📖 Utetezi wa Imani (Apologetiki) — Sehemu ya 4: Tatizo la Uovu na Mateso📖 Apologetics — Unit 4: The Problem of Evil and Suffering

Andiko: Isaya 53:4Text: Isaiah 53:4

Swali Gumu Kuliko YoteThe Hardest Question

Sasa tunafika kwenye pingamizi zito kuliko yote ambalo mwamini yeyote atawahi kukabiliana nalo, nami sitajifanya kwamba ni jepesi. Ikiwa Mungu ni mwenyezi, angeweza kuuzuia uovu. Ikiwa Mungu ni mwema kabisa, angetaka kuuzuia. Hata hivyo uovu bado upo — ukatili wa wanadamu, vifo vya watoto, tetemeko la ardhi linalomeza kijiji usiku. Mwenye shaka hulitupa mezani kama karata ya ushindi: ama Mungu wako hawezi kuzuia mateso, kwa hiyo si mwenyezi, ama hataki, kwa hiyo si mwema. Usilipuuze jambo hili. Usimjibu mama aliyefiwa kwa hoja ya kimantiki (sillojismu). Mtetezi wa imani aliye mnyoofu huhisi uzito wa swali hili, kwa sababu ni swali la kila mtu aliyewahi kusimama kando ya kaburi. Hatutajifanya kwamba tutalitatua fumbo lote katika sehemu moja. Lakini tutaonyesha kwamba imani ya Kikristo, kati ya imani zote duniani, ina jibu lenye kina kuliko yote — na kwamba jibu hilo hatimaye si hoja bali ni Mtu.We come now to the heaviest objection any believer will ever face, and I will not pretend it is light. If God is all-powerful, He could stop evil. If God is all-good, He would want to. Yet evil remains — the cruelty of men, the dying of children, the earthquake that swallows a village in the night. The skeptic lays it down like a trump card: either your God cannot stop suffering, and He is not almighty, or He will not, and He is not good. Do not wave this away. Do not answer a grieving mother with a syllogism. The honest apologist feels the weight of this question, because it is the question of every man who has ever stood beside a grave. We will not pretend to solve the whole mystery in one unit. But we will show that the Christian faith, of all the faiths on earth, has the deepest answer — and that the answer is not finally an argument but a Person.

BumerangiThe Boomerang

Anza na jambo ambalo mwenye shaka mara chache hulitambua. Anapoiita saratani na ukatili kuwa uovu, amenyoosha mkono, bila kukusudia, kuchukua kipimo cha wema — na kipimo hicho kilitoka wapi? Huwezi kuuita mstari kuwa umepinda isipokuwa una wazo fulani la mstari ulionyooka. Huwezi kuukasirikia udhalimu isipokuwa mahali fulani ndani yako kuna hisia ya haki ya kweli ambayo ulimwengu umeivunja. Baadhi ya wanafalsafa wasioamini Mungu wamejaribu kutetea maadili ya kweli yasiyotegemea maoni ya mtu bila kumtaja Mungu, wakidai kwamba ukweli wa kimaadili ni sehemu tu ya msingi ya uhalisia, kama ulivyo ukweli wa hesabu. Huo ni msimamo halisi, si ndoto, na mtetezi wa imani aliye mnyoofu hapaswi kujifanya vinginevyo. Lakini Mkristo bado anaweza kuuliza swali la haki: kwa mtazamo wa kiasili tupu, ambapo ulimwengu hatimaye ni mata tu inayosogea, si dhahiri kwa nini wajibu wa kimaadili unapaswa kuwepo hata kidogo, au kwa nini mtu yeyote angefungwa nao badala ya kuupendelea tu. Imani katika Mungu hutoa msingi wa asili zaidi — Mungu mwema na mwenye nafsi ambaye tabia yake ndiyo kipimo, na ambaye mamlaka yake yanaeleza kwa nini kipimo hicho kinatufunga. Nguvu yenyewe ya pingamizi la asiyeamini Mungu inategemea kuichukulia sheria fulani ya kimaadili kuwa halisi, ile sheria tuliyoijadili katika Sehemu ya 2, na mtetezi wa imani anaweza kumsisitizia aseme, kwa mtazamo wake mwenyewe wa ulimwengu, uhalisia na mamlaka ya sheria hiyo hasa yanatoka wapi. Kwa hiyo tatizo la uovu, likisisitizwa vya kutosha, halimfuti Mungu; linafungua swali lenye kina zaidi la ni nini kinachoweza kuwa msingi wa kipimo kinachotumiwa kumhukumu Yeye.Begin with something the skeptic rarely notices. When he calls the cancer and the cruelty evil, he has reached, without meaning to, for a standard of good — and where did that standard come from? You cannot call a line crooked unless you have some idea of a straight line. You cannot rage against injustice unless somewhere within you there lives a sense of true justice that the world has violated. Some atheist philosophers have tried to defend objective morality without appealing to God, arguing that moral facts are simply brute features of reality, the way mathematical facts are. That is a real position, not a fantasy, and the honest apologist should not pretend otherwise. But the Christian can still press a fair question: on a purely naturalistic picture, where the universe is ultimately just matter in motion, it is not obvious why moral obligation should exist at all, or why anyone would be bound by it rather than merely preferring it. Theism offers a more natural grounding — a good and personal God whose character is the standard, and whose authority explains why the standard binds us. The very force of the atheist's objection depends on treating some moral law as real, the law we discussed in Unit 2, and the apologist can press him to say where, on his own worldview, that law's reality and authority actually come from. So the problem of evil, pressed hard enough, does not abolish God; it opens the deeper question of what could ground the standard being used to judge Him.

