Why Tragedy Doesn’t Let God Off the Hook

It’s now two weeks after the worst earthquake to wreak havoc on southern Turkey and northwestern Syria in over 80 years. As of Monday another powerful temblor has struck the same region. Buildings collapsed. More lives were lost.

You’ve heard the argument. You’ve thought it too. 

If God is all powerful and good, why does he allow for so many good people to suffer? Why would a good God let bad things happen in the world he made?

When we witness tragedy in our own lives, like the death of a loved one, or when we experience tragedy on a regional, national, or global scale—the existence of evil and suffering seem to outweigh the goodness of an all-powerful, benevolent God.

If he is good, then he sure isn’t powerful. And if he’s powerful, then God sure isn’t very good. In fact, he sounds a lot more like Disney’s Maleficent than he does a deity.

Or he’s a young child playing burning ants with a magnifying glass. What a maniac. 

Based on these observations about our world, any reasonable person in this world should come to terms with the simple fact that God does not exist. But if God does not exist, then why should anyone have a problem with suffering and evil at all?

If God is not there, if he is nowhere, then why do we call something “good” or “evil” in the first place? If God is not there, isn’t suffering just a feeling—no more or less important than other experiences we live through?

But tragedy doesn't let God off the hook either. If God does exist, then the very existence of suffering and evil is a really big problem for Christians to make sense of. However, it’s an even greater problem for everyone else—because ultimately, evil and suffering have no one to report to in a world without God. They happen to us and we can’t control them, and there is no reason for it and there is no end to it. It just happens—or it doesn’t (if you’re “lucky”). Chance, or luck, meaningless whatever, governs human existence and some have it better off than others, I guess. How should I know?

If God does not exist, then does “survival of the fittest” govern reality? Is that what determines who lives and who dies? Evolutionary choice—the strong consume the weak? If that’s the case, why not make that the acceptable norm? Why have societies that punish criminals? Why try to have just societies and pursue peace if it’s all for nothing and no reason? Why try to play god if there is no heaven above or hell below? Maybe a MadMax world makes sense, with the powerful consuming the weak.

And if God’s not there, isn’t it just natural for people to live and die—some longer than others, but to no real end and with no purpose and with the stronger butchering the weak-minded and simple people?

What I’m challenging here is the notion that all of life is just random chance. If that’s the case, then no one should complain when bad things happen. If it’s a random, meaningless life, then we have nothing to object to, nothing to hold others accountable to, and nothing to live for. Stuff just happens because it happens.

When a person is unjustly murdered, we can’t respond with outrage because it just happens. Why should we care if someone dies, if it’s all just chance and there’s no one to report to?

I realize that this does not let God off the hook for all of the tragedy that happens in this world. God does not stop all evil and suffering from happening, and he hasn’t yet eliminated evil from existence. That’s true. But what’s so interesting about the Christian story is that God does not let himself off the hook either, in fact, he actually has decided to put himself on the “hook” of human suffering. God did this in the life and death of his son, Jesus. 

Jesus entered into this world of evil and suffering, and he became a curse for us within it. He was afflicted, mistreated, imprisoned, beaten, mocked, and murdered. God in Christ knows human suffering, tragedy, evil, despair, fear, loneliness, grief, agony, deceit, frustration, and the rest. All of it. 

God took evil and suffering so seriously that he allowed for his Son to experience evil and suffering to the fullest on the cross. God allowed for pain and death to swallow him up. He took death so seriously that he didn’t just face it head on, but he went down in the grave.

Because God in Jesus Christ did that, we can trust that he not only knows what our suffering is like—and he not only empathizes with us in our pain—but he also has a decisive plan to triumph over all evil and suffering. Death did not get the last word, he conquered the grave by rising up out of it. Because of that, his plan is set into motion and we can trust that he is going to put an end to evil and suffering forever.

Maybe not in our ideal timing, but eventually, it’s going to happen. Because when Jesus came out of that grave that he went into for us, he began this great work of putting an end to suffering, tragedy, and evil for good. He started to step on evil’s ugly head and has been crushing it once and for all ever since. It’s only a matter of time until we experience the new reality that Jesus has ushered in. And that’s a whole lot more than any other view of reality can say. There’s real hope. It’s a promise. That’s a fact.

6 Things I Learned from Michael Horton as His Student, Executive Assistant, Editor, and Friend

Actually, if I were to write a blog post on all the things Michael Horton has taught me they’d form a book, not a blog post.

He was the first living contemporary Reformed theologian I had ever read, and since stumbling upon Putting Amazing Back Into Grace in an old bookstore in North Park back as a college student I made sure it wasn’t going to be my last. (And yes, for San Diego longtime locals that’s the same bookstore that was once Evangelical Bible Bookstore and is nowadays home to an amazing brewery—shoutout to Mike Hess!).

I soaked up his dogmatics, systematic, popular works, oldest works (ever hear of or read Mission Accomplished (1986), We Believe (1998), The Agony of Deceit (1990) or Made in America (1991)? Yeah, didn’t think so. :p), essays, articles, talks, and sat under his superb teaching for four years in seminary, went to as many conferences as I could where he spoke, and worked for him at White Horse Inn—soaking in the theology of the Francis Turretin or Petrus Van Mastricht of our time. 

