[!NOTE] Primary Scripture Reading: Hebrews 2:10-18
I. Suffering and the Christian
A. Suffering is a part of every generation (Job 14:1: “Man who is born of woman is of a few day and full of troubles”)
B. Suffering becomes a theological question because of God’s attributes
- For the atheist suffering is just a characteristic of the world.
- For the Christian, suffering is more complex because it appears to be at odds with the characteristics of God.
II. The Bible tells us that God is all good and is all powerful.
A. The ancient dilemma: If God is good and is all powerful He would not let these things happen; therefore, He is either not good or not powerful.
B. Some theologians have suggested that God neither is infinitely powerful nor infinitely good, but only in the process of acquiring these attributes.
C. This, however, is insufficient for if God is neither good nor omnipotent, he is unworthy of our consideration or worship.
III. Consideration of God’s goodness
A. Judge God by our standards
- The first problem we encounter when we try to evaluate the goodness of God is our own limited standards.
- John 40:2, 8 – As finite beings we are poor judges of an infinite God
- Romans 3:10-18 – As sinners, we are poor judges of goodness
- Many conflicts arise between parents and children when the children want to do something that the parents—through wisdom and experience—forbid.
- Older children realize the wisdom of their parent’s decision and thank them for saying no to what they, at the time, thought was a “good” thing to do.
- The degree of wisdom that separates parent and child is much less than the degree of wisdom that separates us and God.
B. God can see the chain-reactions, of all actions and can bring about ultimate good from any situation ( i.e. cross). Rom. 8:28: “All things work for good…”
IV. At what point of suffering do we feel justified in questioning God’s goodness or feel that God should intervene to prevent suffering?
A. What number of lives lost in an incident allow us to question God’s goodness: 2,000,000, 200,000, 20,000, 2,000, 200, 20, 2? Loss of property?
B. The difference between major and minor surgery (major=happens to me)?
C. We must quickly realize that one cannot draw a line that separates acceptable suffering and unacceptable suffering yet.
V. Often we find when we judge God’s goodness it is based on our happiness or ease—never a standard for good with God.
A. The greater good for man is not ease for his spiritual life often languishes in ease; the muscle grows when it is torn and stretched, the iron is made hard through fire and hammering, the gold is made pure through fire.
B. Romans 5;1-5 – develops character and perseverance
VI. Consideration of God’s power
A. Some theologians take the approach of Harold Kushner, a Jewish rabbi who lost his son at an early age to a cruel and debilitating disease. God is infinitely good, Kushner concluded in his immensely popular book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People (1981), but He is not all-powerful. (T. Major) God cannot do anything that is inconsistent with his nature (lie) nor that is contradictory or absurd (square circles).
B. Restrained power
C. Though God could relieve all suffering, certain characteristics of man would suffer: loss of free will (if no opportunity to rebel—which brings suffering), weakened faith and hope, and little desire for heaven.
- Parents often exercise this restraint of power when they allow their children to suffer accidents, etc. so that they may learn on their own and develop character and perseverance.
- The world was created with the possibility of suffering and allows it to take place in the natural order: he does not decree it.
- Weatherhead: “If I give my boy a pair of roller skates, I immediately make it possible for him to get a bad bump. That is a very different thing from taking him by the neck and banging his head upon the ground.”
D. God has created a world capable of blessing and cursing, compassion and hatred, ease and suffering, benevolence and malevolence, good and evil.
- In His power God created a good world but when man sinned the world was corrupted and pain and suffering were introduced into the creation.
- Suffering was a byproduct of sin and rebellion, not a product of God’s positive creative action.
VII. Much suffering is brought about because man has used the good things of earth to oppress and subjugate his fellow man or has amassed control over these good things to the destitution and poverty of his fellow man.
A. Those who have moved a lot are very familiar with U-Haul trucks and have been glad to rent them to move to areas of great opportunity.
B. Fertilizer is a great substance which allows us to enhance our food production and feed many who would otherwise starve.
C. However, Timothy Mc Veigh filled a U-Haul truck with fertilizer and some other chemicals and blew up a federal building in Oklahoma City killing many and injuring many others.
D. We would not think the U-Haul company or fertilizer manufacturers diabolical nor think they are not good because someone misused their products to destroy others.
E. We must not implicate God for the product of men’s evil arising from their free will.
VIII. Man has even exacerbated natural disasters
A. A recent magazine article (“Southern Progressive” magazine, I think) was titled “Acts of God” and chronicled many natural disasters that became worse because of man’s short-sightedness or negligence.
B. The hurricane damage on Santa Rosa Island (Gulf Shores and Orange Beach) was severe because of development on barrier islands.
- Barrier islands exist to absorb damaging waves and surges.
- Many have lost their lives and more have lost their homes and businesses because they built on flood plains—large expanses of land that contain and absorb excess water from rain and runoff.
- Volcanoes erupt and houses built close to them will be destroyed.
- Forest fires are a natural way in which forests are cleared of underbrush and allow new growth to emerge yet when men build close to the forest they may suffer from this natural occurrence.
IX. The Asian tsunami tragedy:
A. A record earthquake was recorded: expect a large tsunami
B. The tsunami ravaged areas that were built right up to the coastline and destroyed shanty towns that were built on the coast because financially other options were closed to them.
C. People have suggested and proposed building a tsunami warning system for the Asian nations but no one funded it or started it.
D. Japan has had a warning system and suffers little loss of life from these recurring natural events.
E. The Asian nations, many of whom are hostile to one another, did not seriously pursue building warning system seriously until now—there are now plans to create a system.
F. We must see where man has his own blame in these disasters.
X. Where is man?
A. In light of this disaster some have asked, “Where was God?” but a question of equal, or perhaps greater significance, is “Where is man?”
B. Those who did not endure misfortune can show compassion to the victims
- 2 Corinthians 8:1-5; 13-15 – Wealthy brethren helped the needy ones
- 1 John 3:17-18 – Shuts up his heart