Questions about Evil and Suffering

Well, good morning. My name is Paul. I'm also on staff, one of your pastors here, and the pastor of outreach and missions, which means I am usually away. So it's kind of a reverse this week. I'm usually away and René's usually here, or if not René, then Mark. But Mark, instead of flying east with René, he heard about the subject today. So he flew west and he told me that he's on an inner city mission to Honolulu. I think he's in Lahaina at this point. But anyway, yes. So it's a reversal today. But that's okay. I got to tell you that I'm so privileged to be able to be your outreach pastor for sure. I can't believe I get to do that, but I'm also privileged to be able to do this topic today because at heart, you want to know what lights my fires. It's I'm a pre evangelist at heart.

What do I mean by that? I mean that I like nothing more. I'm wired to the core to want to remove hurdles that keep people from even entertaining the question about Jesus, even starting the conversation. I love to say you have this, this doubt, this, this, this objection, this, this thing you're angry about. Let me help you remove that. And now are you willing to talk about Christ? And that's where the evangelists then come in, like Gary Williams. He's great at that. So that's my heart. I love to do that. So it's a real privilege for me today to be able to be with you and do that because today is the day. It's the first of four weekends that we take all the emails and questions that you sent to us about tough questions about our beliefs.

You sent them in, we compiled them and we've come up with your top four. And today, lucky for me, we take on your number one question, the number one. It's an age old classic. It goes something like this. If God allows evil and suffering because he can't stop it, well, he might be all good, but he certainly isn't all powerful. You follow that? And then you reverse it. If God allows evil and suffering and he can stop it, but chooses not to, well, he might be all powerful, but then it doesn't sound to me like he's very good. All right. In short, let me just put it this way. If God is all loving and good over here and he's all powerful over here and yet evil and suffering exists, how can we have the God we say we have? It just doesn't make sense. Right?

I mean, if we're honest, this is a big problem for us as believers. A lot of people struggle with this question. They have ages. Um, and the problem, uh, it seems to just be getting bigger, doesn't it? I mean, slavery and human trafficking, never worse disease kills more today than ever. Wars seem to never, never cease starvation, all time highs, tsunamis, earthquakes, tornadoes, thunder showers. I mean, is it just me or is there another natural disaster every week? I mean, honestly, God says he loves us, right? But is it just me or do we live on a planet that's ostensibly our home planet, right? But it's a planet that seems very dangerous. It's a planet where it seems to me it's easy to find a way to die. Isn't it?

And this is the God that loves us who gave us this place, but even closer to home, that's all nice philosophical stuff. What about for you? What about for me? What about when you're at home at night all by yourself laying in the dark and you're saying, God, why do I have to suffer like I do? This thing really comes home, doesn't it? Well, that's a word to tackle. Uh, this is a big one and I don't know about you, but I've wrestled with it and I've often wondered, boy, Lord, you say you can do all these things. You have all the power. What? It just seems so bad though. I mean, even miss America contestants have a platform to stamp out all suffering and evil, right? They say I'm going to end hunger. We're going to educate all the kids and all the worlds and of total world peace, right? That's their platform. Every one of them. It's great. I compliment them for it. Okay. And then I want to say, well, God, what's your platform? I mean, they say that what about you? I want to know where he is. I want to know what's gone wrong with his world. It seems like a lot has gone wrong.

One of my favorites, GK Chester, that put it the most succinctly with the London times a while back, asked in a big spread, what's wrong with the world? Chester sin in the letter to the editor responded like this, dear sirs, I am sincerely yours. GK Chester. Now, so for sure Chester's there was hitting on something, wasn't he? And that is that we are responsible for a lot of our own suffering. Aren't we? I mean, we do some of the lame brain things that well, people make shows out of. If you're a fan of America's funniest home videos, you know what I'm talking about. They don't ever have to do any filming of their own. People send in the material. Okay. If you're not a fan of the show, here is a sampling and you'll get what I'm talking about. Under inflated or dad is overinflated. He came, he seesaw, he conquered. It looks like it's closing time at this branch. Oh, she was born to be wild about 80 years ago. It's baby's first time in the water and it might be grandpa's last. I know he couldn't wait to use the slide, but he should have spent more time on the installation. It's the tour de gramps.