Sure, I was a big fan. It was borderline idolatry but, if you’ve ever been around a theological giant (who is not 6 feet tall) you’d understand.

Although the bulk of his teaching is something available to all who would “take up and read,” not everybody has the opportunity to see who Mike is behind the scenes and get to know the author who writes endless pages. All that to say, he’s taught me far more than I can articulate in one blog post and I’m thankful to God that I’ve had the opportunity in my lifetime to get to know him and his family over the years.

Here are six things I learned from Michael Horton, the person, not just the author of numerous books ;).

1. A Christian is humble.

When I was his Executive Assistant, I saw a man who was humble enough to be corrected by anyone. And I mean, anyone. He would often answer emails from people who clearly had no idea what they were talking about, and yet, he wouldn’t belittle them or use his theological expertise to squish them but would graciously and patiently listen to them.

For the first time in my life, I witnessed someone who could theologically crush just about anyone—the equivalent of MARVEL’s Titan, Thanos—choose to be gentle and lowly instead. It was a remarkable witness to the humility of Christ and has left a deep mark on me in my own ministry. It’s not just about being right. Christians are called to both “get the gospel right and to get the gospel out.”

2. A Christian is kind.

Every morning that he came into the office, Mike would say hello to “the least of these.” From the administrative assistant near the front door to our writing staff, it didn’t matter who—Mike was ready to greet every image-bearer in the room on his way to grab a Diet Dr. Pepper from the mini-fridge. This small thing reinforced that great Reformation teaching of God wearing a mask in our neighbor. When we greet another person, or befriend the other, or ask how they are doing, or offer a cup of water, we are greeting, even befriending Christ. God wears many masks.

3. A Christian is free to enjoy life.

As I look back to the moments we shared together and with others, whether it was a ride to the airport, a graduation or ordination celebration, a backyard hangout, a lunch, family dinner, or a cigar outside in the sun, I saw a man who was able to appreciate the good gifts of God in all of life.

Christians do suffer, but we aren’t masochists. We can appreciate the good things that God generously gives us in this life and thank him for these gifts, with a cheerful spirit. Sometimes even, while enjoying a good dram full of a “spirit”! ;)

4. A Christian suffers, yet still glorifies and serves God in everything.

You don’t write A Place for Weakness without God making plenty of room for weakness in your own life. From over a decade ago to the present, Mike has taught me the truth and the somewhat harsh reality that every Christian suffers.

He is no stranger to suffering—from watching loved ones and mentors die to living with excruciating back pain. But his hopeful response to suffering is what has always stuck with me.

In the midst of weakness, he continues to serve the Lord as he is able with what he has in front of him. He lives with gospel hopefulness.

Michael Horton once told a small group of us, “The problem with Christians is not that they aren’t where they should be. The problem with Christians is they aren’t who they should be where God has called them to be.”

I remember when his back injury happened and watched that long road to what would hopefully be a recovery but has remained to be continual pain... In spite of the personal pain he experiences, Mike is a joyful person to be around. He’s sincere as a friend and colleague and seeks to serve Christ in everything. Of course, like any sinner-saint, he fails to do this perfectly and isn’t the gospel. But that’s what makes Mike so great. He points others around him to the gospel, not to himself.

5. A Christian shows charity.

As one of his students, I often observed an emphasis on assuming the best about others from Mike. He emphasized this especially in his Doctrine of the Church class at Westminster Seminary California (WSC), but throughout all of his written works and his personal correspondences, Mike is an incredibly charitable person toward those outside of his own theological tent.

Where Reformed folk tend to circle the wagons, Mike would engage with others far outside the Reformed tradition noting carefully where there are disagreements, while still pointing out similarities or things to learn from other traditions. He’s able to synthesize and learn from others in the best of ways. I love that.

Mike also teaches all of his students to value others’ work enough to fairly critique it. You don’t have the right to critique someone else if you haven’t taken the time to understand them and critique them on their own terms. True to form and to this day, among my Eastern Orthodox scholarly friends I still hear, “Michael Horton gets us.”

6. A Christian is all about the gospel.

I think it was Kevin DeYoung who came to speak at my seminary when I was a student there, and he mentioned different personalities who were about x, y, or z. And when he came to mention Michael Horton, what he said about him was something like, “And Mike, well, he’s about the gospel.” And he just left it right there.

Well, that’s not a bad thing to be identified by and known for!

And from the first time I read Mike’s words in Putting Amazing Back Into Grace, he has always been all about the gospel, to the last hangout I had with him—the gospel was the main thing to encourage us, weary pilgrims, on the way to Zion. 

And with that, I know this post has been about what Michael Horton has taught me, but in all the ways he’s taught at his best, it’s only because of the gospel of grace that he has on his lips and has typed on his keyboard that he has been able to do it.

Thank you, Mike, for teaching me more about what it’s like to be a disciple of Jesus. I praise God for his work through you and continue to pray for you and your family regularly. And more importantly than any of us, I thank God for the gospel that is “the power of God unto salvation,” for sinners like us.