The Justice of God
Most of us had never heard of the Kurds until a few months ago. But every night we saw pictures of thousands of suffering Kurds and we wanted to help them. No sooner had our relief efforts begun but a terrible cyclone hit Bangladesh, killing up to 300,000 people and leaving ten million people homeless, in desperate need of help. Meanwhile, we hear of millions of people in Ethiopia, the Sudan, and other nations on the verge of starvation.
All of us at times ask an age-old question: why does God allow so much suffering? This is a difficult question, and many books have been written on the subject. I cannot discuss it completely in this article, but I do want to give some thoughts on it, based on God’s Word. In Luke 13, Jesus’ disciples asked him about why God allowed certain Galilean Jews to be killed by Pilate and why eighteen people died when a tower fell on them. “Do you think they were worse sinners than other men from Galilee,” he asked. “Is that why they suffered? Not at all. And don’t you realize that you also will perish unless you leave your evil ways and turn to God.”
In Ecclesiastes 8, we are told “Because God does not punish sinners instantly, people feel it is safe to do wrong.” The Book of Revelation tells of terrible judgments soon to come upon the earth. Chapter nine tells of a judgment that causes so much torment on the human race that people will desire to die, but they won’t be able to. Another judgment causes a third of the human race to be killed (over a billion people!). Yet we learn that people still did not repent of their sins of murder, sorcery, fornication and theft.
As we said last month, even many Christians have a hard time accepting the idea of eternal torment for those who reject Christ. People on the street often tell me that this is unfair. Parents punish their children and society punishes criminals–but eternal torment in hell is an infinitely greater punishment. What they do not see is that our crimes against God are infinitely greater than our crimes against man. Unlike man’s laws, God’s laws are perfect. He has never mistreated me. I owe God an infinite debt–every good thing I have comes from Him (see Matt. 18:23-35). And God’s mercy towards us is infinitely greater than man’s mercy. God has offered us a complete pardon for our sins–past, present and future. If we reject this pardon, we are totally without excuse. Those who will be cast into the lake of fire will be speechless on judgment day. As their sins are played back before them, they will each see that God is fully just, and that they fully deserve eternal punishment.
In Job chapter 2, God said that Job was a blameless and upright man who feared God and avoided evil. Yet, God allowed Satan to afflict Job with a horrible punishment. When Job complained that God was unfair, God rebuked him strongly. Job repented, realizing he was being self-righteous. The truth is that for Job and for the rest of us “He has not punished us as we deserve for all our sins” (Ps. 103:10). Job could have turned against God, blaming Him for allowing the suffering. Instead, he chose to trust in God’s righteousness, and his suffering soon ended and was forgotten.
If a doctor gives me an aspirin to cure my headache, he is having mercy on me. If he cures me of cancer, he is having much greater mercy on me, because he is saving me from a far worse fate. If we have some glimpse of the horror of eternal Hell, we will begin to appreciate the great mercy God has shown toward us.
The apostle Paul said that he was blameless concerning God’s law. Nonetheless, he considered himself the chief of sinners, unworthy to be an apostle, a wretched man. Like the church of Laodicea, we need to see that we also are wretched. The judgments that we see around the world, horrible as they are, are as nothing compared to the ones that are coming soon upon the world. And the judgments of the Book of Revelation are as nothing compared to the torment of Hell.
“Knowing therefore the terror (solemn fear) of the Lord, we persuade men” (2 Corin. 5:11). The reason we do not witness as we should is because we fear men. We do not witness to friends or strangers because we fear they will reject us. What we need is to fear God more than men. Jesus said, “Fear him who has power to cast into hell” (Luke 12:5). When we have this fear, we will overcome every obstacle to witnessing and warn the wicked with great urgency to get their lives right with God.
SOS-San Francisco
June 28-July 6
This year’s SOS is being heard throughout the world. Teams of Christians are coming here from Seattle, Denver, Hawaii and even New Zealand! God is raising up 100-200 King’s Kids, children who will minister the gospel through music and drama. On the fourth of July, we will have a barbecue in the Presidio and minister to the thousands of people who watch the fireworks there.
