A Brief Book Notice from Books At a Glance
Table of Contents
Introduction (Christopher Morgan and Robert Peterson)
1 Christ and the Crocodiles: Suffering and the Goodness of God in Contemporary Perspective (Robert Yarbrough)
2 Suffering and the Goodness of God in the Old Testament (Walter Kaiser, Jr.)
3 Eight Kinds of Suffering in the Old Testament (Walter Kaiser, Jr.)
4 Suffering and the Goodness of God in the Gospels (Dan McCartney)
5 Suffering in the Teaching of the Apostles (Dan McCartney)
6 Suffering and the Biblical Story (Robert Peterson)
7 The Problem of Evil (John Frame)
8 Suffering and Oppression (William Edgar)
9 Poems in the Dark: My Cancer and God’s Grace (David Calhoun)
10 A Journey in Suffering: Personal Reflections on the Religious Problem of Evil (John Feinberg)
Selected Quotes
- On this side of heaven, suffering will remain mysterious. Pat answers do not suffice, and indeed they often only add to the hurt. Nevertheless, while the Bible does not tell us everything we would like to know about suffering, it does teach much about it. (21)
- Therefore, if we are to gain a balanced view of the problem of pain and suffering, it must be considered in the context of the goodness of God. (48)
- Lamentations does not give easy answers, for there are none, but it deals honestly with the pain and binds the suffering community together as they encounter God in the midst of their grief. (57)
- The problem of the suffering of God’s people is to some degree the backdrop of the entire New Testament. A thesis of the New Testament, perhaps the thesis, is that the answer to the problem of suffering and death lies in the suffering and death of Jesus Christ. (79)
- Count it all joy, says James, i.e., entirely a matter of joy, when you meet trials, because that is how we grow up into the men and women God wants us to be. Again, it is not the trial itself that produces maturity but the faithful endurance or steadfastness, staying the course, that brings one to completeness. (105)
- Scripture, therefore, gives us an explicit answer to the problem of natural evil. Natural evil is a curse brought upon the world because of moral evil. (142)
- Once we recognize the true extent of suffering, then, with God’s power we may be agents of transformation, called to bring people out of bondage and into true and meaningful freedom. (181-82)
- The good shepherd who leads us in the valley of the shadow of death is also the great physician, who, wounded himself, knows firsthand our pain, and who is so compassionate that he hurts to heal. (203)
- God, the King, is in charge of life and death. All is in his hands. All the rest is circumstance—and all that is in his hands, too. (207)
- When the wounds of battle come, and they will come, we need the comfort and care of God. I am so thankful God is there to give it! (237)
Endorsements
- Jerry Bridges
When people are hurting they need biblical answers, not platitudes. Here the editors and authors have thoroughly combed the Scriptures to give us the answers we need in tough times. This book should help both those who are suffering and those called upon to comfort and encourage others in their suffering.
- Bryan Chapell
The skeptic chides: “If God is good, he is not God; if God is God, he is not good.” With Scripture to answer the pain of real life questions, and with real life pain to question Scripture, these theologians address the hardest questions with honesty, tenderness, and deep truth.