One of the great questions of our age goes like this: “If God is good — and all-powerful — why does He allow evil and suffering?” Just yesterday I say down with a college student and discussed this. For a few years I’ve been able to read and grate first-year seminary students’ attempts to answer that question, in light of Scripture. The theological term for this discussion is theodicy, as in the justice of God. It is asking God to justify Himself for what we see. (Note the irony in the phrase: we should be on trial, not God, for being inconsistent and limited.) The...

A friend asked if I would join in a “Sovereignty of God blog series” this Summer, giving no set boundaries other than to ask us to share how we interact with God’s sovereignty from a theological and personal perspective. On the docket are lots of well-known bloggers, and then me. Oh yeah, and he scheduled me to go first. Humbling. My post “A Story of Sovereignty” is up now It’s a bit longer than a normal blog post. Won’t blame God for that … (The revised version posted is a bit shorter than the full version I’ll start posting here tomorrow,...

“The ultimate reason that suffering exists in the universe is so that Christ might display the greatness of the glory of the grace of God by suffering in himself to overcome our suffering. The suffering of the utterly innocent and infinitely holy Son of God in the place of utterly undeserving sinners to bring us to everlasting joy is the greatest display of the glory of God’s grace that ever was, or ever could be. This was the moment—Good Friday—for which everything in the universe was planned. In conceiving a universe in which to display the glory of his grace, God did not choose Plan...

A while back my email inbox had an article from John Piper in it: "When Satan Hurts Christ’s People: Reflections on Why Christians Suffer Losses ." Knowing loss (to some degree) first hand in my life and desiring to want to learn how to grieve better, I was enamored with the topic. Indeed "Why?" is one of the predominant questions in our society, and we as Christians want to not just give pat answers (argh!) but to love and encourage and be able to communicate God’s answers (which people may not want) for questions they are asking, and in forms they can readily grasp. In...

Michael Patton has a helpful post on what it means for a Calvinist (like me) to believe in free will, while not believing in it. All depends on what one means by ‘free will.’ Does free will mean: That a person is not forced from the outside to make a choice? That a person is responsible for his or her choices? That a person is the active agent in a choice made? That a person is free to do whatever they desire? That a person has the ability to choose contrary to their nature (who they are)? For the record I agree with the first three statements, and not the forth. Nor do I believe...

“Christianity alone among the world religions claims that God became uniquely and fully human in Jesus Christ and therefore knows firsthand despair, rejection, loneliness, poverty, bereavement, torture, and imprisonment. On the cross he went beyond even the worst human suffering and experienced cosmic rejection and pain that exceeds ours as infinitely as his knowledge and power exceeds ours. In his death, God suffers in love, identifying with the abandoned and godforsaken. Why did he do it? The Bible says that Jesus came on a rescue mission for creation. He had to pay for our sins so that someday...

Kari is continuing her retelling of our story, “The Road to Santa Clara,” detailing our experiences in leaving all for a ministry opportunity a few years ago. The lessons learned along the way have proved to be invaluable, and although we wouldn’t sign up for it again, we wouldn’t trade it for the world. It is a redemptive story of God’s sustaining grace and the depth of friendship in the midst of confusion and frustrating circumstances. The entire story is now up: Ch. 1: The Phone Call | Ch. 2: The U-turn | Ch. 3: The Jeep | Ch. 4: The Apartment | Ch. 5: The Meeting | Ch. 6: The Rack...

“The greatest sin that was ever committed in the history of the world… was planned by God, namely the death of His Son.” – John Piper, concluding remark at Wheaton College address (”Treasuring Christ and the Call to Suffer,” part 3), September 6, 2007. — What is God’s relation to sin and evil? Consider these brief four-part offerings from Desiring God: Does God Author Sin? Does God Cause Sin? Does God Permit Sin? The Author-Story Model SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "The greatest sin ever", url: "http://www.deTheos.com/2007/09/29/the-greatest-sin-ever/"...