Evil & Suffering XXIV: Jesus: The Suffering Servant-Part I

In the end, even after all of the work on my thesis I believe I may have come full circle. Like Job I cannot offer explanations or justifications for what God does with His creation. He is sovereign and I am not. He is omnipotent and I am not. He has His reasons and unless He makes them evident to me or reveals them to me I will not know why He does what He does. Nor will I question what He does. Frankly, questioning God is not what this paper was about. If I have dispelled anything by writing this paper I have dispelled the myth that there is an easy answer to explaining evil and suffering. I know what the Bible tells me and I can only obey and adhere to God's statutes. Many of those in this postmodern, humanistic and secular world would call me foolish and backwards among other things but I challenge any of their worldviews to offer a more comprehensive and sound explanation than the one I am about to expound on for the existence of evil. Evil in and of its nature is an aspect of the spiritual realm so only a spiritual explanation will suffice to explain it. To try to explain away suffering which has its roots in evil can only be explained in like manner. Both have their roots and source in the Fall in Genesis but since then has been used providentially by God to move His purposes along and manifest His will...to His glory.

What I can say with certainty is this. We as Christians are to be as Christ-like as possible which includes the need to humble one’s self to the point of death. To be able to do this we need to have the mind of Christ. Our only source for the mind of Christ to reveal itself to us in a structured and regimented form is the Bible. If we are truly to know Christ we need to learn of it from the Bible. So I guess we need to understand how our individual situations and are tied to our faith and relationship with Jesus Christ.

I know from a theological standpoint why evil and suffering exist in our realm of existence and that the underlying purpose is to bring glory to God just as Christ did. Paul said that not only should be rejoice in the hope of the glory of God but “we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” (Romans 5:2-5). We also saw in the Kenosis of Philippians 2:5-11 a supreme example of suffering for God’s glory.

Jesus Christ the very Son of God came to this world to suffer.

The prophets even told us in advance of the need for the Messiah to suffer. Who are we to question our suffering in light of this fact? It is in the verses of Isaiah 53 that we begin to see the paradox in its most lucid form. Does it totally make sense? Not really. Can suffering and evil ever really make sense? I have to believe good men suffer and endure evil because it all leads to God’s, and their greater glory. Since He is all-powerful and all-loving, the logical conclusion is that in this process of being brought low through tribulation and suffering/pain is to eventually exalt the One/one that suffers. It is in this humanly irresolvable paradox that we begin to sense and approach the divine and most holy aspects of the Lord because it is only through Him that something like this can make sense. When we try and sanctify ourselves in this life we do so by trying to mimic as closely as possible the behavior of our Savior, the Son. We attempt to become as Christ-like as we can in our lifetime as He is the closest in form/shape to our being (human). To try and make ourselves more like Christ/God we are trying with God’s assistance to be more holy, no easy task even with the Holy Spirit as our helper and Christ as our intercessor with the Father.

I mean…think about that for a minute.

Jesus knew all the suffering and temptations known to man and endured them all. He was then buried. To prove the all-powerfulness of God, the Father raised Him on the third day as the first fruits of the Resurrection to show those that came after Him and believed what was in store for them if they would just “run the race in a way in which to win”.

“He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our grief and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.” ~Isaiah 53:3-12

We see this elaborated on even more by the graceful author of Hebrews when he describes Christ’s sufferings, His purpose here on earth and what it accomplished.

“For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying, "I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise." And again, "I will put my trust in him.” And again, "Behold, I and the children God has given me." Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.” ~Hebrews 2:10-18

It was only through Jesus’ suffering that we can even have salvation. It is through the “crushing” of Christ and Christ allowing Himself to be “crushed” that we could have the possibility of eternal life. In our becoming like him we share in His death but we also share in His life (eternal). I believe the key to understanding theodicy is firmly rooted in the cross of Christ, Christ’s suffering and the Crucifixion. When we emulate God we become likened to God through sanctification and a process of continuing holiness. When we try to be like God we glorify Him. This is as close to a coherent and lucid answer that this finite and sinful human mind can come up with to rationalize and reconcile the existence, nay, the need for suffering and evil in this world. To pursue this any further would only having me repeating myself ad-nauseum and possibly contradicting myself.

