Now that you know that God is "continually creating" so that He can take care of you, it's probably not a stretch to know that He takes an active role in defending you and protecting you.
But when we say that He defends me against ALL danger and guards and protects me from ALL evil, that seems a stretch, right? After all, haven't you known Christians who have not only experienced danger, but suffered the consequences of that danger. For example: Christian civilians who live in war zones are still killed.
And the same can be said about the way God guards and protects me from ALL evil. Is it not the case that evil visits many people, including Christians. For example: When kidnappers take a Christian child, doesn't that put the lie to the words?
Does this post raise any new questions?
Pastor, I’m catching up on all of your posts and have enjoyed them. Regarding this one, since clearly Christians still suffer evil in the world, what does it mean that He defends me agains ALL danger and guards and protects me from ALL evil?
ReplyDeleteEric Buus
Eric, my response comes in three parts. First: So long as we are still alive, we must admit that "things could always be worse." (I am not going to discuss "quality of life" in this post; the view that someone is "better off dead" does not fit comfortably within a Biblical worldview.) In other words, short of death we have the evidence of our senses to confirm the POSSIBILITY that God is active protecting and defending us. Second: The scriptures confirm the double truth that God's people both suffer along with the rest of the fallen world, but that God never leaves His people without deliverance in the end. That "He defends and protects us against all evil" does NOT mean that we never experience the effects of evil, but rather that no evil gets the last word with God's people! Third: Not even death gets the last word with us, for in Jesus Christ God has overcome even that evil for us. In the case of death, God's deliverance for us is the resurrection.
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