No doubt everyone of us has had our share of accidents. If not
in a car, or with a knife, or some other sharp object whereby we
cut ourselves, then all of us have at some point in our life fallen
down. It is a part of growing up to fall down, and so it is hard to
conceive that even baby Jesus did not fall down at sometime, or fall
against some piece of furniture that Joseph had made. It would not
be a normal childhood to grow up without some kind of an
accident. But whether Jesus did or not is not the issue, for nobody
else does escape all accidents. We all have them, and the longer we
live the more we have.
In the battle of Sockett's Harbor during the War of 1812, David
Sockett had his hand blown off at the age of 76. Most men had no
such accidents at 76 because most men never lived that long in that
day. Some years later a tree fell on Sockett's head and fractured
his skull. A few years after that he was standing by when a cannon
misfired and both his eyes were damaged by the blast. After this a
horse kicked him in the face causing permanent disfigurement.
You have to conclude that he was accident prone, but it was
something he learned to live with for he lived to be 115.
In contrast was our 17 year old neighbor. She was riding with
her brother when a Christian man in another car had an epilepsy
attack. His foot froze on the gas pedal, and he ran into their car.
She was thrown into the windshield where glass cut her juggler
vain, and she died in just a few minutes. At 17 one accident ended
her life. In another church I served an army officer had a wife and
three children who were hit by an oncoming car, and the wife and
two of the children were killed instantly. The third child was
thrown out the back window and survived. It was the first an only
three casket funeral I have ever seen.
These accidents didn't last very long, but the suffering they left
behind still goes on. I have had my own share of accidents, and
have wrecked a couple of cars quite severely but have suffered no
bodily injury. My children cannot say the same. My oldest son
was hit by a car while on his bike and ended up in the hospital for a
month. My youngest son fell down the stairs and was taken to the
hospital. My daughter once rolled down an embankment and
smashed up a truck and broke her neck. She had to spend weeks
in the hospital and months in traction, and with a lifetime of side
effects.
I read the same statistics that you read, and know that ten of
thousands of people a year die in car accidents, and hundreds of
thousands suffer injury, but cold statistics are not why I believe in
the reality of accidents. It is my experience of accidents that
convinces me they are real, and also my study of God's Word. But
there is always this wide spread saying that keeps coming up that
says, "With God there are no accidents." This is one of those
popular theological sayings that people use to cut off debate on a
sensitive issue. What can you say to such an absolute statement?
It seems sacrilegious, or at least futile, to argue with such a
statement. After all, who is going to have the audacity to challenge
the competency of God to run the world? The result is that this
little phrase quite effectively cuts off both debate and thought on
the subject of accidents. But we cannot escape the fact that our
experience suggests that accidents are a very real part of the world
in which we live.
Some pastors I have talked to about accidents feel that they
have to support the idea that there are no accidents in the life of a
Christian. I tried to argue with one Christian leader that such a
view doesn't seem to fit the facts, and he became emotionally upset
and did not want to pursue the issue. So I am aware that this is an
emotional topic, and you may not like questioning one of the strong
convictions of many Christians. But I decided that the best way to
deal with a dilemma is to look it square in the face, and ask some
serious questions. People make a lot of claims for God, but what
does God claim for Himself? What does the Bible really say about
accidents, and the things that happen by chance? Is there such a
thing, or are these pagan ideas that do not belong in the minds of
God's people?
Philip P. Bliss, who wrote so many of the songs Christians love
to sing, such as Hallelujah What A Savior, Wonderful Words Of
Life, The Light Of The World Is Jesus, Almost Persuaded, Dare
To Be A Daniel, And Jesus Loves Even Me, and many more, was
on a train with his wife heading for Chicago for a series of
meetings. A bridge gave way and more than 100 people on the
train were killed including the Blisses'. He gave so much of what
we sing, but his accident did not lead to more praise to God, but
less. Bliss wrote the music to It Is Well With My Soul, but the
words were written by H. G. Spafford. He sent his family to
Europe, and the ship sank, and all four of his children went down
with it.
Amy Carmicheal went to India as a missionary in 1895. She did
much to alleviate the suffering of children, but in 1931 she took a
serious fall, and for the next 20 years she was confined to her room.
She was in constant pain, but still managed the mission and wrote
13 books. She gained many victories, but not because of her pain,
but in spite of her pain. When David Livingston went to Africa
and devoted his life to reach those people he faced constant danger.
