Episode Details

Suffering

• we have all experienced it
• Some of us are going through it

 

Today – Going to approach it this way

1st: A Christian THEOLOGY of Suffering

• What does the Bible teach, and how is that different than other perspectives

 

2nd: A Pastoral Response

• How we can walk through really difficult times

Let’s look at the IDEA of suffering

When Bad people do bad things, bad things should happen to them

• Karma
• You get when you deserve

 

But what about when Bad things happen to GOOD PEOPLE?

• Child gets sick
• Stolen from
• Natural Disasters

This is what is called in philosophy:

THE PROBLEM OF EVIL

Most suffering comes from evil or can be seen as evil

 

Let’s look at it from a few different perspectives…

 

BUDDISM

• We suffer because we are too attached to worldly things. Buddhism urges us to get past suffering by not clinging to material objects or even to relationships with other people.
• Buddhists say that a desire for things and relationships is what causes us to suffer.

 

HINDUISM

• Suffering is regarded as punishment for deeds done in a previous life. To the Hindu, a great deal of suffering is simply accumulated “karma” catching up with people. In Hindu thinking, the upside is that by “settling accounts” and paying for past misdeeds, the soul’s next reincarnation will be more enjoyable.
• Hindus say that pleasure cannot exist without pain.
• For Hindus, bliss and suffering are simply two sides of the same thing.

 

ISLAM

• See suffering as a way to submit to the will of Allah. Islam teaches that pain can lead us to repentance and then on to good deeds.
• Thus, one Muslim response to suffering is to focus on the rewards promised in Paradise.
• Islam’s emphasis on good works leads to the feeling that the more our lives please God, the less we will suffer.

 

ATHEISM/AGNOSTICISM

• We are just a biological result of blind, predetermined evolution, and thus, any perception of pain and suffering ultimately doesn’t matter because, ultimately, life and consciousness are an accident and will ultimately cease to exist in a distant future.

“The existentialist, on the contrary, finds it extremely embarrassing that God does not exist, for there disappears with Him all possibility of finding values in an intelligible heaven. There can no longer be any good a priori since there is no infinite and perfect consciousness to think it. It is nowhere written that “the good” exists, that one must be honest or must not lie, since we are now upon the plane where there are only men. Dostoevsky once wrote: “If God did not exist, everything would be permitted,” and that, for existentialism, is the starting point. Everything is indeed permitted if God does not exist…” ~ Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism is a Humanism

 

The Christian Answer to Evil is this…

Evil comes from rebellion against a GOOD God

Psalm 14:3

All have turned away; all alike have become corrupt. There is no one who does good, not even one.

 

Romans 3:23

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
Both an ANGELIC rebellion and a HUMAN Rebellion
This is a result of God creating FREE WILLED CREATURES

In a universe of free will, there exists the possibility of turning away
This then brings up the question of…

So why doesn’t God just get rid of all Evil and suffering?

Here is a thought experiment…

If God were to get rid of all evil tonight at 12 AM, would you still be here at 12:01 AM?
To sum up this far…

1: Pain and suffering are the results of evil

2: