Is all suffering meaningless?
The more I think about it, the more I realize that it isn’t the case. Which forces me to conclude that anyone who says that “suffering is incompatible with a benevolent God” hasn’t given suffering proper consideration. It seems that the problem is we aren’t content with not knowing. God’s answer to Job wasn’t enough! Job should have insisted. Hmm, gives me a few good thoughts… And by the way, Making Sense of Suffering (which I’ll review soon) is an excellent book, well worth reading.… (Read more)
Anaesthetic and the loss of feeling alive
I’ve never read Brave New World, but I have heard the song Iris, and it has me wondering how alive most of us feel. Dealing honestly with myself, there are times where I don’t feel very alive. There’s almost no need for me to go outside, and so I’m disconnected from nature. Most pain is an option, I’ve been asleep for every surgery I’ve been though. Media offers an escape for anything and everything, only because I refuse alcohol, drugs and women. I live in a safe city, I’ve never been through or fought in a war. Death isn’t a reality I usually deal with, and when I do it’s a very sterilized “encounter”. Disease, famine and plague are words in a dictionary, or entries in history books. The things that most people had to — and still have to — deal with are things that have never … (Read more)
People who hate questions
I’ve always known that there was a certain — and most assuredly, unreasonable — offense in asking questions. Not so much that the question itself was bad. I certainly don’t want to say that at all, there is much good in questions–much to learn. Socrates, I think, was right for the most part, “the unexamined life is not worth living”. And it is here that we find our problem, and also the answer to why so many people find questions offensive: they don’t examine anything, least of all “their life”. I’ve come across a great majority of people who don’t know why they believe what they say they believe. They’ve never considered the “great questions” (I don’t think many moderns do) and if they do, they don’t get very far. They spend far too much time reading recent books filled with pop-psychology and second-rate philosophical discourses (if you can even … (Read more)
Happiness is not just a feeling
I wonder, if we viewed “happiness” as the ancients did, would the “problem” of evil and suffering be such a problem? In fact, I think I agree with Peter Kreeft when he says — or perhaps repeats — that suffering isn’t a problem, it’s a mystery (Making Sense of Suffering). It is a mystery because we encroach on our own data–we commit evil even while studying it. By studying evil, we are in some ways studying ourselves. And yet in seeing evil so clearly in the world, we refuse to see it in ourselves. We are “black and white”; more “good” than “evil,” and so that makes us good. Or we are more “evil” than “good,” and that makes us a victim. We blame God for the evil men do, and we exalt men for their criticisms of God (“Not I,” says the Christian). We haven’t learned Job’s … (Read more)
Genesis 19:1–11
The Bible and Homosexuality — Sodom and Gomorrah
It is claimed that : “Nowhere in scripture is homosexuality listed as the sin which condemned Sodom”
Genesis 19 1:11
1Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening as Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground.
2And he said, “Now behold, my lords, please turn aside into your servant’s house, and spend the night, and wash your feet; then you may rise early and go on your way.” They said however, “No, but we shall spend the night in the square.“
3Yet he urged them strongly, so they turned aside to him and entered his house; and he prepared a feast for them, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.
4Before they lay down, the men … (Read more)
Book Review: The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World
Pages: 179
Publisher: Crossway
Year: 2007
Editors: John Piper & Justin Taylor
Authors: David Wells, Voddie Baucham Jr., John Piper, D.A. Carson, Tim Keller, Mark Driscoll
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I’m really not sure what to think of this book. I think it’s because I was expecting something other than what I found; something with a bit more postmodernism in it. What I was expecting when I bought this book was a collection of essays that all dealt, specifically, with some facet of postmodernism, I suppose as a presentation and refutation of sorts. That’s not exactly what this book is at all, as I understand it, though I’m not sure if that’s my own fault, having read a number of books on the subject prior to reading this. That said, this book is good for what it is, though it’s perhaps more apparent in this book, than in others of similar format, that … (Read more)
Stephen Meyer interviewed by R.C. Sproul
An interesting interview I first heard of on Justin Taylor’s blog. This interview is described as, “RC Sproul sits down with Stephen Meyer, author of the book, “Signature in the Cell”, and they discuss philosophy, evolution, education, Intelligent Design, and more.” Enjoy.
Seriously, it’s really good. Listen. Now!
Dealing with personal sin in a community
Sin, a lot of us really don’t take it seriously, and when we do, we have very little idea with what to do about it, especially when it concerns the sin of another (you’ll quickly hear, “who am I to judge!”). What started out as a post on resolving conflicts has turned into a post on dealing with the presence of sin in the church, in the life of a believer. Scripture is clear, and as such, I think very offensive to quite a few. This is just something of a brief look how to deal with sin, and we’ll do so by focusing on Matthew 18:15–19.
How to deal with sin: Matthew 18:15–19
15“If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother.“
16“But if he does not listen to you, take … (Read more)
Grace in the life of a believer
I spend a considerable amount of time on message boards, one Christian message board in particular. And, as a result, I’ve really begun to consider how grace manifests itself — and is demonstrated in — the life of a believer, by which I mean actions. The reason, you see, is because there is an awful lot of arguing (many times over nothing), to the extent that I wouldn’t know that the people I am with refer to themselves as Christians (the “relationship” kind, not the “religious kind”), had this particular board not be overtly Christian. As a result, I want to briefly consider how grace manifests itself in the life of a believer, and I believe it manifests itself in a number of very obvious, and some not so obvious, ways.
Grace is demonstrated in a change of attitude and action
In Galatians 5 Paul compares the deeds of the flesh … (Read more)
Do Good People go to Hell?
Or for that matter, do bad people go to heaven? In both cases I believe the answer is a clear no. And I think the reason this question comes up often, and is equally as misunderstood, is because we tend to think that actions define character — which to an extent is true — but that this is it. I’m sure this belief arises from the popular notion that people are inherently neither ‘good’ or ‘bad,’ but through the choices we make lean to one side or the other. Of course, the caveat would be added that no person is completely good or completely bad. People are something of a “gray area,” where as long as one set of actions outweighs the others, we are identified as ‘good’ or ‘bad’.
That’s the problem.
I once heard an illustration comparing Billy Graham and Hitler, it goes something like this. If God’s … (Read more)
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