of God’s Spirit with them ceases.

Another Scripture passage speaks in

exactly the same tenor: "For if we sin

deliberately after receiving the knowledge

of the truth, there no longer remains a

sacrifice for sins, but a fearful prospect of

judgment, and a fiery fire which will consume

the adversaries... How much worse

punishment do you think will be deserved

by the man who has spurned the Son of

God and profaned the blood of the covenant

by which he was sanctified, and outraged

the Spirit of grace?.. .It is a fearful thing to

fall into the hands of the living God

(starting at Hebrews 10:26)."

I take this warning for myself, believing

that I can learn from all Scripture. The

point is, God can and does speak to men;

he does woo. If they respond, he allows

them to taste in this life the things of his

kingdom of love. But his wooing is dynamic,

and it is dependent on our daily

response. Continual spurning may end in

our "marrying another forever." Then his

wooing stops. Rejecting God’s grace in

Christ simply means declaring ourselves

as candidates for no grace, which is the

same thing as being ripe for judgment.

This raises the whole question of

judgment at the hands of a so-called

loving and gracious God. Can we accept

this? Is all suffering a judgment? Or must

suffering and judgment be kept apart in our minds?

Here is a link to a page where you will find a PDF of the entire book for free:
http://ph16.blogspot.com/p/free-books-good-ones-you-can-read-right.html

PART 1: http://ph16.blogspot.com/2017/02/guest-post-love-of-god-and-suffering-pt1.html

PART 3: http://ph16.blogspot.com/2017/04/guest-post-love-of-god-and-suffering-pt3.html