Eugene Visser

03348 Where is God?

10/10/2012

An interview was held with one Adam D at his home in T. St, Kayamandi on 10/10/2012. Adam was an active member of society, employed by the Post Office as a contract worker until he started having pain in April of this year. After extensive testing it was found that Adam has inoperable lung cancer which has spread to his back, legs and feet. Although the prognosis is apparently fatal, no-one has given Adam a time frame. The disease spread very aggressively in the first couple of months after April and subsequently Adam became incapacitated and bedridden. Since then he has started chemotherapy to reduce the size of the tumours which has restored some mobility. During the interview Adam sat in the lounge and even walked me to the door afterwards. He also admitted to having attended a faith healing event at which time he was told to throw his wheel chair away. He did take a few steps during the meeting although not perfectly normal and has not used the wheelchair ever since. Adam lives with his wife and 2 small children in a small but seemingly comfortable home in Kayamandi. His wife works on and off but Adam has not received an income since April since he was employed by the Post Office on contract. Stellenbosch Hospice is assisting Adam with medication, advice, counselling and once or twice in the past, a food parcel. The interview was conducted in a very informal way and I made a point of not introducing concepts but simply by asking leading questions. There is some repetition in the questions in an attempt to return the conversation to important topics. Further, there was not clear framework of questions I simply allowed the conversation to flow. Below follows a transcript of relevant questions: Interviewer: Do you think it was fair, this disease that happened to you? Adam: When I was first diagnosed I didnt think it was fair. I have lived a good life and so I wondered why this is happening. Now I firmly believe I will be healed. I: Were you ever given a timeframe? A: They never said how long I will live. They just said that the cancer is inoperable I: Were you ever angry? A: No, I was positive from the beginning (Note: see comments later on, when Adam became a little more comfortable and forthcoming) I: What went through your mind those first few months? A: Well you know, I was like a baby. I couldnt do anything for myself, my wife cared for me, she cleaned me, she was my strength. Through all this time my wife was the one who supported me, she never got nauseous or anything. When she cried I said to her she mustnt cry because I need her to be strong for me. I: Did God make you sick? A: (long pause) I dont know I: So why do you think you got sick? A: Well you know, I think this is a test. Yes, thats what I think it is, a test. Just like he tested Abraham. This is my test. The Lord wants to see my faith. Before this happened to me I was erlikewalking next to the road. Now I am walking on the road. My faith is now strong. So this experience made me stronger, brought me closer to the Lord. 1

Eugene Visser I: Do you think Satan made you sick?

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A: (pause) Yes, I think Satan made me sick because of the evil in the world. The world is sick and therefore Satan made me sick to try to get me to give up my faith. I: So you think there is a war on between good and evil? A: Yes, there is a war on. I: But if you lived a good life, why are you sick on not the evil people? A: Erm I dont know. But I am very lucky at the hospital there were people who are much worse off than me (sic). I: But there are evil people out there who have much wealth and seem really blessed A: Ah, but do they have the richness of God? (Die Here se rykdom) I have the richness of God. I: Lets talk about the faith healing episode. Do you believe you received healing there? A: Yes I do believe, but I think my faith was not strong enough to receive complete healing. You have to believe in order to be healed. If you dont have faith, you wont be healed. Only Gods children can be healed. Only the evil people gets sick. Gods children wont get sick. If you live close to God you will be protected from sickness. I: So you think you got sick because you werent a good child of God? A: No, but you see, if you have no belief you cant be healed. God wont heal you if you dont believe in Him. This test brought me closer, so its a good thing. Note: Although I spent considerable time with Adam, there are topics which have not been clarified. I could see the problematic ideas forming in his head as I probed him, but I did not want to challenge his belief or prove him wrong. Some of his earlier statements were in clear contradiction to later ones, but I did not want to point this out for obvious reasons. He thanked me afterwards and mentioned that some of the questions made him think about things he hadnt considered this would explain some of the contradictory statements. Adam made a great effort to appear positive which might have clouded some of his speech. I did not tell him the reason for my visit, nor the fact that I am studying theology. I plan to follow up with Adam at a later date. Reflection Why is there sickness, suffering and death in the world? Where is God? Is he present in day to day activities or do we have an absentee landlord like Deism would have us believe? Dietrich Bonhoeffer suggests in Letters from prison that; Our coming of age leads us to a true recognition of our situation before God. God would have us know that we must live as men who manage our lives without Him. The God who is with us is the God who forsakes usp291 Are we forsaken by God or is God forsaken by us? Did we push Him out of this world on the cross? Bonhoeffer states that He let Himself be pushed out of the world on the cross and it is because of this that only the suffering God can help. 2