Evil & Suffering XXIII: The Explanation That Works For Me

This is the lead-in to my conclusion or summary/synopsis which will be spread over three more posts this week.

At this point I stand on the "concurrence" side of the discussion. This is the primary reason I have focused along these lines while writing this paper. Since theodicy is such a large topic and I quickly learned that it was easy to get lost pursing rabbit trails I tried to immediately reign in divergent thoughts and wrestle them into the intended context of this paper. The context being a defense against errant worldview attacks on God’s sovereignty, providence, omnipotence or omni-benevolence. I lean towards Calvinism in my belief that there can be a predestination for man concurrent and coincidental to man's free will or ability to make his own choices. God may not intend it or even like man's sinful decisions (obviously) but He allows them. He chooses to because it He is Sovereign and omnipotent and can do anything He wishes...even working through man's bad decisions. That is part of the mystery of God. I read it in the Bible and see it in the narrative and know it exists but I can offer no human explanation of how He can do it. That is why He is God and I am not. He is holy and I can only aspire to holiness through the work of His Son and Holy Spirit.

I believe and agree with others that conjecture that evil and its derivatives such as suffering and pain are a direct result of the Fall in Eden. This then enforces my belief that evil in the world found its inception in the free will given to humanity. To me this is the only acceptable and logical conclusion that clears God’s holy name and distances Him from evil. It is the view that aligns best with the Biblical view of God. It is the philosophical/theological view that best parallels the attributes and actions of the God described throughout the Bible. It also offers the most comprehensive and consistent description of the world that I see around me…even the evil and suffering within it.

I have found that where many theodicies fail or fall short is when they fail to describe God with His proper attributes and do a good job of putting Him forth to the world. We as intelligent believers need to show Him as He is and the way He has clearly revealed Himself. The way he is revealed in the Scripture is the way he needs to be revealed to believers and non-believers alike. To do any less portrays Him as something less than He is. This in turn leads to questions and doubts raised during times of duress that portray God as inadequate when nothing could be further from the truth. It is in these situations where we see God portrayed as less than omnipotent. We see him as an apathetic our uncaring God like our Deistic friends see him. He appears as an aloof watchmaker who cares nothing for the beings within His creation. In the worst situation He appears non-existent as in the case of atheists (Carson 27, 30).

It has often been my experience that people who thought they could handle suffering or certain evils…were only tested to a certain point. They had a small semi-encapsulating worldview and explanation of suffering and evil that worked. It worked until a tragedy entered their life that blew them out of the water entirely like a torpedo. It was then that they either learned that their worldview or view of God was not adequate or it was at these times their faith was increased and became stronger. If it didn’t their entire worldview began to cave in and dissolved like a castle made of sand.

Evil & Suffering XXII: To Comfort Others & Witnessing

Potential Reasons For Existence of Evil & Suffering VII:

Anyone that has been through suffering knows what it is like. Anyone that has gone through a specific type of suffering knows what that specific pain and suffering is like. The type of suffering that includes things like the loss of a spouse, the loss of a child, the loss of an appendage or a heroin addict who lost everything but somehow managed to recover and clean up. If someone else ends up being subject to these types of suffering who do we suppose they would want to talk to? People that have never gone through the pain and suffering they have endured? No! They want someone that can relate to their pain. God knows this also (2 Corinthians 1:3-7) It is why many of us to some extent have a testimony of suffering. It is why we have compassion as believers. So that we can go out to comfort others as the Holy Spirit comforts us in our affliction, the same way Jesus comforted those around Him (John 14:16). When we do this not only do we bear witness to others but we show an example to the world what it is to be Christian.

It literally is a believer living out the Gospel in their actions. Sometimes actions speak louder than words and the world may take note of that. This is no greater witness to the truth than a man who talks the talk and walks the walk (Howard, 153). Having been through the same types of suffering and pain those who have already been through it will usually see the hand of God more readily and more easily. This person is then in a better position to explain to those suffering or being afflicted that what they are enduring is not easy but it is a suffering common to some people (or all in the case of death) and help show them possible purposes in it.

When we endure suffering or see others suffering there is an innate or natural inclination to turn to others for support or to give support. In suffering, especially when it is communal, there is a need to turn to God and to turn towards others in love and compassion. It shows us our need for God. We are forced to face our mortality and our humanity. In our dependence on other human beings in these situations we we see a glimpse of the Kingdom of God in its full glory and we also volitionally or inadvertently obey the two greatest commandments.

