C.S. Lewis on Pain

This is a scene from Shadowlands in which C.S. Lewis (played by Anthony Hopkins) gives a speech on why God allows pain.

The supremacy of Christ in an age of terror.

John Piper @ www.desiringgod.org addresses the meaning of the supremacy of Christ in an age of terror. He covers:

The Supremacy of God in All Things--No Exceptions

Sorrowful, Yet Always Rejoicing

"[We are] sorrowful, yet always rejoicing." (2 Corinthians 6:10).

• For those who love others, and not just their own comforts, this complexity means that we will rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep (Romans 12:15).
  

9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and the Constant Suffering in This World

Evil and Pain as a Pointer to the Need and Evidence for God

In the final section he deals with the issue of why Does Such a World Exist?

1. The reason this terrorized and troubled world exists is not because God is not in total control.

"The Bible is overwhelmingly clear that God governs everything in the universe from the smallest bird to the largest storm. "Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father" (Matthew 10:29). "Even winds and sea obey him" (Matthew 8:27). "The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord" (Proverbs 16:33). "The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will" (Proverbs 21:1). "Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it?" (Lamentations 3:37). "Does disaster come to a city, unless the Lord has done it?" (Amos 3:6). "He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him" (Mark 1:27). "I am God, and there is none like me . . . saying, 'My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose'" (Isaiah 46:9-10). There is no person or being in the universe that can thwart the sovereign will of God. Satan is his most powerful enemy and does much evil in the world, but he must first get God's permission, and none of his actions is outside God's governance. He never breaks free from his leash (Luke 22:31; Job 2:6-7; 42:11)".

2. The reason this terrorized and troubled world exists is not because God is evil or unjust.

"This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5). "Good and upright is the Lord" (Psalm 25:8) The angels cry before God day and night, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!" (Isaiah 6:3). And when he does things that seem evil to us, the Bible teaches us to speak to man like this: "As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good" (Genesis 50:20). God is not evil, even when he wills that evil come to pass. There are good and holy and just purposes in all he does. For those who love him he "works all things together for good" (Romans 8:28). Now and forever".

Four positive reasons why this world exists.

1.The reason this terrorized and troubled world exists is because God planned the history of redemption and then permitted sin to enter the world through our first parents, Adam and Eve.

2.The reason this terrorized and troubled world exists is because God subjected the natural world to futility. That is, God put the natural world under a curse so that the physical horrors we see around us in diseases and calamities would become a vivid picture of how horrible sin is. In other words, natural evil is a signpost pointing to the horrors of moral evil.

3. The reason this terrorized and troubled world exists is so that followers of Christ can experience and display that no pleasure and no treasure compares to knowing Christ. That is, the loss of every good thing in this world is meant to reveal that Christ himself more than compensates for all losses.

4. Finally, the reason this terrorized and troubled world exists is to make a place for Jesus Christ the Son of God to suffer and die for our sins. The reason there is terror is so that Christ would be terrorized. The reason there is trouble is so that Christ could be troubled. The reason there is pain is so that Christ could feel pain. This is the world God prepared for the suffering and death of his Son. This is the world where God made the best display of his love in the suffering of his Son.

Where Was God During the Virginia Tech Shootings?

(Photo: AP / The Virginian-Pilot, Stephen M. Katz)

ByLillian Kwon @ http://www.christianpost.com

Christian Post Reporter

Classes at Virginia Tech were canceled for the week and the campus began to quiet down as many students left for home after the shooting massacre. For those still lingering and in mourning, numerous faith groups have been on ground to lend a shoulder to cry on and answer the prevailing question "Why?"

Virginia Tech graduate student Ashley Renfrow, center, of Chesapeake, Va., holds hands with two other women at the Drillfield at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va., Wednesday afternoon, April 18, 2007, during a prayer service held to remember the victims of Monday's shooting rampage on the campus.

"Though it feels like a dark cloud is over the Blacksburg campus, God is present," said Wes Barts, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship staff member at Virginia Tech.

Since Monday morning's two shooting attacks that killed 33 people, including the gunman, Seung-Hui Cho, teams of Christian students and staff have spent the past several days walking around campus comforting people.

Many faced the inevitable question "Where is God?" or "Why did God allow this to happen?"

"They always tag this on God," evangelist Franklin Graham, head of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA), told the Christian Broadcasting Network.

The questions also come as NBC News received a 1,800-word statement and 27 QuickTime videos showing Cho talking to the camera discussing his hatred of the wealthy and complaining about Christianity. The mail had been postmarked during the more than two hours between the two shootings at the West Ambler Johnston Hall dormitory and Norris Hall engineering building at 9:01 a.m.

"You had a hundred billion chances and ways to have avoided today," said Cho in one of the videos that aired Wednesday night on NBC. He said he felt he had no other choice.

Meanwhile, the world renowned evangelist says, "God has given us a free choice and there's evil in this world. I tag this on the devil. He's responsible. He's the one who wants to seek and he's the one who wants to destroy," according to CBN.

While God's love is for every person, it doesn't mean bad things are not going to happen to people, Graham explained. What Cho did was not increase the death rate, he said.

"Every one of us is going to die. Every one of us is going to have to stand before God one day." As the Virginia Tech tragedy reminds everyone of the brevity of life, the question is, are we prepared to stand before God, Graham posed.

Another prominent evangelical, Dr. D. James Kennedy of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., answers the question "Where was God while all this was going on?"

"He was hanging on the cross," he states in his book Turn it to Gold.

"The cross is God’s ultimate solution to sorrow and suffering. Thus all of our pain is in His heart. Our God does not hold Himself aloof from our difficulties. He is right here, in the midst of our suffering, enduring more of it than any of us ever has or ever will. And not only that, but He gives us the power to bear our suffering."

Offering further insight into the question, Kennedy said that God uses pain and adversity for good in our lives. Suffering is used by God to make us more compassionate to others, to bring us closer to God, and to shape in His followers the character of Christ, he said.

While some mourning the death of a loved one or a close friend may be questioning God's presence or searching for Him, Christian groups from around the nation and right on the Virginia Tech campus have maintained a "ministry of presence," as the BGEA put it, displaying God's love through their prayers and counseling.

Graham's ministry sent 20 chaplains from the Rapid Response Team to the shooting site beginning Monday to talk with students still shocked by the nation's worst shooting rampage in U.S. history. As of Wednesday morning, the BGEA team prayed with over 250 students, six of whom made decisions for Christ.

Campus groups like InterVarsity and Chi Alpha Ministries are more focused on being available to hurting students and praying and ministering to them when opportunity arises.

Graham chooses to take a bold approach, directing students to "Almighty God."

"There's nothing I can say to ease somebody's heart," Graham told CBN. "But God can. God supernaturally can reach right into the heart [and] the soul of a human being to provide His comfort."

"The Bible makes it very clear that God loves us. He cares for us," he added. "I want students to know that God loves them and God has not abandoned them and that He's there for them right now if they'll just reach out by faith."

Still, in a time of mourning, sometimes the chaplains give nothing more than silent support and pray when requested.

The school's Baptist student center, the United Methodists' Wesley Foundation Center next to campus, and local area churches - including St. Francis Anglican Church - have opened their doors since the day of the shooting to welcome mourners and offer prayers throughout the day.

Campus Crusade for Christ urged for a concerted gathering across the country on Thursday to call on God. "It would be an incredible testimony and blessing to the Virginia Tech community to know there has been such an outpouring of love demonstrated by prayer," the national office stated.