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Living in the in-between time
If Jesus’ death on the cross shows that evil can be defeated, then some people ask why we still see so much suffering. Indeed one could argue that the past century was one of the bloodiest in history – two world wars, huge numbers of deaths under Stalin and other despotic rulers. These realities are also a hammer blow to humanists who argue that humanity is ‘advancing’ or becoming ‘better’. How are we to understand this?
If we picture time as in the diagram above, then the cross is the promise of the ultimate victory over evil, an action that ensures this will happen. The End is when we see that victory worked out fully and finally. An analogy to this is D-Day in World War II:
- Once the second front was opened on French soil, the outcome of the war was no longer in doubt
- However, this did not mean that the enemy just gave up. There were many fierce battles before VE day, with thousands of casualties and deaths.
- We live in a similar in-between time. Evil fights to thwart the purposes of God and uses suffering to this end.
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Blessed be your name is a popular Christian song that speaks of keeping faith in God in hard times as well as good times.
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Use the email address below to give feedback / ask questions to the author, whose views these pages reflect
Six Big Questions Rev John Hibberd sixbigquestions@throughfaithmissions.org |
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