“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:36-40

Evil & Suffering XXI: Punishment For Wickedness

Potential Reasons For Existence of Evil & Suffering VI:

God is a God of love but He is also a God of wrath. A wrath that probably defies any human effort to explain its true scope. If we truly contemplated it in its entire scope it would probably overwhelm even believers that are on God’s good side thanks to the atoning sacrifice of His Son. We are speaking of a God that called for entire ethnicity (Amalakites, Midianites) to be wiped out (farm animals included). It was to be a destruction of a race of people or genocide on a complete scale. Think Nazi Germany had they actually succeeded in completing the “Final Solution”. God spends his wrath until it is exhausted. Some prominent examples of people that suffered mentally or physically for disobedience and wickedness to/towards God and were punished for it are (in no particular order):

• Adam and Eve: Other than the entire human race falling, I am thinking in particular of the pain of childbirth for women.
• In the story of Noah, God uses a natural evil (flood) to wipe out all but one family in the world
• Pharaoh/Egyptians in the time of Moses.
• Assyrians-Israel, Babylonian-Judah
• Samson: Blinded and taken prisoner

Some not so subtle and exacting punishment are Sodom and Gomorrah, the eventual downfall of the Northern Kingdom or Israel and then later the Southern Kingdom of Judah. God cannot and will not leave wickedness unpunished as He is a God of justice. Injustice and God cannot exist together...God is obligated by His holy character and attributes to deal with wickedness wherever and whenever it is.

Evil & Suffering XX: Chastisement & Correction

Potential Reasons For Existence of Evil & Suffering V:

Discipline is necessary and vital to anyone who is trying to correct errant behavior. Because God loves us he sometimes punishes us for our disobedience. These punishments sometimes manifest in the form of difficulties and hardships that result in pain and suffering. It is a chastening by God to mend our spirituality and help us to mature in our faith (Proverbs 3:11-12). In a way we should probably be conscious of the fact that we suffer and endure pain because (1) it shows us that we are still alive and (2) because we have a God that loves us, it shows he is still active in our lives and has our spiritual well-being as the primary concern for us. To take Mark 8:36 and put a little twist on it to be relevant to this entry…”What good is it for us to go through life without pain and having endured nothing only to end up happy (or so we think) but spiritually dead and damned?” If God loves us we should expect trials and tribulation in our life and it may or may not be inflicted on us in the form of moral or natural evil and could also entail suffering (Howard, 147).

It is important here to quote and expound on a particular passage in Hebrews that speaks directly to discipline from God and its implications for the disobedient of God. Please note that this passage is directed to the people of God, so yes, God will allow suffering to enter the lives of His own people.

And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: "My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son."Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. (Hebrews 12:5-12)

So what do we learn from this passage? We are not to make light of the Lord’s discipline because it is done out of love. The discipline of a believer is done to combat sin and the effects of sin. As Christians we should endure hardships as discipline because if we receive none then we essentially have no Father for we would be illegitimate sons (or daughters). We should probably be checking ourselves to see if we are even in the faith at this point. As we respect our earthy fathers, we should also respect our heavenly Father for He does this for our own good. In verse 10 we see the critical statement: “that we may share in His holiness”. As believers, we know that God is punishing us and allowing suffering to make us more like Him and to help sanctify us-to make us more holy. Here we see that we need to be driven down before we can be lifted up. We again begin to see the concept of being humbled to be exalted. We see the Kenosis of Philippians 2 and we see the mind of Christ (Carson 64-65).

We also begin to see the need for the transaction that Jesus completed on the cross also. The Crucifixion was pain and suffering inflicted on Jesus in place of us to save us from our sin. Not only this, it was also Christ taking the punishment, pain, and suffering for our sin. The transaction/redemption that took place that day at Calvary served a multitude of purposes including salvation and atonement for sin, fulfillment of Scripture (prophets), and all the other reasons stated in the Bible. Underlying most of them are the idea that this was punishment or pain and suffering that was duly deserved by mankind but taken on by Christ. The end result is bringing glory to God and salvation to mankind. How? The sinless and innocent God-man who was totally deserving of triumphant exaltation and praise had allowed Himself to be lowered to obscurity and criminals death. He took the blame, punishment and pain/suffering for the sin so that they would be deemed justified in the eyes of the Father. It pleased the Father to crush the Son. Having done this selfless act He is lifted by the Father to the highest of positions.

Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. ~Isaiah 53:10

Although this passage in Hebrews does not state what type of hardships and disipline we should expect, any brief perusal of Scripture will produce a substantial list of hardships. They include things such as war, plague, illness, disease, affliction, broadly defined or nebulous hardships that can enter a person’s life such as Paul’s thorn in the flesh, bereavement, loss of status, direct personal opposition, etc. Regardless of where it is at in Scripture, suffering is not downplayed or whitewashed. If anything it is brought to the forefront where it can most clearly be seen. We see this vividly in the suffering of God’s people as portrayed in Jeremiah and Lamentations. We also see in the Psalms not only psalms of praise and joy but psalms of lament, complaint and excessive supplication from a contrite and broken sinner(s).This vividly evident in Psalms 6:6 “I am weary with my moaning; every night I flood my bed with tears; I drench my couch with my weeping.” Out of this morose tome comes a reward to David from God in Psalms 6:9-10, “The LORD has heard my cry for mercy; the LORD accepts my prayer. All my enemies shall be ashamed and greatly troubled; they shall turn back and be put to shame in a moment (Carson 69).

Rex Tremendae- Requiem Mass in D minor -Mozart

This was composed in Vienna in 1791 and left unfinished at Mozart's death. Many myths and controversies surrounded the piece, especially around how much of the piece was completed by Mozart before his death.

Evil & Suffering XIX: Glory To God

Potential Reasons For Existence of Evil & Suffering IV:

This will be a short post but Scripturally dense. You really should get your Bibles out for this one and read surrounding passages of these verses so that you fully understand the context that these verse sit in. It is the reason I have not included them here. Bible study time! I could've included this portion in the last post but chose to break it out due to the verse references.

As Christians, when we discuss the issues of evil, suffering, illness and pain we understand that God is inevitably going to be glorified and we accept this because many Christians have a better concept of who and what God is as compared to the secular non-believing world. Many view this as a morbid and downright uncompassionate view of the Almighty but we need again recheck ourselves and our views and realize that we would not even be here if it wasn’t for God and he put us here for His glory (1 Pet. 4:11, Gen 1:27). Everything we do should be done to the glory of God (l Cor. 10:31) and the best way to do this is to do as He has commanded us (John 14:15). If he was anything less than perfect, even I would view Him as egotistical and a megalomaniac, but He IS perfect and being perfect He is deserving of all our praise (Ps 18:3, Psalm 34:1, Isaiah 43:21, Philippians 2:9-11, Ephesians 1:6, Ephesians 2:8-9, etc) and anything we can do to glorify Him, even if it means submitting our lives. We must die to self to live in Him. It’s the least we can do considering His Son has already laid down His life on our behalf.

Evil & Suffering XVIII: Pushes Us To Persevere and Trust God

Potential Reasons For Existence of Evil & Suffering III:

This is another case where the rubber meets the road. This is where you bend or give a little under the weight of the onus that is on you or collapse and fail. God doesn't just want people to talk the Good talk, He wants people that can walk the walk even under a hail of bullets aimed directly at them. Grace under fire. Tested in fire. Destroyed or redeemed. Penitent or released to punishment and judgment. To be forged in the fire and to walk out stainless and pure.

When you are in a really bad situation and have nowhere else to turn you can always turn to God as the old saying goes. When you’re at the bottom the only way to look is up. When people are totally driven to their knees in suffering and pain we are painfully aware of our hopelessness, our finite nature…our humanness. We are also in the exact position we need to be in to plead our situation to God and supplicate to the only One that can cause or make a change. When we are broken and especially when we are broken slowly and by degrees we often turn outside of ourselves for help since our internal resources are quickly drained. When the issue we confront defies rational or human explanation we tend towards the divine in our pursuit of support and/or answers. I do not believe this is an accident. It very well may be a sovereign God working through the evils of the world or through our pain and suffering to steer us to what is eternally important and quite often, it works. We know them as teachable moments. When people are broken they are more receptive to solutions they wouldn’t normally have considered or entertained as viable options. It turns us towards our faith and hope to the unseen. Along these lines, if we are Christians, we learn to trust God’s promises (Psalms 145). We know that God is immutable and unchanging. His promises stand forever because he is unchanging. This is rock solid assurance to those adrift on stormy seas. It gives those being tossed to-and-fro in suffering or driven totally under in a deluge of pain to anchor to or get solid mooring. (Howard, 139, 144).

