81 A Protestant parson gave a remarkable answer during a lecture he gave in Bielefeld in 1991. It was Pastor Dr. Phil. Günther Schwarz (1928-2009). He was an ingenious, intrepid and sharp witted theologian and linguist, he also avowed to the idea of rebirth and this got him into trouble with his superior Church authority! He spent his last days not far from here, in Wagenfeld. I have read some of the things that he had said and written. I cannot tell you how much I respect Günther Schwarz for what he said! The title of his lecture was: Suffering! Injustice! Violence! War! Why does God allow this? How could Günther Schwarz dare to deal with this difficult theme, something famous theologians kept quiet about? Because he had answers! It is my desire to put some of it to paper. Günther Schwarz only briefly touched upon the theme of rebirth in this lecture, but he delved more elaborately into this subject in his next lectures. In this lecture he centrally dealt with the question of God’s “almightiness” in relationship to us as human beings. He therefore narrows down his question by asking: Why does God allow all of what’s happening in regards to our Earth? Why doesn’t he interfere? Why do his infinite powers not come into play here with us? Günther Schwarz answered analogously as follows: God curtailed his powers over us by giving us, as souls, free will right from the start in our eternal homeland. Günther Schwarz maintains that our free will was his greatest gift to us. We as human beings, are able to decide what we wanted at a moment’s notice. We possess the “freedom of choice”. A lot of the things that take place on our planet Earth on a daily basis was naturally against God’s will. But God affords us the freedom and does not interfere, because we were given our free will and he does not infringe upon it. Furthermore: We are here on Earth in order to gradually find our way back to God and to our eternal homeland, to “earn” this return like the prodigal son. Günther Schwarz thought that one could therefore call our planet a “schooling planet”. And through the way we pursue our path here, conduct ourselves, chose and decide, we would learn and gain insights.
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