Belief in a God Who Intervenes

[Eric J in MN]

From http://moveleft.com

"If we define a Christian as a person who believes in the divinity of Jesus Christ, then it is safe to say that some of the key Founding Fathers were not Christians at all."

"Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and Tom Paine were deists--that is, they believed in one Supreme Being but rejected revelation and all the supernatural elements of the Christian Church; the word of the Creator, they believed, could best be read in Nature," wrote Brooke Allen in The Nation magazine ("Our Godless Constitution" posted Feb. 3, 2005.)

A couple of questions about the concept of a God who intervenes:

Does God intervene?

Is it good in any sense to believe that God intervenes, whether or not it can be determined if God intervenes?

There was a tragedy on Saturday in which God didn't intervene to stop eight people from being killed in a church.

The killer seems to have been upset, not comforted, by the notion of an interventionist God who was soon going to bring the apocalypse.

The uncle of girl who was injured, also seems to be upset, not comforted, by thoughts of an interventionist God who didn't protect people in that church.

The church is a meeting room in a Sheraton Hotel in Brookfield, Wisconsin, where members of "The Living
Church of God" pray on Saturdays (not Sundays) per the rules of their denomination.

50-60 church members were at the service on Saturday, when a computer technician who was also a church member opened fire, killing seven people and wounding four before killing himself ("Church Terror Gunman 'Was About to Lose Job'" PA News via Scotsman.com, Mar. 13, 2005.)

That man, 44-year-old, Terry Ratzmann, was upset that he was expecting to lose his job, and also upset by "a taped sermon by the church's spiritual leader, Roderick C. Meredith, according to a fellow congregation member who survived the attack. She reported that the sermon by Meredith, who is seen on many of those broadcasts, dealt with a coming 'spiritual war.'" ("Tragedy puts spotlight on small, obscure church" by Dave Umhoefer, Wisconsin Journal Sentinel, posted Mar.12, 2005.)

The Journal Sentinel article continues:

Members believe that the "Great Tribulation" - war and famine as prophesied in the Bible - is nearing and that Christ will return as "King of kings."

Meredith, the church's presiding evangelist, warned in a February sermon of the urgent need to prepare physically and spiritually for the "end time," according to a text of the sermon on the church's Web site. He talked of a pending financial collapse that could devastate the United States, and he encouraged church members to prepare by paying off debts and gathering savings to guard against job loss and bank failures.

The other people who heard this sermon didn't go on a massacre, but in the case of Terry Ratzmann, belief in an interventionist God wasn't comforting at all.

The notion of a God who sometimes intervenes in modern affairs also wasn't comforting to the uncle of a girl injured by Terry Ratzmann ("8 dead in church meeting massacre" by Frank Main, Monifa A. Thomas, and Rummana Hussain," Chicago Sun-Times, Mar. 13, 2005):

Don Free, 48, of West Allis, Wis., said his sister's daughter, Angel Varichak, 19, was one of the wounded -- but was expected to survive. Varichak, a church member, was shot in the abdomen, but the bullet missed major organs, he said.

"I wanted to know where God was when this happened," Free said. "He was supposed to be everywhere. He could have at least been there."

I don't believe in an interventionist God. To anyone who does, how could you answer Mr. Free's question? If God intervenes at all in the modern world, then why didn't God reach down to stop Terry Ratzmann before he hurt anyone?

For a previous article I wrote which deals with the philosophical implications of belief in an interventionist God, especially with regard to tragedies, click below:

The Religious Beliefs of Al Franken