This morning’s sermon was titled “God: Does he really care?” focussing on Romans 5:8. Despite the suffering endured by many in this life, God does care. We know because God the Son gave himself for us, becoming a man, to be tried unjustly, to be tortured, to be put to death and to suffer the wrath of the Father. More incredibly, he went through all this not to save perfect people, but to save us – rebellious sinners.
The evening’s sermon was basically the answer to the question, “What is the purpose of life?” (a.k.a “What is the chief end of man?”) Of which the answer, “To glorify God and enjoy him forever” – in everything I do, is humanly impossible to keep, but with the power of God working in us, through faith in Christ, it is possible.
So this omnipotent super-being that so loves us that he gave his only son so that he could forgive us our sins still claims to love us as he watches us kill each other and allows his own creation kill us in natural disasters. What a nice deity he is.
And as for the purpose of life, I think you’ll find that can be summed up in one word – procreation.
But then, we are responsible for our own actions, so why should God step in and stop us committing evil? Would you want God to step in every time you did something sinful, even change your brain so you couldn’t choose? Or would you rather be responsible and autonomous?
As for natural disasters, the magnitude of a disaster is mostly down to human actions. From things like shoddy workmanship in earthquake zones, leading to housing which crumbles, to greed leading people to live in hazardous areas like fertile volcanic slopes, and then after the event even more dying because humans won’t help other humans.
If procreation was life’s purpose – you could justify things like rape and paedophilia, and there would be no need for love. Yet, something inside us tells us that’s wrong – so that can’t be it.