Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing… (Romans 15:13)
Showing posts with label Suffering. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Suffering. Show all posts
Thursday, 27 August 2020
Tuesday, 2 June 2020
Friday, 9 November 2018
Imagine...
Imagine
Imagine there's no
heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today... Aha-ah...
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today... Aha-ah...
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one
John Lennon (1971)
John
Lennon invites us to imagine what it would be like if there were no heaven or
hell. Let’s do just that.
Monday, 9 February 2015
Making life worth living?
Stephen Fry has vented his fury at the idea of a God who would allow such suffering in the world. There have been a few very good responses (for example, here, here and here), I offer my own here...
Friday, 1 November 2013
There's something wrong with the world, therefore God does / doesn't exist?
Everyone can see it, there is something wrong with the world - the wickedness, the sorrow, the disasters etc. etc. Things should not be this way. This leads many people to conclude that God doesn't exist, but is that the sensible conclusion?
Tuesday, 18 December 2012
Why Sandy Hook makes me glad (and more sure) Christianity is true
The unspeakably tragic shooting in Connecticut leaves me praying for the families involved, but also praising God for the truth of the Christian worldview.
Friday, 25 November 2011
Who cares?
It is a question asked by sulky teenagers, but it is also a question asked by broken-hearted sufferers - "Who cares?"
Wednesday, 10 November 2010
Who cares?
There are those who don't have enough faith to be an atheist, but they do wonder about the character of God, especially in light of the tragedies in the world - does He really care?
Tuesday, 12 October 2010
Saturday, 2 October 2010
Friday, 6 August 2010
Indifferent or incapable, or...something else?
I want to follow up on the previous post regarding the suffering in the world, and draw from an incident in the ministry of the Lord Jesus, as found in John 11. In this chapter we see the classic atheistic argument, that is, if God loves us and is all-powerful then why is there suffering?
The situation in the chapter is that one of the Lord's friends, Lazarus, was sick. Lazarus' sisters sent word to Christ to tell Him of this, and He delayed until Lazarus died, then went to the village of Bethany where all this happened. As the Lord witnessed the sorrow of the bereaved He wept. This baffled the spectators: as they saw the Lord Jesus weeping they said, “Behold how He loved him!” Then, “could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind, also have kept this man from dying?” They saw His love and His power, so the question they arose – why didn’t He preserve Lazarus’ life? Surely He would, given His love, and surely he could, given His power. But the indisputable fact was that Lazarus was dead! The problem was, they supposed they were at the end of the story, but they weren’t! The story would end with resurrection, reuniting, greater glory to Christ, greater joy to His own, and an appreciation of Him that the avoidance of the sorrow would not have yielded. So it is with this world – we are not at the end of the story – this world will be free from the curse, and Christ will be glorified and His people blessed at the end of the story in a way that would not be possible if troubles had been avoided. You can book your place in that Paradise by receiving the cleansing and forgiveness that Christ provided by His death and resurrection and offers to the repentant.
The situation in the chapter is that one of the Lord's friends, Lazarus, was sick. Lazarus' sisters sent word to Christ to tell Him of this, and He delayed until Lazarus died, then went to the village of Bethany where all this happened. As the Lord witnessed the sorrow of the bereaved He wept. This baffled the spectators: as they saw the Lord Jesus weeping they said, “Behold how He loved him!” Then, “could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind, also have kept this man from dying?” They saw His love and His power, so the question they arose – why didn’t He preserve Lazarus’ life? Surely He would, given His love, and surely he could, given His power. But the indisputable fact was that Lazarus was dead! The problem was, they supposed they were at the end of the story, but they weren’t! The story would end with resurrection, reuniting, greater glory to Christ, greater joy to His own, and an appreciation of Him that the avoidance of the sorrow would not have yielded. So it is with this world – we are not at the end of the story – this world will be free from the curse, and Christ will be glorified and His people blessed at the end of the story in a way that would not be possible if troubles had been avoided. You can book your place in that Paradise by receiving the cleansing and forgiveness that Christ provided by His death and resurrection and offers to the repentant.
If God's so good why is the world so bad?
"Things ain't what they used to be" - true - according to the Bible things used to be perfect, but they aren't (or ain't) now. The presence of evil and suffering in the world is the number one (or only one?) argument atheists have against the existence of God. It is an argument to be reckoned with, but it is an issue the Bible certainly does not duck, it faces it and deals with it.
There are a couple of things that need to be distinguished: the existence of moral evil committed by humans, and natural evil, or disasters, experienced by humans.
As regards moral evil, if we believe it really exists then we must believe that God exists, because if there is no God then there is no such thing as evil or injustice, for what determines that the acts are evil or unjust? By what immovable, unchangeable, transcendent standard can we say that certain actions are evil or unjust. If there is no God then there is no standard except ones we make up ourselves, and why should they be binding upon anyone? So the fact that we recognise things as really evil is an implicit acknowledgement of God's existence.
There are a couple of things that need to be distinguished: the existence of moral evil committed by humans, and natural evil, or disasters, experienced by humans.
As regards moral evil, if we believe it really exists then we must believe that God exists, because if there is no God then there is no such thing as evil or injustice, for what determines that the acts are evil or unjust? By what immovable, unchangeable, transcendent standard can we say that certain actions are evil or unjust. If there is no God then there is no standard except ones we make up ourselves, and why should they be binding upon anyone? So the fact that we recognise things as really evil is an implicit acknowledgement of God's existence.
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