I was diagnosed with a terminal illness at birth called life. Every sentient being has an appointment with life's first death of the flesh. And only by God's grace can we be saved ! I finally understand what Jesus meant when he said " my grace is sufficient. " And I thank God for even considering grace I certainly can't even hope to be given me by my nature. Thank God for his glory, Amen !
This was fabulously helpful. Thank you to Ligonier Sorry if name icon comes up 2x. Some sort of computer glitch. RC is very missed and the emphasis on the gospel is so core and thought provoking.
A little girl is tortured and we ask, Where is God? He is there. He picks her up in his gentle arms and sings a love song. And when it's over, he wakes her up with no memory of the horrible experience. God keeps her close and when she grows into adulthood she begins to remember the experience and the pain she experienced. Her healing comes as she remembers the song and the comfort she felt in his arms. I am that girl.
The problem we have is the connection EVIL has with SUFFERING. Evil has real consequences on undeserving bystanders. There is evil both morally from people and evil in the world under which the creation continues to labor that was not originally there. We cannot accuse everyone who suffers as having committed some evil, as Sproul has pointed out with the example of the book of Job. Little doubt that all evil originally comes from unbelief of truth, but not every human who suffers has unbelief.
Evil exists because of sin! Genesis 3:17 ".....:cursed is the ground for thy sake;.... Sin is the immorality/disobedience of man against God. Evil is the result of the curse upon man's sin/immoral behavior against GOD.
Remember in the garden of Eden were trees for fruit, the tree of life and the tree of good and evil, the only tree which they were not to eat was the tree of Good and evil'
Evil comes from demons, our hearts and Satan. All three are bad. All things are His servants and tools. God uses are things as raw materials to build what he chooses. For example, kingdoms to discipline, deaths to change the course of history, martyrs to glorify himself and as a proof of their faith, etc.
both speakers seems to have a hard time trying to explain why we suffer, still I am thankful GOD that they both tried tto answer that as truthfully in relation to the Scriptures and to the Sovereign and merciful GOD.
Although Calvinist theology brings up some interesting points I still can't understand how God would not be the author of evil if he decrees and controls everything. When Joseph says "I know you meant it for evil but God meant it for good," if God decreed Joseph's brothers to perform an evil act how is that not God doing evil and then making something good come out of it? That makes God kind of sinister in my opinion.
Suffering and the Sovereignty of God, Q&A session #1
Ligonier Ministries
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from the Ligonier 2010 Winter Academy Conference with Derek Thomas and R.C. Sproul, Chris Larson moderating