Just A Guess

So lately I’ve been reading Ezekiel, and unfortunately (due to struggling to keep up with school while playing a varsity sport) have not given it the attention it deserves. Ezekiel is so rich in imagery and takes a great look at the heart and mind of God. I should blog about it more, but of course, I probably will some other time. Anyway time for a philosophical debate, sounds like fun right? In Ezekiel 18:23 God states “Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? … Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their wicked ways and live?” A lot of people seem to like to give me a hard time by claiming God is not just and instead mean and unforgiving. While sometimes I may try to explain it all away saying “Oh….well….they sort of deserved it” which is not really the correct response. That is because it says here that God takes no pleasure in the suffering of the wicked. God created them too. God created Mother Theresa but He also created Hitler. Now which does He love more? Trick question the answer is neither A nor B. Am I saying Hitler is innocent? NO, he was terrible and evil, but the thing that we can’t forget is he was created by God. God loves everyone simply because they were made by Him in His image. So then if God takes no pleasure in His judgment then why carry it out? Well here’s my thought (Disclaimer this is my own reasoning which I find all too limited in the realm of sophisticated theology) what if God didn’t step in; what if Sodom and Gomorrah stood and spread sin elsewhere, what if the Romans conquered all of Europe and made Christianity illegal, what if Hitler won WWII? Well the world would be a terrible place. On the small scale it may seem that evil wins and sadly it does sometimes. But what if God stood by every time and let the world gradually destroy itself? God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but neither does He take pleasure in the death of the innocent at the hands of the wicked. Is life a rosy walk down easy street? No, but does good often triumph in the end? Yes. I’m not sure if I’m right, then again no one truly knows the answer to the big questions out there; all I offer is a guess.