Rightly understood suffering breeds patience and teaches mankind to turn to God as there are often few other places to turn for comfort at the peak of suffering and pain. Paul is clear on why a believer suffers also when he speaks of suffering in relation or its correspondence to glory in Romans 5. He is clear that the suffering believers endure is in direct proportion to the hope they will acquire in the character they’ve attained through endurance.

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope…” Romans 5:1-4

The mettle of one’s faith can only be tested in a time of suffering. Finding out how far the bar can be bent, twisted or distorted before it breaks can only be done under pressure or by force directed on it from an outside source. We must endure the refiner’s fire to help us burn off the impurities in us. The heat of the fire is a tempering heat. We either wilt from the flame or we persevere.

Evil & Suffering XVII: Suffering To Sanctification (or Beyond)

Potential Reasons For Existence of Evil  and Suffering II:

Evil and Suffering to Build Character

The Bible is replete with examples of evil being used to shape individual people and mankind in general. I will briefly outline a few the I believe have their undergirding based in the bible. What I will say in preface to this is that these examples and explanations bring glory directly to God because in most of them it is God clearly working providentially behind and through these stories/narratives. This idea in and of itself is the primary overriding "acceptable" reasoning for any evil or suffering in my mind (as if God needed my acceptance of it). Any other reason to me seems passe and nearly or totally unacceptable from any human perspective.  When humans themselves are unsettled by the existence of these evils and sufferings, how much more would man's Creator be moved by it and wish its eradication? If it has not been eradicated...then logic and reason points towards an ultimate purpose or even a need for it.

To Assist In Sanctification

As we become more sanctified we become more holy. When we become more holy we become less like the world and more like Christ (John 17:16-19). As we become more like Christ we become more kingdom/heaven minded. Suffering is part of Christ’s story and its part of His life. In this way it is also part of our story since we have accepted His supreme acts of sacrifice which also included endurance of pain. It is through this suffering that we begin to share our humanity with Christ in a way that makes us become like Christ (Romans 8:29). In our sufferings as humans we begin to “be conformed to the likeness of his Son” [God’s]. When we share in his suffering and His death we share in His life (as mentioned elsewhere). The more we become indwelt by the Holy Spirit and the more of Christ we take on in our lives the more we die to self. God brings trials and suffering into our lives in way that builds us and makes us stronger in the Lord, just as the heat brought to bear on steel in the right amounts tempers the steel or case-hardens it to make it stronger or more durable. Justification (in righteousness) and salvation happens in an instant but sanctification (made more holy) takes an individual’s remaining life to take effect. This view is similar to the Irenaeus/Hick view except that it does not implicate God as the cause of evil and suffering. Instead He works through it now that it has been put into motion by His creation and their free will. The truth is that we need to be chipped and chiseled away and to die in multiple ways (figuratively and literally) in the process of sanctification to achieve our true glorification in Jesus Christ. We need to have the world scraped out or us and off of us before we can be presented in our glorification at physical death to the Father. The multiple “deaths” or chipping looks are done as noted below (Howard 133-139, 152).

(1) Death to Sin - Legal death: It happens to all Christian by the fact of our union with Jesus Christ, His death and His Resurrection. In this union not only are we forgiven but we also share in the benefits of God’s gift of eternal life but we also share in His death as is symbolized in our baptism. Where we can we must kill the sin in our lives and/or resist it. Sin cannot be free to manifest itself whenever it feels like it wants. You are to control it through a sanctification process with Christ (2 Corinthians 10:4-6).

(2) Die to Self - Moral Death: It is called self-mortification, to denying one’s self or taking up one’s cross. The result is a committed fellowship with a fellow suffering servant. It is not a death that we have done directly to ourselves but rather something that we do to ourselves through the power of the Spirit. We kill our old nature (Col 3:5-11).