Uovu Si Kitu KilichoumbwaEvil Is Not a Thing

Sasa na tuwe waangalifu kuhusu uovu ni nini hasa, kwa maana hapa wengi hujikwaa. Uovu si dutu aliyoiumba Mungu, kana kwamba aliujaza ulimwengu na kitu cheusi kiitwacho ubaya. Uovu ni upungufu (kwa Kilatini privatio) — kupotoshwa, kuharibiwa, kukosekana kwa wema uliopaswa kuwepo. Giza si kitu; ni kukosekana kwa nuru. Baridi si kitu; ni kukosekana kwa joto. Kutu si kitu alichokiumba Mungu; ni uharibifu wa chuma kizuri. Vivyo hivyo, ukatili ni upendo uliopotoka, tamaa mbaya ni shauku iliyopotoka, kiburi ni kujithamini kwa wema kulikovimba kukawa uvimbe. Mungu aliumba ulimwengu akauita mwema, na kila uovu ndani yake ni wema huo uliopindwa, kuvunjwa, au kunyang'anywa. Jambo hili ni muhimu, kwa sababu linamaanisha kwamba Mungu si mwanzilishi wa uovu. Yeye ndiye mwanzilishi wa wema ambao viumbe wameuharibu.Now let us be precise about what evil is, for here many stumble. Evil is not a substance God created, as though He stocked the world with a dark material called wickedness. Evil is a privation — the twisting, the spoiling, the absence of a good that ought to be there. Darkness is not a thing; it is the absence of light. Cold is not a thing; it is the absence of heat. Rust is not a thing God made; it is the corruption of good iron. In the same way, cruelty is love gone wrong, lust is desire gone wrong, pride is a good self-regard swollen into a tumor. God made a world and called it good, and every evil in it is that good bent, broken, or robbed. This matters, because it means God is not the author of evil. He is the author of a good that creatures have spoiled.

