Search Results: problem of pain
Satan and the Carnage of Nature
Category: General
…evidence of purposelessness — or worse, a purpose to destroy. This is Richard Dawkins’ (the famous scientific atheist who just wrote The God Delusion) main argument against belief in God. Evolutionary history, Dawkins writes, is a history of carnage, waste, and pain. In response, Schloss acknowledged the problem, offered a…
I’m NOT DEAD YET!
Category: General
Just like the famous rock group I play in, I’m NOT DEAD YET! I’m out of the hospital, alive and well. But, there WAS a little drama. I had to preach at the WHC 5:00 service tonight. Should have been no problem, since I’d already gotten clearance to get a…
Is There Room for Doubt in Faith?
Category: General
Tags: Benefit of the Doubt, Doubt, Faith, Jacob, Q&A, Wrestling with God
Topics: Faith & Doubt
…genre – including the “complaint against God” tradition – is found throughout the Old Testament. Many Psalms boldly raise questions, express doubts and even level accusations about God’s faithfulness while challenging the justice of his providential rule (e.g. Psa 89: 19-44). Similarly, as his pain and anger grew, Job did…
What the New Testament Says about Annihilation
Category: General
Tags: Annihilationism, Eschatology, Hell, Warfare Worldview
…will lose it, and those who lose their life … will find it” (Mt 10:39). To annihilationists, the contrast in these passages between death, losing life and perishing, on the one hand, and life, on the other, is incompatible with the contrast of eternal bliss with eternal pain that the…
Where Psychology and Theology Meet
Category: General
Tags: Cruciform Theology, God's Character, Guilt, Love, Sin
Topics: Attributes and Character
…that undergirds all false doctrine. Part of the sin problem is that we formulate pictures of God that justify our cruelty and injustice toward one another. Determinism is the most prominent and pervasive escape mechanism we humans have devised, showing up in nearly every worldview. It allows us to shift…
The Risk of Creation
Category: General
…humans could not be morally responsible for one another, which would mean that we would not have the potential genuinely to love one other. Such a world might be risk free and pain free, but it would not be a world worth creating. The consequence for creating a world that…
Must We Believe in Satan? As a Personal Agent?
Category: General, Guest Contributor
…and wrecking God’s creation. As you learn these things you find yourself nodding, because that’s just how nature appears: mostly good, but undeniably corrupted. This ancient teaching about Satan and demons, as bizarre as it seems to you, just so happen to solve this fundamental philosophical problem. In fact, you…