There’s an unrelenting cause of teenage depression that doesn’t get enough attention and only Christianity can solve: a sudden revelation that one day they will die. Now, I don’t mean the prospect of their death troubles all teens. Many teens view their deaths as so far off as to be able to ignore. But for …
One thing is clear: unless we die young and suddenly, all of us are going to endure suffering. This is true because, as I’ve said many times, only one thing is going to prevent you from watching absolutely every person you know die from murder, accident, or disease, and that will be your own death …
Although there are other reasons, the major reason Christians doubt God’s love or even the truth of Christianity is that they expect God to act in ways other than He promised to act. I write this now because recently I have conversed with Christians who are struggling with this. Obviously, if a Christian thinks the …
Recently a pastor wrote a very popular blog entitled, “Confronting the lie: God won’t give you more than you can handle.” I’ve seen it frequently “Shared” and apparently it has gotten many thousands of “Likes” on Facebook. In Googling around I found other websites expressing similar sentiments. I don’t want to embarrass the author so …
Rejoinder: God Won’t Give You More than You Can Handle Read More »
It is no surprise that in a 2002 survey almost three-quarters of Americans (seventy-four percent) rejected the teaching of original sin. After all, Americans want to feel good about themselves. Nathaniel Brandon, whom many consider the father of the self-esteem movement, said, “The idea of Original Sin…is anti-self-esteem by its very nature. The very notion …
In the ninth and final chapter of Ehrman’s book, God’s Problem, he says that often people write to tell him that “God is like a good parent, a heavenly father, and that he allows suffering into our lives as a way of building character or teaching us lessons about how we should live. There is, …
Ehrman’s Problem 21: Confused about Who God’s Kids Are Read More »
In my last post I pointed out that Ehrman begged the question for his major argument as to why the apocalyptic argument didn’t help us answer why God allows suffering. In this post I will address his next two arguments. I titled this post, “Everything But the Kitchen Sink,” because, frankly, his arguments appear rather …
Ehrman’s Problem 20: Everything But the Kitchen Sink Read More »
Now we turn to Ehrman’s fuller critique of the apocalyptic solution. He writes, “For apocalypticists, cosmic forces of evil were loose in the world, and these evil forces were aligned against the righteous people of God, bringing pain and misery down upon their heads, making them suffer because they sided with God. But this state …
Ehrman calls the other answer to why God allows suffering found in the book of Job, “The Poetic Dialogues of Job: There Is No Answer” (172). Ehrman concludes that “God does not listen to the pleas of the innocent; he overpowers them by his almighty presence” (183). Ehrman writes that Job wanted a divine audience …
Ehrman’s Problem 17: Humility Is Absent Without Leave Read More »
We come next to Ehrman’s chapter, “Does Suffering Make Sense?” In it he divides the book of Job into two separate answers and concludes, no surprise, that neither of them succeeds in answering our many questions. Ehrman even argues that the book of Job has two separate authors, but that’s just an assertion largely based …
Ehrman’s Problem 16: Cosmic Issues He Doesn’t Understand Read More »
