Like you, there are a lot of questions I will ask God when I get to heaven, because, though I trust God, there are so many things I don't understand. I don't have any problems admitting that even though I am a pastor. And I find myself drawn to others who also admit freely that they don't have all the answers.
It still doesn't mean I don't try to find the answers on this side of heaven, so when this question came to me from one of our high-schoolers at The Mill, I thought I would do my best to answer, and then pass it on to you, dear blog-readers wherever you are.
“I understand why a sacrifice is required, but why must it be in such a cruel and painful way? An animal can't understand what's happening to them; they can't defend themselves. I know the short time of pain is nothing in comparison to eternity but it still exists. God, how can you be a good and compassionate God who cares for all your creations yet require so many animals to be tortured slowly? Why isn't their life enough? Why must they suffer also? I can never make peace with that. However hard I try, I can't get rid of the anger I have towards you for that.” --Name Withheld
Dear ______,
Sorry it took me so long to get back to you regarding this whole suffering thing. As I said before, I really appreciate your honesty about this stuff. That will really serve you well because you’ll get to the truth faster. God doesn’t always explain Himself, but I do think He is pleased when we seek to understand Him and His ways. This is akin to worship. If we didn’t love Him we might ignore Him as irrelevant, which would be bad for us. Instead, we painfully seek to understand His ways so we can order our life to please Him, and find perfect joy doing it
But our joy does not depend on our understanding of all His ways. Our joy depends upon our conviction about who God is.
The sum of your concern starts and ends with the question, “Is God just?” Whether or not animals suffer, or whether we understand the nature of suffering from God’s perspective, our anger toward God stems from this question of whether God is just or not. Once we come to the place where we believe God is just no matter how we understand Him, then we can begin to understand! That is what Proverbs means when it says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” (Proverbs 1:7) And elsewhere, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” (Proverbs 9:10) (and you can throw in the whole of Proverbs 2 in there for good measure)
So in approaching the answer to your question, I don’t want to begin with whether animals suffer or whether their suffering is right or wrong, I want to start with the mutual understanding that God is just. Beginning there affects where I end up. God doesn’t mind our questions, as He gave us questioning minds, but our questions should center on finding greater understanding, and not whether God is unjust
The question of whether God is just is the very beginning of sin. It was the underlying notion the snake implied to Eve in the Garden.
"The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die!
For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:4-5
The snake implied that God was not just in withholding this knowledge from Eve. Eve took it because her assumption that God is always just was shaken, and it gave her just enough room for her natural desires to overcome her faith in God.I’m not assuming you are questioning God’s just-ness, but rather addressing the anger you expressed toward God for requiring pain.So let’s talk about the pain issue, and I want to make some observations of things we know and don’t know.
1. We know that God not only gave us plant life for food, but He also gave us animals for food. (Gen 9:2,3) Logic tells us that we must kill them to eat them and the most common way to kill animals is to slit the throat and bleed them to death. We know that this is the least stressful, painful way to end the animal’s life because it leaves the meat the most tender. (So I guess to cattle ranchers, the motivation isn’t out of kindness to animals, but out of a desire for better tasting food.) The more stress (from pain or fear, presumably) the animal endures in death, the tougher the meat because of some kind of chemical the brain produces during stress. (adrenaline?)
2. We don’t know that God requires pain from sacrificed animals. Every indication from the books of the Law which spell out in detail the process for animal sacrifices leads us to believe that the animals die in much the same way as they would if we were to eat them. In fact, evidence suggests that God is pleased with sacrifices which cause the best meat to be offered. Perhaps this is in keeping with His understanding of the measure of pain that is avoided when done correctly. (See notes from the Tyndale Bible Dictionary regarding sacrifices I have placed at the end of this document.) Since it was necessary to collect the blood it was also necessary for slow death to occur, giving the heart time to pump the blood out of the body. Medical evidence, as well as testimonies from people who have nearly bled to death suggest that the body provides the right amount of shock to remedy the pain of the incision and that the loss of blood merely causes the animal to go to sleep.
3. Having said all that, we do know that Christ’s sacrifice was painful, and that Christ’s pain pleased God.
" But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings." Hebrews 2:9-10, NASB
The term “fitting” has to do with both the just-ness of the act, and it’s part in pleasing God. It was just the right thing at just the right time.
4. And we also know that the suffering that Christ endured was an example for us, and that it is connected with our own sanctification. After all, sinful people love their sin, and the pain we suffer has more to do with our love for sin than anything else. (almost exactly like a Heroin addict trying to break free) (Phil 1:29; 3:8, Col. 1:24, 1 Peter 2:21; 4:1, 13; 5:1, 10)
So while the Old Testament sacrifices were a picture of Jesus crucifixion, there was a part of Christ's passion that was unlike the rituals, namely the violent painful manner in which He died. Perhaps this was because the sacrifices of the animals did nothing to take away our sin, but simply roll back judgment. Yet it was the sufferings of Christ which give us an example for following strong.
