Author: Daniel Westfall

Ep.300: God Suffers.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

This is our last episode on the problem of evil. Today we consider our suffering God. 

My daughter, talking to Muslim, asked, , “Would Allah come to earth, be born in a stable, and grow up as a human?” 

“Never,” was the response. “Allah is great. There’s poop and dirt in a stable . He wouldn’t become a human baby.” 

This points to a difference between Islam and Christianity. The Christian God became human in Jesus. He got down and dirty. He washed his disciples’ feet. He gave himself up to torture and suffering and death. 

Jesus is key to answering the question of evil and suffering. God, not content to be a distant and dispassionate observer of his hurting world, got personally involved in the mess through Jesus. He shared his life with sinners. He handled money inscribed by Caesar.  He suffered and died under Pontius Pilate.  

In every part of the Bible, God suffers. Before the flood, “The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become. . . . He regretted making humans. His heart was deeply troubled” (Genesis 6:5-6). 

Jesus said, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks . . . but you were not willing” (Mat 23:37). 

God was grieved by human violence and sin, by rejection of his love. But his suffering went further. On the cross, Jesus cried, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” 

Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us, felt that God had stopped being with him. And then he died.

Let’s pray. 

Our father, we lay all the world’s evil and suffering at Jesus’ cross. Wars, torture, endless diseases, petty sins of petty people, genocides of tyrants. Is there room for all of this at the cross? 

Thomas Aquinas thought so when he wrote: 
     Bathe me, Jesu Lord, in what thy bosom ran–
     Blood whereof a single drop has power to win
     All the world forgiveness of its world of sin.
(Adore Te Devote, trans. Gerard Manley Hopkins)

“All the world forgiveness of its world of sin.” Yes, the cross is big enough and strong enough to bear the sin and suffering of the world.

So we bring the problem of evil and suffering to you, our God, and to Jesus on the cross. Not asking why you permit it, not raging against injustice, not trying to fathom your logic. 

We come as sufferers who find in Jesus a fellow sufferer. The crosses we bear find meaning in his cross. Our sins are washed in the river of his pain. Our diseases are healed in the flow of his blood. In our death, we hope in his death and resurrection.

With the dying thief who shared his last day with Jesus we say, “Remember us when you come into your kingdom.”

Amen. 

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.  

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube

Ep.299: Causes and Cure of Suffering.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

For our fifth episode on the problem of evil, we ask, “What might help people who suffer?”  

Scripture is full of sufferers and those who helped them. Let’s look at three. 

Job, the second most famous sufferer in the Bible, had comforters who tried helping him with theology. They said, “God rewards good people. God punishes bad people. If you’re suffering, you must be bad.  Confess your sin! Change your ways.” 

When Jesus met a blind man, the disciples asked, “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Their mindset for dealing with suffering was, “Let’s find someone to blame.” 

When Jonah and shipmates were terrified in a huge storm, Jonah provided the solution: “Throw me overboard!” he said, giving another helpful model for managing suffering. 

How often, as in these stories, comforters don’t comfort and sufferers aren’t helped. God rebuked Job’s friends, telling them their favorite theology was wrong. Jesus squashed the disciples’ blame-game by telling them neither the blind man nor his parents were at fault. Throwing someone overboard, a strategy much favored by politicians today, solved the sailors’ problem. But scripture doesn’t elevate this solution to a preferred model for helping sufferers. 

However, the Bible does offer some helpful suggestions for sufferers and those who comfort them.

First, scripture points out that suffering has many causes. 

Jonah’s storm was a consequence for his disobedience. Job’s troubles were initiated by Satan to resolve an argument with God. Jesus said the man’s blindness wasn’t because someone did something bad–it was an opportunity for God to show up and do something good! Yes, suffering has many causes. Don’t trust simple explanations that suggest only one cause or one solution for suffering. 

Second, scripture shows various ways to deal with suffering. 

Job, for example, found it helpful to shout angrily against his comforters and God. Suffering helped Jonah think clearly about obeying God. Jesus, the Bible’s most famous sufferer, patiently endured torture, crucifixion, and death. Paul told us to rejoice in our sufferings, because they teach us to hope in the future God has for us (Rom 5).

Those are some of the options for dealing with suffering. So don’t trust those who have only one strategy and one message for everyone who suffers. 