What is it about people that say, Hey, grandpa, grandma, I think it'd be a good idea for you to get on the mini bike or ride around the pool. You just think we would know better than this. So obviously we are right here. We're the problem in a lot of ways as far as why there is suffering and evil for sure. But we all know in our heart, we're not totally to blame. Are we? There's a lot of evil that's done to us or done by other people to other people that we know is just way beyond what we can even imagine. And we're not to blame for that. What about God? Now there at least it seems to me two major aspects of this complaint, this wrestling with what we call the classic problem of evil. First, there's a philosophical. Okay. That's something like this. This is where we ask, are the atheists really correct? I mean, is it incoherent to believe in an all loving, all good God, all powerful, and yet evils here too, like it is? Are they right?

But then there's the personal. This is where we cry out. Why was my upbringing so abusive? Why am I always so lonely? Why won't God heal my loved one? Can't he do that or heal me? I've been sick all my life. Or why did God allow the person, the person most dear to me in this life to die before their time? Why? Why? Every one of us has asked that. So it's philosophical and it's very personal for one man. These two things came together in a powerful way. Many don't know this, but Billy Graham, the most famous evangelist in our country's history, had a right hand preacher man, so to speak. His name was Charles Templeton. The Templeton was a very gifted preacher in his own right. In fact, many thought that Templeton would surpass Billy Graham in ability and fame. Okay? He was that good, but Templeton struggled from the get-go with this problem. It just seemed to eat at him. And sadly, finally, it got the best of him. And Templeton actually quit the ministry and eventually left God. He walked away from faith, wrote a book about it.

When asked by a reporter, was there a defining moment, Mr. Templeton, when your belief was broken? This is what he said. Yes. He said it was when he looked at a Life magazine photograph of an African mother standing on a drought-ruined land, holding her dead baby in her arms and looking to the heavens for some kind of answer and hope. And yet, none appeared forthcoming. He said, "How could a loving God do this to that woman? Who runs the rain anyway? I don't. You don't. He does." Or that's what I thought. But when I saw that photograph, I immediately knew it was not possible for this to happen and for there to be a loving God. There was no way. Who else but a fiend could destroy a baby and virtually kill its mother with agony when all she needed was rain? Just a little rain, God.

Well, what would you say to Charles Templeton? Maybe you're so mad right now. You're kind of saying, "Well, I'm with him. I'm mad, too." I would respect that. But really, what can we say? Well, let me just say at the start here, it's my humble, modest goal to help us sort of take a step towards better understanding and wrestling with this problem. This is not the kind of thing you solve or are satisfied by in one point in time in one 35-minute sermon. This is a journey. It takes a while to wrestle with this. Really a lifetime. Well then, if that's the case, Paul, does the Bible have anything to say about this journey of wrestling with the problem of evil? Yes, it does. We're very fortunate about this because the Bible actually takes this issue head on. It's throughout from Genesis to Revelation.

So let's start. If you have a Bible or you have one of the pews there, turn to page 857. And if you're in the venue service watching by SelmaCast, I know you use different versions. So venue, it's after Hebrews and before Revelation. So look there. But for you folks here, it's on page 857. 1 Peter 3. I'll start reading at verse 3. It says this, "Praise be to God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In his great mercy, he has given us new birth in a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials."

Wow, what's he talking about? Here's their setting. If you know your history, you know that the Christians at the start were all under the thumb of the mighty Roman Empire and its horrible devil-like emperors. How bad historians tell us that under Nero, Christians were covered with skins of wild beasts and then torn by dogs in games. Some were crucified. Some were burned as torches to light the night. That's Nero. Under Domitian, Christians were slaughtered in the arenas, impaled on stakes, crucified along the highways near Rome so that all could see. Want to be a Christian? That's what you get. That's what Peter is talking about when he writes about this hope. He's writing to people going through this. So what's his prescription for them? What does he say to people like that? Well first in your notes, grab those. He says, "Look up. Look up to discover objective and absolute truth." Look up to discover objective and absolute truth.

