What do you think of that?How dare you create a world in which there is this kind of misery that is not our fault ??. In these vehement words, comedian Stephen Fry, a declared atheist, expressed a crucial question for Christians and non-Christians: if God is all good and all-powerful as the scriptures claim, then why do he allow good people to suffer?We all face this: the diagnosis of a dear friend with a terminal illness; abuse of child terrorist attacks by a neighbour in a beach café; hurricanes ravaging entire islands. When do skeptics ask this question?
It is essential to carefully distinguish and include two parts of the problem: head/intellectual side and heart/emotional side. At the time of suffering, a head-oriented response (?Is it God’s will?)? even if it is doctrinally correct, it may not be a balm for the endangered soul. Often, the sensible answer is the first thing. But it has to be based on the intellectual side, so we start with that side and then we go back to the emotional side.
- The chief/intellectual question can be reformulated as follows: does the suffering of good people contradict God?Because if you allow such things.
- Doesn’t it prove that it’s not good.
- Isn’t it all-powerful.
- Or doesn’t it exist?It takes four answers to be given.
So we go back to the heart/emotional theme. When bad things happen, suffering and pain often confront us with God’s apparent absence at that time. What do Christians do? The problem of the head/intellectual must be addressed, perhaps when the dark clouds dissote; in the dark, we comfort those who suffer from the loving comfort we have received from God (2Co 1:3-7), saddens us (Rom. 12. 15). We sit on the ashes with them (Job 2:11-13). We carry the burdens of others (Gal 6. 2). And above all, we communicate them with affection to Jesus, the only good man, who has suffered the greatest of evils to redeem us, who wipes away our tears and promises that one day all this will be repaired (Ap 21:4).
By: Greg Lanier. © Ligonier Ministries. Website: ligonier. org. Translated with permission. Source: Why do bad things happen to the right people?
Original: Why do bad things happen to the right people?© Return to the Gospel. Website: voltemosaoevangelho. com. All rights reserved. Translation: Camila Rebeca Teixeira. Comment: William Teixeira.