The last few days I have been hurting pretty badly due to my endometriosis and some other symptoms. I ended up at the ER yesterday. I don’t usually get any answers at the ER but my doctor was unavailable to see me so that’s where I ended up. Didn’t get any answers other than whatever I have isn’t caused by bacteria. I saw this great post over at Augustine!blog asking Why Does God Allow Sickness and Suffering? which I thought was pretty apropos with what I am going through right now so I am passing it along.
When God finished his creation, he said it was good. God is not one to use hyperbole. I heard a comedian say one time. “God created the entire universe and said it was good. We build a Ford Pinto and call it fantastic. “. Good means absolutely without fault. Many times the skeptic uses this question to cast doubt on the existence of God. It usually goes something like this. If God is a loving God, why would he permit sickness and suffering? The questioner is not really looking for an answer, and when the answer is provided, the skeptic goes on to another question. The problem with the question is that it makes several erroneous assumptions and ignores certain facts. It assumes that because God is loving , He is not also, committed to justice, obligated to exact judgment, incapable of anything but truth, able to become angry, intolerant of sin, and have an ultimate goal for his creation. Ultimately the skeptic always has a problem with the issue of freewill. You cannot create a freewill moral agent and then interfere with his freewill decisions. This would violate the basic attributes of God Himself. God cannot violate His own word. It is impossible. If I give you the choice between doing x and y and I tell you that if you choose y, you will be punished, and then you choose y, I must punish you. If I don’t punish you, I am a liar. One who lives in a world of lies is incapable of understanding a world of complete and perfect truth.
This is one of my favorite contemporary Christian songs.