A lion attacked him and left him wounded. He was handicapped
for the rest of his life on one side. A mad buffalo almost killed him,
and a hippopotamus tipped his boat, and he nearly drowned. He
suffered more fevers than anybody I ever read about, and spent a
major part of his life recovering. There seemed to be no end to the
problems, injuries, and suffering he endured.
R. G. LaTorneu gave millions to the cause of Christ. He
crashed his car through 8 sections of a fence and broke his neck.
He spent two months with his head laying useless on his shoulders.
Later on in 1937 he and his wife and their quartet were on their
way to share the Gospel in word and song at a special meeting.
They had a head on collision that killed all three in the other car
and two of their quartet. LaTorneu had both hips and a leg
broken, and his chest was crushed. His wife was severely injured
as well, but they both recovered and went on to serve the Lord,
and gave millions more to His cause.
We could go on and on, but the point is that the children of God,
as far as the record of history and the record of God's Word goes,
do not have any promise that they will escape the suffering that
comes through accidents. Godly people and leaders frequently die
in accidents. Some Christians think that all of these accidents are
really good because they are a part of God's plan. But I do not see
this supported by Scripture at all. My study of the Bible has led
me to see that all of the events of life fall into four categories. You
may see other categories, but here is how I see the breakdown of
all events.
1. EVENTS WHICH GOD PLANS.
These events have to happen because they are a part of God's
purpose, and they are predestined. They cannot not happen. The
cross is a good example. It was planned before the world was even
created, for God could not, or would not, create such a high risk
being as man with his freedom to fall without committing himself
to pay the price to redeem and restore him. The cross was the
most necessary event of history.
2. EVENTS WHICH GOD PREVENTS.
These are things that would have happened if God had not stepped
into history and by His providence prevented. Pharaoh took Sarah
because of her beauty, but God prevented his having her, and got
her back to Abraham unharmed and unused. The same thing
happened later with Rebekah. The killing of baby Jesus by Herod
was also prevented. There is no way to know how many terrible
things never happened because God prevented them from
happening. These two kinds of events-what God plans, and what
God prevents, represent God's will in the world. They happen or
don't happen because God's plan demands it. But there are two
other kinds of events also that we want to look at.
3. EVENTS WHICH GOD PROHIBITS.
These are all the things that God forbids. He forbid Adam and
Eve to eat a certain fruit. He gave commandments of what men
should not do. These things do take place, however, because God
has given man the freedom to disobey Him. God does not will
these events, nor does He prevent them. They happen against His
will. All such events are what we call sin and evil.
4. EVENTS WHICH GOD PERMITS.
These are events which God has not planned, but neither has He
prohibited, or prevented them. They may cause a great deal of
suffering, but they are not events of choice, and so there is not the
same guilt connected with them as with those events which God has
prohibited. This fourth category is where we put accidents.
Accidents are events which God did not plan to happen, nor did
man choose to happen. They happen because of mistaken
judgments, carelessness, and unawareness of the consequences of
what is being done. They are necessary possibilities in a truly free
world. They are events that do not need to happen, for they are
preventable.
The Old Testament law had a very clear distinction between an
act of violence which was chosen, and an accidental act of violence.
In Ex. 21:12-13 we read, "Anyone who strikes a man and kills him
shall surely be put to death. However, if he does not do it
intentionally, but God lets it happen, he is to flee to a place I will
designate." The first is what we call first degree murder. It is a
willful planning to take another's life. The second is what we call
manslaughter. There was never any willful desire to take another
life. It happened because of unforseen events which we call
accidents. There are all kinds of degrees of responsibility for these
kinds of events.
A ferry heading for Dover, England sank and a couple of
hundred people died. It was because of avoidable human error.
Someone was careless and forgot to close a certain door, and it led
to the tipping of the ferry. Hundreds of examples of this sort of
thing happen. Is human error God's will? If so, then there is no
such thing as mistakes and human error, for if they are God's will,
and what he has ordained, then they had to happen, and man is not
responsible for them, for God made them make those mistakes.
God alone then is responsible for all human error. This takes away
the responsibility of man and puts it all on God, and this is false
theology. We are responsible for our own mistakes, and we cannot
throw them back on God. It is part of the risk of a free world
where we can make choices. We often make bad ones, and they are
our choices and not God's. If we make bad choices on purpose it is
sin, but if we make them out of ignorance they are accidents.
Either way, we are the ones responsible.
