A PERHAPS UNSATISFYING ANSWER TO THE FIRST QUESTION MOST PEOPLE WOULD LIKE TO ASK GOD WHEN THEY MEET HIM FACE-TO-FACE

 

7/14/22

I sent the following letter to the Wall Street Journal in response to another letter asking one of history’s best questions, knowing that the answer will satisfy few people, but trying nonetheless:

 

6/6/22

 

In his 6/6/22 letter to the editor, my fellow Illinoisan Brian Hiatt asks “how does a benevolent, all-knowing God allow such evil to happen to innocent children?”   This entirely legitimate and understandable question has puzzled, frustrated, and angered believers and non-believers alike since the dawn of time, and especially at times like these.    We believe the answer is that, while God is all-knowing, He is not all-powerful because He relies on people to do His will and has endowed us, for better or worse, with free will.    We can say “yes” to God or we can say “no” God.   Many people, including the Uvalde shooter, choose to say “no” to God, with devastating consequences.

 

It is never the will of God that innocents should suffer; however, the world is filled with people who have decided to thwart, rather than to do, the will of their Creator.  This refutation of God's will accounts for a huge measure of the suffering in the world.

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