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Pain, Suffering, Evil and God

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

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Pain, Suffering, Evil and God

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  1. 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

  2. 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

  3. 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

  4. Pastoral care responses • Listen • Empathize • Serve • Don’t “fix” or provide answers (unless requested)

  5. Two kinds of Evil • Moral evil: humans harming each other • Natural evil: natural disasters, diseases

  6. How do you explain moral evil? • See next slide

  7. Moral evil • Human rebellion • Genesis 3

  8. How do you explain natural evil? • See next slide

  9. Natural evil • The fall • “Cursed is the ground because of you” (Genesis 3:17) • “For the creation was subjected to frustration” (Romans 8:20)

  10. Defining Image Broken world

  11. 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

  12. 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?

  13. 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

  14. Case study • Your friend Jill asks why her mom suffered and died from cancer • What is your response? Discuss in groups of 2-3

  15. 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

  16. Free Will Defense • God did not make us robots • God valued human freedom more than perfect obedience

  17. 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?

  18. 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.

  19. Suggested resource: • Philosophy of Religion, ch 7, Evans/Manis • Email me for this presentation or to ask a question: • Rick.mattson@studentjourney.org

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