PTM WEEKLY UPDATE --NOVEMBER 23, 2009
What our readers and listeners say
Part of something bigger
I have been attending CWR online for a while now. It is the only church I attend. After being spiritually abused by the Roman Catholic church in which I grew up, and then again during my 10 years as a Jehovah's Witnesses, I am not interested in attending a brick-and -mortar church anymore.
About seven years ago, Christ delivered me out of legalistic religion and into a relationship with him! I've never felt healthier spiritually in my life. I am free in Christ at last. However, I did miss hearing regular sermons and feeling like part of a community of other believers. And that is what led me to seeking out CWR. Knowing others all over the world are listening and reading the gospel truths found in The Plain Truth magazine just like I am fills the void I had before. I feel part of something bigger than just myself and your ministry has been a great blessing to me. I will continue to send monthly checks to support your work. My husband also recently started listening to your sermons along with me and now we are doubly blessed. -- MassachusettsPart of something bigger
I love your ministry. I attend a local church, but still we have legalism within the walls! It isn't as bad as a lot of churches (and I am happy for that) but from what I see, legalism is the reason so many won't even come close to the church today.
As a truck driver, I get to see a people around the country. Many are open to a conversation -- some are trying to respond to Christ. But trying to get them to come to church closes the conversation on the spot. The church has truly hurt people and closed the doors on so many! We point our fingers and look down our noses at these people, but we won't look at ourselves and ask how we can fix the hurt we have done and are still doing. Thanks for being part of Christ's solution. -- OhioWhy are little children molested, beaten and abused?
I just wanted to comment on this very interesting question from your last PTM e-Update, “If God loves us, why are little children molested, beaten and abused?” I think you gave an excellent response to a most difficult question. I would like to add that the Bible mentions various times in Proverbs, that it would be better for a person not to be born than go through certain situations. So I think that it is true that there are people (adults and children) out there who go through a life that is actually not worth living as a human being in comparison to not having lived at all because of the evil, pain and suffering they endured. I really don’t know why little children have to suffer -- it is difficult to fathom a justification in the suffering of the innocent. There is more to this life than meets the eye or that our loving Creator God is willing to reveal to us at this time.
Suffering, pain, torment, evil, and death are realities we face in this life and none of it is pleasant, especially when children experience them. And like you stated in your response bad things happen to good people, children and adults alike are not immune from them just because we belong in to the body Christ Jesus. Many early Christians suffered terrible deaths and depraved lives, some of whom walked this earth with Jesus because of their faith in Christ. This unpleasant reality is not being brought forth in Christian teaching today as much as it should be.
For us adult Christians the Apostle Paul writes in Romans that suffering brings forth perseverance, and perseverance brings forth character, and character brings forth hope. A hope in Christ that does not disappoint us, but I cannot expect a suffering child to grasp this. And again Paul continues that if we are going to share in Christ’s glory we also must partake in the likeness of His sufferings.
God himself through Christ Jesus lived as a mortal man and suffered even before his crucifixion, Isaiah writes of Christ as a man of sorrows and well acquainted with grief, a man whose appearance men did not esteem. Christ Jesus sufferings showed us his love for us, God I do not believe will subject any innocent human being specially a child through suffering, pain, and death for naught. The end is not determined in this side of eternity. It all has a purpose, I am sure, even though my finite mind cannot fully comprehend it fully, I know my God is true, pure and Holy. Thanks Greg for allowing me to write, your brother in Christ Jesus. -- Florida
• Excellent insight. There are many things about which we know little. Continuing with the metaphor of children, God never promised to explain everything to us, his dear children, any more than a parent of a 6-year-old child attempts to explain all there is to know about life to that child. Thanks for your thoughts -- and for your support of PTM.In the lead story of the November 16, 2009 PTM e-Update, you stated, "When churches and pastors neglect to minister to the pain and heartache of people because it's not popular, because it's painful, because it won't sell, then the gospel is perverted. When all people hear at church or through ministries is 10 steps to becoming a more successful person -- messages and teachings that are all about the consumer benefits of being a Christian -- it's so much cotton candy. It's junk food for the soul. "
Wow -- that is truly telling it like it is. Courageous words.
Coincidentally, I've been reading some of a "conversation" between a well-known Calvinist and an Arminian as these two Christian worldviews relate to disasters in the world. But of course this kind of intellectual stuff is of no use in ministering to a deeply wounded person.
On another level, here's what I'm struggling with as I try to comprehend it. As God upholds the lives of both the child being abused and the abuser (e.g. God causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust, love your enemies, etc.), then in some real sense, God is involved in both sides of these horrible events. Never as a motivator of such events, but somehow he is there. And he does promise implicitly and explicitly that it will somehow be "worth it." Some days I find that hard to believe. But I must. Where else can I go?
This thought of God's involvement on both sides of every transaction between sentient beings (i.e. humans and animals) somehow implies that I don't really understand suffering at all -- certainly not (as you wrote in that article) Christ's suffering in saving us, nor our role in it. It does hold out some faint concept that the person who is being victimized (in human eyes) may actually be the one who is cosmically controlling the event by laying down their life and suffering as a means of bringing about the salvation of the other. At least I think there may be something there.
I have heard of events where a Christian was being attacked, yet his suffering led to the salvation of the attacker. But I can't take that too far and certainly would never offer it to someone during their suffering as a way of justifying what had been done to them. These kinds of realizations must come from within if they are real and not merely offered as weak human justifications.
I am reminded of one such event in history, however, that speaks volumes. It is called The Crucifixion. Still pondering . . .
Thanks for your thoughtful and courageous ministry! -- British Columbia
• Thanks for your kind words, but most of all for sharing the heart that Christ has given you. You raise an additional issue, which I did not attempt to address, and of course it is a profound and deep one. Here's my two cents:
In terms of the ultimate root and origin of suffering (the "first cause" if you like) -- permit me a sweeping generalization, since you mention two Protestant Christian worldviews and their differing conclusions on this topic. Having attempted to get my head around the general Reform thinking about the justice of God, which necessitates an eternity of torture for the "lost" -- having tried to comprehend what it is that Calvinists believe about predestination (single and double) and how their view of "sovereignty" seems to be broad enough to encompass many issues which I can't quite fathom -- I believe that the search itself is suspect.
I don't believe it is futile to ponder the nature of God. By no means! However, I believe that some of what is involved in attempting to "measure" the depth of the heart and mind of God is fatally flawed in terms of its methodology, for it involves human minds attempting to grasp the fullness of the triune God. I don't think God allows us to "go there" to our human satisfaction. I don't mean to offer such a view as an easy way out, but merely to say that the search for all the answers regarding suffering has been less than satisfying when I compare it with the glorious grace and gospel of our Lord. Therefore, while some may define such a response and conclusion as a feeble cop-out (and they may well be right!) I believe that the main things about God, revealed in the Bible, are the plain things and the plain things are the main things! -- In Christ, Greg AlbrechtRETURN TO PTM WEEKLY UPDATE CONTENTS PAGE
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