Our words reveal our thoughts and our thoughts reveal the undeniable truth of who we really are (Proverbs 23:7 NASB). There are certain statements that I hear often from the Christian public and they reveal a belief about God that at first sounds biblical, but I believe they reveal that we are accepting things about God that are not true. Here's one:
"God has His reasons...."
This is often said as a reaction to some terrible news. The implication is that God caused the event and He is justified for causing it. This thinking denies that there are other causes in the universe- a belief that is embraced by many well-meaning believers and it falls under the theological heading of Calvinism. I do not subscribe to this belief for two reasons: One, I see that Scripture acknowledges that other wills are at work in the universe- human (Matthew 23:37; Hosea 8:4; Luke 7:30) and demonic (Luke 13:11-17; 1 John 5:19). Two, since Jesus Christ is the embodiment of the Father's will and nature (John 14:9; Hebrews 1:3; Colossians 1:15; 2:9) and because He didn't cause any such events during His earthly ministry and in fact stopped many of them, any event that is inconsistent with who Jesus is and has demonstrated Himself to be, cannot be of or from God.
How about, when bad things happen, we blame the likeliest culprit, the one the Bible says is the ruler of this world (Ephesians 2:2), the one who comes to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10a), the one who holds sway over the entire world (1 John 5:19), the one who used wind and lightning to destroy Job's property and family (Job 1:16,19)? Or, we can blame human error (deliberate or otherwise) when it is the culprit? Or we can blame the reality that some calamities happen simply because we live in a fallen world (e.g. Luke 13:1-5).
Why must God be blamed when He has gone to great pains to show us that there is no unChristlike feature to God?