Again, that verse 3 gives us the launch point here. It says that we have this hope through the resurrection of Jesus and this inheritance is kept in heaven for us. Okay, so we start by looking up at this inheritance in heaven, okay? And it comes from, it seems to me, a proven source. It says this Jesus resurrected. That's the kind of thing a God does, right? And so we have a promise from a super authority. Now this is really critical because now that we've made a connection with this ultimate authority, all right, he's objective, we can rise above the level of just my opinion versus yours. Follow me here now. Before we can even label something as even this is good and this is evil. If we want to get beyond just Paul's opinion versus somebody else's or yours versus somebody else's, we've got to go to the creator, the original source and author of everything and say, "Hey Lord, you're the maker. You tell us what are even the categories for good and for evil. Otherwise, we'll just argue all the time."

I mean, it's kind of like buying a diamond ring, right? The couple goes in to buy the ring and the guy says, "Wow, honey, that's the prettiest most valuable one. Get that one." And the wife says or the fiance says, "Um, no, I actually like this one and I think that's the best one." Well, who's right? How do you decide? Well, the lady's all here now. The woman gets to have it, right? Yeah, guy's just a little tip there. Okay? Just go with what she says. All right? Seriously, how would you decide in a level playing field? You'd go to the diamond specialists. Well, in the same way, if we want to know what's good and what's evil, we'd like to go to the ultimate authority on things like good and evil. Then we'll know what's absolutely good, just and true.

Martin Luther King in his famous letter from the Birmingham jail totally understood this. He said, "We need absolute truth." And he wrote, "The only way we can know whether a human law is unjust or not is if there is a higher divine law that provides a standard to go by." Boy, then illustrating this point, the brilliant Ravi Zacharias in front of a college campus where they were kind of hostile towards the faith and asking him tough questions about this kind of thing. He said this. He said, "When you say there is such a thing as evil, you must also say there is such a thing as good. When you say there is such a thing as good, you must also say there is such a thing as a moral law by which to differentiate between good and evil. When you say there is such a thing as a moral law, you must assume there exists a moral law giver." But that's who the anti-theists are trying to disprove, right? So if there is no moral law, there is no moral... Excuse me. If there is no moral law giver, there is no moral law. If there is no moral law, then there is no good. If there is no good, then there is no evil. The question actually self-destructs. Pretty smart guy, isn't he? Yes.

And then the famous Dostoevsky in his classic Brothers Karamazov, one of his characters summed it up. He said, "If the immortal God doesn't exist, then everything would be permitted, even anthropophagy." What's that? It's cannibalism. And he's right. Now follow me here. Because if there is no God and no moral law giver, then whether I love my neighbor as myself or I eat him really makes no difference in the long term, does it? Because in a million or so years, we're all going to be space dust anyway. So what does it matter what I do right now? So he's right. I mean, if naturalism is it, if there's no God, then we might have feelings that eating neighbors are bad. I mean, it might make property values go down, right? It's a great deterrent for trick-or-treaters and Jehovah's Witnesses. They're going to kind of go there. Did you see the bones in the backyard? I don't think they're chicken bones. I think that guy's eating people. I mean, it's a great deterrent. But we can't say it's right or wrong without a God to tell us what's right and wrong.

You should be even glad today that you're here because by being here, if there's no God, you are amongst the survived of the fittest. You've made it. You're the winners in this whole game, if there's no God. But we know there is. And this is what we have to look up so that when we have disputes among ourselves, we go to a source above ourselves to get the answers. You say, Paul, man, this is kind of heady stuff. I don't know. This is really practical. I mean, really, come on. Yes, it is. I had the privilege of being on a university panel where the whole thing was during the political season and it was on hot topics. And as they introduced all of us panelists, it became evident to me pretty soon that I was kind of the only one of my kind there. And the audience picked up on this and it was beginning to rumble a little bit. And before I even got to say my thing, someone stands up a young man. He just looks at me and he points and he says, we don't want your types telling us how to vote. That's how we started. I said, well, good day to you too.