Eugene Visser

03348

10/10/2012

Where does Adam stand on this issue? Does Adam fully comprehend the Great Controversy surrounding him or is his cancer simply another manifestation of evil which must be dealt with like crime? Stanley Hauerwas says in A childs dying It is speculatively interesting to ask how the existence of a good and all-powerful God can be reconciled with the existence of evil in the world; how we answer that question may even be the way we justify our belief or explain our unbelief.p1 So we have to start at the beginning and ask the simplest of questions: Does God exist? I dont intend asking this in an ontological way or theoretical-theology way. Rather, the question is where is God for Adam? Where is God for Adams wife and children? In the interview he was unsure as to exactly why he became sick. His perception is that it is a test, but he is unsure whos testing him God to prove his faithfulness, or Satan to pull him away from God. Perhaps the idea of suffering being a test, is a human explanation, something to sooth the conscious mind into believing in a higher calling. The truth is that few of us have ever thought this through properly, as was evident form the interview with Adam. Hans Kung in Does God exist proposes that the ontological side of God, His being or essence, combines with his functional being to form what we know as the Triune God. However, he brings it into perspective with the following statement: In this respect, it is important to note that, for Jesus, God never operates merely in a supernatural sphere. He is at work in the midst of the world and in this way provides for mans great and small world, rendering superfluous any anxiety about ones own needsp671 Perhaps the question is far too broad for this paper and we need to refine it slightly. For Adam He clearly does exist as is evident in his strong belief that he will be healed. So perhaps we can skip to the next question and ask: Why does He exist? Here again I see an incomplete theology in Adams thinking although this is not an accusatory statement I think we all have an incomplete theology! For Adam, God exists to heal him; his immediate and overarching desire is for healing from cancer. It shapes his idea of God and permeates his speech. In the same manner I believe we sometimes believe in God because we want something from Him, like heaven or to escape punishment. In this regard Kung further states: There is no way to eternal life that bypasses faith. Even the resurrection of Jesus was not an authenticating miracle; it is itself the object of faith p680 Adam boldly states that only Gods people can expect healing. Ofcourse I do not agree with that statement, but it nevertheless argues for an inclusive religion, which by definition excludes the wicked from heavenly blessing. Does this mean that we empower God with faith-filled prayers to act on our behalf? If Adam didnt have enough faith for the faith-healing miracle event, is our faith the measuring gauge whereby God judges us worthy of His healing? Again, this might be a rather impractical discussion since I am not the one dying of cancer! Rightfully stated, Stanley Hauerwas states:

Eugene Visser

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No two sufferings are the same: My suffering occurs in the context of my personal history and thus is peculiarly minep3 Like Don Wanderhope, (Peter de Vries, The blood of the Lamb) we too would want to throw a cake into the face of Jesus on the cross. Some of us hide the desire well under Sabbatarian pretence, but the apparent futility of it all creeps into our thinking. It is with this in mind that we progress; we accept that God exists although we are not sure how (practically). We accept that He exists in order to heal us (as flawed as that thinking is) and ultimately we then have to ask: Where is God? George Eldon Ladd in Humanity outside of Christ gives us Pauls view with reference to Hellenistic dualism, Cosmological dualism and Anthropological dualism: Hellenistic dualism, which involved a cosmological dualism and closely associated with it an anthropological dualism. Cosmological dualism contrasted two levels of existence: the earthly and the heavenly; and anthropological dualism contrasted the two parts of each person: the body and the soul He goes on to say that in this kind of thinking the body belongs to the earthly level and the soul to the heavenly or spiritual realm. Does Adam believe that? Do I believe that? Is it even possible to separate ones earthly existence, sacrifice it almost, for the sake of a higher purpose? How real does is this to someone dying in agony? Take the case of the martyrs, burned at the stake. Polycarp was the last to be taught personally by the apostles. He was arrested and brought into an amphitheater filled with a great multitude of people. Wood was collected and made into a pile. Polycarp asked not to be fastened to the stake. "Leave me thus", he said. He who strengthens me to endure the flames will also enable me to stand firm at the stake without being fastened with nails". The woodpile was lighted. While Polycarp prayed with a loud voice, "Lord God Almighty, Father of our lord Jesus Christ, I praise thee that thou hast judged me worthy of this day and of this hour, to participate in the number of thy witnesses, and in the cup of thy Christ", the flames consumed him Polycarp's martyr death took place in the year 156. Martyrdom of Polycarp, Encyclopedia Brittanica How then was a mere man able to stand in the face of the flames (or cancer) without help? Having experienced our own countrys checkered past, and witnessing public necklass-ing I can say with conviction that mortal man does not submit himself meekly to the flames! We read of martyrs who sang hymns as the flames engulfed them there is absolutely no way that would happen without supernatural intervention. It is in this, for me, that I see the reality of God. That is the presence of God, in as much an empirical proof as you could ever have. When Adam is meekly submitting his hopes and dreams for this life into the hand of an unseen superpower, that in essence is the proof of that superpower. We may surmise and speculate ad nauseam and come up with theses debating the point, none of which will matter to Adam. George Eldon Ladd puts it succinctly in Humanity outside of Christ: Intellectual attainment of knowledge and wisdom is not denied this world; but the highest intellectual and rational achievements of humankind cannot attain to the knowledge of God and are therefore ultimately foolishness. 4

Eugene Visser

03348

10/10/2012

For Adam, his hopes of survival lies in an unseen, unheard and untouched Being. The atheist will argue it is human feebleness, a desperate denial of reality, an opiate for the masses (Karl Marx). But herein lies the proof My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand; all other ground is sinking sand. This hope, this ultimate submission and reliance on a Force or Superior Being, is the answer to the question Where is God. He is here because I ask the question!