God's will?

Ben Witherington, on his blog, quotes John Piper. Ben says:

John Piper on his website of course recently had a post about the disastrous collapse of the bridge over the Mississippi in Minneapolis. His view was that however random it might seem to us, that actually this was the will of God, and in essence we should just suck it up. God is sovereign and he disposes things as he will, and according to his sovereign pre-ordained plan. If you just happened to be on the raw end of the deal, so much the worse for you. Since all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, actually God has a right to judge the whole world now, if he so chooses. The fact that he spared some shows God's mercy, according to Piper, but he was under no obligation to spare anyone. 'There but for the grace of God go I", so to speak.

How do you feel about that viewpoint?

I don't like it. I think that this kind of logic misrepresents the nature of God.

• This bridge collapse in Minneapolis wasn't random, but it also wasn't the will of God. I don't know what caused it, but I imagine that it was some physical problem with the bridge. Maybe that's our fault, but it's not God's.
• Why do we insist that just because God CAN do something, that he will? Why do we assume that just because God could cause a bridge to collapse, that he must have done it?
• God has the right to judge the whole world. OK, yes. But I don't believe that it is in the nature of God to collapse a bridge in judgement.

God's mercy is that his son died on a cross for us. God's mercy is that he has given us the ability to know him well enough that we know, deep inside, where faith is born, that God is not cruel or mean or unloving, and that he did not cause a bridge to collapse.

Image: Leave and light at the VA.