SPROUL: In light of America’s declaration
of war on terrorism, we have seen that wars are provoked in the final analysis by the
conflict of ideas -- that war begins in the mind -- and hostilities break out when people
come to different conclusions on how to live and how to function. We’ve also seen the erosion of the central
importance of the concept of divine providence to even the Christian church in our day. And I’ve noticed as the media describes
the events of September the 11th in the year 2001, that they use different words to describe
the problems of that day -- words like “catastrophe” or “calamity.” And one of the words that I hear perhaps more
often than any other is the word “tragedy.” But what has concerned me somewhat in the
public use of vocabulary is that I keep hearing this one phrase over and over and over again
describing these events and that is the phrase “senseless tragedy.” Well, again if I had the time to go into a
technical, comprehensive analysis of these two words in conjunction with each other,
I think I could demonstrate to your satisfaction that the phrase “senseless tragedy” is
an oxymoron. Because for something to be defined in the
final analysis as being tragic there has to be some standard of good for something to
be deemed tragic, vis-à-vis that. And if things happen in a way that is senseless,
there could not be anything that’s really a tragedy or a blessing. It would just simply be a meaningless event. That is the word “tragedy” presupposes
some kind of order of purpose in the world. But what concerns me here is that the idea
of a senseless tragedy represents a worldview that is completely incompatible with Christian
thought, because it assumes that something happens without a purpose or without a meaning. And if God is God and if God is a God of providence
and if God is sovereign, then nothing ever happens that in the final analysis is senseless. I remember when I was in college, and I had
to take an introductory course in lab biology. If fact, it was called Bonehead Biology because
it was the biology course for non-science majors. And I remember, probably the only thing I
remember from that class was the first lecture that the professor gave. Now, keep in mind that Bonehead Biology was
populated by for the most part freshmen, 99% of the students in the class were freshmen. I happened to be a senior. I happened to be a senior philosophy major. I had to defer to the taking of this course
because I had a conflict with Greek in my freshman year and as it was, I had already
had three years of college behind me in philosophical investigation, and the thing that peaked my
interest in that opening lecture was that the professor said, “Now, as scientists
exploring the realm of biology, the one thing we are not interested in is teleology, which
word comes from the Greek word telos, which means “end, goal, or purpose.” Now, one of the great quests of the history
of philosophy is an investigation into the meaning and to the purpose of life and of
human existence and not only of human existence but of animal existence, of flower existence,
of the existence of rocks and everything else. That is philosophy is profoundly interested
in questions of purpose and meaning. And here I step into this freshmen class on
biology, and I’m told at the outset that questions of teleology are ruled out of bounds. And what I was hearing the professor say is
that what you will learn from now on in the rest of this course will be meaningless. But what the professor was really saying is
that we’re going limit our investigation to questions of how and what and where but
the one question that remains out of bounds is the question why. And yet when we return to the events of September
the 11th, 2001, this is the question that burns in everybody’s mind. Why did this happen? And particularly if one is a theist and especially
a Christian theist, we are asking the why question --- the question, “How could God
allow this to happen?” We’re saying, “Why, God did this come
to pass?” Because Christians do not allow for meaningless
events to take place. Because at the heart of the Christian life
and worldview is that everything in history has a purpose in the mind of Almighty God
-- that God is a purposive God. God is not chaotic. God does not play dice as Albert Einstein
once remarked. For everything there is a purpose -- including
what we define as tragedies. Again, why this tragedy? Now, one of the things that took place in
the early days of reflection about the events of September the 11th were comments from some
well-known preachers, particularly Jerry Falwell. And with and assist from Pat Robertson, Falwell
made the observation that the why for this tragedy was that this was God’s act of judgment
upon America for America’s immorality, for abortion, and the destruction of the human
family and other moral issues of our day. That created a fire storm of controversy,
negative backlash and even Christian commentators were quite vocal in their criticism of this
assessment by Jerry Falwell to the end that Falwell then publicly recanted his judgment,
which was indeed a rush to judgment. Now, let me say something. If somebody would say to me, why did this
