There is no neat explanation for the apparent contradiction of a God of love and a world of suffering and evil. And it wouldn't make much difference anyway.The Bible tries a couple of times to present a cause, but it is not the comprehensive answer some look for that magically solves the contradiction. Instead the Bible is more interested in the future metamorphosis of the present rather than explaining the past cause of our present suffering. Christianity affirms that God is creator of all that is and will bring it to its final conclusion. All shall be well. Eventually. It is the gap between our present experience and that future that makes us cry out in lament and fury now. The lament expresses not just our grief,disappointment, rage and confusion, but also expresses our desire for the kingdom to come now. "If the kingdom were here now, this wouldn't have happened. Marana tha, Come Lord Jesus!" It is this desire for the kingdom which is important to remember in intercessory prayer. We ask legitimate questions about the point of intercessory prayer, but intercessory prayer is an expression of our desire for the kingdom to come now in some place or in someone's life.
Friday 4 June 2010
Evil and Suffering
There is no neat explanation for the apparent contradiction of a God of love and a world of suffering and evil. And it wouldn't make much difference anyway.The Bible tries a couple of times to present a cause, but it is not the comprehensive answer some look for that magically solves the contradiction. Instead the Bible is more interested in the future metamorphosis of the present rather than explaining the past cause of our present suffering. Christianity affirms that God is creator of all that is and will bring it to its final conclusion. All shall be well. Eventually. It is the gap between our present experience and that future that makes us cry out in lament and fury now. The lament expresses not just our grief,disappointment, rage and confusion, but also expresses our desire for the kingdom to come now. "If the kingdom were here now, this wouldn't have happened. Marana tha, Come Lord Jesus!" It is this desire for the kingdom which is important to remember in intercessory prayer. We ask legitimate questions about the point of intercessory prayer, but intercessory prayer is an expression of our desire for the kingdom to come now in some place or in someone's life.
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FREEDOM
ReplyDeleteFrom the gift of freedom
I gave unto you,
You can choose to feel
Or inflict upon others.
Great love,
Great joy,
Great pain,
Great suffering -
To remove what you inflict or feel
Would be to remove freedom
And that would be unthinkable.
Through suffering man will be made perfect.
It is the perception of pain that mankind has that is part of the problem/challenge.
Many prefer to live and die in pain rather than to open their mind.
P.s. I personally do not really want the lessons that pain can teach.
I forgot to mention:
ReplyDeleteWhat we inflict upon another we will experience in an equal and exact measure. It is not judgment, just a lesson.
Evil is just another name for freedom. Without freedom there would be no point in creation as we would be all an exact copy on exactly the same path.
A beautiful garden/creation needs many different coloured flowers.