Friday, January 23, 2009

Problem of Pain

I found the speech we listened to in class helpful.  The speaker said that it is not uncommon to understand only 10% of the book the first time.  I think I only understand 8% of it some times. 

There is a lot of controversy when we regard the pain that exists in this world.  If God is totally good and all-powerful, there should be only good in this world and not pain. The argument is against the God is that He must lack in power or goodness, because of all the pain in the world.  The speaker talked about the creation of man.  He asks the question of whether God made a mistake creating Man with free will.  I like how he says that we cannot answer this question; we cannot know God’s divine mind with our tiny human minds.  One thing that I know for sure is that God does not make mistakes.  I believe that God allowed man to fall, so that He could send His Son to die on the cross; what better way to cause praise to be given to Him, than to send His Son, Himself, to sacrifice Himself for his children’s sins.  However, I could be totally wrong, because only God knows the answer to this question. 

Something that is not talked about much is why pain was created in this world.  God used pain as a punishment against the human race for disobeying the Lord’s one command on our Father Adam and our Mother Eve.  Death is the end result for all humans because of our sin, but as the speaker and Lewis points out that sin is of our own free will. 

I like the example of Job.  God allowed Satan to torment Job, until he had nothing left but God; Job still refused to curse God.  God knew that Job would not, and He was glorified in Job’s faith.  God blessed Job with double of everything.  There are no temptations that we cannot overcome, because Christ has overcome all of them.  God will never give us something that we cannot overcome.  Our suffering is a punishment for the fall, but it is a small price to pay for the glory God will give us in heaven. 

If a friend dies, we mourn and we ask, “Why God, Why?”  I know because one of my friends died of a brain aneurysm during a fundraiser in my high school.  At first it hurt so bad, but then I realized that I was selfish.  My friend Paul, was God’s to take when He would; God took Him to heaven, because it was his time.  God does not operate on our time.  Besides, I doubt Paul is complaining, because he is already experiencing eternal glory.

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