I spent most of the day today relaxing with my dad and recovering from a poker game that lasted 8 hours ending at 5:00a.m. We watched several shows on A&E about Cold Case crimes being solved decades after the crime occurred.
It goes without saying that there is considerable evil running rampant in our societies today. One case that was solved involved a father who was sexually abusing his two children. When his wife found out he shot and killed her proceeding to decapitate her and remove her lower jaw and most of her upper jaw thus rendering her found skull unidentifiable once it was found; then, he went back to sexually abusing his children for years. Eventually he was caught and put in prison where he’ll remain for the rest of his life.
Though he was caught, justice has not been served. There are many more cases that will never be solved, unspeakable crimes committed against the innocent.
It is these sorts of incidents that keeps me from being able to believe that Jesus won’t eventually come again and set it all to right. I recently learned of an eschatalogical (end-times) theory called Transmillenialism which essentially states that all of the end-times prophecies made by Jesus and his early followers came to pass in the first century, including Jesus’ Second Coming. The theory states that the purpose of the Christian life is now to help bring about the Kingdom of God by doing good.
Taken from the above linked article, Transmillenialism states:
“God’s redemptive plan is completely in place. All of it. And if the end fully came at the fall of Jerusalem, there is no need to invent a non-biblical resurrection and judgment for individuals at death.“
To be fair, the theory has its merits. If nothing else, it has a strong focus on doing good, of making the world a better place, of social action and seeing the purpose in all things, etc. That said, though, the theory fails to account for the problem of evil. It is beautiful to say that we have a part to play in preventing and dealing with evil. It is problematic to say that if we do not act, nobody will; if we do not serve justice, it won’t come to pass.
If God is to be loving at all, he will need to serve justice to those unrepentant who have committed both small and large evils. No man, much less God, can claim to be good while refusing to deal with evil at some point.
Evil is too big a problem to be left undealt with. Who will act on behalf those helpless children in our neighborhoods being abused by violent and malicious adults? Who will defend the cause of the women who are abducted and forced into prostitution both in our country and others? Who will avenge those men and women whose lives are taken every day by friends, families or strangers out of selfish ambition or corrupt business?
God will.
The Bible contains no promise that all calamity will be prevented or that all evil will be dealt with immediately. But hope remains. God will deal with evil. It may not be now or even in time. But it will come.
Because God is love and that’s what love does.
Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: | Eschatology, Justice, Pain, Theology