Now I actually said, I'm not here to tell you how to vote. I said, how do you vote? I turned it back to him. He said, well, I make an educated conclusion based on good facts. And then I go to the polls and I vote. I said, well, in response, why should we trust your educational conclusions that you came to to make your choice? Well, because I've done my homework. I know what I'm talking about. I've consulted sources. So I turned it back. I said, why should we trust your sources that they're informing you correctly and then you're voting correctly? And kind of just stopped and went and he got smart and he said, well, you tell me how you vote. Turn it back to me. I said, well, okay, I'll tell you how I vote. This is what I do. I consider my ultimate source of authority, my ultimate moral law giver, Jesus. I said, anybody got a problem with Jesus? Nobody said anything. No. Okay. This Jesus is corroborated by the Bible and by history, good sources there. It's not just circular reasoning.

And this Jesus, my law giver gave me a moral lie. He calls it his word. He said the word is his, his way to go about things. It's got like a good book on morality. So I look at my morals from his book. And then from there, I, I, I look in that book and in a nutshell, it says, love Jesus and love your neighbors yourself. Anybody got a problem with that? No, no problem. I said, so then I go to the booth and I say, huh, how would this issue or this candidate best help me love God and love my neighbor as myself? Bing. That's how I vote. Any problems. No one had any problems with that. So you see, it's very practical and you've got to have it. If you don't have that ultimate link, everything else is just, just relative. It's just whatever you want to do.

So the students became to see, they came to see that all our actions, our votes, our attitudes do have to come from somewhere. And that's why it's critical that we start with this perspective of looking up so that we can say, God, what would you say? You're the source. Otherwise we can be totally fooled. If we're just looking at our own little ways a while back, a photo was circulating and the claim was we have discovered the abominable snow monster. We got a photo of them and there it is. We're going to get famous. We're the ones that got the first photo. He's terrible. He's probably just terrorizing the countryside and causing women and children to scream and men to run away. But upon further review, they got an objective pulled back view and next though monster was a guinea pig. There goes our millions.

The same thing happened to a guy in London. Everybody thought, man, that guy's got a hot blonde. What a lucky guy spending his time in the park there. Good for him. Pull back a little bit and it turns out his girlfriend's a dog. Yeah, literally. Too bad. So yeah, we have to get objectivity from God if we're going to know what the truth is. That's where we start. All right, so we've got that connection with God. He says, I'm the truth. What does he say? What's his truth? Secondly, he says, you need to look back to what he did, God, in response to this evil. What did God do? You look back to what God did in response to evil. And right from the beginning, he said in Genesis 1:31, God saw that all he had made and it was very good. It was great in the beginning. Perfect. But as you know, we fell, we chose rebellion and sin. As René has pointed out, it caused sort of a sin bomb and the sin bomb went off and it affected us, our relationships with ourselves, with others, with God, with nature, with creation.

The Bible even says that to this day, creation groans, waiting to be restored by God because of the fallout of this bomb. That's where we're at now. So we needed to rescue her. And this is where Jesus enters the story. He comes in and says, all right, all of you people that helped the sin bomb, yeah, I'm offering forgiveness. So we get that. But the justice of what went wrong had to be paid. Right? When someone does an injustice against you, you're okay with forgiveness, but somebody needs to pay the price. This is why we have prisons and so forth. Okay. And so Jesus did that. He paid the price, but we still had to satisfy justice. And that's where the cross enters the story because of the cross. Now, the justice is taken care of giving forgiveness. It's full package. And here's, here's where it relates even personally, because of what we see in Jesus on the cross, we can now relate because he relates totally to what happened.

He relates to suffering and evil. Just think about what happened to him on that cross here. He suffered character assassination, mockery, unjust imprisonment, terrible abuse and torture. Finally, he was murdered by having nails put through his hands and his feet on a cross. And he also felt the crushing blow of being utterly abandoned by his friends. Remember? And then also by his father. This is why I think he cried out. Why have you forsaken me? He was abandoned. He felt all of that. He can relate. He also went to the deepest depths for us in suffering. Now, now some of you scholars who go, wait a minute, Paul, we know that other people suffered worse physical death than Jesus. Yeah, it was bad for him, but we know of worse. True. I mean, even the tradition of our, of the original disciples has some of them being impaled on stakes, burned, boiled and skinned alive. That was the first disciples we think from tradition. So that's worse, isn't it? Yes, physically, but no, ultimately think about why Jesus cried out.

