It was bound to happen. Christians are seeking to make sense of Rev. Kyle Lake's tragic death a few weeks ago. This article describes the incident and the theological questions surrounding it:
During a service last Sunday morning, Rev. Kyle Lake was standing in waist-high water as he prepared to baptize a woman. When he reached for a corded microphone, the 33-year-old was jolted by electricity, and did not survive. The woman going to be baptized was unharmed.
The incident took place just minutes after the 800 members in attendance had prayed aloud, "Surprise me, God."
When asked if he thought the events were result of asking to be surprised, Esau, who witnessed the electrocution, said, "I wish I could answer that. I honestly, truly don't know. That gets you into all kinds of really, really hard questions. 'Does God cause everything to happen?' or 'Is there tragedy and chaos and stuff in the world because it's the natural consequences of humankind and our freedom of choice?'"
These are indeed very hard questions. Yet some are confident they have the answer and are pronouncing this as God's judgment on the emerging church.
This tragedy forces us to ask why. Why? Why did this happen? Why did it happen this way? Were was God? Why did God allow this to happen?
Clearly there are no easy answers. So what do you think? God's judgment for heresy? Tragic accident? If it was an accident, what about God's sovereignty?
Filed in: theology
3 comments:
Thanks for the blog, Steve. It's always interesting to me how quick some people are to pronounce "God's judgment" when something happens to someone whose heart is set on God, emergent or not. Would the converse of this then be true? That God's blessing is upon folks like Donald Trump because of all he's recieved in this lifetime?
I see this sort of proclamation merely as a way for those whose mindsets are narrow to slam the door on thought. It's a sad thing indeed.
But this pastor is no doubt rejoicing in His presence this very moment.
I can sympathize with Proctor's concern that the Gospel is not being preached, but beyond that the words from that link reek with the stench of self-righteous hatred. As traci stated above, calling something God's Judgment is tricky territory. I would think there are more than a few religious charlatans out there who would merit the Aninias and Saphira treatment before Kyle Lake.
Why does it seem that too often there is only extremism and no moderation?
Everyone searches for an answer immediatley in this instant gratification world. Sometimes the reasons why things happen take a while for us to see. My opinion is that here was a man living his life for Christ and the message is our time here on earth is precious so make the most of everyday. Don't wait for tomorrow to do that nice thing for someone else, call the person you have been thinking about and say hello and buy the person behind you in line coffee. Easy things to make someone else happy which in turn will make you happy. ENJOY THE JOURNEY vs wondering what is around the next corner.
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