Gharama ya UpendoThe Price of Love

Lakini kwa nini Mungu aruhusu uharibifu huo hata kidogo? Hapa ndipo ulipo ukweli wenye gharama kubwa kuliko yote katika sehemu hii. Mungu angeweza kuumba jamii ya vikaragosi ambao hawangetenda dhambi kamwe, ambao wangesogea tu kadiri anavyovuta kamba, ambao hawangechagua hata mara moja kumpinga. Lakini kikaragosi hakiwezi kupenda. Upendo wa kulazimishwa si upendo kamwe. Mume anayempanga mke wake kama mashine aseme "Nakupenda" amepata rekodi ya sauti, si bibi arusi; maneno hayo hayana thamani kwa sababu hasa asingeweza kusema vinginevyo. Ikiwa Mungu alitaka viumbe ambao wangeweza kumpenda kwa kweli — naye alitaka — basi ilimbidi awaumbe wakiwa huru, na uhuru usioweza kuchagua kinyume cha wema si uhuru; ni kamba ya kufungia. (Hiki ndicho wanafalsafa wanachokiita uhuru wa kujiamulia [libertarian freedom], na matoleo mengi ya utetezi huu wa hiari huutegemea; wanafikra wengine Wakristo makini, hasa katika mapokeo ya Kireformed, wamependekeza maelezo tofauti ya uhuru na wamelijibu tatizo la uovu kwa njia nyingine. Lakini hoja iliyotolewa hapa ndiyo ambayo sehemu hii inaifuata, nayo ndiyo hoja ambayo waamini wengi huikimbilia kwa silika.) Kwa hiyo Mungu alichukua hatari kubwa ya uhuru. Aliufungua mlango kwa upendo, na kupitia mlango huo huo ulio wazi iliingia dhambi. Uwezekano wa uovu mkatili kuliko yote na uwezekano wa upendo wa kweli kuliko yote viliingia ulimwenguni vikiwa vimeshikana mikono, kwa maana ni uwezekano mmoja: uhuru wa kiumbe kinachoweza kusema ndiyo kwa sababu tu kingeweza kusema hapana.But why would God permit the spoiling at all? Here is the costliest truth in the unit. God could have made a race of puppets who never sinned, who moved only as He pulled the strings, who never once chose against Him. But a puppet cannot love. Love that is forced is not love at all. The husband who programs his wife to say "I love you" has gained a recording, not a bride; the words are worthless precisely because she could not have said otherwise. If God wanted creatures who could truly love Him — and He did — then He had to make them free, and freedom that cannot choose against the good is not freedom; it is a leash. (This is what philosophers call libertarian freedom, and most versions of this free-will defense rely on it; other serious Christian thinkers, particularly in the Reformed tradition, have proposed different accounts of freedom and responded to the problem of evil in other ways. But the reasoning here is the one this unit follows, and it is the reasoning most believers reach for instinctively.) So God took the great risk of liberty. He opened the door to love, and through the same open door walked sin. The possibility of the cruelest evil and the possibility of the truest love came into the world hand in hand, for they are the same possibility: the freedom of a creature who can say yes only because he could have said no.

Vivuli Katika MchoroThe Shadows in the Painting

Hata hivyo, baada ya kusema hayo, lazima niwe mnyoofu kwako, kwa maana kielelezo hiki kinafika mbali kiasi fulani tu.And yet, having said that, I must be honest with you, for the illustration goes only so far.

Lakini Je, Kuhusu Wasio na Hatia?But What of the Innocent?

Hiari inaeleza uovu ambao wanadamu huuchagua. Lakini vipi kuhusu mateso ambayo hakuna mtu aliyeyachagua — mtoto mwenye saratani, kijiji kilichofunikwa na wimbi, mtoto mchanga ambaye hakuwahi kuvuta pumzi ya hatia? Hapa sitakupa jibu nadhifu, nawe lazima ujihadhari na mtu yeyote anayekupa jibu kama hilo. Tunaishi katika ulimwengu ambao si huru tu bali umeanguka, ambapo viumbe vyote vinaugua, na sehemu fulani ya kuugua kwake hatuwezi kuifuatilia hadi chanzo chochote tunachoweza kukitaja. Kuna mateso ambayo mbele yake hata mwamini mwenye hekima kuliko wote anaweza tu kunyamaza. Ningependa kukuacha na maumivu ya unyoofu kuliko jibu lisilo la unyoofu. Ayubu alidai kwamba Mungu ajieleze, na Mungu hakuwahi kujieleza; badala yake, Mungu alimpa Ayubu kitu kilicho bora kuliko maelezo. Alimpa Ayubu Nafsi yake Mwenyewe. Na hilo linatuelekeza kwenye jibu moja linalofika hadi chini kabisa.Free will explains the evil that men choose. But what of the suffering no one chose — the child with cancer, the village under the wave, the baby who never drew a guilty breath? Here I will not hand you a tidy answer, and you must beware of anyone who does. We live in a world that is not only free but fallen, where the whole creation groans, and some of its groaning we cannot trace to any cause we can name. There are sufferings before which the wisest believer can only fall silent. I would rather leave you with an honest ache than a dishonest answer. Job demanded that God explain Himself, and God never did explain; instead, God gave Job something better than an explanation. He gave Job Himself. And that points us to the one answer that goes all the way down.