He is taking upon himself the burden of all of our sins, mine, yours, every last man, woman and child in the history of this race, this species, and taking them all upon himself just in that moment. And that's why I think with that burden, that cosmic level burden, he said, why, why God have you turned your back on me in this moment? That is something no one else can even come close to. That is ultimate suffering. And at the very end, a father in heaven loses his young son in his prime. So he knows that suffering as well. Jesus, God, they understand suffering. They know it personally. They can relate to us. And please, at this point, this is kind of critical. Don't envision God as like kind of getting caught off guard by suffering and evil to where he then goes, Oh my goodness, these things are going bad down there. And he's like this cosmic switchboard operator and goes, Oh, here's a healing here. And I'll help. Oh, is another prayer coming in here? I'll try to help that person. Oh, we got a flood here and a hurricane there. That's not the picture of the Bible.

The picture of the Bible is not God reacting passively or just randomly. The picture is him entering in personally first on the cross. And then Jesus saying, when I go, I'm going to give you something even more. I can be one place at one time as he allowed himself. He's now sitting the comforter, the Holy Spirit who the Bible says comes to be with us is known by us and is innocent some mysterious way. That means we always have God with us in the midst of the trials. And he's not just with us. He gets it. He's been there. That's incredible promise. In your notes, you have one more scripture there that I love. So I put it in there. It's from Isaiah 43:2. Now, yes, it was written to old Testament believers originally in exile, but the application is still for us today, as far as God with us, because the Holy Spirit is with us. Listen to what it says. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. When you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned. The flames will not set you ablaze. And notice the core of that promise doesn't say we'll be kept from the fire. It says that God will be with us in the midst of the fire.

And it's a spiritual promise because the early Christians, many, they were burned at the stake. Literally, they weren't kept free from the physical fires, but nothing of eternal value was touched their souls, their resurrection bodies, not touched. That's the promise. That's the promise for me and you. It's never ever wasted these sufferings, by the way. I know some of it seems just way over the top and egregious, but some of it is so purposeful. Think of our very own lead pastor. I don't think René is our pastor unless he and his family suffer like they did when he was a young boy. I mean, consider, remember when he was five, he loses his birth father. Before he gets out of college, he loses his step daddy. We all know René today is the guy that loves Jesus. Why? I think because he clinged to the only daddy that would never be taken away. He had to, he had no choice. And what's raised big message, grace, grace, grace. Where did he get that from? Because as his young mom or his mother, who was under the poverty level, saw gift after food, after shoe delivery, after more food delivered to their doorstep, little René watched that and he learned that the people of God give good gifts. They were gracious. They suffered. But we wouldn't have them today, would we, without that?

So there's a place for it, for sure. We don't always know the why, why did it happen, but we sure do have the who, the who is with us, God. A famous Christian that's becoming a hero of mine really got this, this living through the fires and not giving up and trusting in the spirit. Her name was Annie Johnson Flint. Let me just tell you a little bit about Annie here. She was orphaned. She was most of her life incontinent. Most of her life had rheumatoid arthritis and most of her life had one or another form of cancer. That's Annie's life forever until she's with the Lord. And yet, in the midst of all that, Annie wrote this, he giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater. He sendeth more strength when the labors increase. To added affliction, he addeth his mercy. To multiply trials, he multiplied peace. When we have exhausted our store of endurance, when our strength has failed or the day is have done, when we reach the end of our hoarded resources, our fathers forgiving has only begun. His love has no limit, his grace has no measure, his power has no boundary known unto men. For out of his infinite riches in Jesus, he giveth and giveth and giveth again.

