The Amish, God, and the Devil
On a “respected” religious blog, an author posted an article on the recent Amish tragedy and wrote:
“The Amish will bear this with quiet dignity. The focus on their suffering will bear witness to their faith in Jesus Christ. If God chooses who will suffer and how - and I believe ultimately he does - then this is a great burden to bear, and one that will continue long after the cameras have gone away and the world forgets.”
For lack of a better way of saying it, this is sheer theological nuttiness. God did not any more choose that this tragedy happen than the man on the moon. It is downright unholy to think that God chose a man whose own confession was, “I am filled with so much hate, hate towards myself, hate towards God and unimaginable emptiness” to gun down little girls. While on earth Jesus had children sit on his lap and, as they did so, he told the crowd that if anyone one of them caused the kids to sin it would be better for that man to have a millstone tied around his neck and be thrown into the ocean. Jesus was and is the perfect reflection of God, the Father. So it is unconscionable to believe that God reneged on Jesus’s statement and that He would make own children suffer at the hands of such a lunatic. If that were the case no reasonable man could argue that the blood of those children is not on God’s hands. But, thankfully, it is not.
The Word demonstrates to us that the unregenerate man is under the authority and control of Satan. Eph. 2:2-3. We also see in the Word that men can be influenced and controlled by demons in different degrees. In the Word we see that Jesus encountered sick people who had demons causing the sicknesses and also the madman at Gadera who was fully possessed. Charles Roberts was not at all influenced by God to commit these acts, but by demons. The Word amply testifies that Jesus came in order to destroy or nullify the works of the enemy who is Satan and his kingdom. It would be beneficial for the Church to understand that demons did not go away after the period of the gospels and they continue to work to exert influence and even control people today. The Church should look to delivering folks like Roberts rather than assigning blame to God.
To ascribe Roberts’s acts to God is horrible thinking and horrible theology.