The age-old question raised by horrific Bondi massacre
The terrible tragedy at Bondi two weeks ago has brought to the fore again one of the most important difficulties at the level of non-believers in the three monotheistic religions, the problem of so-called theodicy.
So, if God is all-powerful and all-good, how can He allow suffering not just in large-scale events but in every individual life?
The truth is that there is no all-encompassing answer to this question, no simple truth. Christians offer many defenses, but in the end they all fall short, because God is infinite and we are not.
We cannot understand all of His purposes, as the prophet Isaiah stated: “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
One obvious point is that in giving humans free will, God has absolutely allowed that we will sometimes be cruel, callous, exploitative, and have the whole catalog of human failings. These were clearly seen in the devastating massacre in Bondi.
I understand and share the disgust with the rising tide of antisemitism; For protesters calling for “globalizing the Intifada,” Bondi is exactly what it sounds like. Also evident in people’s responses were some of the best human qualities, such as courage and compassion.
Suffering is not new; It is as old as humanity and as constant as the sun. God’s people ask about their suffering many times in the Bible, especially in the Old Testament book of Job. And Psalm 42 says: “People ask me all day long, ‘Where is your God?’ “My tears became my food day and night.”
In fact, lament is a prominent theme throughout the Bible, both the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) and the New Testament. People cry out to God about their pain and distress because of who He is and His promises. But their protests are also an act of faith, an expression of trust in God.
The Bible also makes clear that God is not the author of evil. As the apostle James wrote in his New Testament epistle: “God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he himself tempt anyone.” An illuminating analogy is that of the tapestry. Those of us who can only occasionally perceive God’s purposes are like those looking at the backside, where threads flow haphazardly in all directions and patterns are hard to discern. For God, the situation is clear.
Sometimes all we can offer is shared mourning. Peter De Vries in his impressive novel Blood of the Lamb, Concerning the death of a child from leukemia, he concludes: “how long, how long is the mourning bench on which we sit…. We all, in short, bind ourselves to infinite pity”.
Barney Zwartz is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Public Christianity.
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Barney Zwartz, a senior fellow at the Center for Public Christianity, was religion editor of The Age from 2002 to 2013.