How in the world did Annie have the wherewithal to write that poem, that hymn? She looked back to the cross and knew that somebody else had suffered and somebody identified with her and that somebody promised her a comforter, a spirit that said, "I will never leave you." Now, at least to our last point, we look up for the objective standard. We look back to Christ. We look ahead, ahead to when God makes all things new. Have you ever wondered what could it, what in the world did it take for Christ to leave all that he had and to come into the form of a person through it? Like as a baby, he had to have people change his own diapers. He gave up all the power of that being and had to grow up like a young boy in that culture. What? And then suffer as he did. Why? Well, the Bible tells us. Hebrews 12:2. "For the joy set before him," he endured the cross. And in Isaiah 53:10–11, he says, "Jesus will see his offspring," that's you and me, "after he has suffered, he will justify many." So for the joy Jesus would get at justifying many whom he would not just call the justified, he called him his offspring, his family. That is what got Christ to come for you and for me. That's what he looked forward to.

So what do we get to look forward to? Well, let me just show you a couple of things that really are exciting to me. If you've ever been abused or dealt with unjustly, here's a scripture for you. Acts 17:31, "He," God, "has set a day when he will judge the world with justice." It's going to come. And when Christ returns, it is written, "What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, what no human mind has conceived," these things God has prepared for those who love Him. In 1 Corinthians 15, listen, I'm going to cut through some of this though, "We will all be changed, the dead will be raised and clothed with the imperishable and the mortal with the immortality. Then the saying that is written will come true, death has been swallowed up in victory." Incredible, imperishable, glorified, perfect body. You've got to realize something. Jesus said that the resurrected bodies will be like angels. Think about when angels show up in the Bible, what happens? People are, "Ahh!" Right? They're blown away because angels are awesome and magnificent and that is how Christ describes your glorified body. Are you ready for that? I know you are. Some of you are nodding your heads. Yeah, it's supposed to say if you're over 50. And let's admit it, this is for you young people. This is what happens when you get older.

I want that new body because as you get older, when you're young, I just speak to the men here, I'll leave the ladies out of this. When you're in your 20s and 30s, men, right? We kind of got that, "Whew!" That V-shaped torso body thing going on. We're pretty stoked about it. We got the nice profile going, right? We're nice and straight, straight line. But then after your 20s and 30s, you kind of, you discover that the buttocks migrates is what I say. It just kind of, it goes away somewhere. And I think it kind of comes out here. You know, the abs start to go, right? And then it transfers to the front. So you got no buttocks. This is growing now. And then for some reason, our backs are not content with the real estate they've been giving. So they begin to annex the lower neck, right? And it tips your head forward. So, you know, you're walking around, "Ah, how you doing? I'm having a date. Yeah, I know. I'm looking pretty good, huh?" Yeah. And you don't even know what's coming to you, right? I mean, that's what happens to us as you get older. And I don't know about you, but I'm able to injure myself without doing anything. I mean, the phone rings, "Honey, get the phone. Okay. Hurry, it could be mother. All right. Ah, ah, ah, ah, I pulled the muscle. Ah, ah, what happened? I pulled the muscle. Get in the phone. Go lay down, dear. Okay, I'll lay down. Oh, my back, my back. I mean, you just get hurt doing nothing. Anybody got hurt doing nothing? Yes. I'm with you on this. So I am looking forward to that resurrected, immortal, perfect body. Yes.

Also at the end, Revelation 21 says, "I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. There was no longer any sea. I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard the loud voice of the throne saying, 'Look, God's dwelling place is now among the people. He's coming to us again. Do you see that? He will dwell with them. He will be with his people and God will be with them and be their God. And he will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain. For the old order of things has passed away. He who was seated on the throne said, 'I am making everything new.'" Wow. Like Peter's first audience, these recipients of Revelation, same Roman Empire torture. And yet they survived. The Roman Empire, which tortured them, is a long gone relic of history. But that little empire, that little kingdom of God has started with nothing, is now continuing to spread across the globe.