happen? What was God’s purpose in all of this? The only honest answer I could give, simply
is, “I don’t know.” I can’t read God’s mind. Now, if you ask me, “Was God involved?” -- Yes. Because I’m committed to the Christian doctrine
of providence, I’m convinced that God was involved in this act, that it was according
to God’s purpose. But what the specific purpose of, that God
was involved in here, I have no idea. So I’m not to jump to the conclusion that
God’s purpose was to send judgment on America. But one of the things that disturb me was
how confident the commentators were that it was not an act of judgment. Let me say again. Let me be very clear what I’m saying. I don’t know that it was an act of judgment,
but I can’t think of anything in the Christian worldview that would rule out the possibility
that it was an act of judgment. If we understand that God does bring calamities
from time to time upon nations as an act of judgment. But to struggle with this question, not only
of that particular even or that particular day, but the tragedies that befall people
through the ages and everyday in this world -- this question “Why?” is raised. And let me turn your attention at least briefly
to a discussion about this sort of question that Jesus had with his disciples in the ninth
chapter of the Gospel according to Saint John we read these words:
Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. (John 9:1) Now, let me just stop right there. You’re a mother. You carry your baby to term. You’re excited in anticipation for this
birth of this child. You’re the father. And when the child is born, you soon discover
that the baby is blind. Very few people respond to that with joy. Very few people would react to that experience
as a visitation of divine blessing. In a word, the parents in their disappointment,
in all probability would see that event at least for them and for their child as a personal
tragedy. And certainly people would be inclined to
ask the question, “Why, God did you let this happen?” And so now the disciples see a person who
is a grown adult and they know that that person was born blind and had suffered total blindness
for many, many years. Now, if anything would seem senseless, it
would be the experience of the man born blind. And so they come to Jesus and they say to
Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Who sinned? -- the man who was born blind
or his parents? Which was it? Now Jesus, immediately recognizes that the
question that is posed to him commits a logical fallacy, which we have a technical name for. It is called the fallacy of the false dilemma
or sometimes called the either/or fallacy. That is when a person reduces the possibility
to two and only two when in fact there may be more possibilities. Now, there are situations where the possibilities
can legitimately and rationally be reduced to two. There either is a God or there’s not a God. There is no tersum quid there. There’s no third alternative. It’s one or the other. You are either going to die or you’re not
going to die. There can’t be another alternative. But in this case the disciples rush to judgment
and reduced the options to two when there was a third option they hadn’t considered. And so Jesus when He hears the question stated
this way, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus said what? Neither. Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his
parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him. I must work the works of Him who sent Me while
it is day; the night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light
of the world.” When He had said these things, He spat on
the ground and made clay with the saliva; and He anointed the eyes of the blind man
with the clay. And He said to him, “Go, wash in the pool
of Siloam” (which is translated, Sent). So he went and washed, and came back seeing. (John 9:3-7) And what follows then is the confrontation
that Jesus had with the officials who were astonished at this particular miracle that
Christ had performed. But Jesus said -- It was not because of the
sin of the person and it was not because of the sin of parents. It was in order to manifest the Kingdom of
God. God’s purpose here was that -- to demonstrate
Who I am through this miracle. And to this day 2000 years later, that man
-- blind man who presumably is in heaven today, who has been joined by his children and grandchildren,
sit around heaven and talk about how God used his blindness to demonstrate the identity
of Christ. He discovered that his tragic condition was
by no means senseless. It had a divine purpose. Now, we look at this and we see that the disciples
made a mistake -- the kind of mistake Jerry Falwell made. They rushed to judgment. And they assumed that the only possible explanation
for this person’s lifelong blindness was the man’s sin or his parents’ sin. Just like Falwell assumed that the tragic
events of September the 11th were divine judgment for certain things in this world. The disciples were wrong. But let’s not dismiss them as being stupid. Some people read this text and think -- what’s
wrong with those disciples that they would think that God would allow a child to be born
