How could this happen?

I guess you remember where you were and what you were doing the morning of September 11, 2001. I recall everything vividly. I was at work in the church office, preparing for our weekly staff meeting. Before we could begin, my wife called, and emotionally suggested we turn on the TV. We tuned in to one of the major networks just in time to see the second plane plow into the World Trade Center. Silently, almost breathlessly, we watched the story unfold. After a while we moved into the sanctuary for prayer. The rest of the day was a surreal experience, with many callers asking "how could this happen?"

Of course most people wanted to know how God could let a thing like this happen? The truth is, every time some catastrophe occurs, some tragedy strikes, or some life is taken prematurely, we are compelled to ask, why?

When addressing the issue of evil and suffering of any nature, we are dealing with the most difficult challenge to the Christian faith. In a recently released book, "There is a God," former atheist Anthony Flew gives a biographical sketch of his conversion from atheism to theism. His change of heart occurred through his friendship with Christian apologist Gary Habermas, and through the development of the Intelligent Design explanation of the origin of the universe. His bold testimonial sent shock waves through the atheistic community, who once considered Flew its most articulate and systematic spokesman. Yet, he still hasn't embraced Christianity, largely because of the problem of evil and suffering. His difficulty is the same as that of English philosopher David Hume, French theorist Voltaire, and other notables thinkers. J.L. Mackie makes his case against God and Christianity in his work entitled, "The Miracle of Theism." He argues it this way, "If a good and powerful God exists, he would not allow pointless evil. But because there is so much unjustifiable, pointless evil in the world, the traditional good and powerful God cannot exist. Some other god, or no god at all may exist, but not the traditional one." Of course, Mackie's observation that the world is inundated with pointless evil is indefensible. Is it pointless? Could there not be some reason for the existence of evil and suffering, or at the very least a plausible explanation as to why a good God would allow good and evil to co-exist in the universe He created? Hence there is Christianity's most difficult challenge. How do you answer the issue? I'll give you mine later.