Article February 9, 1987 Issue

God's will and predictions about disease

The Christian Science Monitor

From time to time public attention is focused on one disease or another. A new malady appears, or ideas about an old one change. Or an illness is discussed at length because it is associated with a public figure. Then it's hard to escape descriptions of the course the disease is supposed to run, the kinds of people thought to be at risk, and the percent of the population that, it is predicted, will be affected.

Though well intentioned, such discussions can stir anxiety. After all, they in effect predict that an intelligent evil proceeds relentlessly from one (vividly pictured) state to another until a certain number of people are victimized. This view may appear very convincing to the physical senses, but it is certainly not God's view of His creation.

Since God is infinite good, as the Bible reveals, His will for man must be good. This means that although evil can seem quite fearsome, it has no God-given authority to emerge out of the past, develop in the present, or dominate the future.

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