Before you ever say there are no accidents again, let me share
with you the implications of what you are saying. An accident is
something that is not planned by God, or foreseen by man. But if it
is a high risk situation where it should be foreseen, then we hold
those responsible for the act to a higher degree of responsibility.
For example, when a boy is throwing a hard ball against the side of
a house where a window is just a few feet away. This scene gives us
a good illustration of the difference between determinism and
freedom. When the boy lets go too soon and the ball goes flying
through the window, you do not get angry at God or the ball. You
know the ball had no choice in the matter, and so you do not get a
hammer and pulverize it. On the other hand, the boy who chose to
throw it so near the window does have a responsibility for what
happened. If he has been warned before not to play there, he is
even more guilty. If there has never been any warning, his guilt will
be less for this first offense, for in ignorance he did not realize the
risk involved. His punishment will be in accordance with the
degree of his knowledge. If this is the third offense, he is in deep
trouble.
But now let us look at this event with the assumption that it is
true that there are no accidents. If this broken window is no
accident, but is the will of God, then the boy becomes identical with
the ball. He is now equally without choice, and had no more of an
alternative than did the ball. To punish him is the same as
pounding the ball, for the boy is merely a tool in the hands of God,
just as the ball was a tool in the hands of the boy. The no accident
theory traces all apparent accidents back to the only one with a
choice, and that is God. This means God is the one who chooses all
of the bad, foolish, and ignorant mistakes that make the world so
full of accidents. This is bad theology.
If there are no accidents, there is nobody to blame for the evils
of life but God. You cannot blame the devil or man, because they
only do what God has planned for them to do. This reverses the
revelation of God's Word, and makes Him the cause of all evil, and
the devil and man are mere victims. The Bible says just the
opposite, and that Satan and man by their choices made the mess
that God had to pay a great price to clean up by the sacrifice of
His own Son. If there are no accidents because all is God's will,
then it is no wonder that people get so angry at God for all of the
terrible tragedies of life. You do not even need a devil or evil
forces, or even the free will folly of man, for God alone can be the
cause of all we hate about life. But once you admit that all is not
God's will, and that evil forces and man can do what is not His will,
then you open the door to the reality of accidents. You can't have it
both ways. If God's will is not always done on earth as it is in
heaven, then why pray this prayer that Jesus taught if it is, then
accidents have to be a part of reality in a world where free choices
are made every moment by imperfect beings.
People like the theory of no accidents because it becomes a sort
of magical way to get rid of evil and responsibility, and all of the
things that are disturbing about life. It is a form of escapism. Dr.
Paul Tournier, the author of numerous books, says in his book A
Doctor's Casebook In The Light Of The Bible, "The spirit of magic
lies in wait for the Christians as much as for the agnostics and the
pagans. It arises, in fact form an inherent tendency in human
nature, and none of us can boast of being proof against it's wiles. It is
the longing for the fairy tale, for the magic wand that will charm
away the difficulties of life, the suffering, the limitations, and the
uncertainties of our human condition."
Most of our superficial ideas about suffering arise from our
desire for a magical simple answer. What could be more simple
than to believe that there are no accidents, but that all is a part of
God's plan? This means that all is good, and there is no real evil in
life. It is true that God can and does work in all things, even evil
and foolish mistakes, to bring forth good, but to say that the evil
and foolish mistakes are good is going beyond Scripture and
common sense. People do get comfort by believing that all is part
of God's plan, but I get more comfort by not believing that all of
the suffering in the world caused by accidents is the will of God.
You can take your choice, but I choose that which is based on the
Word of God, and not a traditional saying.
Now, at last, we come to our text in Luke 13. Jesus is dealing
with some of the tragedies of his day. He chooses one from the
world of suffering caused by the inhumanity of man to man. Pilate
had mixed the blood of some Galileans with their own sacrifices,
and the implication is that they were violently killed. The other
tragedy he deals with comes from the perversity of inanimate
objects. Murphy's law comes into play, and things like apartment
buildings collapse and people are killed. Jesus refers to the tower
in Siloam which fell and killed 18 people.
The main point Jesus is making is that the victims were not
meeting such a tragic end because they were being judged for their
sin. They were just at the wrong place at the wrong time, and they
suffered the consequences. They were not worse sinners than
anyone else. They did not deserve their violent end anymore than
those who escaped. Neither of these events were planned by God.
They fall into the category of events God permits, but does not will.
When a plane goes down and kills all who are on board, those
people who die are not any worse than those whose plane does not
go down. People who die in auto accidents are not worse than
those who do not. The whole idea of suffering and death being
connected with the sinfulness of the victims is rejected by Jesus.
