Look, it's an update!
So I'm reading The Case for Faith again. It's SUCH a great book, I absolutely love it. The first chapter is about suffering. People think that since evil and suffering exist, a loving God cannot. However, an interview Lee Strobel has with Peter John Kreeft disproves that thought. Kreeft comes up with some amazing and true points/analogies that I wanted to share.
First of all, I'd like to start off with one of my favorite quotes ever. (Which happened to come from the first chapter of this book.) I've put it on my xanga probably twice before, but I love it so much, I just have to share it again.
“I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross… In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it? I have entered many Buddhist temples in different Asian countries and stood respectfully before the statue of Buddha, his legs crossed, arms folded, eyes closed, the ghost of a smile playing round his mouth, a remote look on his face, detached from the agonies of the world. But each time after a while I have had to turn away. And in imagination I have turned instead to that lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from thorn-pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged in God-forsaken darkness. That is the God for me! He laid aside his immunity to pain. He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death. He suffered for us. Our sufferings become more manageable in light of his. There is still a question mark against human suffering, but over it we boldly stamp another mark, the cross which symbolizes divine suffering. ‘The cross of Christ… is God’s only self-justification in such a world’ as ours.”
--John R. W. Scott
We can trust God
How can we, mere finite humans, be sure that infinite wisdom could not tolerate certain short-range evils in order for more long-range goods that we couldn’t foresee? Pretend that a bear is stuck in a trap and a hunter wants to liberate him. He tries to win the bear’s confidence, but he can’t do it, so he has to shoot the bear full of drugs. The bear, however, thinks this is an attack and that the hunter is trying to kill him. He doesn’t realize that his is being done out of compassion. He reaches this conclusion because he’s not a human being. God does the same to us sometimes, and we can’t comprehend why he does it any more than the bear can understand the motivations of the hunter. As the bear could have trusted the hunter, so we can trust God. [43, 44]
When I was going through a particular hard time in my life, I was reminded of a song that talks about how God knows what he's doing even if we don't. It offers a lot of encouragement. The lyrics are as follows:
God will make a way
When there seems to be no way
He works in ways
We cannot see
He will make a way for me
He will be my guide
Hold me closely to His side
With love and strength
For each new day
He will make a way
He will make a way
I have lots of troubles trusting that God knows what He is doing. When I go through hard times... especially big workloads, betrayal, or just lots and lots of stress, it's hard to understand why God would let me go through it. However, the lyrics to the song above and the analogy of the bear and hunter are just reassuring that indeed, God will make a way.
God is all-knowing
If God is all-knowing, he could deliberately tolerate horrible things like starvation because he foresees that in the long run that more people will be better and happier than if he miraculously intervened. God has specifically shown us very clearly how this can work. He has demonstrated how the very worst thing that has ever happened in the history of the world (dying on the cross) ended up resulting in the very best thing that has ever happened in the history of the world (opening of heaven to human beings) [53].
God knows what he's doing. Remember just a few months ago when I was running for Student Body President? I wanted it SO badly. But God didn't want me to have it. I was crushed. I remember crying in the bathroom after finding out the news, crying when my mom saw me before track practrice, crying on the bus to Chabot, crying (a LOT) at Chabot, and crying when I got home. I couldn't understand why God would take away something I wanted SO badly. But then I generally realized that He knew what He was doing. He knew that if I become president along with my 5 AP classes, Leo's Club, LC duties, Church duties, track, and all the other activities I had to do, I would die. I would completely die of stress. And He wanted me to focus on HIM more. I had been doing... not so well in my spiritual life at that moment. This "tragedy" was like a wake-up call for me. God was saying "hey, what about me? You're busy serving me, but when was the last time you actually talked to me?"
I did end up "better and happier than if he miraculously intervened." I really am SO happy that I am not student body president now. And God knew it all along. What a wonderful and all-knowing Father we serve!
Pain leads to some eventual good
God is wise enough to foresee that we need some pain for reasons which we may not understand but which he foresees as being necessary to some eventual good. Therefore, he’s not being evil by allowing that pain to exist. There are times when God allows suffering and deprives us of the lesser good of pleasure in order to help us toward the greater good of moral and spiritual education. [56]
There's a poem in my Bible that I love. It goes like this:
I walked a mile with pleasure
She chattered all the way
But left me none the wiser
For all she had to say
I walked a mile with sorrow
And never a word said she
But oh, the things I learned from her
When sorrow walked with me
I hope and pray that when we go through tough times we'll remember these points... that we can trust God to bring us through whatever we're going through. That God is all-knowing. And that pain leads to some eventual good.
