Without warning the people of Cagayan de Oro City, Iligan City and all the other towns in between these two cities in the northern coast of Mindanao, suffered a most devastating flash flood in their history. According to what I’ve read, a month’s worth of flood waters was suddenly dumped by Typhoon Sendong in just one night, Friday night, December 16, 2011 in these two major cities in Mindanao. It never happened that way before. Yes, there were floods occasionally but only in a few places of the city and not so devastating and so widespread as this one. As of this writing, more than 400 people are reported dead due to this disaster.
Why Flash Floods?
And it is once again during these times—just like during the Typhoon Ondoy–that people ask: “Why does God allow Flash Floods?” Why does God allow evil to befall on us humans? Why does God allow suffering? Is God really a loving God?
These are tough questions which are not easy to answer and we cannot just brush them aside. People die and suffer everywhere. So why does God allow such things to happen? Why does God allow evil?
May I suggest some reading materials that discuss about this topic:
I had just watched a short video presentation on the internet urging Christians to reach out and share the gospel to people whom one may not particularly like. The intention was good but there’s one comment by the video presenter that really caught my attention. Referring to salvation, he said that, “Their eternity depends on us.”
The Great Completion?
Wow! Really? Did I hear him right? I really think that it is a serious mistake to think that people’s “eternity” (referring to salvation) is dependent on a Christian’s evangelistic or missionary effort. I’ve heard this kind of talk before and this seems to be a prevailing teaching among many in Christian churches and missions organizations today. I am also aware that some teach that Christ will not come back until Christians will have completed the great commission through their evangelistic and missionary efforts — “the great completion,” some call it.
Common Gospel Belief
Many Christians are passionately driven to go and share the gospel because they believe that the unbeliever’s salvation is dependent on their evangelistic or missionary efforts. Their zeal and dedication to share the gospel and to reach out to the unbelievers are admirable and that is good. But something is amiss if we think that the salvation of unbelievers is dependent on us.
Jesus is the Savior not Us
It is my belief that our salvation does not depend on any of our human effort. It does not depend on the believer’s efforts to “save” the unbeliever. I believe that salvation is only through Jesus Christ our Lord as the Bible asserts. It is by God’s grace that we have been saved. God did it through Christ. Without our help. It is God’s gift to us.
A Young Aeta in Pampanga
One large missions organization had actually made billboard posters declaring that millions of people are dying everyday and are right now lost in hell because Christians have not been doing their duty to go and share the gospel to those who have not heard it yet.
Most missions and evangelistic efforts are based on fear of hell, guilt and anxiety. It is no gospel at all.
Is the unbeliever’s “eternity” really dependent on a Christian’s evangelistic and missionary efforts? I’d like to believe that God is in-charge of that. I believe that the salvation of mankind depends on Christ alone and not on any of our human action.
Surely God has many ways of saving people we know nothing about even at the point of death. Surely, God could not be hindered by death. He is Lord and Savior of all and he has conquered death! For God, death is not a hindrance to salvation. He is in-charge and there is no need to worry about other people’s salvation.
To say that “their eternity depends on us” sounds to me like people won’t be saved without us—without our human effort. It is sending a message that if Christians don’t do missions or evangelism, if Christians don’t share the gospel, it’s the Christian’s fault that millions of people are “not saved” and are already roasting in hell. It brings Christians on a guilt-trip if they don’t act. It is a fear-guilt-and-anxiety-driven method of evangelism based on an erroneous understanding of the truth of the good news of Jesus Christ.
Gospel Participation
I believe that God can save people even without us. In fact, he has already done so without us! He has already reconciled us back to himself (2 Cor. 5:18-19). Even while we were still sinners Christ has already died for us more two thousand years ago (Romans 5:8)!
As Christians, we are invited to participate in what God is doing right now through Christ by the Holy Spirit in our individual lives and in the lives of others who do not yet know Christ. Let us be more considerate, understanding and love-driven as we share the gospel to others and not become offensive and confrontational as we probe people with our “diagnostic questions” just to force them to “accept” Jesus Christ.
Let us go and make disciples driven not by guilt, fear and anxiety. Let us not think that the unbeliever’s salvation depends on us. Rather, let us go and make disciples knowing that Christ is in-charge and knowing that our salvation is secure in him. Let us live and share the gospel driven by love for people who are still unaware of God’s great love for all of humanity. Let’s participate by living and sharing the gospel knowing that people’s salvation is dependent on Jesus Christ not on us!
Our missions and evangelism should be motivated by faith, hope and love based on who God really is in Jesus Christ and who we are in him. It should not be motivated by a psychology of guilt, fear and anxiety.
People’s “eternity” depends on Jesus Christ, not on our missionary or evangelistic skills! Let’s participate gladly in what God through Christ by the Holy Spirit is doing in and through us! Let us continue living and sharing the good news of God’s love to all!
Jesus said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10) and that is exactly right. The thief comes only to take what is not rightfully his. And if necessary, he may kill and destroy life and property just to get what is not rightfully his. Such is the mental state of a thief. He is bent on getting not giving.