This is a false view of suffering to link it to the sinfulness of people
as if all suffering and death were in some way a form of judgment.
Jesus is saying that suffering and tragedy can often be accidental,
and not a part of some plan to punish or discipline.
There are all kinds of discipline in life, and plenty of punishment,
but to look at an accident as one of these two is superficial and
contrary to the teaching of Christ. Spurgeon, one of the greatest
preachers in history, and a strong Calvinist, speaks very openly
about the reality of accidents. He said, "It is very customary
among religious people to talk of every accident as if it were a
judgment. The upsetting of a boat upon the river on a Sunday is
assuredly understood to be a judgment for the sin of
Sabbath-breaking. In the accidental fall of a house, in which
persons were engaged in any unlawful occupation, the inference is
at once drawn that the house fell because they were wicked. Now,
however, some religionists may hope to impress the people by such
childish stories as these, I for one, forswear them all. I believe
what my Master says is true, when He declared concerning the
men upon which the tower of Siloam fell, that they were not sinners
above all....They were sinners, there is no doubt about it, but the
falling of the wall was not occasioned by their sin, nor was their
premature death the consequence of their excessive wickedness."
Common sense tell us this is so, for accidents happen to the
innocent so often. Children fall, and children get into poisons, and
nobody suffers more accidents free of all sinful and wicked
intentions than do children. There is no connection between sin
and accidents as a necessity. It is equal folly to say there never is a
connection, for people who drive and drink kill thousands every
year, and their suffering is a direct result of their sin and folly. It
is not the case with their victims, however. Pilate was doing evil
when he killed the Galileans. They were innocent victims of his
evil, but there is no record that he suffered, just as the drunken
driver often escapes injury as he kills others.
You cannot find a connection between sin and suffering that fits
the whole world of innocent and accidental suffering. To even try is
to reject the Lord's rejection of the whole idea, and try to make all
suffering some form of judgment. Jesus says this tragic suffering
and death is not judgment, and it is obvious that it cannot be for
discipline. Discipline is for teaching so as to correct bad behavior.
Death is definitely overkill for this purpose, and so we are left with
a form of suffering we put into the category of accidental.
What does this mean? An insurance agent once asked a cowboy
if he had ever had an accident, and he said, "No, none to speak of.
A bronc kicked in my ribs and busted my collar bone, and a
rattlesnake bit me last year." "Good heavens," said the agent,
"Don't you call them accidents?" "No," said the cowpuncher,
"They done it on purpose." There are accidents which are done
on purpose. We have all seen a movie where the bad guys fix the
brakes on the good guys car so they will go out when he is driving
down the mountain, and thereby have an accident. Technically this
is not an accident, but a plan event to look like an accident. God
prohibits such events, and so it is no accident, but an evil act done
by choice.
An authentic accident is an event that takes place without God
willing it to happen, and with no human foresight or expectation.
It is not the result of a plan, but the result of chance. Anything that
happens as a result of a plan is not an accident. This is why many
Christians say there are no accidents, for they believe that
everything that happens is a part of God's plan. If that was the
case then everything is planned, and there would be no accidents.
Other Christians find this intolerable for it makes God responsible
for all that we find most evil about the world of suffering. The
innocent who suffer and die in war; because of alcoholic drivers,
and because of all the foolish mistakes adults make are all a part of
God's plan, if this theory is correct, and that is not acceptable to
most Christians.
It would be easy to believe that Satan is responsible for all this
evil suffering, but to call it part of the plan of God blurs the
distinction between good and evil. The Bible says that God is light
and in Him there is no darkness at all. It is hard to believe this if
one also believes that all of the accidents of the world are really
planned by God. The issue of responsibility is what we are dealing
with. I once pulled into an intersection as it was getting dark, and
a car without its lights on tore the front end of my car off. When
the police arrived they did not give me a ticket even though I
pulled right in front of the guy. It was because he had a
responsibility to have his lights on at that time. He got the ticket
because he failed to do what he was responsible to do.
I have made mistakes in driving also, and I could have caused
an accident by these mistakes. If I would have, it would not be
God's responsibility, but my own. To throw blame back on God
for all human error, carelessness, and irresponsibility is passing
the buck. We don't like it, but we have to accept the fact that God
has given us a great responsibility in determining what happens in
this world. Most accidents are because we fail in our
responsibility. God permits this because He permits us to be free.