"Not only so, but we also rejoice in our suffering because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character; and character, hope."
Romans 5:3-4
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First of all, I'd like to start off with one of my favorite quotes ever. (Which happened to come from the first chapter of this book.) I've put it on my xanga probably twice before, but I love it so much, I just have to share it again.
“I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross… In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it? I have entered many Buddhist temples in different Asian countries and stood respectfully before the statue of Buddha, his legs crossed, arms folded, eyes closed, the ghost of a smile playing round his mouth, a remote look on his face, detached from the agonies of the world. But each time after a while I have had to turn away. And in imagination I have turned instead to that lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from thorn-pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged in God-forsaken darkness. That is the God for me! He laid aside his immunity to pain. He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death. He suffered for us. Our sufferings become more manageable in light of his. There is still a question mark against human suffering, but over it we boldly stamp another mark, the cross which symbolizes divine suffering. ‘The cross of Christ… is God’s only self-justification in such a world’ as ours.”
--John R. W. Scott
We can trust God
How can we, mere finite humans, be sure that infinite wisdom could not tolerate certain short-range evils in order for more long-range goods that we couldn’t foresee? Pretend that a bear is stuck in a trap and a hunter wants to liberate him. He tries to win the bear’s confidence, but he can’t do it, so he has to shoot the bear full of drugs. The bear, however, thinks this is an attack and that the hunter is trying to kill him. He doesn’t realize that his is being done out of compassion. He reaches this conclusion because he’s not a human being. God does the same to us sometimes, and we can’t comprehend why he does it any more than the bear can understand the motivations of the hunter. As the bear could have trusted the hunter, so we can trust God. [43, 44]
When I was going through a particular hard time in my life, I was reminded of a song that talks about how God knows what he's doing even if we don't. It offers a lot of encouragement. The lyrics are as follows:
God will make a way
When there seems to be no way
He works in ways
We cannot see
He will make a way for me
He will be my guide
Hold me closely to His side
With love and strength
For each new day
He will make a way
He will make a way
I have lots of troubles trusting that God knows what He is doing. When I go through hard times... especially big workloads, betrayal, or just lots and lots of stress, it's hard to understand why God would let me go through it. However, the lyrics to the song above and the analogy of the bear and hunter are just reassuring that indeed, God will make a way.
God is all-knowing
If God is all-knowing, he could deliberately tolerate horrible things like starvation because he foresees that in the long run that more people will be better and happier than if he miraculously intervened. God has specifically shown us very clearly how this can work. He has demonstrated how the very worst thing that has ever happened in the history of the world (dying on the cross) ended up resulting in the very best thing that has ever happened in the history of the world (opening of heaven to human beings) [53].
God knows what he's doing. Remember just a few months ago when I was running for Student Body President? I wanted it SO badly. But God didn't want me to have it. I was crushed. I remember crying in the bathroom after finding out the news, crying when my mom saw me before track practrice, crying on the bus to Chabot, crying (a LOT) at Chabot, and crying when I got home. I couldn't understand why God would take away something I wanted SO badly. But then I generally realized that He knew what He was doing. He knew that if I become president along with my 5 AP classes, Leo's Club, LC duties, Church duties, track, and all the other activities I had to do, I would die. I would completely die of stress. And He wanted me to focus on HIM more. I had been doing... not so well in my spiritual life at that moment. This "tragedy" was like a wake-up call for me. God was saying "hey, what about me? You're busy serving me, but when was the last time you actually talked to me?"
I did end up "better and happier than if he miraculously intervened." I really am SO happy that I am not student body president now. And God knew it all along. What a wonderful and all-knowing Father we serve!
Pain leads to some eventual good
God is wise enough to foresee that we need some pain for reasons which we may not understand but which he foresees as being necessary to some eventual good. Therefore, he’s not being evil by allowing that pain to exist. There are times when God allows suffering and deprives us of the lesser good of pleasure in order to help us toward the greater good of moral and spiritual education. [56]
There's a poem in my Bible that I love. It goes like this:
I walked a mile with pleasure
She chattered all the way
But left me none the wiser
For all she had to say
I walked a mile with sorrow
And never a word said she
But oh, the things I learned from her
When sorrow walked with me
I hope and pray that when we go through tough times we'll remember these points... that we can trust God to bring us through whatever we're going through. That God is all-knowing. And that pain leads to some eventual good.
"Not only so, but we also rejoice in our suffering because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character; and character, hope."
Romans 5:3-4