blind because of the parents’ sin. Or that the man himself was stricken with
blindness because of some sin that he committed. Why did they make those assumptions? These were the disciples of Jesus. They had been the finest theological seminary
in the history of the world. They had been trained by the Word of God Himself. Why would they make such a stupid blunder
as to assume there was some kind of relationship between sin and suffering? Because they knew the truth of God, that the
ultimate reason for tragedy, the ultimate reason for suffering in this world is sin. Get rid of sin. You get rid of suffering. In heaven there is no sin. In heaven there is no death. In heaven there is no suffering whatsoever. And so the disciples understood that there
is a link in this world between sin and suffering, between evil and tragedy. But they made the mistake of assuming that
the particular cause for this particular tragedy was a particular sin of some particular person. Had they read the book of Job carefully, they
would have known better. Remember the misery of Job. How is it presented to us in this exquisitely
insightful piece of wisdom literature -- that opens as a drama opens with the first act
and the first scene where Satan comes before God after he had walked to and fro on the
earth. And he begins to mock God. And he says look at all these people down
here on earth. They are serving me. I’m the prince of this world. Nobody is paying any attention to you. God said -- well, have you considered my servant
Job. Satan mocks God, laughs. He says Job, huh, sure Job serves You. Why wouldn’t he. You have put a hedge around him. You have made him the richest man in all the
world. All You’ve done is poured blessing upon
blessing after blessing upon him. He knows where his bread is buttered. You take away that hedge and let me at him
and You’ll hear Job curse God. And God said OK. Have at him. And all hell breaks lose on this righteous
man who loses everything and is driven to abject misery to sitting on a dung hill where
his wife comes to him and says, “Job, curse God and die.” Get it over with. And tenaciously Job says, “Though He slay
me, yet will I trust Him.” But Job doesn’t know why he is going through
this misery -- this relentless pain and suffering. And his friends come to him armed with the
concept of the relationship between sin and suffering. O Job, poor thing, they come and say. What secret sin were you involved in? You must be the worst sinner of all time since
you’re the worst sufferer of all time. There must be an equation between your sinfulness
and your guilt. And the whole book of Job is written to disprove
that conclusion and that assumption. Because the purpose of Job’s suffering had
absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with his personal guilt. But again even his friends who made that assumption,
made it because they did understand that there were times in history where God does visit
judgment on people and afflict them with pain and suffering as an execution of justice. David seven days on his face, sackcloth and
ashes, praying that God will spare the life of the baby born by Bathsheba after the prophet
Nathan had informed David that God was going to take the life of that child in judgment. And David still pled with God for a whole
week, -- spare the baby. And God took the child as judgment upon David. You can’t spend 10 minutes reading the Old
Testament Scriptures without seeing the God of Israel inflicting judgment on people because
of sin. The error of the disciples and the error of
Job’s friends was assuming that in every situation there is a direct correlation between
sin and judgment. What was Paul’s sin that caused him to have
the thorn in the flesh? That thorn was given to him for his own sanctification
-- to manifest the goodness of God -- to have Paul rely constantly on divine grace. May grace is sufficient for you Paul. There are many reasons why God visits His
people with what we call the tragedy without its being a direct judgment on sin, though
at times it is. And again the bottom line of this encounter
of Jesus and His disciples is don’t rush to judgment -- that because this man was born
blind, it was because he was being judged by God or that his parents were being judged
by God. Neither one was the case. That’s why I say, if you ask me why this
happened. The only honest answer I can give you is -- I
don’t know. But I must add this. The bottom line assumption of anybody who
believes in the God of Christianity and the God of providence is that ultimately there
are no tragedies -- no tragedies for the people of God. Because God has promised by Himself that all
things that happen in this world -- all pain, all suffering, all tragedies are but for a
moment. And that God works in and through those events
for the good of those who endure them. That’s why the apostle said -- the pain,
the suffering, the affliction that we bear in this world isn’t worthy to be compared,
isn’t worthy to be mentioned in the same breath with the glory and the blessedness
that God has stored up for His people. Tragedy for the Christian is temporary -- never
permanent.