In the hour or so we will meet here today, in another land around the globe in China, Christians are being persecuted for their faith. And yet we are told by a misseologist that every hour, 3,000 Chinese give their life to Christ. So the Roman Empire is gone. The kingdom of God is on the move and is continuing to grow like never before. How is that happening? The early Christians, the Chinese, they look and they see God and they see that heavenly inheritance. They look ahead to what's coming. We can have that too. It's kind of like this. A man has a wife and baby and he's thrown into a dungeon. And before he goes in, he gets news that his wife and baby have died. That man, trying to serve a 10-year sentence, doesn't make it. He gives up, he dies. Another man, also with a wife and child, gets news right before he goes into the dungeon that they have made it, they're alive, and they're going to await his return. He makes it. He survives. What's the difference? Same pit of despair circumstances. What's the difference? The difference is the second man has a outlook of the future. He realizes that his now is controlled by the then. That his present outlook is controlled by a future, future vision. Yes, evil and suffering will be no more. That is our future vision.

In the meantime, I know we still struggle with, "Is God really good?" That might be fine for other people. I've heard about good stuff for other people. What about me? Is he really good? This video touches on that as well as other things. Check this out. Is God good? If he is, why is there suffering and evil? Let us assume for the moment that God is all-powerful. This means that God can do anything that is logically possible. So he can create galaxies and subatomic particles and rainforests and you. But God cannot do what is logically impossible. He cannot make a square circle or a one-ended stick. So can God make a rock so big that he can't lift it? No. So what if when God created human beings, he wanted them to be free? Freedom is a good thing. But if humans are to be free, they cannot be forced to obey God. Because freedom without choice is like a square circle. It's a logical contradiction. No choice, no freedom. God didn't want robots. He wanted real people. The first humans endowed with the awesome power of free choice abuse their freedom. The tragic consequences of their bad choice and our bad choices ripple across the world. God is responsible for the fact of freedom. But humans are responsible for their acts of freedom. But let's remember we don't suffer alone. God will put an end to suffering and evil. And God became a man to suffer with us. God is good and he wants real people like you to know him. But the free choice is yours.

I think that gives us a clue as to why God doesn't just get to the point and end all the suffering, get to the end of history, just make us all good now. Why does he wait? I think that the hint there is among other things that God is far more in the business of growing us up and into soul making than he is just in temporary absence of pain. There's something there about that that he values more than anything. I think that's it. So be encouraged. I know the recipe for growing us up isn't always pleasant, but I want you to be encouraged. You don't have to turn away like Templeton did. Read the Psalms, check out those resources. And I got one for you today that was encouraging to me. And I think it will encourage you. It says, "When my heart was grieved, my spirit embittered." So this person's grieving and they're mad. Then they went senseless and ignorant. And the psalmist admits, "I was like a brute beast before you." Probably misbehaved in all kinds of ways. And yet, in spite of that, what is the response? "Yet I'm always with you. You hold me by my right hand. You guide me with your counsel and afterward you will take me to glory." In spite of being a brute beast. I think for now it's kind of like we're toddlers that don't get it. We don't understand why we can't play in the deep end of the swimming pool when we're a toddler. We don't understand why we can't run out into a street when we're a toddler. We don't understand. I remember seeing my own baby's eyes look at me as I helped hold them down when that monster in the white jacket came with that thing and stuck them. Why are you doing this to me? They don't understand. We are the toddlers now. But God, like the wise loving parent, knows what's best.

So when we go through the various pains and sufferings, we do know what the answer cannot be to this big question, the problem of evil. It cannot be that God doesn't care. Think about what Jesus did. It can't be that he doesn't care. He cares. Think about what he did. So when you boil it all down, we can walk through suffering alone without Jesus, or we can walk through suffering with Jesus. That's our choice. So let's ask God to help us do that as we pray. Would you bow with me, please? Heavenly Father, help those here today who are distant from you due to philosophical hurdles to keep on honestly seeking and not give up. I mean, all truth is your truth after all. So we're not afraid of what anyone will find at the end of their pursuits. May they find truth. Lord, I also pray for those for whom evil and suffering are not philosophical problems, but very, very personal ones because they came here today in the midst of a fiery trial. Please Jesus, by your Holy Spirit, you sent, give them comfort, strength, and hope. And for all of us, Lord, inspire us to be agents of change for you, delivery system, so to speak, of the blessings of the hereafter, to all who need rescuing and comfort and hope in the here and now. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.