Dr . Babatunde Agboola has a Ph.D in Aerospace Engineering from Texas A&M University in the United States. The Principal Engineer, Lunar Mobility at one of the leading tire manufacturing companies in the world is also a Bible teacher. He spoke with Sunday Oguntola on how Christians can make sense of suffering. Excerpts:
Your daughter’s medical condition is the springboard for the book Behold, I make all things new. Can you recount how it all started?
My daughter’s medical condition inspired and prepared me to write the book. It all started in 2012 when she was conceived and was to be born in Texas, United States. I detailed the story in chapter 1 of the book. She was born with a rare genetic anomaly called chromosome 18-q deletion, which led to several developmental health issues. So, navigating the health challenges led my wife and me to ask fundamental questions as to why the God we believe is all good as the scriptures have taught will allow this in our lives. The book is detailed theology on the answers I got during those periods while asking God why he allowed such affliction with us. Find further details in chapter 1 of the book of how the book was born.
The book provides a theological, biblical standpoint for evil and suffering. How can one make sense of the seeming complexities in life?
Life is indeed complex from conception to the completion of our years. The human biological system and the process that led to the start of every life up till birth is indeed complex and provide us with an illustration of the philosophy and thesis I put forth in the book that has helped me make sense of the complexities in life. I mean that God has put a mystery in childbirth to illustrate what he is doing that has made him allow all of life’s complexities, including specific pain, suffering, and affliction.
So, all the complexity is a part of God’s process of birthing His children through His creation – this pleasant pang is the complexity we see as a paradox for all. In a nutshell, God is working all things together towards the goal of birthing his children and bringing many sons (male and female) to glory. I understood from scriptures as I asked the Lord questions that if God does it or allows it, it is because God has seen how it will lead to the birth of children for God or the maturing of His children towards sonship.
It’s believed that bad things happen to good people. Do you share this sentiment?
It depends. If we define good in the absolute, there is no one good but God. That is the fundamental premise of my book. However, if by “good” we mean goodness (which I define as acting in manners consistent with the only one who is good, i.e., God), then we can say that bad things do happen to “good” people. However, there is no one righteous, no not one. No one is (inherently) good except God alone. Read my book to see how I developed this thought in a very analytical, philosophical, and detailed manner. I was meticulous and tried to be thorough in how I laid out this paradigm in my book.
You have cared for a daughter with special needs. What’s your message to parents with such kids?
I can’t claim I understand each unique challenge because these special needs conditions are on a spectrum-all I can only say is that I can empathize with them since my wife and I have been raising special needs as well. I have to admit that it is not easy to raise children with special needs. I empathise with these parents and feel their pain, shame, and sometimes ostracization even by well-meaning people. I do not have all the answers for them because I am also continuously learning more and more about the specifics of God’s eternal plans and purposes and working on individual cases of having a child with special needs.
However, I can say to the parents of such kids that they are not alone. They don’t have to give up, nor should they give in to despair and depression. There is a divine purpose in and beyond the pain they go through. I will counsel and suggest that they should ask the question if they believe that God has a purpose for everything (which I detailed in my book and also stated earlier that it is to bring many sons to glory) that they should seek his face as to what God is doing through that child. In our case, we found that God used our experience raising our daughter to prepare us to write the book “Behold, I Make All Things New!”
In Nigeria, people with special children most likely attribute the conditions to spiritual afflictions or attacks. Isn’t that a possibility?
Yes, it is a possibility. When we trace all human problems, it is traceable to the Devil. Sicknesses and the like are in the world because sin is in God’s creation. In heaven, there is no sin, so there is no sickness. And I do not mean mainly individual sins but that through Adam and Eve, sin entered the world as they yielded to the Devil’s lure. The Devil is evil, and he is the primary perpetrator of evil. So, the Devil does afflict and afflicting children with a fundamental health condition is within the bounds of the Devil’s evil. However, I do not subscribe to tagging special needs children as demon-possessed, just like not every sick person is demon-possessed. The problem comes when we call all special needs children “ogbanje” and “Emere.” These children need care and love from their parents and the church, even if we believe that the Devil afflicted them.
How new can things get considering the mess in the world?
Things can get brand new. A good example is how God has continuously made the worst of sinners new when they encounter the gospel. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. That is God turning men whose imagination and thought are evil from birth. God supernaturally changes their heart and makes them newborn babies in His kingdom. God has been making the most messed up lives like Paul, the apostle, and turning them into new creations and even His agents of good. This same God is still working today doing the same. There is a message in the New birth experience that we regularly see when people get saved from sin. The new birth experiences of people are yelling at us that God has been, is, and will make all things new.
However, the ultimate newness in all of God’s creation is when the New Heavens and the New earth proceed from God at the consummation of all things detailed in Revelations 21 and 22. There will be no more pain, sicknesses, sorrow, and death because the present states of things will become the former things and pass away. God will wipe away every tear. That time is coming, and it is now when God will wipe away your tears, and you will receive His Joy and worship Him from the depth of your heart that He is good and merciful and made beauty out of your ashes.