How God can be sovereign, while humans are genuinely responsible for their actions is hard for us to fully comprehend. But the truths of God’s sovereignty, human culpability, and Satan involvement are all fully taught in Scripture. Our job is not to try to completely figure this out with our fallen and finite minds but to accept it as part of God’s revelation to us.

Consider two (or really, three) stories; one is very well known, and the other hardly known at all. Both involve Americans, and both have to do with tragedies—or near-tragedies. The first one took place on July 13, 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania. You know what I am referring to.

At a campaign rally Donald Trump missed an assassin’s bullet by centimetres. As we know, had he not turned his head just a split second earlier, he likely would have been killed on that day. But because he did just happen to look to his right, the bullet grazed his ear, and did not go through his skull. But sadly one spectator at the rally did lose his life to that killer.

The other story involves an incident that occurred in mid-April, 2025. As one news report states:

A pastor is recovering after being injured during a “freak accident” that killed his passenger on the way home from Bible study in Ohio. “It is with great sadness and sorrow of heart that we must pass along this information and update,” Northwest Baptist Church in Toledo wrote in a post on their Facebook page.

The church said Pastor Andrew Edwards was driving another man home from a Bible study on Thursday, when tragedy struck while they were at a stop light, after a tree fell on top of their car. Toledo Fire and Rescue officials described the incident to WTVG as a “freak accident” when a tree and power lines fell on the pastor’s vehicle.

So there you have two stories (or three, if we include the Butler spectator) that involved some amazing things. One man’s life was spared (Trump), while another man’s life was taken (the pastor’s passenger). So many questions always arise at such times.

Why do some people die in such ‘freak accidents’? Why do others survive in incidents like this? Why do some people survive an assassin’s bullet? Why do others become the victim of a gunman? At the end of the day, we can never answer such questions conclusively or with any kind of certainty.

While all people struggle with such matters, the Christian certainly does. It is the old problem of evil and suffering. Technically known as a theodicy, Christians seek to account for how such maladies and tragedies can happen if God is all wise and all loving. See my 143 articles on this here.

As to the Trump shooting, he has often said that he believes God had spared him. As to the other story, the article goes on to say this:

The passenger, Richard Miller, 35, was killed in the accident and pronounced deceased at the scene, according to the church, while Edwards was taken to a local hospital in critical condition, but is now stable and responsive. “As hard as this is to believe and share, Bro Richard was taken home to be with the Lord. Pastor Edwards is in critical care—but he is stable and responsive and has movement in all extremities,” the post from the church read.

If someone does die as a Christian, there is the knowledge that they go to be with Christ. Their loss is terribly sad of course for everyone involved, but knowing that he is now home and safe with Christ is very reassuring indeed. But still, so many questions remain.

Social Media Answers

Lately I have seen a number of short videos about amazing near misses on the social media. They show stories where the difference between life and death was a matter of split-seconds or mere centimetres. There are various video clips like this out there, often with religious titles, such as:

“See the goodness of God. This is a miracle. Hallelujah.”
“1 Centimeter Away from Tragedy? God’s Got You.”
“God is blocking attacks you don’t see. If you feel God is with you, put Amen!”

And yes, the videos show some pretty incredible near misses. Another inch or another second and some innocent person would be a goner. We can certainly praise God for such ‘miracles’. BUT, the truth is, for every example of these amazing near misses, there would be just as many—if not far more—where there were NO misses.

In other scenarios the falling tree DID hit and kill someone. The runaway truck DOES strike and kill a pedestrian. The portion of wall that comes crashing down DOES seriously injure those walking by it. So was God no longer God when these things happened? Is God only active and aware when ‘good’ things happen to us, but not when bad things happen?

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