‘Is God Angry? Where Is He?’
Why does God allow injustice? It plagues our world—why doesn’t He stop it?
A Trumpet reader asked this question in response to a story I wrote about the dangers of predators targeting children online. Understandable, given the grotesque facts: British authorities say some three quarters of a million British adults pose a sexual risk to children. Officers arrest about 1,000 offenders a month and still can’t keep pace—adults sending children obscene material, enticing children into sexual acts, molesting children, trafficking children. In America the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children logged 61.8 million exploitation-related files last year. One in 4 American minors ages 9 to 17 now report having had a sexual interaction online, according to research group Thorn—including 1 in 6 children as young as 9 to 12. A new unicef report says 1 in 5 children who go online will be targeted for sexual abuse or exploitation this year. These children are four times likelier than their peers to report suicidal thoughts, self-harm or severe anxiety.
“God is deeply angered by the abuse and exploitation of children!” I wrote in that article. “He expects parents and other authorities to protect the most defenseless among us. Predatory behavior rouses His wrath—as does parental negligence ….”
A Trumpet subscriber from Quebec pushed back on that statement, writing (in French): “I, too, am angry and disappointed. How can God ask the authorities to protect the most vulnerable when He Himself is absent to protect us from evil on this Earth? It is high time all this stopped. God must return, now, to mete out His justice. Because evil is everywhere, and I can’t bear to see it any longer. Evil reigns, the devil shows himself without shame, and people are completely blind and mad. So is God angry? … Where is He? Why doesn’t He show Himself as Satan does? He is all-powerful; He can stop the carnage at any moment because He is God.
“I’m at the end of my tether, and my greatest wish is to see His power against evil. I want billions of people to see that He is indeed here to rid us of Satan. It’s time for His wrath to be made real. It’s all very well writing and reading about it. But this has gone on long enough. I’m still praying, but that’s no longer enough.”
This angry plea has echoed through millenniums in this unjust world. In fact, it is recorded repeatedly in Scripture itself. “Lord, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked triumph?” (Psalm 94:3). “… Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously?” (Jeremiah 12:1). “… How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?” (Revelation 6:10).
The reason for God’s lack of immediate action in avenging the injustices of this world is profound, and a full understanding requires study. A good start in that study is “Why Does God Allow Suffering?”, Chapter 2 of our booklet Why ‘Natural’ Disasters? (free upon request, and accessible online at theTrumpet.com). Horror at the triumph of evil in today’s world should motivate us to search out God’s explanation—and He does have one. We all need to understand it.
He isn’t intervening yet. But His promise to that discouraged reader—and to all of us, difficult as it may be for those enduring the suffering to accept—is repeated many times in Scripture, and it can be absolutely counted on: Don’t lose hope. I am coming.
After Habakkuk cried, “O Lord, how long shall I cry … of violence, and thou wilt not save?” (Habakkuk 1:2), God replied: “This vision is for a future time. It describes the end, and it will be fulfilled. If it seems slow in coming, wait patiently, for it will surely take place. It will not be delayed” (Habakkuk 2:3; New Living Translation).
2 Peter 3:9 assures us, “The Lord does not delay [as though He were unable to act] and is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is [extraordinarily] patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (Amplified Bible). His plan to bring all people to repentance is much longer term than most people realize—but it is a magnificent plan that, in the end, will achieve spectacular success.
God’s indignation at wickedness and oppression is unmistakable—and He wants us to think as He does. That reader’s anger is praiseworthy. God praises righteous Lot, living in Sodom, for being tormented by the sin around him (2 Peter 2:6-8). He promises to protect “the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations” in His city (Ezekiel 9:4). It is easy to grow callous in the face of so much evil. We cannot afford to do that.
We must vigilantly protect ourselves and our loved ones, and actively seek God’s protection from the world’s dangers. And we must accept this unmistakable truth: These problems will not be solved until God Himself intervenes. Thankfully He will do just that—and it cannot come too soon. That is why we must pray earnestly, daily, as Jesus instructed us in Matthew 6:10: “Thy kingdom come.”