Third, scripture discourages us from making unkind theological comments on other people’s suffering. Job’s comforters made things worse by accusing him of sin. Jesus’ tormentors said, “He saved others, himself he cannot save”; but they had no clue about the cause of his suffering, or what kind of help he needed. 

Let’s pray. 

Our father, we do not understand the causes and cure of suffering. Yet, we believe you are present with all who suffer.  

Teach us, like Jonah, to take responsibility for our actions and to reverse our bad decisions. 

Teach us like Job, to rage at injustice and evil, and to hear your voice in the storm. 

Teach us to be like Jesus, who for the joy set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame. 

O father, lead us through the thorns that infest our world, through the pain around us, through the evil within us, until we love you truly and follow you faithfully. Bring us at last to that holy place where you banish suffering forever, and dry our tears, and cure our fears.  

Amen. 

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.  

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube

Ep.298: Famine, Crucifixion, and Cancer.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

This is our fourth episode on the problem of evil, as we ask, “Why does a loving and powerful God permit so much evil in the world?” 

Today we look at Joseph in the Old Testament. His father Jacob had 12 sons by two wives and two slaves, creating a complicated family dynamic. Joseph, son number 11, was his father’s favorite, and his brothers’ least favorite.

Once, when the ten older brothers were herding sheep, Jacob sent Joseph to see how they were doing. They were doing just fine without Joseph, so they sold him into slavery in Egypt, dipped his coat in goat’s blood, and took it to their father, saying, “Is this your son’s coat?” Father Jacob was devastated.

In Egypt, Joseph suffered through slavery, trumped up criminal charges, and prison, until he was vindicated and promoted to ruler of Egypt, second in command to Pharaoh. He helped his big boss prepare Egypt for seven years of famine. 

During the famine, Joseph’s 10 older brothers came from their starving home in Canaan to buy food in Egypt. Joseph recognized them, but they didn’t recognize him. Joseph tested them until he was confident they regretted treating him badly. Then he held a lost-brother reveal party, and invited them to emigrate to Egypt so he could look after them.  

Years later, when father Jacob died, the ten were afraid Joseph would finally execute revenge on them for selling him into slavery. But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God meant it for good, to save many lives” (Gen. 50:24). God was at work in the brother’s evil plans, using them as part of his good plan.

In the Book of Acts, Peter addresses a similar theme. He says to the Israelites, “Jesus was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge, and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to a cross” (Acts 2:23). It’s like Joseph told his brothers: “You executed evil on your victim, but God incorporated even your evil actions in his good plan.” 

When Kate Bowler, a Duke University professor, was diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer, she wrote the book, Everything Happens for a Reason: and Other Lies I’ve Loved (United States: Random House, 2019). The title reminds me of the version of Romans 8:28 I memorized as a child: “All things work together for good to those who love God.”  A better translation is: “In all things, God works for the good of those who love him.” It’s not “everything” that is working together for good. Rather, God is the active agent, he is working in everything–in Joseph’s slavery, in Kate Bowler’s cancer, even in Jesus’ crucifixion. 

Let’s pray. 

Our father, we have said many words we wish we could unsay. We have done many deeds we wish we could undo. We have seen pictures we would unsee and read books we would unread. 

But you are a God who works in everything. You worked through the death threats of Joseph’s brothers, through the trumped up charges and execution of Jesus, through Kate Bowler’s battle with cancer. 

Help us believe that you are at work in our lives and our world. Work through the violence of war. Work through the untimely deaths of children. Work through the machinations of politicians and the consumerism of society and the lies of conspiracy theories. O God, bring about your own conspiracy, a conspiracy of love and justice and salvation. 

Amen. 

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.  

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube

Ep.297: How Small Is Your God?

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

This is our third episode on the problem of evil. If God is powerful and loving, why is there so much evil? Isn’t he powerful enough to stop evil? Is he not loving enough to care?

American author, apologist, and theologian Timothy Keller suggests these questions are a poor place to begin (Walking with God through Pain and Suffering, chapter 4). In our modern, rational, skeptical way of thinking, he says, , the questions play to preconceived biases rather than open inquiry. 

