What Good Can Come from 80 Million Deaths?

Ever since I've been using the Brick app (this sounds like an ad, but I promise it's not 😄) to turn my smartphone into a dumb one, I've switched from listening to podcasts to listening to audiobooks. This was a shift I'd wanted to make for a while. I still enjoy podcasts, but audiobooks are more thoughtful and aren't as reactionary to the ups and downs of culture.

After listening to books on Harry Truman and FDR, I'm listening to one on Winston Churchill and can't help but think of how many ripple effects of this time linger to this day. For example, just after listening to the details of Truman's meeting with Stalin at the Potsdam Conference, I saw on the news how Vladimir Putin was referencing a current issue that tied back to this meeting.

Above all, it's impossible to overstate the magnitude of the sheer devastation of the period as modern machinery combined with evil power-driven intentions.

That said, while it's natural to focus on the great evil and 70-85 million deaths, it's impossible to ignore the light that emerged from darkness.

Good Out of Evil

For example, this time period marked the beginning of racial relational change in America, leaving one African American worker to say, “It was Hitler who got us out of the white man’s kitchen.” Quite a statement.

For the first time, Blacks fought alongside Whites in the military, and women of mixed races labored together on the home front to work side by side.

In the aftermath of this war, the world saw a remarkable resurgence of Christian compassion and global mission. As Europe rebuilt, churches became centers of relief and healing, distributing food, clothing, and hope to those left destitute.

Organizations like World Vision and Samaritan’s Purse were founded out of this postwar impulse to meet physical needs while sharing the gospel of Christ’s restoration. The war also opened up new opportunities for women, not only in the home but also in public life.

This time also pushed Christians to take seriously the biblical command to care for the “least of these,” leading to the expansion of orphanages, hospitals, and international aid efforts that continue to shape global humanitarian work today.

Our View Is Limited

As I thought through these realities, I couldn't help but think of Romans 8:28, "We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose." As James Edwards clarifies,

The statement is not a general law of life. It is a theological statement valid for those who have been called according to his purpose, which is embodied in Jesus Christ. It does not mean that all things are good. They are not, and to call evil good is a grievous error under any circumstances. It means that for those who love God no evil may befall them which God cannot use for their growth and his glory.^[1]

Evil is evil. Bad is bad. But God can use even the hardest things in our lives—the death, the loss of a career, the pain of a broken relationship–to bring about his purposes.

The key is to trust his timing. We must grow comfortable with the recognition that we might never see the fruit of the trees that have been planted in hard times. And instead, we must rest in hope that even though hard times come, God will bring about his purposes as he sees fit.

^[1]James R. Edwards, Romans, Understanding the Bible Commentary Series. Accordance electronic ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2011), 218.