A couple quotes

“Yet even in this dark and obscure world, there are things that we can hold onto--above all, the trustworthiness of the Christ who took upon himself suffering, dereliction and death. We may trust him and entrust ourselves to him. The cross, like Mount Sinai, may be enfolded by clouds and darkness. Yet God remains present in this darkness, transcending both our capacity to discern him and our willingness to trust him. Luther’s point is that we do not walk alone, but in the presence of the one who was crucified for us, and who will never abandon us, having already journeyed through the valley of the shadow of death.”

McGrath, The Passionate Intellect, 64

The Practical Problem: Some Theology

Assignment for Monday:

The Resurrection (cont.)

• Hope for Christians in the midst of suffering is found in the resurrection of Christ.

Write a journal responding to your first journal on the problem of evil. Using a minimum of 2 quotes from the quote sheet and ideas from Keller and McGrath readings, provide some counsel to the person writing in your first journal entry from the resources of Christian theology.

300 word minimum, posted in OneNote under the Journal Entries tab named "Practical Problem Journal"

"The answer must be someone, not just something. For the problem (suffering) is about someone (God--why does he...why doesn't he...?) rather than just something. To question God's goodness is not just an intellectual experiment. It is rebellion or tears. It is a little child with tears in its eyes looking up at Daddy and weeping, "Why?" Not only does it add the emotion of tears but also it is asked in the context of relationship. It is a question put to the Father, not a question asked in a vacuum. The hurt child needs not so explanations as reassurances. And that is what we get: the reassurance of the Father in the person of Jesus, "he who has seen me has seen the Father" (Jn 14:9)."

- Kreeft, Making Sense Out of Suffering, 130

“Are we broken? He is broken with us. Are we rejected? Do people despise us not for our evil but for our good, or attempted good? He was “despised and rejected of men.” Do we weep? Is grief our familiar spirit, our horrifyingly familiar ghost? Do we ever say, “Oh, no, not again! I can’t take it anymore!”? He was “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.” Do people misunderstand us, turn away from us? They hid their faces from him as from an outcast, a leper. Is our love betrayed? Are our tenderest relationships broken? He too loved and was betrayed by the ones he loved. “He came unto his own and his own received him not.” Does it seem sometimes as if life has passed us by or cast us out, as if we are sinking into uselessness and oblivion? He sinks with us. He too is passed over by the world. His way of suffering love is rejected, his own followers often the most guilty of all; they have made his name a scandal, especially among his chosen people.”

- Kreeft, Making Sense Out of Suffering, 134

"The answer is not a timeless truth but a once-for-all catastrophic event, as real as the stories in today's newspapers. God did not varnish over our sin and our suffering. He came into it, like a dentist or a surgeon, to get it all out. In fact, he became our garbage man. He touched and took way our garbage. God became a man; we touched him, we handled him."

Kreeft, Making Sense Out of Suffering, 130

The Centrality of the Resurrection (Romans 8)

18 I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; 20 for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; 23 and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in[o] hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes[p] for what is seen? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

“In summary, Jesus did three things to solve the problem of suffering. First, he came. He suffered with us. He wept. Second, in becoming man he transformed the meaning of our suffering: it is now part of his work of redemption. Our death pangs become birth pangs for heaven, not only for ourselves but also for those we love. Third, he died and rose. Dying, he paid the price for sin and opened heaven to us; rising, he transformed death from a hole into a door, from an end into a beginning.”

Kreeft, Making Sense Out of Suffering, 138

34 Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us.[w] 35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all day long;

we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.”

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.