Time and Chance

Dear Brethren,

Could “time and chance” cause us to miss out on the Kingdom of God?  Could our lives be cut short by “time and chance ” before we qualify for the first resurrection?  Many in God’s Church are asking themselves why our brethren died in the Church massacre on March 12.  Was it “time and chance” as many have come to believe?  After all, didn't Solomon say that  “time and chance” happen to everyone?

"The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all." (Ecclesiastes 9:11)

This scripture is saying that it is not always possible to predict who is going to win a battle, have sufficient food, become rich or win a game.  Sometimes unexpected obstacles arise that change the outcome from the expected to the unexpected.

To what degree do “time and chance” fit into the life of a Christian?  When God gives converted Christians opportunities to grow in character, it is no longer “time and chance” - but Godly intervention.  God gives us His promise of protection.  "Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ."  (Philippians 1:6)

"Time and chance" does not happen to those whom God is calling, in the same way that “time and chance” happens to everyone else.  Speaking to the saints, Jesus Christ says that He will never leave us nor forsake us.  During the years of rapid Church growth in the 1950’s, through the 1970’s, the Church went through tumultuous and dangerous times.  God gave His protection to the Church throughout those times.  God clearly halted any serious damage that would have been caused by “time and chance”.  God will not allow "time and chance” to interfere with His process of bringing many sons to glory.  (Hebrews 2:10)

God has power over “time and chance”.  He keeps His angels around us, and when a serious "time and chance" incident is about to befall one of the brethren, the angels intervene.  We have seen and heard of many miracles in the Church, where someone was about to be involved in a serious accident and suddenly, the danger was gone.  Such incidents show that God  overrules “time and chance” to work His will.  In the terrible tragedy that happened during Sabbath services in Wisconsin, we cannot conclude that it was due to “time and chance,” because we know that “time and chance” does not happen to God's people.  Clearly, God could have prevented it, and chose not to.  Why didn’t He?  How each of us answers this question is vitally important.

We can choose to bury our heads in the sand and say that it was “time and chance”.  This response requires no self-examination or need to change.  We can assume that God withdrew His protection from those people because they were worse sinners than all the rest of us.  That response would also be shallow and require no need to look at ourselves. Or we might conclude that God didn’t like the particular group they were in, and that God sent a message just to that group.  That would be a self-righteous response to a situation that we all must face. 

God withdrew His protection in order to send a message to the Church as a whole.  He wants all of us to examine ourselves and see whether we have the attributes of true children of God.  It is no coincidence that this tragedy occurred just before Passover when we are all supposed to be in the process of examining ourselves.  Are we willing to recognize that all who have God’s Holy Spirit are brothers?  Are we treating even the neediest person in the Church with the same respect as the “rich” member?  Are we doing our best to bind up the Church rather than bringing about more division?

It’s time to look ourselves squarely in the eye and use God’s Holy Spirit to discern how we can do more to serve God’s flock and heed the strong warning that God has sent to His Church.  "We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."  (Romans 8:28)