Since the recent killing at St Francis Catholic Church, Owo Ondo State, a few days ago, there have been questions, so many of them.
Some atheists and agnostics are using the ugly incidents as an opportunity to mock believers that there is no God.
Some others are asking sincere questions from their hearts. They want to know why it appeared as though God was silent for such to happen even in his “house.”
However, in a recent post on Facebook, Rev Fr Kevin Osalumhense Anetor answered some of these questions.
He said that it is not an impossibility for God to act and He can even make those that were shot stand up again as if nothing happened to them, He can even reset the memory of the world so that we forget everything we already know, but sorry to say, he won’t do that. It is not because he is not capable, but that is not really what makes him God.
“If that is the way you define him as God, while it sounds lofty to you, in reality, you are reducing him,” he said.
He said that while you lament about the killers and wish He had made them blind, apply the same logic to other things that also offend God.
If you fornicate or cheat on your spouse, let’s say in the process of cheating, he makes your organs remain hanging for three days so that everyone will see you both.
Let’s say you insult God or you are an atheist who is typing derogatory words about God, then, in response, God decided that you should go mad.
In answering the above question, the cleric revealed that the reason why the bombers/killers in those Churches succeeded is because of the freedom God gave the world.
Creating a world with freedom is indeed the greatest gift God gave us and also the biggest risk he took.
This was why, even when Christ was crucified, we all expected something extraordinary to make Herod and the soldiers bow, but No, God is not in competition with men. If God takes away freedom from this world, we become robots.
According to him, another thing we should note is that God is not limited by the world.
He does not see as we see. So, while we say he is omniscient, we must remember that he knows that there is a better place other than this world and no matter how we die, death is not the end of us.
For even though Lazarus was raised from the dead, he still died anyway. God created the world and made man rule over it.
He won’t do for man what man can do for himself. This is why even if we all want to use nuclear weapons to kill ourselves, the decision is ours to make.
Finally, there is freedom and responsibility, there is conscience and reward. God knows very well that there is no peace for the wicked. Those killing others, you will forever live miserably both here in this world and the after unless you repent.