Phil
P.S. If you want more notes on this topic, e-mail me at global@rheasmill.org and I will forward them to you.
It still doesn't mean I don't try to find the answers on this side of heaven, so when this question came to me from one of our high-schoolers at The Mill, I thought I would do my best to answer, and then pass it on to you, dear blog-readers wherever you are.
“I understand why a sacrifice is required, but why must it be in such a cruel and painful way? An animal can't understand what's happening to them; they can't defend themselves. I know the short time of pain is nothing in comparison to eternity but it still exists. God, how can you be a good and compassionate God who cares for all your creations yet require so many animals to be tortured slowly? Why isn't their life enough? Why must they suffer also? I can never make peace with that. However hard I try, I can't get rid of the anger I have towards you for that.” --Name Withheld
Dear ______,
Sorry it took me so long to get back to you regarding this whole suffering thing. As I said before, I really appreciate your honesty about this stuff. That will really serve you well because you’ll get to the truth faster. God doesn’t always explain Himself, but I do think He is pleased when we seek to understand Him and His ways. This is akin to worship. If we didn’t love Him we might ignore Him as irrelevant, which would be bad for us. Instead, we painfully seek to understand His ways so we can order our life to please Him, and find perfect joy doing it
But our joy does not depend on our understanding of all His ways. Our joy depends upon our conviction about who God is.
The sum of your concern starts and ends with the question, “Is God just?” Whether or not animals suffer, or whether we understand the nature of suffering from God’s perspective, our anger toward God stems from this question of whether God is just or not. Once we come to the place where we believe God is just no matter how we understand Him, then we can begin to understand! That is what Proverbs means when it says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” (Proverbs 1:7) And elsewhere, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” (Proverbs 9:10) (and you can throw in the whole of Proverbs 2 in there for good measure)
So in approaching the answer to your question, I don’t want to begin with whether animals suffer or whether their suffering is right or wrong, I want to start with the mutual understanding that God is just. Beginning there affects where I end up. God doesn’t mind our questions, as He gave us questioning minds, but our questions should center on finding greater understanding, and not whether God is unjust
The question of whether God is just is the very beginning of sin. It was the underlying notion the snake implied to Eve in the Garden.
"The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die!
For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:4-5
The snake implied that God was not just in withholding this knowledge from Eve. Eve took it because her assumption that God is always just was shaken, and it gave her just enough room for her natural desires to overcome her faith in God.I’m not assuming you are questioning God’s just-ness, but rather addressing the anger you expressed toward God for requiring pain.So let’s talk about the pain issue, and I want to make some observations of things we know and don’t know.
1. We know that God not only gave us plant life for food, but He also gave us animals for food. (Gen 9:2,3) Logic tells us that we must kill them to eat them and the most common way to kill animals is to slit the throat and bleed them to death. We know that this is the least stressful, painful way to end the animal’s life because it leaves the meat the most tender. (So I guess to cattle ranchers, the motivation isn’t out of kindness to animals, but out of a desire for better tasting food.) The more stress (from pain or fear, presumably) the animal endures in death, the tougher the meat because of some kind of chemical the brain produces during stress. (adrenaline?)
2. We don’t know that God requires pain from sacrificed animals. Every indication from the books of the Law which spell out in detail the process for animal sacrifices leads us to believe that the animals die in much the same way as they would if we were to eat them. In fact, evidence suggests that God is pleased with sacrifices which cause the best meat to be offered. Perhaps this is in keeping with His understanding of the measure of pain that is avoided when done correctly. (See notes from the Tyndale Bible Dictionary regarding sacrifices I have placed at the end of this document.) Since it was necessary to collect the blood it was also necessary for slow death to occur, giving the heart time to pump the blood out of the body. Medical evidence, as well as testimonies from people who have nearly bled to death suggest that the body provides the right amount of shock to remedy the pain of the incision and that the loss of blood merely causes the animal to go to sleep.
3. Having said all that, we do know that Christ’s sacrifice was painful, and that Christ’s pain pleased God.
" But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings." Hebrews 2:9-10, NASB
The term “fitting” has to do with both the just-ness of the act, and it’s part in pleasing God. It was just the right thing at just the right time.
4. And we also know that the suffering that Christ endured was an example for us, and that it is connected with our own sanctification. After all, sinful people love their sin, and the pain we suffer has more to do with our love for sin than anything else. (almost exactly like a Heroin addict trying to break free) (Phil 1:29; 3:8, Col. 1:24, 1 Peter 2:21; 4:1, 13; 5:1, 10)
So while the Old Testament sacrifices were a picture of Jesus crucifixion, there was a part of Christ's passion that was unlike the rituals, namely the violent painful manner in which He died. Perhaps this was because the sacrifices of the animals did nothing to take away our sin, but simply roll back judgment. Yet it was the sufferings of Christ which give us an example for following strong.
Phil
P.S. If you want more notes on this topic, e-mail me at global@rheasmill.org and I will forward them to you.
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