hughbiquitous

You know how sometimes you find a particular subject come up in all kinds of different places with no apparent connection between them?

As cases of suffering and evil come to my attention on many fronts, William Lane Craig’s Q&A page at Reasonable Faith this week addresses the question, “Why Does God Permit Suffering to Continue?” The question specifically asked about Amos 4:6-11. Dr. Craig comments,

As for the passage from Amos, it reminds us powerfully, as C. S. Lewis put it, that Aslan is not a tame lion. People often say that God doesn’t send suffering into our lives but merely allows it. The passage you cite explodes that fairy tale! The ancient Israelites didn’t understand that the calamities that befell them were in fact a severe mercy sent by God for their own well-being, but their intransigence short-circuited the good purpose that God had in mind… non-Christians, used to a Santa Claus God, won’t understand this sort of tough love. But it’s not really difficult to grasp when you reflect that any finite amount of suffering is worth enduring in order to gain eternal joy and to avoid eternal ruin.