The Lord Took My
______________ (Name Your Relative)
Troy J. Edwards
Often on Saturday our evangelism team goes to the street to share.
One woman that we had the privilege of ministering to on one of those Saturdays
has remained on my heart. She and her lesbian lover were very attentive and willing
to receive the truth about the sacrifice of Christ on their behalf. However,
her homosexuality is not the reason she remains on my heart. What has kept me
thinking more about her than others we shared with that day is due to something
painful she expressed to us.
This poor lady told us at one point that she was still angry
with God. She told us that God took her mother through cancer and that she felt
empty inside due to this. I have no doubt that it is painful ideas about God
such as this that leads people into these types of relationships. The team
members made some attempts to explain the love of God to her and how God never
kills people through cancer.
Nevertheless, it was after she finally allowed us to pray
for her that things began to change. We asked that God would give her an
overwhelming sense of His love and presence. God touched her so powerfully and
supernaturally that she began to be filled with His joy.
While we intend to follow up with this precious lady and her
lover and hope to keep sharing the love of Jesus (and eventually see them free
from their sin), it is a reminder of how monstrous lies spread about God from
Christian pulpits, books, and other media has a tendency to drive people away
from Him. I have attended (and performed) a number of funerals over the years.
Very seldom have I been to a funeral where God is not blamed for having “taken”
the person lying in the casket. The last funeral I attended several months ago
was a cancer victim. Guess who was blamed for her death? You guessed it—God was
blamed.
Like this precious woman we ministered to last week, I would
not want to serve a “god” who takes people through long drawn out painful
diseases such as cancer. People have a right to be angry with such a “god” if
he exists.
A quick internet search shows us that there are numerous
causes for cancer. Some of these causes include (but are not limited to)
smoking, excessive alcohol drinking, bad diet, over exposure to the sun, lack
of exercise, and being overweight. Can God be blamed when I smoke, get drunk,
eat poorly, become lazy, and fail to watch my weight? I suppose one can blame
God for these choices if one rejects the fact that God gives His creatures the
freedom to make their own decisions (and many so-called Christians actually do
reject what is called “free-will” due to twisted ideas about God’s sovereignty).
Nonetheless, from a Biblical standpoint, God is not in the
business of taking anyone through
horrible diseases and sicknesses, especially cancer. On the contrary, whenever
we are told in Scripture that God “took” anyone it was never through sickness and death. For example, in Genesis 5:24 we
are told, “And Enoch walked with God: and
he was not; for God took him.”
If this is not clear enough then note what the divine record says in the book
of Hebrews:
By
faith Enoch was translated that he
should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him:
for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.
(Hebrews 11:5)
Note that when God “took” Enoch, it was through translation and not death. When God “takes”
someone then that someone does not experience sickness or death. Keeping in
mind that death and sickness are twins (Compare Deut. 28:60-61 with 30:15, 19.
See also Jeremiah 21:8-9), it should be further noted that cancer is not God’s
method for “taking” anyone. This is also confirmed in 2 Kings 2 where we read:
And
it came to pass, when the Lord would take
up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind,
that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal. (2 Kings 2:1)
In verses 2 and 5 of this same chapter the prophets told
Elisha concerning Elijah, “Knowest thou
that the Lord will take away thy master
from thy head to day?” Further in this chapter we read:
9
And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elisha,
Ask what I shall do for thee, before I
be taken away from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion
of thy spirit be upon me.
10
And he said, Thou hast asked a hard thing: nevertheless, if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so
unto thee; but if not, it shall not be so.
11
And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there
appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder;
and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. (1 Kings 2:9-11)
Like Enoch, Elijah was certainly taken by God but there was no sickness that culminated in his
death. Elijah experienced no death at all. Therefore, unless a person went
straight to heaven while still in good health and experienced no cessation of
life, one should never say that a person who dies a tragic death (sickness, car
accident, etc.) was taken by God.
No doubt someone will object and say, “Ah, but Job 1:21
specifically states that the Lord ‘takes’ people through tragic deaths. That is
how He took Job’s servants, children and livestock.” Let us look at this
passage:
And
said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away;
blessed be the name of the LORD. (Job 1:21)
Apart from context we could certainly draw such conclusions.
This passage is so frequently misquoted at funerals that most people believe
this way without ever fully studying it in its entirety. It would defeat our
primary purposes to do a full exposition of Job’s tragedies, but I believe that
touching on it briefly here will help the sincere seeker of truth who can look
at our other materials later in which we give more detailed explanations of Job’s
trials. Verse 12 tells us exactly who took
away Job’s children and servants through death:
And
the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, all
that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand.
So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord.
Centuries later Jesus would contrast the difference between
His role and Satan’s role in such tragic events when He said:
The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and
to kill, and to destroy: I am
come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
(John 10:10)
This being the case then why did Job say that God had taken
his family and servants through a horrible tragedy and why would it be wrong
for us to say it? During Job’s time Jesus had not completed the redemptive work
that would legally free us from Satan’s kingdom. In our time Jesus has defeated
Satan and now He says, “I give unto you
power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy” (Luke 10:19). Satan can only go so
far as we, God’s people, let him.
In contrast, Job knew absolutely nothing about Satan’s
existence. During the dispensation in which Job lived, God had to take
responsibility for all of Satan’s acts until His people had the capacity to
receive more revelation of Satan without worshipping him as though he were
another god (contrast 2 Samuel 24:1 with 1 Chronicles 21:1 which comments on
the same incident though it was written several centuries later).
Unlike us, Job could not read Job 1 and see who was really
behind His troubles. Therefore, He did that which was common in His day and
found in most portions of Scripture: He credited God with the event. Yet, the
New Covenant believer should be more Biblically literate in his or her
understanding. God did not take any of Job’s family through tragedy. This was
done by Satan.
In conclusion, when faced with the death of a loved one,
never, ever use that awful phrase, “God took him/her.” Instead, say as the
householder said when He found tares among His wheat, “An enemy hath done this” (Matt. 13:28a).
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To get a better understanding of God’s place in relation to
death and killing, we highly recommend our book, “Is the God of the Bible Literally a KILLER?”
Visit us at vindicatinggod.org/books.html
