Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!bcm!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: tblake@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu (Thomas Blake) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Job Message-ID: Date: 1 Mar 91 07:43:25 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: State University of New York at Binghamton Lines: 41 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu >But if God is aware, is concerned, and is able to relieve or pain, then >we have to ask why He permits it. Here's a strange view I adopted a couple of years ago. Remember when Jesus' disciples asked about the man born blind, (was it due to the sins of his parents? or what?). Jesus replied that the man had been born blind so that the grace of God could be revealed through him. (Citation obviously highly paraphrased, I don't keep a Bible in my office.) Was the same true of the others Jesus healed? Certainly God allowed the suffering of Jesus and many of his apostles. They died painful, violent deaths, endured imprisonment and tortures. All this to serve God's purposes. They weren't being punished. Peter didn't learn any great lesson from his crucifixion. In these famous cases, we can speculate why these people were allowed/caused to suffer. We can see where their sacrifices may fall into a greater plan. But what about the sufferings of the poor. Jesus said that the poor would be with us always. Wars and Rumors of War. Fires and Earthquakes in many places. Why all this suffering? Why does God allow all of this to happen? Or does this suffering too represent a part in God's greater plan? One thing I've noticed; humanity seems to be at its best in adversity. Studies show repeatedly that richer people give much less money (by percentage) to charity than the poor, (who can least afford it). Suffering people reach out to each other with compassion. Comfortable people often have little use for others, or for God. When a child falls down a well, the nation watches anxiously the rescue effort. Our material society confirms the sacred worth of one small child. A child we never met. Now I don't mean to imply that people suffer *only* that we may be reminded of the grace of God, or our duties toward each other. God's ways are *not* our ways. I will not pretend to know the mind of God, but perhaps this is one reason of many why suffering is a necessary part of God's plan. Tom Blake SUNY-Binghamton