(3) Carrying Christ's Death in Us - Physical Death: We must carry the life and the death of Jesus Christ in us so that it is revealed to the world in our bodies (2 Corinthians 4:9-10). This is clearly carried out plainly in our bodies. It speaks of our infirmities, weaknesses and our mortality. It is why Paul said, “I die daily” in 1 Corinthians 15:30-31. It is human frailty. The subsequent resurrection is the inward vitality or renewal in a Christian’s life with Jesus that continues to renew us in hope until our last breath (Stott, 273).

It is this last “death” that fits squarely in the area of theodicy because no matter how you go, physical death is not pretty. We are brought down in our physical bodies either quickly or slowly. If we die slowly there is an element of suffering involved more so than if we went quickly. There is pain and anguish involved in some way usually physically, mentally or both. At some point we will need to be weaned from this world anyway. It is better to start early and make it a gradual process than have it be a traumatic event towards the twilight years of our lives (or not; death stinks...period). The sooner believers can accept that their mortality is inevitable the sooner they can think clearly on things that are of heavenly importance and realize that everything they see around them is transient and temporary, especially the evil and suffering (Howard 156, 158) unless of course they have not repented and accepted Christ.

Evil & Suffering XVI: John Hick’s-Soul Building

Within Evil & Suffering there is a subcatagory that needs to be addressed.

Potential Reasons For Existence of Evil & Suffering I

Although I strongly disagree with Mr Hicks I will lead off with his explanation as it will serve well as an antithetical point of view to the reasons that I do support in later posts.

This character building portion attempts to reveal evil and/or suffering as vehicle or catalyst allowed by God for humanities proper growth and sanctification: It allows God to teach us. It gives mankind a gauge or antithetical measuring stick so we know exactly how far away from God and His holiness that man has moved. There basically two ways to go about explaining this one Biblical and one unbiblical. The first of which will serve as the unbiblical explanation. This explanation is also an extension of the previous section as John Hick’s adheres to the Irenaeus’ line of thinking when it comes to theodicy. Hick’s is a more recent view derived from Irenaeus. It is the idea that man was actually created imperfect and in need of moral development which is opposed to the view that man was created perfect but chose, through sin, to fall (Genesis 3, Romans 5:12-21) (“Fundamental Truth” #4). Man was place on the earth to perfect his moral and spiritual character to prepare him for participation in the Kingdom of God. As such the most conducive environment for doing this would be a world in which a person confronts evil and suffering. Hick is in agreement with Irenaeus. They both believed that God created man with the need and tools for spiritual growth. Hick then sees the theory of “soul making” as a reaction to the evils and suffering in the world, not necessarily as the cause of some of them. Strangely, to show the distance between the biblical view and Hicks view I should note also that Hick believes that mankind isn’t born knowing of God’s existence, and it is not something easy to gain knowledge of (God’s existence). This is in direct contradiction to statements in Romans 1 that,

“the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.”

Hick also believes that the process of soul making also involves a battle to attain religious faith. This statement seems unsound biblically as the Scriptures are quite clear that faith comes from hearing and responding to the gospel (Romans 10:17). Hick’s exact argument is quoted verbatim. Please note that I do not adhere to this premise.

If the world were a paradise from which all possibility of pain and suffering were excluded, then the consequences would be very far-reaching, nothing bad, nothing suffering would exist in this world, no one could ever be injured by accident, people could do anything immoral they want without hurting other people… As a result, in a world free of real dangers, difficulties, problems, obstacles, there will be no meaning for the real good qualities as generosity, kindness, love, prudence, etc to exist. God had to allow the possibility of evil, because if there were no such possibility man would not be free to choose good over evil. If there were no evil and suffering humans would always follow God’s law because there would be no difficulties in doing so. The evils in this world are required by a God of love who seeks the development of his free creatures from their original innocence into fully mature spiritual beings. In other words, we human beings learn to be morally mature enough to grow closer to God. Evil can lead us to the final goodness and perfection. In this regard, God is partly responsible for the evil in the world ~ John Hick

In the last sentence Augustinian and Irenaean theodicy are incompatible and divergent theodicies. Augustine emphasized the role of The Fall, and sees evil as either sin or the result of sin. Therefore evil and suffering originated with men. Irenaean/Hick theodicy regards evil as a requirement by a God of love to let his free creatures to develop from their original innocence into fully mature spiritual beings thereby making God responsible for some of the evil (Hicks 88-105 [synopsis]; Richards).