Blaming God seems to be the default theology of all religions and sadly of many Christians. There is something about blaming God that seems to make us feel affirmed in whatever we are doing or not doing.
Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.” (Gen. 3:12)
From the first act of disobedience which led to the fallen world we now live, Adam chose to blame God for his own actions. Paraphrased, “it was the woman’s fault, and YOU gave her to me, so it’s really Your fault, God.”
Justifying ourselves and blaming others is a common human trait (the natural man, not the spiritual man).
But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” (Mark 4:38)
In this well-known story, the disciples and Jesus were in a boat in the midst of a storm. Jesus was asleep and the disciples were panicking. Their response to the storm and the apparent danger was to get offended at Jesus and lay the blame at His feet. “Don’t you care?”
How often do we think of God as uncaring? Doesn’t he care about the condition of the world? Doesn’t He care about cancer? Doesn’t He care about the Corona virus? Some will assume that God could stop these things if He wanted to, so He must not care. Others will conclude that God is actually orchestrating the world’s problems according to His mysterious ways. We just need to believe that “He is in control.”
If this world is a reflection of God’s control, I must be missing something. Why did Jesus come to destroy the works of the enemy? (1 John 3:8) If there is an enemy with “works,” why do we blame God? Jesus is the One who has come to redeem us from Adam’s sin and the enemy’s works. And yet we continue to blame Him for evil and excuse ourselves from responsibility. Just like Adam did.
God is not controlling you, and He isn’t controlling anyone else. He is not controlling the weather (why did Jesus rebuke the storm if God sent it?), He is not controlling disasters, He is not controlling corruption and every other evil thing. God is waiting for His children to believe His Word and walk in faith.
Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, ACCORDING TO THE POWER THAT WORKS IN US. (Eph. 3:20)
The author is a senior Instructor at Charis Bible College, Colorado.
