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One of the strongest proofs for the divine nature of the Bible is the way we turn to it in times of catastrophe. Unfortunately, one of the strongest refutations of the belief in a good and all-powerful God is the obvious fact that God allowed the catastrophe to occur.

The dilemma of evil in a world with a good, powerful God was eloquently penned in the play "J.B.” by the American playwright and poet Archibald MacLeish,“If God is great, he is not good. If God is good, he is not God. Take the even, take the odd.”

This is the searing choice we face after the Texas floods. The death of more than a hundred innocent people and most tragically the death of 27 children at Camp Mystic, a Christian summer camp, has presented every God-believing person with the choice between a benevolent but impotent God or a powerful but uncaring God. Neither choice offers solace or preserves faith.

Let us explode these false choices by considering the two kinds of evil we face here on planet earth and why a powerful good God fits perfectly into our struggles to make sense of the sudden death of the innocent among us.

The first kind of evil is moral evil. Moral evils are caused by us, and they are not God’s fault. When we choose a path of sin and cruelty; of selfishness and anger, we are to blame, not God. God has set before us a path of life and because of our moral frailties we often avoid that choice.

The second type of evil is natural evil. These are natural disasters that take life for those in the path of nature’s wrath. They are not caused by us but we suffer because of them. The only cause is God who made the natural world that explodes upon us without predictable cause. Is it not fair to lay the blame of the Texas floods upon God as another example of natural evil?

No.

In fact, natural evil is not evil at all. Natural evil is just the normal working out of the natural world. If there was no camp on the banks of the Guadalupe River there would just have been a big rush of water and a few thousand uprooted trees. In fact, a flood or a tsunami or an earthquake or storm – all of them are examples of the natural functioning of the natural world. They occur because the earth is alive. Floods do not occur on the moon because the moon is mostly geologically inactive. We choose to locate our homes or camps or tents in perilous locations where they are vulnerable to periodic catastrophes. That is not God’s fault. If we choose not to pay for advance-warning systems that might enable people in risk zones to escape in time to save their lives, that is on us. None of it is on God.

Some theologies, like that of Aristotle, leave us with a God who is unfeeling about our sufferings, but that is not the faith of the children of Abraham – Judaism, Christianity and Islam. We believe in a God who accompanies us through the sorrows of life. Our God does not promise us a world without floods, but God does promise us a world in which every rescuer is the hand of God.

The most famous Psalm is the 22nd Psalm and it is the most famous because it is the most healing. It is the most healing because it imagines God as a shepherd. A shepherd cannot save every sheep, but a good shepherd is always looking for members of the flock who are wandering through the valley of the shadow of death. God is our good shepherd, and I believe that God has set up camp on the banks of the Guadalupe River now.

There is another verse from the Bible that I lift up for you in these difficult times. It reminds us that everything comes from God, not just the good but also the deadly. It reminds us that when we pray to God we are not only praying for good things. We are also praying for help in the face of bad things. The ancient rabbis of Judaism taught, “The world is led by its own laws (Heb: olam k’minhago noheg ). This means that nature’s laws are immutable, but it also means that God is the creator of those laws.

Before the rabbis, the great prophet Isaiah spoke the words of God in chapter 45:7 where this profound truth of a God who creates all things – all things not just happy things – all things not just life but also death. That is a fearsome but also loving God who is both good and great:

“I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I, the Lord, do all these things.”

(Send ALL QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS to The God Squad via email at godsquadquestion@aol.com. Rabbi Gellman is the author of several books, including “Religion for Dummies,” co-written with Fr. Tom Hartman. Also, the new God Squad podcast is now available.)

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