While we were away from our home for a few days, a thief actually attempted to break into our house in the middle of the night. He opened the screen door by destroying the padlock.
Thankfully, our landlady heard the loud noise which she described as like a gunshot sound. It woke her up, saw the thief, began screaming at the top of her lungs and called for help from all the neighbors. It must have been the loud snapping sound created by the padlock as it snapped when the screen door was forcibly opened.
The thief’s attempt to steal was thwarted. He escaped in a motorcycle. There must have been another guy with him. This is not the first time that it has happened here in our area. My wife said she prayed for the protection of our home while we were away. We thank the Lord for his loving protection even with our material things.
Thief Intent Only in Getting
Truly the thief’s only intent is on getting. This is in total contrast to our Lord Jesus’ intent for all of us. Jesus said the reason he came to earth is so that we may have life and have it to the full. The Lord’s intent is only on giving. He is intent on loving all of his creation including thieves! As theologian Thomas F. Torrance said, God loves us more than he loves himself. Wow! God is not only intent on giving us life. God is also intent on giving it to us to the fullest extent!
Shouldn’t we love him in return? Shouldn’t we accept this love that he is giving? Shouldn’t we accept this free gift of life that he is offering to us? Why should you reject it? Accept his love. You won’t regret it. If you do, you will begin to experience love and life in Jesus and have it to the fullest!
Jesus said that repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations (Luke 24:47). The good news is that God has already forgiven us of all our sins—past, present and future. That is truly good news. While we were still sinners, Christ has already died for us (Romans 5:8). God has already forgiven us even before we were born. God has already forgiven us before we asked him for forgiveness — before we were able to say, “Sorry.” Christ did it for us some 2,000 years ago. It’s an accomplished fact and reality. And it’s for everybody.
The good news that is to be preached is that God through Christ has already forgiven all of humanity’s sins. Everyone is invited to respond by changing their minds (repent) and believe this great good news!
Why Is It Hard to Forgive?
But why is it hard for us humans to forgive our fellow human beings in the first place? Christ wants us to learn a lesson in Matthew 18:21-35.
In this story, a king wanted to have an accounting and he called one of his servants who owed him millions. This servant begged for mercy and extension to be able to repay his debts. The king had mercy and actually cancelled the debt! He was freed from all obligations.
And yet this same servant could not extend the same love and mercy to a fellow servant who owed him just a few coins! Aren’t we all like that when we don’t forgive our fellowmen who trespass against us? Why?
The reason we can’t forgive is because of our pride, our sense of justice, our need for vengeance—revenge! Christ warns us against this kind of attitude. We would rather hang on to our pride than give it up. We wouldn’t want to lose this something we “value”—our pride and the need to take revenge.
Let Us Learn to Forgive
Christ teaches us to forgive others unconditionally just like he forgave us even before we asked for his forgiveness. The Parable of the Lost Son (Luke 15:11-31) illustrates this wonderful truth clearly by the Lord himself. Even before the lost son could say “I’m sorry,” the father has already forgiven him. This is the gospel. This is truly good news. The gospel is also about the gospel of forgiveness. God our Father through Christ has already forgiven us. Let us forgive others too.
I realize that the Bible can be a difficult book to understand and one can be led into error if he has a faulty understanding and interpretation of it. Many years ago, I came across a book that really helped me read and understand the Bible better. The title of the book is, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth by Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart, 1992 edition. It gives some basic and practical suggestions on how to read the Bible. Here are some excerpts from this book.
Pride and False Understanding of Spirituality
“The aim of good interpretation is not uniqueness; one is not trying to discover what no one else has ever seen before.
“Interpretation that aims at, or thrives on, uniqueness can usually be attributed to pride (an attempt to ‘out clever’ the rest of the world), a false understanding of spirituality (wherein the Bible is full of deep truths waiting to be mined by the spiritually sensitive person with special insight), or vested interests (the need to support a theological bias, especially in dealing with texts that seem to go against that bias). Unique interpretations are usually wrong. This is not to say that the correct understanding of a text may not often seem unique to someone who hears it for the first time. But it is to say that uniqueness is not the aim of our task.”
Interpretation: Common Sense
“The aim of good interpretation is simple: to get at the ‘plain meaning of the text.’ And the most important ingredient one brings to that task is enlightened common sense. The test of good interpretation is that it makes good sense of the text.
“The first reason one needs to learn how to interpret is that, whether one likes it or not, every reader is at the same time an interpreter. That is, most of us assume as we read that we also understand what we read. We also tend to think that our understanding is the same thing as the Holy Spirit’s or human author’s intent. However, we invariably bring to the text all that we are, with all of our experiences, culture, and prior understandings of words and ideas. Sometimes what we bring to the text, unintentionally to be sure, leads us astray, or else causes us to read all kinds of foreign ideas into the text.” (pages 15-16)
These are just some quotations from this wonderful book. I learned a lot from it. You can buy it at bookstores or you can buy it online.