Msaada UsipokujaWhen No Rescue Comes

Habakuki analipa tatizo la mateso sura ya kichungaji. Nabii aliomba huku jeuri na udhalimu vikiendelea kumzunguka, akauliza swali ambalo waamini bado wanaliuliza: tutalia kuomba msaada hadi lini wakati Mungu anaonekana kunyamaza? Mahubiri ya zamani ya Dkt. Cook yanatumia picha ya manusura waliokuwa juu ya chelezo ambao bila kutarajia walipewa chakula na kuokolewa. Tunafurahi "shakwe anapokuja" — wagonjwa wanapopona, ndoa inaporejeshwa, mwana mpotevu anaporudi, au shida inapokwisha. Lakini imani hujaribiwa kwa ukali zaidi pale ambapo hakuna msaada unaoonekana. Jibu la Habakuki si kwamba mateso si halisi au kwamba watu waaminifu watapata daima matokeo wanayoyaomba. Mungu anamwambia nabii kwamba anafanya kazi kwa njia ambazo Habakuki bado hawezi kuzielewa, naye nabii anajifunza kuishi kwa imani kabla hajaweza kuona maelezo yote.Habakkuk gives the problem of suffering a pastoral form. The prophet prayed while violence and injustice continued around him and asked the question believers still ask: how long can we call for help when God seems silent? An older sermon by Dr. Cook uses the picture of survivors on a raft who were unexpectedly given food and rescued. We rejoice when the “seagull comes” — when the sick recover, the marriage is restored, the prodigal returns, or the crisis breaks. But faith is tested most severely when no rescue appears. Habakkuk's answer is not that suffering is unreal or that faithful people will always receive the outcome they request. God tells the prophet that He is at work in ways Habakkuk cannot yet understand, and the prophet learns to live by faith before he can see the whole explanation.

Jambo hili huuzuia utetezi wa imani wa Kikristo usitoe majibu mepesi kwa maumivu. Msalaba tayari umelimaliza swali la kama Mungu anatupenda, na ufufuo umeuonyesha uweza wake. Kile kisichojibiwa katika msiba fulani bado kinaweza kubaki bila jibu kwa muda. Kwa hiyo imani ya kibiblia inaweza kusema yote mawili, "Sielewi," na, "Hata hivyo nitamtumaini." Huko si kukosekana kwa akili; ni tumaini linalosimama juu ya kile ambacho Mungu tayari amekifunua wakati hali hazitoi maelezo ya papo hapo.This keeps Christian apologetics from giving glib answers to pain. The cross has already settled the question of whether God loves us, and the resurrection has displayed His power. What remains unanswered in a particular tragedy may still remain unanswered for a time. Biblical faith can therefore say both, “I do not understand,” and, “Yet I will trust Him.” That is not the absence of reason; it is trust resting on what God has already revealed when circumstances provide no immediate explanation.

Mungu AliyesulubiwaThe Crucified God

Hapa ndipo lilipo jambo ambalo hakuna dini nyingine duniani inayoweza kulisema. Mungu wetu hakubaki juu ya mateso, salama na mtulivu katika kiti cha enzi cha mbali, akitazama machozi yetu kupitia kioo. Alishuka akaingia ndani yake. Alivaa mwili unaoweza kuraruliwa. Alisimama kaburini pa rafiki yake na, ingawa alijua kwamba angemfufua baada ya muda mfupi, alilia machozi. Na mwishowe alinyoosha mikono yake akaacha misumari ipite ndani yake, akalia kwa sauti katika giza lililomeza jua la adhuhuri, "Mungu wangu, Mungu wangu, mbona umeniacha?" — ili mtu yeyote anayeteseka asiweze kamwe tena kusema kwamba Mungu haelewi. Kama mwanadamu aliona njaa, lakini kama Mungu aliwalisha maelfu. Kama mwanadamu alichoka, lakini kama Mungu aliituliza dhoruba. Kama mwanadamu alitoka damu akafa, lakini kama Mungu alibeba katika mwili wake mwenyewe masikitiko na huzuni za ulimwengu, kama Isaya alivyotabiri. Msalaba haueleza kila maumivu. Lakini unamwambia anayeteseka jambo moja analohitaji zaidi kulijua: kwamba hateseki peke yake, kwamba Mungu Mwenyewe amekuwa hapa, gizani, pamoja na misumari, na kwamba makovu bado yamo mikononi mwake.Here is what no other religion on earth can say. Our God did not stay above the suffering, safe and serene on a far throne, watching our tears through glass. He came down into it. He took on flesh that could be torn. He stood at the tomb of His friend and, though He knew He would raise him in moments, He wept. And at the last He stretched out His hands and let the nails go through them, and cried out in a darkness that swallowed the noon sun, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?" — so that no sufferer could ever again say that God does not understand. As a man He was hungry, but as God He fed the thousands. As a man He grew weary, but as God He stilled the storm. As a man He bled and died, but as God He carried in His own body the griefs and sorrows of the world, as Isaiah foretold. The cross does not explain every pain. But it tells the sufferer the one thing he most needs to know: that he does not suffer alone, that God Himself has been here, in the dark, with the nails, and that the scars are still in His hands.

