PRELUDE TO A PROBLEM

November 4, 1987, was the day that changed my life forever. Let me back up. I grew up in a Christian home, though not an ordinary one. My father and mother were born into extremely devout Orthodox Jewish homes. My mom was born in Kovel, Ukraine, just a few years before World War I began, while my dad was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. What are the chances, humanly speaking, that the two of them would ever meet? Of course, chance had nothing to do with it. Mom was one of those immigrants you sometimes read about who came to America, first entering at Ellis Island in New York harbor. Her father had gone to the United States seven years before the rest of the family came. Eventually, the family reunited and settled on the south side of Chicago.

During Dad's college days at the University of Pittsburgh, the Lord revealed himself to Dad, and by the end of 1929 he accepted Jesus as his Messiah and Savior. In her teenage years, Mom was given the gospel by missionaries to the Jews, and she too received Jesus as her Messiah and Savior.

Of course, both of their families were horrified. Neither Mom nor Dad wanted to hurt their families, but what could they do? The truth that Jesus is Israel's long-awaited Messiah could not be denied. Eventually, Mom wanted to go for Bible training at Moody Bible Institute. Her parents insisted that she give up her new religion or move out of the family home. Mom loved her family, but, determined to follow her Lord, Mom enrolled at Moody and moved into the dorms.

Not long after accepting Christ, Dad was gripped by a clear call to full-time ministry. Following that call, he enrolled in Dallas Seminary. In a brief five-year span, he earned a Bachelor of Divinity, a Master of Theology, and a Doctor of Theology degrees. During those student years, Dad was already in demand as a Bible teacher and preacher. On one occasion, he had a speaking engagement in Michigan, representing Chosen People Ministries (the mission that led him to the Lord). Those were the days before regular and reliable travel by air, so the options were to go either by train or by car. Dad and a friend went by car, and their route led them through Chicago where they stopped for the night. Dad's traveling companion had a friend at Moody. The Moody student told Dad and his friend that there was a social event scheduled for Moody students the next day, and invited them to attend.

At that social, Dad met Mom, and before too long, they were engaged. The plan was for Mom to finish at Moody and stay in Chicago while Dad finished doctoral studies at Dallas. On May 14, 1935, Dad graduated from Dallas Seminary, and the same day, in the home of Dr. and Mrs. Lewis Sperry Chafer, Mom and Dad were married.

Dad was already teaching at Dallas Seminary even before he finished his degree programs. He stayed on faculty until 1948 when he accepted a call to go to Southern California, teach at the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, and eventually start Talbot Theological Seminary. During Mom and Dad's years in Dallas, my brother, sister, and I were born. I was two years old when the family moved to California.

As a child, I often heard about how Jews throughout history had been persecuted for no other reason than that they were Jews. I learned slowly but surely that there is a lot of pain and suffering in this life, even for those who trust Christ as their Savior. And I had a vivid illustration of that truth in my own family. During her childhood, my mom had not gotten proper nutrition — Jewish peasants living in Ukraine could hardly make ends meet. As a result of this and other physical difficulties, throughout her adult years Mom was forced to deal with one physical problem after another. In fact, I cannot remember a day in my life while my mother was alive that she was not in pain and dealing with one health concern or another. So I grew up fully aware that no one gets exemption from suffering just because he or she accepts Christ and obeys the commands of Scripture.

I was also taught by my parents and in church that the key in life is to find God's will and obey it. Christian hymns like "Have Thine Own Way, Lord" and "Where He Leads Me I Will Follow" express those desires quite well. But I wondered whether it is actually possible to know God's will for our lives. I think most Christians have the same desires and questions.

As I grew up, I sought God's will about what he wanted me to do with my life, and about whom I should marry. By the time I was twenty-six, I was certain that I had found God's answers to both questions. And I have never doubted the answers.

But after November 4, 1987, I began to have questions that I'd never before thought to ask. Questions like, does God ever hide information from us in order to get us to do his will? Is it possible to seek God's will, find it, and do it, and then discover that what God wanted brought great suffering and evil into your life? If that happened, wouldn't it mean that God had tricked or even deceived you into doing his will?

After your initial shock from reading that paragraph, you are probably thinking, "That's just crazy! That couldn't happen, because God just doesn't work that way. Scripture tells us to ask God to show us his will. In fact, Jesus instructed his disciples to ask God to do his will on earth as it is done in heaven (Matt. 6:10). So, of course, God's people should ask him to do his will in their own lives. In fact, the apostle John offers the following encouragement: 'This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him'" (1 John 5:14-15 nasb).

That seems rather clear. We must seek God's will and as long as we pray in accordance with it, he will grant our requests. But if we pray according to God's will, he wouldn't give us something evil, would he? After all, remember what Jesus said:

Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him! (Matt. 7:9-11 NASB)

Surely, then, if God reveals his will and we do it, evil won't befall us. God won't give us a stone when we ask for a loaf or a snake when we ask for a fish, especially not when we ask according to his will for us. Thoughts to the contrary must be absurd, if not blasphemous. They imagine the unthinkable, the impossible.

Or do they? For most of my life I would not have even thought to raise such questions. Oh, I knew bad things happen to good people, and for much of my life I wondered why...