Where Was God?

May 8
Where Was God? by Dr. Jim Denison

April 14 marked 150 years since the assassination of Abraham Lincoln while attending "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. Where was the Secret Service when the president was attacked? President Lincoln signed the bill creating the agency the night before he left for Ford's Theatre. Where was his bodyguard, a Washington policeman named John Parker? Historians aren't sure.

Here's a more relevant question:: “Where was God?”

Undoubtedly there were many praying for Mr. Lincoln on the night he was shot. God's word requires that "petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people—for kings and all those in authority" (1 Timothy 2:1-2). The Union numbered 18.5 million in 1865; surely many were praying for their president. Yet God did not answer their prayers by preventing his murder.

In addition, most historians believe the Reconstruction era following the Civil War would have been much more effective had the president lived to lead it. Yet God did not prevent his death.

Christians believe that God is all-knowing. If so, he knew what Booth was planning long before the attack. We also believe that God is all-loving. If true, he loved Abraham Lincoln and the nation he served. And we believe that God is all-powerful. Presumably he could have prevented the assassination. Why, then, was the president killed?

Let's be more personal: who has hurt you most deeply? Most recently? Why did God allow your suffering? One answer is that God created humans with free will so we could choose to worship him, and cannot prevent the consequences of misused freedom without ultimately denying freedom itself. While this assertion makes sense, it does not always apply.

In Acts 12, Herod imprisoned Simon Peter. But when the church prayed for Peter, angels released him, sparing his life (Acts 12:1-11). Clearly, God prevented the consequences of Herod's misused freedom. Why did he not do the same for President Lincoln? For you?

It seems to me that we have three options. One: we can decide that there is no God. However, the fact that we do not comprehend God's ways does not prove that he does not exist. If the world consisted only of entities we understood, how small would it be?

Two: we can decide that he is not the God we think he is. If you thought God guaranteed our happiness, you're right—he's not that God. Jesus assured us, "in this world you will have tribulation" (John 16:33). He never promised that we would be safe from harm, whatever our status in this world.

Three: we can decide that he is the same God he was before Abraham Lincoln was shot, or someone hurt you. When he chooses not to answer our prayer as we wish, an all-knowing, all-loving, all-powerful Father must have better reasons than his children can understand. I choose the third option. The harder it is to trust God, the more I need to trust him.

His word tells us that "faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1). Why do you need such conviction today? Will you allow the Lord to help you to have it?



Those of us living in the early 21st Century can apply Dr. Dennison's query to our own situation: "Why does God allow a group as demonically influenced as ISIS to vent its evil upon godly people?"

We have seen these misguided and ruthless perpetrators of evil butcher men of faith in Christ mercilessly, but they go unchallenged. They are reported to be within miles of the southern U.S. border, indeed within many states, but we seem to be inert, unable to hinder their intent.

We are a people who have forsaken the God of our fathers. We have leaned instead upon the arm of government to supply our needs, to be our god and we are rapidly discerning the total ineffectiveness of the latter.

Yesterday was our National Day of Prayer. Hopefully, many of us were on our faces before our Lord, beseeching Him for His renewed protection and guidance for our land, but as Dr. Denison observed, God cannot infringe on the free will of His people, lest He remove free will from them.

May we be on our knees, imploring Him for His mercy for our land, for His people around the world, not only on the National Day of Prayer, but every day, for we cannot overthrow the forces of the evil one with the resources of men and governments.

We must overcome the satanic hordes that are propelled by hate with the love of the living Christ! We must employ the same power that raised Jesus from the dead that dwells within us (see Romans 8:11) to crush evil under our feet and scatter it impotent to the wind! We must, "overcome evil with good," Romans 12:21.