The book of Job raises many important questions about the role of suffering in God’s world. Why do people suffer? How can we suffer well? Is God just? This video gives a concise explanation of how the book of Job raises such questions and what answers it gives.
It’s hard to say which Bible Project video is the best, but this certainly has to be a top contender.
Eric Mason explains how suffering plays a vital role in the sanctification process. We tend to want to avoid suffering at all costs, but we often fail to recognize that one of the costs of avoiding suffering is the opportunity to be made more holy and to draw closer to the heart of the Father. (more…)
The only Christian theodicy which I find credible is the confession that God does not exempt himself from the horror of human suffering, but is fully baptized into it. God in Christ joins us in a solidarity of suffering, and somehow by his wounds we are healed. Christ saves us from sin and death only by hurling himself into the abyss. The ultimate imitation of Christ is to patiently absorb sin and offer pardon in the name of love. This is grace.
In the face of affliction we commonly ask, “Where’s God? How could He let this happen?”
One place to find the answer is 2 Peter 3:9:
The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
The answer? He is patient with you. He suffers when you suffer.
Persecution has an allure for many evangelicals. In the Bible, Christians are promised by Saint Paul that they will suffer for Christ, if they love Him. But especially in contemporary America, it is not clear what shape that suffering will take. Narratives of political, cultural, and theological oppression are popular in evangelical communities, but these are sometimes fiction or deeply exaggerated non-fiction—and only rarely accurate.