During coffee hour at church a while back, a man told me he didn’t believe in God. Why, I asked. Because a loving and powerful God would never permit the evil we see all around us. I simply said: “So if you were God, you’d run things differently. You’d stop the evil and spread some love around.” 

I continued,“It’s clear that God’s program sure isn’t the one you’d run. Have you read the Bible to see if God tells us what his program is? And why it might be different than yours?” 

Timothy Keller suggests that the question of God’s love and power plays better with a more rounded view of God. Certainly, God is powerful and loving, but he is also glorious, majestic, wise, without beginning or end, creator and sustainer of all things. He is a much more active and complex character than the abstract and philosophical being posited in the question, “If God is loving and powerful . . .” 

A blogger I read recently provided a list of ways to think (Lewis, Bob. “Thinking about Thinking.” Web blog post. IS Survivor Publishing. 21 March 2022. Accessed 23 March 2022 at https://issurvivor.com/2022/03/21/thinking-about-thinking/). One of his methods is “Plausibility Testing” which he describes as “Assessing whether an explanation passes the don’t-be-ridiculous test, keeping in mind that quantum physics doesn’t pass the test.” To a modern way of thinking and feeling, neither quantum physics nor God passes the don’t-be-ridiculous test, but perhaps both exist. And perhaps neither is easily explained. 

As a friend said, “If I can understand God’s thinking and his ways, he’s not much bigger than me. That’s not much of a God at all!” 

Let’s pray. 

Our father, we have studied scripture and contemplated nature and analyzed history and  scrutinized people. We have found that only faith sees beyond the narrow rationalism of our culture. Only faith leads us out of out narrow prejudices to a wide appreciation of your world. Only faith questions a skeptical, despairing response to evil, and leads to hope and peace. 

Teach us the way of faith. Teach us to think and feel and live our faith, even when doubts assail and questions go unanswered. As the  apostle Paul said, “Where there are prophecies, they will cease. Where there tongues, they will be stilled. Where there is knowledge, it will pass away. And now remain these three: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love” (1 Cor 13:8, 13).

Amen. 

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.  

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube

Ep.296: Free to do Evil.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

Today we continue our series on the problem of evil, asking: If God is powerful and loving, why is there so much evil? Is he too weak to stop it? Or not loving enough to care? 

One popular answer is that God wanted to create people who would love him, and that love is only possible when people have free will. So when God gave Adam and Eve the world as their playground, he imposed a prohibition, a tree with forbidden fruit, to test their love and obedience.

Think about that.

The whole world? Now there’s a generous gift! But, as many of us have discovered, love is not measured in gifts given and received, but in relationship. Surely God didn’t think such a gift would make Adam and Eve love him fully and automatically. The story hints that God was working toward a relationship, like when he walked with them in the Garden. But it doesn’t read like a love story, with God wooing Adam and Eve into a  relationship of love.

And think about that prohibition. If I see a child running between parked cars into traffic, I don’t question whether I should violate her free will. I’ll grab her arm and pull her back. And then talk with her about safety. Her love may grow as she matures–if I create room for her to grow, by restraining her foolish childish impulses.

When Adam and Eve contemplated the forbidden fruit, couldn’t God have initiated a helpful conversation, saying: “Hey, if you meet a talking snake, watch out for bad advice. Let me show you a bit of the snake’s plan for a world of evil and death. That might not be the way you want to go.”

Do you think unrestrained freedom is necessary for love? Scripture says God is love. It also says he’s not free to lie, to break promises, or even be tempted by evil. Could he not have made humans in his image, free to learn and grow in love, without the long threat of evil hanging over the human race? 

Let’s pray. 

Our father, as we look at the horrors in our world, as Russia destroys Ukrainian cities, as thousands die and millions seek refuge, we ask, “Is human freedom worth that price? A few of us use our freedom to give you a small amount of love, while others use their freedom to kill and maim and destroy. 

Our father, perhaps we know less than we thought about freedom and slavery. Why did you give Adam and Eve a capability even you do not have–the capacity to be tempted by sin? Did they understand the consequences of their choice, or did they stumble inadvertently, as we so often do, into a labyrinth of evil? 

Our father, it’s a long way back home from where the world and its people have come. Be to us father and savior and God. Lead us and our world on that journey home, we pray.   

Amen. 

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.  

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube