Pain, Suffering, Evil and God Rick Mattson, St. Paul, MN Traveling apologist, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship Visiting 20 campuses this year InterVarsity staff at Macalester College
When people suffer, what’s our response? Aurora, CO shootings of July, 2012 – 12 people killed – 58 wounded – Gunman James Holmes is awaiting trial Sandy Hook shootings – 26 people killed, including 20 children – Gunman Adam Lanza committed suicide
What’s our response? Hurricane Katrina, – 1800 killed – $81 billion on property damage Haiti Earthquake, January 2010 – 300,000+ killed – 300,000 injured – 1,000,000 homeless
Pastoral care responses Listen Empathize Serve Don’t “fix” or provide answers (unless requested)
Two kinds of Evil Moral evil: humans harming each other Natural evil: natural disasters, diseases
How do you explain moral evil? See next slide
Moral evil Human rebellion Genesis 3
How do you explain natural evil? See next slide
Natural evil The fall “Cursed is the ground because of you” (Genesis 3:17) “For the creation was subjected to frustration” (Romans 8:20)
Defining Image Broken world
Why did God create a world he knew would go bad? Where billions would suffer Where billions would go to hell Discuss in groups of 2-3
Big Story 1 Trinity love relations in eternity (John 17) God shares this love externally (John 3:16). He made humans for a covenant/love relationship Humans fell away Question: Why didn’t God send his son, Jesus, to die for sins “five minutes” after the Fall?
Big Story 2 God allows the consequences of sin to play out in our timeline Redemption is gradual God is not in the finger-snapping business When the time was ripe, he sent Jesus to die for sins The church should act as the hands and feet of God
Case study Your friend Jill asks why her mom suffered and died from cancer What is your response? Discuss in groups of 2- 3
Possible reasons God allows suffering (sample list) to develop our character For a greater good Suffering is normal God is allowing the consequences of the Fall to be real The church fails to serve, train, make good decisions with teaching/time/money/health The church has lost its ministry of healing
Free Will Defense God did not make us robots God valued human freedom more than perfect obedience
Difficult questions that remain If God is sovereign, are humans actually “free”? Isn’t God ultimately responsible for sin, since He set up the initial conditions for it to take place?
Final thought God did not leave us in our sin and suffering. He came down and suffered alongside us. God is more of a fellow sufferer than a magic genie That’s NOT to say that he doesn’t answer prayer and bring healing. Quite often he does. But not always.
Suggested resource: Philosophy of Religion, ch 7, Evans/Manis me for this presentation or to ask a question: