Articles
Blaming The Wrong One
I don’t know about you, but when I was a lot younger, I was one of those kids who would tap someone on the shoulder opposite me so the person I tapped would believe it was someone else. And, yes, I would do it enough times that the person I tapped on the shoulder would eventually get tired of it and whack the person they thought was doing it. Meanwhile, I’m just standing there whistling innocently as I snickered inside at the success of my mischievousness.
Sometimes, I think the devil is doing something like that in this world, with great success, apparently.
When God created this earth and all the living creatures to dwell on it [including man], it was said after almost every day of Creation, “And God saw that it was good” (cf. Gen. 1:10). And at the conclusion of His Creation, it is said, “Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good” (Gen. 1:31). As God created man, everything was good, and it was intended to be good. The wise writer reminds us, too, “That God made man upright” (Eccl. 7:29); from the beginning, and in the beginning, man was free from sin and unrighteousness, and everything truly was good.
Well, we all know “the rest of the story”; that original world that was nothing but good did not last long. In just the third chapter of the Bible, we find the story of how the serpent (Satan, Rev. 12:9) deceived Eve and she ate of the forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and gave some to her husband Adam (Gen. 3:1-6), breaking God’s explicit command (Gen. 2:16, 17) and bringing sin into the once-good world. It hasn’t been good since that day.
Because of sin, everything changed in this world, and not for good. God intended man to be able to live forever (cf. Gen. 3:22-24; Gen. 2:16), but now all men would eventually die (Gen. 3:19; Heb. 9:27). Additionally, God cursed the ground and added, “In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you” (Gen. 3:17, 18) where there were none before. In addition to these ills, real, physical ills would beset mankind from that day forward, and Jesus made that clear when He spoke about the woman who had suffered an infirmity for 18 years, asking the critics of His healing, “So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound—think of it—for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?” (Luke 13:16). That alone tells us that physical afflictions and infirmities are Satan’s work, but we find in the picture of the heavenly city, the New Jerusalem, described in terms of having “no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain” (Rev. 21:4). If those things will be absent, as will anything contrary to righteousness, this tells us that the blame for this world’s ills should be laid at the feet of the same one who brought sin into this world: Satan.
Not God.
Now, Satan is not unaware of the fact of all the trouble he has brought into this world, but he also knows that if he can get people to blame God for all these ills and troubles, he will then keep them from wanting anything to do with God and they will remain under his power and influence instead — lost. Just like he likes it! You see, he’s tapping people on the shoulder with sicknesses like cancer and viruses and mental illness and anything else he can bring to cause man misery, and he’s convinced everyone that God is to blame! Meanwhile, he’s over in the corner, gleefully watching and snickering as he sees and hears men blame God and get angry with Him for nothing He has actually done while, at the same time, rejecting Him in spite of what He has done — sending His Son to die for us in hopes we would respond in faith and obedience that Satan would no longer have a hold on our souls.
And if it isn’t the various diseases and physical or mental ills of this world, it is the mistreatment and ungodliness by their fellow man — especially by those who claim to believe in God and those who profess to be followers of Jesus. Some see this ungodly behavior and somehow blame God! Satan has convinced many that all the failures of professing believers is reason enough to quit serving God, and even evidence enough that God doesn’t exist! [Hint: When men act in ungodly ways, that ought to tell us their behavior has nothing to do with God!]
We find in such cases that Satan has done a masterful job of convincing those in the world [and many who profess to believe in God and Christ] that a Christian can never fail to live up to God’s standard, and if anyone does, that proves they are just a bunch of hypocrites. So many people believe this, without thinking too deeply, that they don’t stop to consider that it is not God’s ways that have failed, but men who have failed to keep God’s ways — which only proves what the teachings of Christ reveal: Man is weak and unable to overcome temptations alone, and has a great need for forgiveness.
But Satan has convinced many that every time a professing believer fails, it is a mark against God’s system and against God Himself. In such situations, and many others, including the physical and mental suffering men sometimes endure, the willingly-blind critics rail against God, saying, “If God is so powerful, why doesn’t He eliminate suffering?” or, “If God is so loving, why doesn’t He eliminate injustice and cruelty and suffering altogether?” Meanwhile, Satan is over there in the corner, snickering at his success at getting men to lay the blame for man’s ills at the feet of God.
Let’s stop for a minute and think about the world the harshest critics of God supposedly desire. According to their most common and harshest criticism, God should prevent any evil or unpleasant thing, and man should never suffer pain or heartache or sorrow or anything negative, else God has failed us. They also claim to want a world in which no man treats another unfairly and no injustice exists. [Hmm...Sounds like heaven, does it not?] How would this be possible?
Well, I suppose God could have created man without free will to make his own decisions, and such an existence would result in a world filled with mindless robots, following God’s direction unfailingly. I am certain the critics would not want that world, where they had no free will to make their own choices, so that is out. I suppose God could also react to every injustice or sin of man and eliminate the guilty. I am certain the critics would not want that, either, for no one would be left!
And then there is the problem of this supposed ‘perfect’ world where there is nothing unpleasant. The problem, you see, is getting 100% of mankind to agree on what is “unpleasant,” for what is unpleasant to some is actually enjoyed by others! In reality, such a world would be impossible! But, hey, it’s easier to blame God for our imperfect world, isn’t it?
Yes, Satan has done a masterful job of deceiving many in this world, just as he deceived Eve. He has convinced many people that the God who “so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son” (John 3:16) actually hates us! He has convinced many that the merciful God (cf Luke 6:36) is just waiting for you to slip up so He can send you to hell forever. He has so deceived men they ignore him as the true source of this world ills, and are now blaming the wrong one!
Don’t fall for it! — Steven Harper
