Job 21:1-16 – Job asks one of the big questions – why do the wicked prosper? There are different answers….but ultimately there is a promise of justice.
This time it was from Canberra…
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Coffee with Job 63 – Cold Theology, Judgement Day and Justice
Why do the wicked prosper? It is a good question. Those of us who have grown up in advanced, western democracies are accustomed to “good” prevailing. Our societies are based upon principles of fairness and justice. So we are accustomed to the good prospering and the wicked failing. But that is not how it is in the rest of the world. In the rest of the world, the wicked always seem to win. Ruthless tyrants and unscrupulous rich people always win. The meek and the poor always lose.
If Jesus is the just, good, omnipotent ruler of the universe, why does he let ongoing wickedness prevail in so many parts of our world? Yes, it is possible that Jesus has a divine purpose in all of this that we will never understand. But isn’t another possibility also possible: Jesus was not God. Jesus was just a man; a good man who believed that he was God’s messenger on earth. But the wicked killed him and ended his campaign for spiritual renewal and social justice.
The evidence strongly indicates that Jesus never claimed to be God or even inferred that he was God. If one reads the record of his trial before the Sanhedrin in Mark 14, there is ZERO accusation against Jesus for claiming or inferring to be God. In Judaism, claiming to be God in the flesh was the highest possible crime. Yet, this crime is never once mentioned at Jesus’ trial before the Jewish leaders.
Jesus was just a good man trying to defeat the forces of evil. He was killed for his efforts. But his message of love and compassion for the poor and the downtrodden was not defeated. It lives on today in the form of charity work and good deeds performed by so many of his followers.