Answer to Confusion – Sunday, November 22, 1942
The course of events which our generation has witnessed has brought to the thoughts and to the lips of many this accusing question: “Why would an omnipotent and all-wise and just and merciful God permit such things to happen?” Failing to find the answer that brings peace to their troubled hearts, men, in increasing numbers, lose faith and hope and understanding, and cry out in bitterness against God. But they who find themselves asking this question should be reminded that it is neither the practice nor the purpose of the Creator to force men to be good.
If He did there would be no reward for being good, and no development would come therefrom. One of the first principles of the plan of life is the free agency of man—the right of choice. It was so in the heavens before time began and shall continue to be so worlds without end. Indeed, challenge to this right of self-determination was the cause of the war in heaven and has been one of the moving causes of all war since that time.
The souls of men are stifled when they are made to live according to someone else’s pattern, or forced into someone else’s mold. That is why, in His wisdom, God does not minutely regulate every detail of our lives, any more than our earthly parents dictate everything we shall do. They teach us what we ought to do, in spite of which, in the headstrong use of our own freedom and in the exercise of our own will, we still manage to get ourselves into a good deal of trouble. And so the Father of all men gives us commandments, principles, rules of life, which, if observed, will lead us to our highest possibilities, and, so far as the Creator is concerned, it is given unto each man to determine to what extent he will live by these rules. That these fundamentals have been largely ignored, the events of our day eloquently testify, but the fault cannot be charged to the Lord our Creator.
The difficulties are of our own making, collectively, and individually. How long the present trend of events will be permitted to continue, no man knows, but of this we may be sure: The innocent who suffer with the guilty will not be forgotten; the Lord God is able, in His own time, to overrule all things for good; and each man will be dealt with according to the use he has made of his freedom of choice. In the meantime, the righteous need never fear, for “the judgments of the Almighty are righteous altogether.”
By Richard L. Evans, spoken from the Tabernacle, Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Sunday, Nov. 22, 1942, over Radio Station KSL and the nationwide Columbia Broadcasting System. Copyright – 1942.
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November 22, 1942
Broadcast Number 0,692