Ask the Editor - Proof for man’s natural sinfulness

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Friday, August 7th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

MEGAN BASHAM, HOST: And I’m Megan Basham.

Hey, before we get to Ask the Editor, a huge shout-out to our colleagues Mary Reichard and Jenny Rough, hosts of the new Legal Docket podcast. This week Legal Docket hit number one in iTunes’s Government category! That’s a tribute to Mary, Jenny, Paul Butler, and everybody working so hard on that project.

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BASHAM: OK, now it’s time for this month’s edition of Ask the Editor. This time WORLD editor in chief Marvin Olasky answers questions about his personal story.

MARVIN OLASKY, EDITOR IN CHIEF: Some WORLD readers express interest in my Jewish and atheist background. One asked, what are the advantages and disadvantages of not growing up as a Christian? 

My response started with disadvantages. Here’s one: I don’t have much Scripture memorized. My brain retains lots of historical and geographical facts but I regret not having Bible verses on the tip of my tongue. 

Also, since I did not become a Christian until 1976, I regret how I used and hurt people during my atheist years. 

I also have advantages. I know clearly what it means to be born again. I see the difference between my pre-Christian and Christian existence. I’ve met lots of cradle Christians who became sick of Christmas carols. I like them. I don’t like lobster, which saves me money in restaurants.

Here’s another question thrown my way because of my Jewish background. One reader writes that his daughter-in-law, who grew up in an atheistic Jewish family, says she can’t believe in God because of the Holocaust. What should she read?

I said she should read the book of Job, because Job suffered a personal holocaust: He lost all his sons and daughters. The Bible tells us that Job’s holocaust came about at the instigation of Satan, to whom God mysteriously gave a lot of rope. I suspect the 20th century Holocaust happened for the same reason.  

I could speculate (1) that the re-establishment of Israel as a country was important to God, (2) the Holocaust was instrumental in that happening, and (3) many Jews over the centuries would have voluntarily sacrificed their lives for that to happen. Maybe 10 would have. Maybe 100 would have. Maybe 1,000 would have. Six million seems to me too high a price, especially since that number probably includes one, two, or three of my great grandparents, but Job was smarter than me, and he did not know why he had to suffer his personal holocaust, so I am not about to second-guess God’s hard providence.

The Holocaust does seem to me a proof for the existence of God and Satan. Take one minor group of people 3,000 years ago who had a bandit king named David. Say 400 years later Babylonians force the remnant of Israel into exile. Say 656 years later the Romans wipe out the country. Say Jews suffer persecution for the next two millennia. And they survive! Why else except their chosenness? 

Then the Holocaust. Other peoples have had mega-disasters. No other suffered such scientific deaths—gas chambers!—developed by the world’s most technologically advanced, and supposedly civilized, country. Of all the peoples in the world, why Jews? Jesus was Jewish, so Satan probably figures it’s a way to get back at God. 

One last thought: please tell your daughter in law that the Holocaust is proof of what the Bible teaches about man’s natural sinfulness, and our desperate need for a Savior. 

I’m Marvin Olasky.

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