In addition to the breakfast and lunch program mentioned last month (July 1-6), we will also be serving dinner every night from June 29-July 6. Cost for the dinners will be $25 for all eight nights, or $4 per meal. Cost for the entire week, including registration and all meals, is only $70. Please send in your registration form right away, so we will know how much food to prepare. Bring a sleeping bag and (if you wish) a foam pad to sleep on. Avoid carrying a lot of cash or valuables. Traveler’s checks are safer.
On Friday night June 28, we will have an orientation meeting at 7 PM (registration begins at 6 PM). At this time, you can sign up for a street witnessing team, or a specialized team–prayer team, Russian outreach, Hispanic outreach, Asian outreach, mercy ministry, or torch run. There will be special rallies throughout the week with a number of worship and drama groups. Ray Comfort will be speaking on the evenings of July 2 and 3. Phil Aguilar will speak on Sat. July 6.
On June 28 and 29 we will meet at the Vineyard Christian Fellowship, 151 10th St. between Mission and Howard. Get off the San Francisco freeway at 5th, 7th or 9th St. and go North. On Friday night there is free parking on the street. On Saturday, there is $1 all day parking on Minna St. (West of 6th St. between Mission and Howard). From July 1-6, meetings are held at Russian Gospel Temple, 2233 17th St. near San Bruno St. Get off the San Francisco freeway at the Army/Potrero exit. Take Potrero north to 17th St. The church is one block to your right. There is free parking on the street near the church. Meetings are scheduled daily (except Sunday) at 9 AM and 6 PM (7 PM on Friday and Saturday). Call us if you have any other questions about the outreach.
The week is filled with wonderful times of worship and challenging speakers. The fellowship of on-fire Christians is incredible. God will use the outreach to renew your zeal for the Lord as well as use you to reach others with His word. Satan will make every effort to keep you from coming to SOS. He’ll give you all kinds of excuses and put obstacles in your way. He hates it when Christians preach the gospel and souls are saved from Hell.
Mailbox Club
Most people who come to Christ do so before they are eighteen. That is why it is so important to witness to children. We distribute a children’s tract called “7 Important Questions.” On the back of this tract is a prayer and a place for a person to put their name and address and write us for more information. Many children send in the tract and request literature. For years, we have searched for some good discipleship material for children.
Recently, we have begun using Bible correspondence courses produced by the Mailbox Club. Each course is a series of about eight lessons. When a child finishes the first lesson, we grade it and return it with the second lesson. Right now we have two 13 year old girls taking the course. There is a space on each lesson to give the name and address of a friend, so each has given me the name of a friend to send a lesson to. We are excited about this new ministry, and expect it to bear much fruit as it grows. If you are interested in this kind of ministry, you can contact the Mailbox Club, 404 Eager Rd., Valdosta, GA 31601.
A Final Word
This morning I learned that a friend had died in a car accident. Frank Rivera was saved twelve years ago on the streets of San Francisco. He lived in our ministry house for a year, while we discipled him. He moved to New York and then to South Carolina, where he was involved in a Christian evangelism ministry. He was saved out of the homosexual life and went through many struggles, but he clung to the Lord and now is with Him forever.
This month we are offering a four-tape series: “Reaching San Francisco for God” by John Dawson. This is the teaching John gave on March 23 at the “Strategies for Cities” conference that we talked about in the last newsletter. We will have an opportunity to apply these teachings at SOS-San Francisco.
Also, many of you have never read my book You Shall Be My Witnesses: How to Reach Your City for Christ. This book tells the story of SOS Ministries, and contains teachings on how to do various kinds of outreach in your own community. Some of the topics discussed in the book include–starting a street witnessing team, witnessing to homosexuals, witnessing at shopping centers, rock concerts and schools, and witnessing to children, the elderly, Catholics, Jews and cultists. If you already have a copy of this book, perhaps you will want an extra copy to give to a friend, or to your pastor.
Finally, I want to urge you not to miss this year’s SOS-San Francisco Outreach, June 28-July 6. The outreach will involve prayer and intercession, public worship, mercy ministry, reaching different cultural groups, and proclamation of the gospel in the public places. If you can’t be here the entire week, try to join us for at least one day of the outreach. And be sure to be praying that the Spirit of God will move mightily upon the people of San Francisco during this week. I believe this will be a special outreach, one that will represent a key battle in the war to take San Francisco for Jesus Christ.
Yours in His love,
Larry Rosenbaum
