Let’s take an excerpt from the book.
“Something – we’re not sure what – takes the very natural process of cell replication and causes it to go haywire. Cells start reproducing too quickly or begin producing the wrong things; in some cases, they simply don’t die when they are supposed to. This is all because of something deep within the human body breaking down, a normal process becoming abnormal…
… We probably all have stories of someone hearing the ‘There is simply nothing else we can do’ speech. In our society, which so highly elevates personal choice and flexibility, this can be an especially stinging conclusion. We are immersed in a culture that allows us to do everything from ordering our burgers our way to setting up our own payment plans, to choosing the background for our Twitter home pages. So, beyond the clear implications of hearing that phrase pertaining to a battle with cancer, we are generally unaccustomed to hearing that our choices are severely limited.
And it is almost true.
The truth is that there is almost always another thing that can be done, almost always another step that can be taken against this medical horror. But the problem is that curing isn’t just about eradicating the disease, is it? It is about eradicating the disease in such a way as to preserve the life of the patient, and even to allow for a certain level of life beyond cancer. In some cases the most effective and straightforward approach to removing the cancer would be to simply open the patient and take it out. Unfortunately, in many cases that would kill the patient. Other times, the patient would live but have no discernible quality of life. We hate these truths, and very wise and dedicated men and women work tirelessly to try to put them away; but for now, they are a reality that we must deal with.” Should We Fire God? (page 63-64)
That dirty word…
Upon hearing this word, peoples’ reactions vary as much as the stock market. In the bigger picture, it may be seen as something that will one day be rendered powerless for some or all. It may be inevitable and will never cease. The mention of it may stir anger and hostility, guilt and shame, or perhaps nothing. The thought of it may seem illogical, unreasonable, offensive, and outright untrue as one of man’s inventions. Perhaps something else comes to mind or a combination of the above. What’s the word I am trying to paint with different colors and artists? Sin.
Scripture paints ‘sin’ as something that all people are naturally inclined to do. That is, to turn away from God and go their own way. The moment when sin is first said to have entered the world is when Adam and Eve took the first step to disregard what God previously said: don’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The deceiver told them they surely would not die like God stated and that they would in fact become like God, perhaps so that they may not need him anymore, knowing good from evil. God cursed many things (and indirectly all offspring of humanity) for breaking this one commandment he gave to them. The reason I mention this is because it is the back drop for which Christians speak of a broken world. A world tainted by sin. Each of us infected from birth, in the fiber of our being. The original and continual cause of our pain and suffering. Unavoidable. Inescapable.
Weeds among wheat
I’d like to pick back up where we left off with Jim, regarding cancer, on page 65.
“May I pose a question? What if the same were true of God?
What if God hates the symptoms of this broken world as much as or more than we do? What if our suffering and pain burden him even more than they burden us? But what if there are issues that keep him from being able to eradicate our infection, our rebellion? What if his cure would actually kill us? Or what if it wouldn’t kill us, but it would dehumanize us? What should God do then? What if God were less like a superhero not doing his job and more like the oncologist fighting the cancer of our rebellion every day? He would be personally watching the horrors it unleashes but know the treatment limits as well.
Let’s toss this idea around a bit.
Jesus deals with this issue in the Gospel of Matthew, the first book in the New Testament and an eyewitness account from one of Jesus’ followers and good friends. He relates a story Jesus told that reveals how God is limited in doing everything he might like to do by the implications of those actions:
The Kingdom of Heaven is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field. But that night as the workers slept, his enemy came and planted weeds among the wheat, then slipped away. When the crop began to grow and produce gain, the weeds also grew. The farmer’s workers went to him and said, ‘Sir, the field where you planted that good seed is full of weeds! Where did they come from?’ ‘An enemy has done this!’ the farmer exclaimed. ‘Should we pull out the weeds?’ they asked. ‘No,’ he replied, ‘you’ll uproot the wheat if you do. Let both grow together until the harvest. Then I will tell the harvesters to sort out the weeds, tie them into bundles, and burn them, and to put the wheat in the barn.’ (Matthew 13:24-30 NLT)
This scenario was meaningful to the people hearing it, many of whom relied on crops for their livelihood. It was bad news to find weeds growing among your wheat plants. You never wanted them there because they competed for resources your wheat needed, and in some cases they would choke out the much more delicate wheat plants. But as bad as it was, your acting in the most clear-cut way would exact terrible damage. Just pulling out what you didn’t want was too damaging an option. You can just imagine those listening nodding their heads in agreement when Jesus said, ‘You will hurt the wheat if you do.’
His point was very clear. If God did what we think he should and just removed all evil, it would exact a toll on us that we have no understanding of. See it? We are the wheat – and apparently we are the kids in the ice-cream aisle. God holds off doing what he would most want to, not for himself, but for us.” Should We Fire God? (page 65-66)
Okay, but what about…
…things outside of humans, like natural disasters or large scale killings? If there is this sin interweaved into our fabric, then can’t God at least step up and change the course and outcome of these? Let’s continue with where Jim left off.
“But if we are honest, that only pushes the question back a step.
Even if we agree it is best for God to wait to ultimately deal with the evil infection in our world, our concerns about his management style deal directly with the amount of suffering that innocent victims must endure. Sure, maybe everything bad cannot be stopped just yet, but still, too much gets through. So, let’s tighten that filter up a bit. Perhaps we will discover a cure.
If we were going to start picking things in our world that we would like to put an end to, devastating disaster would be a great place to start. No one would argue against the eradication of those. As storm fronts become super cells and start to create the noticeable spin that allows them to strengthen and create tornadoes, God could simply stop them. A cold or warm front at the right moment from the right direction means no homes destroyed, no vehicles tossed as if they were toys. No one has to die.
Eradicating ethnic cleansing and racist hatred would be agreed upon as well. Childhood hunger, millions of people being killed by malaria-bearing mosquitoes, human slavery and trafficking: again, no arguments. How great it would be to be able to make that list: ‘Horrors That Will Never Happen Again.’ God steps in and simply stops evil.“ Should We Fire God? (page 67)
This is where I found myself asking the same questions about why God can’t do the big things like that, but I also felt like there was an answer that provided at least a partial explanation for some of my questions. This may be no real answer if you don’t take this scripture seriously in any way, however, I do think the analogy opens up the possibility that if there is this God out there, he may be limited on his current reaction to our suffering. The question, though, is how far would we expect God to go in order to clean up the sources of pain and suffering on our list and how far is too far?
We will continue in Part 3b-3.
Should We Fire God? series:
Part 1
Part 2a
Part 2b
Part 3a
Part 3b-1
Part 3b-2
Part 3b-3
** I would like to extend my gratitude towards the author, Jim Pace, for allowing me to publish the longer excerpts above from his book “Should We Fire God?”
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