Does  God “take” people?

 In reference to the murder of a good person I heard someone say recently, “It’s hard to understand why God would take someone like this.”  

 It is the word “take” that bothers me intensely.  It sends us in some bad directions theologically.   If God does, in fact, “take” people through the means of murder, violence, oppression, war, genocide, disease, natural disaster and a host of other horrific events and offenses then God is the biggest monster of all!   If God does, in fact, “take” good people, then in the final analysis it is God who causes the murderer to pull the trigger.  God is then an accessory to murder.  The person is not ultimately responsible.  A variation of this bad theology is often expressed as, “I believe everything happens for a reason.”   

 It is bad theology because it alleviates humans of responsibility for the bad things that happen in the world.  After all, it was God that did it!  It was God that “took” the person.  The offender was nothing more than a pawn in God’s hand and is not responsible.  This “God-is-behind-everything-theology” leaves no room for the profound role of sin and evil in the world that works against the will of God.  

 It is bad theology because if God is behind everything that happens in this world, then it renders meaningless the role of the cross in Christianity. If God is ultimately responsible for all bad things then why did Jesus have to die to reconcile the world to God?  It seems to me, in that scenario, it is God who needs to be reconciled to God!

 It is bad theology because it leaves no room for human freedom.  God has given humanity the freedom to do as we please, even to kill each other and destroy the planet if that is what we exercise our freedom to do.  If God is behind everything then, we do not have any real freedom whatsoever.  God usurps our freedom with his will, and we are merely play acting as he pulls our strings like we were so many puppets.

 It is bad theology because if God is a God of love, this kind of behavior is totally contradictory.  God is then a deranged and split personality, loving one moment and murdering the next moment. 

 This expression of bad theology comes from a number of places the biggest of which is that we humans have compelling need to make sense out of our lives, especially our tragedies and losses.  One of the ways we attempt to make sense is to seek comfort in the belief that everything that happens is a part of a divine master plan of which we cannot see the entirety.  If in fact God has given us the freedom to do as we wish in the world, then by definition God does not need to know what I might do next, and everything I do is not a part of a script that God has written ahead of time.  In fact, in exercising my freedom, what I do very well might be contrary to God’s will and God’s intention for my life. 

 In the 8^th chapter of Romans we read this passage:  “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.”

 Some read that verse to mean that God causes all things to happen for a good reason.  This borders on bad theology.    When this verse is read in the larger context of the book of Romans, I believe this verse means is that there is no evil in this world that is stronger than God that God cannot redeem for a good purpose.  This is precisely the meaning of the cross and resurrection.  The cross and resurrection mean that God can take the worse that humanity doles out and work it for a good, even our salvation!  This is something altogether different than saying God causes all things to happen for a good reason. 

 The cross tells us that God subjects himself to the worse that humanity and the world can offer and does not succumb to it but continues to love in the face of it and even forgive the offenses and sins of humanity.  The cross tells us that God in Jesus Christ does not inflict pain, but takes into himself the pain and pathos of humanity; experiences it with us; suffers with us.

 The resurrection tells us that redemption is possible, that no matter how horrific the loss (cross), the possibility for something good to emerge still exists through faith. (resurrection)  The cross and resurrection are to be the focus of our faith, not some bogus belief that God causes all things to happen for a good reason.