God, Suffering

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God, Suffering Evil
Dave Champness March 30, 2008
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Yet when I hoped for good, evil came when I
looked for light, then came darkness. Job
3026
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• Understanding the problem
• If God allows evil and suffering because he
  cant stop it, he might be good but he is not all
  powerful, on the other hand if God allows evil
  and suffering but could stop it and yet he wont
  then he might be all powerful but he is not good,
  either way the good all powerful God of the Bible
  could not exist.

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• Understanding the problem
• You turn things upside down! Shall the potter
  be regarded as the clay, that the thing made
  should say of its maker, He did not make me or
  the thing formed say of him who formed it, He
  has no understanding? Isaiah 2916

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• Understanding the problem
• Who has spoken and it came to pass unless the
  Lord has commanded it? Is it not from the mouth
  of the Most High that good and bad come? Why
  should a living man complain, a man, about the
  punishment of his sins?
  Lamentations 3 37-39

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• The reality of evil and suffering.
• It is universal

Why do the wicked live, reach old age, and grow
mighty in power? Their offspring are established
in their presence, and their descendants before
their eyes. Their houses are safe from fear, and
no rod of God is upon them. Their bull breeds
without fail their cow calves and does not
miscarry. They send out their little boys like a
flock, and their children dance. They sing to the
tambourine and the lyre and rejoice to the sound
of the pipe. They spend their days in prosperity,
and in peace they go down to Sheol. Job 217-13
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• The reality of evil and suffering.
• It is universal

Must I forever see these evil deeds? Why must I
watch all this misery? Wherever I look, I see
destruction and violence. I am surrounded by
people who love to argue and fight. The law has
become paralyzed, and there is no justice in the
courts. The wicked far outnumber the righteous,
so that justice has become perverted. Habakkuk
13-4
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• Not a problem as much as a mystery.

There is a vanity that takes place on earth, that
there are righteous people to whom it happens
according to the deeds of the wicked, and there
are wicked people to whom it happens according to
the deeds of the righteous. I said that this also
is vanity. Then I saw all the work of God, that
man cannot find out the work that is done under
the sun. However much man may toil in seeking, he
will not find it out. Even though a wise man
claims to know, he cannot find it
out. Ecclesiastes 814, 17
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• Looking to God for understanding
• The Promises of God

My argument against God was that the universe
seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got
this idea of just and unjust? What was I
comparing this universe with when I called it
unjust? Of course I could have given up my idea
of justice by saying it was nothing but a private
idea of my own. But if I did that, then my
argument against God collapsed to for the
argument depended on saying that the world was
really unjust, not simply that it did not happen
to please my private fanciesConsequently atheism
turns out to be too simple. C.S. Lewis, Mere
Christianity
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• Looking to God for understanding
• The Promises of God

Confidence in Gods character is at the heart of
the philosophical struggle that ensues when one
is confronted by the question of evil.
Ravi Zacharias
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• Looking to God for understanding
• The Unique Suffering of God

Fear not, for I have redeemed you I have called
you by name, you are mine.When you pass through
the waters, I will be with you and through the
rivers, they shall not overwhelm you when you
walk through fire you shall not be burned, and
the flame shall not consume you. Isaiah
431-2
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• Looking to God for understanding
• The Unique Suffering of God

At about three oclock, Jesus called out with a
loud voice, Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani? which
means My God, my God, why have you abandoned
me? Matthew 2746
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• Looking to God for understanding
• The Unique Power of God

I Peter 13-6 Blessed be the God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great
mercy, he has cause us to be born again to a
living hope through the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is
imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in
heaven for you, who by Gods power are being
guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be
revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice,
though now for a little while, if necessary, you
have been grieved by various trials.
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• Looking to God for understanding
• The Unique Power of God

They say of some temporal suffering, No future
bliss can make up for it, not knowing that
Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and
turn even that agony into glory. C.S. Lewis,
The Great Divorce