No Way Out.

Christians often try to save God from His bad reputation...

...I didn't know God needed to be saved?

...silly me...

...here I was thinking that it was us that needed to be saved...saved from our foolish efforts to make God seem acceptable according to "our" standard of what acceptable should look like.

Remember...God is the standard!

How do we judge an action of God to be unjust, unfair or not good when God is the standard for all of these?

Let's stretch our minds for a minute.

There are some Christians who believe that the Bible teaches that God has predestined everything from eternity...big things and small things.

They believe that absolutely everything that happens...including the good and bad choices of men, was pre-planned by God from before the creation of the world.

To other Christians this will NOT do.

They believe this makes God seem bad...sort of ugly even.

God predestines everything...even bad stuff?...no way Jose!...they say [kind of catchy eh?]

God is good, and therefore He would never bring evil or bad into the world, they say.

Instead of God predestinating everything, these friends of God, have God creating everything, and then having a close watch on everything...adding a pinch of 'good' and touch of 'fairness' to the mix here and there.

But here is the catch. The Bible teaches that God knows the end from the beginning.

Before God created anything...He saw it all. [some would say He knew the end from the beginning because it was His plan to begin with].

Think about it...don't let it go, wrestle with it...

Even if God didn't pre-plan everything...or predestine everything would He still be responsible for the outcome of everything, if He knew what the results were going to be?

Let me give you an example.

If a parole officer released a known killer would he be responsible for the murder?

How about if he knew with absolute certainty that the man he was going to release was going to commit murder?

He has the power to keep him in custody...he has the power to release him.

Knowing full well what releasing the criminal will mean...the parole officer chooses to release him.

Wouldn't you say that he is at least partially responsible for the outcome?

You bet!

You see, trying to make God seem prettier by saying He didn't really predestine everything...instead He just foresaw everything...doesn't really make God look prettier.

God didn't have to create...but He chose to...even though He saw what this would bring about [I am speaking in terms of this school of belief]

To see God's beauty you must look at Him with the eyes of faith He has given us "in Christ".

God has predestined everything...but because He is all good and all wise and all powerful, He is working "all things" out for good.

We may not be able to see or understand how God can use evil to bring about ultimate good...

...but then again we are not all knowing, all wise, all good, and all powerful...we are not God!

... 120 years ago we couldn't see how being stabbed in the heart with a sharp knife could be any good either...and when the knife is in the wrong hands we would be right in thinking so.

But today, when the knife is in the right hands...we call this heart surgery...and it brings good.