Where Is He Not?

“Where was God when my mother died of cancer? Where was He when I was abused and raped? Where was He when my son was killed by a drunk driver? Where was He when I broke my leg, spinal cord and now paralyzed? Where was He when I lost my job, my house got burnt and my business crashed? Where was He when earthquakes and typhoons destroyed my community and took my friends away? Where is He now that I barely survive in poverty? Where is He with all the murder, assassination and terrorism? Where was He? Where is He?”

You can imagine these questions begging for answers all day long from depressed, despaired, weary and broken-hearted people all around the world, who have gone through or are still going through terrible and catastrophic phases in their lives. I have no answers to all these questions myself but these I can boldly say: God sees it all and knows it all. He knows you are hurting and won’t leave you helpless.

However, when He called you to repentance and asked that you heed His word, did you obey? When he told you to lean on Him and rely not on your understanding, did you hearken to His voice? Thus, He says: “because He called you and you have refused to answer, have stretched out His hands and you didn’t heed, and you treated as nothing all His counsel and would accept none of His reproof, I (God) also will laugh at your calamity; I (God) will mock when the thing comes that shall cause you terror and panic – when your panic comes as a storm and desolation and your calamity comes as a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you.

“Then will they call upon me but I will not answer; they will seek me early and diligently but they will not find me… But whoso hearkens to me shall dwell securely and in confident trust and shall be quiet, without fear or dread of evil.” (Proverbs 1:24-33) Amplified Bible.

Far from it to even nurture the thought of saying God is wicked. He isn’t. He is a loving, just and righteous God. He shows no partiality and all He does are out of His love for you and I. “Truly, God would not do wickedly, neither will the Almighty pervert justice. God is not partial to princes, nor does He regard the rich more than the poor, for they all are the work of His hands.” (Job 34:12, 19). Amplified Bible.

John 3:16 (to those who know it) is like a household chorus that speaks the truth about the person of God. He so loves the world He created, and everything and everyone in it regardless of race, tribe, background, education, skin colour, religion, status or what have you.

“No philosophical theory which I have yet come across is a radical improvement on the words of Genesis, that 'In the beginning God made Heaven and Earth”, were the words of C.S. Lewis.

Thus, what hardens your heart to nurse the belief that God doesn’t exist? Are your assumptions and assertions based on science and its findings? Or you just happen to be an offspring of a hard atheist? I couldn’t agree less when someone said that “the atheist can't find God for the same reason that a thief can't find a policeman.”

In the words of Douglas Wilson, “If there is no God, then all that exists is time and chance acting on matter. If this is true then the difference between your thoughts and mine correspond to the difference between shaking up a bottle of Mountain Dew and a bottle of Dr. Pepper. You simply fizz atheistically and I fizz theistically. This means that you do not hold to atheism because it is true, but rather because of a series of chemical reactions Â… Â… Morality, tragedy, and sorrow are equally evanescent. They are all empty sensations created by the chemical reactions of the brain, in turn created by too much pizza the night before.

“If there is no God, then all abstractions are chemical epiphenomena, like swamp gas over fetid water. This means that we have no reason for assigning truth and falsity to the chemical fizz we call reasoning or right and wrong to the irrational reaction we call morality. If no God, mankind is a set of bi-pedal carbon units of mostly water. And nothing else.”

Whether or not men may choose to believe in Him, God exists. “The reason why many people do not believe in God is not so much that it is intellectually impossible to believe in God, but because belief in God forces that thoughtful person to face the fact that he is accountable to such a God” (Robert A. Laidlaw).

Truly, have you for a while sat down to imagine the miracle of sleeping and waking each day? Where the sun goes at dusk and the hiding place of the moon at dawn? “Can you understand the spreading of the clouds or the thundering of his pavilions?” (Psalm 18:11; Job 36:29).

“By the breath of God ice is giving and the breadth of water is frozen over. He loads the thick cloud with moisture; He scatters the cloud of his lightening… Do you know how the clouds are balanced; the wonderful works of Him Who is perfect in knowledge? … Tell me with what words of man can we use to address such a Being (who has done these things)…? (Job 37:10-19).

The truth about God’s existence is incontrovertible. His existence is the only reality there is whether you are aware and conscious of it or not. “Behold! God is mighty, and yet despises no one nor regards anything as trivial; He is mighty in power of understanding and heart” (Job 35:5).

“My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust? If the whole show was bad and senseless from A to Z, so to speak, why did I, who was supposed to be part of the show, find myself in such a violent reaction against it?... Of course I could have given up my idea of justice by saying it was nothing but a private idea of my own. But if I did that, then my argument against God collapsed too--for the argument depended on saying the world was really unjust, not simply that it did not happen to please my fancies.

“Thus, in the very act of trying to prove that God did not exist - in other words, that the whole of reality was senseless - I found I was forced to assume that one part of reality - namely my idea of justice - was full of sense. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never have known it was dark. Dark would be without meaning” (C.S. Lewis).

However, God has these to say for Himself to those who doubt His existence:

“Where were you when I laid the foundation of earth? Declare to Me, if you have and know understanding. Who determined the measures of the earth, if you know? Or who stretched the measuring line upon it? … Have you commanded the morning since your days began and caused the dawn to know its place? … Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Or have you seen the doors of deep darkness?

“Where is the way where light dwells? And as for darkness, where is its abode, that you may conduct it to his home, and may know the paths to its house? You must know, since you were born then! Or because you are so extremely old…” (Job 38:4-41).

He (God) speaks on: “The wings of the ostrich wave proudly, but are they the pinions and plumage of love? The ostrich leaves her eggs on the ground and warm them in the dust, forgetting that a foot may crush them or that the wild beast may trample them (but God watches over them)… Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars and stretches her wings toward the south…?” (Job 39:1-30).

Having said all these, do you still posit that God doesn’t exist? If you can tender answers to all these questions from God, then, I will propagate your agnostic stand and believe with you that God doesn’t exist.

Can you count the numbers of the stars or the hairs on your head? “Can you draw out a leviathan (crocodile) with a fishhook? Or press down his tongue with a cord? … Who can open the doors of his mouth? … He (crocodile) looks all mighty in the face; he is monarch over all the sons of pride. Now, who are you who dares not arouse the unmastered crocodile, yet dares resist God and His existence, the beast’s Creator? (Job 41:1, 14, 34).

“I can see how it might be possible for a man to look down upon the earth and be an atheist, but I cannot conceive how he could look up into the heavens and say there is no God”, were the words of Abraham Lincoln.

No tribulation, calamity or anguish you may be going through now that can compare to that of Job in the Bible. Yet, he never for once doubted the existence and power of God Almighty. Your predicament may seem as though God has forgotten you. Really, He hasn’t. He’s only taking you through a process of growth to be strong and fit for what lies ahead. “Without having to experience the rigours of tests and trials, testimonies lose their savour (Jacobs Adewale).

Moreover, “can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, they may forget, yet I (God Almighty) will not forget you” (Isaiah 49:15), and this He assures no matter how grave your situation may be.

 

Aaron Arrowsmith said “A heathen philosopher once asked a Christian, 'Where is God'? The Christian answered, 'Let me first ask you, Where is He not?” I pose the same question to you dear reader who vehemently doubts the existence of God, ‘Where is He not?’

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