Mlikusudia Mabaya, Mungu Alikusudia MemaMeant for Evil, Meant for Good

Jambo moja zaidi. Mungu aliyeingia katika mateso yetu pia anaweza kuyafuma, bila kuwa kamwe mwanzilishi wake, kuwa wema ambao hatungeweza kuuwazia. Yusufu, aliyeuzwa na ndugu zake utumwani na kuachwa adhoofike katika gereza la nchi ya kigeni, hatimaye aliwaendea wale watu waliomkosea akasema, "Ninyi mlikusudia mabaya juu yangu, bali Mungu alikusudia mema" (Mwanzo 50:20). Angalia kwamba hakusema uovu ule ulikuwa mwema — ulikuwa uovu halisi, na ndugu zake kweli waliukusudia. Lakini Mungu, mfumaji mkuu, alichukua uzi mweusi ambao ndugu zake waliusokota kwa nia mbaya akaufuma kuwa zulia lililookoa taifa. Hii ndiyo ahadi ambayo Paulo anampa kila mwamini: "Mambo yote hufanya kazi pamoja na wao wampendao Mungu katika kuwapatia mema" (Warumi 8:28). Si kwamba mambo yote ni mema, bali kwamba mambo yote hufumwa kwa ajili ya mema na mikono yenye hekima ya kutosha na nguvu ya kutosha kukomboa hata yaliyo mabaya kuliko yote.One thing more. The God who entered our suffering is also able to weave it, without ever being its author, into a good we could not have imagined. Joseph, sold by his brothers into slavery and left to rot in a foreign prison, came at last to the men who had wronged him and said, "You meant evil against me; but God meant it for good" (Genesis 50:20). Notice he did not say the evil was good — it was real evil, and his brothers truly meant it. But God, the master weaver, took the dark thread the brothers spun in malice and worked it into a tapestry that saved a nation. This is the promise Paul makes to every believer: "All things work together for good to those who love God" (Romans 8:28). Not that all things are good, but that all things are woven for good by hands wise enough and strong enough to redeem even the worst.

Tunachowapelekea WanaotesekaWhat We Carry to the Suffering

Kwa hiyo tunalishika fumbo kwa unyenyekevu, lakini tunaushika msalaba kwa uthabiti. Tunapomwendea mtu katika huzuni yake, hatumpelekei nadharia ya werevu kuhusu uovu; tunampelekea Mwokozi aliyejeruhiwa ambaye amepita pale alipo. Tunasogea, jambo ambalo mwenye shaka hatarajii kamwe, kutoka kujitetea hadi mwaliko: uovu ule ule anaomtupia Mungu ndio uthibitisho kwamba anatamani haki ambayo ulimwengu huu hauwezi kuitoa — na shauku hiyo, kama kila shauku nyingine, ina jibu lake katika Mungu aliyeyachukua masikitiko yetu. Usiliogope swali hili. Uhisi uzito wake, ukatae uongo nadhifu, kisha uelekeze, kama unavyopaswa kufanya daima, kwenye mikono yenye makovu.So we hold the mystery humbly, but we hold the cross firmly. When we go to a man in his sorrow, we do not bring him a clever theory of evil; we bring him a wounded Savior who has been where he is. We move, as the skeptic never expects us to, from defense to invitation: the very evil he hurls at God is the proof that he longs for a justice this world cannot give — and that longing, like every other, has its answer in the God who bore our griefs. Do not be afraid of this question. Feel its weight, refuse the tidy lie, and then point, as you always must, to the hands with the scars in them.

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