Trusting God’s Word in the Midst of Tragedy

We recently received a heart-breaking but encouraging story that I would like to share with you. This testimony shows the practical importance of developing a trust in God’s Word from the very beginning. When hard times come, our feet need to be firmly planted in Scripture so that we can remain trustful and be comforted knowing that all of God’s promises are true.

I want to let you know how grateful I am for your ministry. While your ministry is not new to me (I used your books and tapes when I homeschooled my children) it’s only recently that the full implication of a literal Genesis really hit me.

Our Good Lord took my daughter home a little over a year ago leaving three young children ages 1, 3 and 7. A large part of their care has fallen to me since their dad needs to work. With a broken heart and being in my early 60s this has not been an easy task. Watching my young, beautiful daughter dying of cancer knowing she was leaving her children behind at times was nearly unbearable for me.

During my journey through this tragic time I turned to the Scriptures and your books and DVDs. The greatest love story on earth was our Savior’s suffering and dying for us so that we may have life and live with Him forever where there will be no sorrow or tears. It was you who helped me know that I can trust His Words from Genesis through Revelation. A god who needed millions of years of suffering and dying to create life and tell us that he did it in six days – well how would I know what else I could believe? Was His death or resurrection literal? Can I really trust that He loves me? I can answer resoundingly yes and without a doubt. I can read every word and know it is true.

May the Lord continue to bless you and your ministry.

— D.

This grandmother is right—we can trust in the precious promises of our God and in His love for us because we can trust His Word right from the beginning. We can trust that God will someday permanently defeat death and suffering (Revelation 21:4) because we can know every word of Scripture is true.

Genesis gives us an answer to why there is such horrible suffering and death in the world. God didn’t originally create it this way. God’s creation was “very good” (Genesis 1:31). But Adam and Eve chose to rebel against God and the penalty for their sin was death (Genesis 2:17; Romans 5:12). Their one act of rebellion ushered in death and suffering for all of creation (Romans 8:22). Death and suffering is the result of sin!

But if you reject a literal Genesis then God, not man, is at fault for death and suffering. Evolution is a process that is characterized by death, suffering, disease, and extinction. If God used this process to create, then He called death, suffering, disease, and extinction “very good” (Genesis 1:31). Without a literal Genesis, you have no answer to give those who are hurting and who are wondering why God allows such terrible suffering.

This is just one reason of many why it is so important to stand on the authority of God’s Word from the very beginning. I encourage you to be bold in proclaiming the truth of God’s Word, from the very beginning, to those who are suffering.

If you’ve never read my testimony in regard to how our family wrestled with the issue of death and suffering when my younger brother died of a horrible brain disease, then I encourage you to read this. The book is called How Could a Loving God . . . ? (which is freely available to read online).

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team.