Where is God Amidst Suffering and Evil? - Prof John Lennox
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- čas přidán 15. 06. 2024
- A presentation by Professor John Lennox at the Houses of Parliament for the Christians in Parliament All-Party Parliamentary Group on Monday 10th July 2017 on the topic of 'Where is God Amidst Suffering and Evil?'
Professor Lennox is Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford.
Further information on Christians in Parliament can be found at www.christiansinparliament.org.uk
Find out more about Professor John Lennox at www.johnlennox.org/
'every new ideology you meet. Ask it, "what is its evaluation of a human being". Dear lord this man is deep! Thank you Dr John lennox for this and much more.
From my simple capacity to understand God's Being with simple Faith and Reason, I begin to understand that with the fall of the first Man and Woman, the generation of humankind was endowed with mortality, subject to consequences, positive and/or negative, of the innate laws of evolution of creation , living and non-living things.... Positive consequences as blissful peace and joy, or suffering or pain....
If somehow, I am imbued with all power, can I, will I, would I be able to do all good for all humanity that such evil and suffering should cease for all humanity? Would all humanity thank me for such goodness? Would they be really happy that I have controlled their lives by depriving them of knowing or feeling such evil and suffering? Would humanity be able to actualise their full humanity without going through such evil and suffering?
Having said this, we are made in the image of GOD, thus GOD before HE created us, HE has felt the evil and suffering people can, will and would feel which people can and will and would inflict on themselves. HE feels our pain and suffering before we even have felt them. The question is why can't, won't and wouldn’t we stop evil, suffering and pain? If we sincerely ask this question on ourselves, there can and will never be hurting words, wound-inflicting strike, life-taking conflicts and destructive wars that innocent lives are lost. I truly wish there can, will and would be PEACE in my remaining life time, and forever PEACE for my children, and their children, and their children's children forever. Then till that time, we, all humans, all people, truly comes to true actualisation of ourselves - we are created in the IMAGE of GOD.
So refreshing to hear an intelligent man talking about God and his belief…. Why am I only discovering him know?
Obviously the world and life were CREATED , then all other questions abou the moral issue , remain unanswered ....
Compensation for the pain and suffering
White-light orgasm in heaven apparently.
Christ's head on a steak after getting skinned alive.
Jesus Was Born Incarnate
Jesus was born incarnate to a young Jewish virgin, lived a sin free life, was illegally persecuted and then crucified on a cross on Calvary. He arose three days later defeating death and ascended into Heaven where He sits at the right hand of God..
Jesus met with 515 people after His resurrection in a dozen different occasions over a period of about 40 days before He ascended into Heaven.
Jesus knew He was entering the world to be the final and ultimate sacrifice for the sin of mankind. His body had been divinely prepared by God specifically for that purpose. Jesus was going to die for the sins of the world, and He knew it. Moreover, He was doing it willingly and joyfully.
Jesus came to earth to reveal God to mankind and teach truth. He came to fulfill the Law and offer His kingdom to mankind. He came to show us how to live. He came to reveal God’s love. He came to bring peace. He came to heal the sick. He came to minister to the needy.
He was raised in a family who didn't believe in His divinity. He had six half-brothers and two or three half-sisters who didn't believe in His divinity until after His resurrection.
What gets me is demons knew His divinity but many men and women of His time didn't.
I presume Mary and Joseph knew His divinity. But in Luke 2:49-50 [NKJV] “He said to them, [His earthly parents] “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?”
This makes me wonder, did they not understand Jesus' divinity?
"But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you." (Matthew 6:33 NKJV)
Luke 3:23 states that Jesus was "about 30 years of age" at the start of his ministry.
Jesus preformed 14-15 miracles (they were called signs) in the three years or so of His ministry on earth. Many miracles were preformed by Jesus Christ but not specifically identified and recorded in God's word.
Jesus' miracles were followed by Jesus forgiving the individuals of their sins and commanding they sin no more. Many of Jesus' miracles were not identified. No other religious leader forgave mankind of their sins.
Our sins separate us from God, and there’s nothing we can do to make things right. So, we need someone to save us from our sins and make us acceptable to God. That someone is Jesus Christ. “Neither is there salvation in any other: for among men there is given no other Name under heaven, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12 GNV)
That’s why God sent Jesus to earth. Jesus’ death on the cross paid for every wrong we’ve ever committed or will commit in the future. Jesus made it possible for us to have a relationship with God the Father. We are sinner from birth and need help, Jesus Christ is that help, our only hope.
Therefore by the deeds of the law (Ten Commandments) no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law our sins are recognized not saved.
We must confess (repent) of our sins and iniquities before Jesus Christ, at the foot of the cross daily.
Jesus said in Matthew 28:19, to His disciples that: “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.”
I will not stand before The Great White Throne of God, my sins have been cleansed by Jesus Christ's crucifixion on the cross. And I am clothed in the righteousness of Christ of all my sins and iniquities before-today, today and forever.
I Love Jesus Christ and despite of the fact that I'm human and I fail Him daily, I pick up my cross daily and follow Him. I believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that He was crucified on the cross where He died for my sins and inequities and that He rose again on the 3rd day to give me a way through salvation and sanctification, known and unknown. He loves me dearly and has forgiven me of my sins and inequities. His Word says that if I deny Him before men, He will deny me before His Father.
Following, I believe are the greatest verses in God's Word. "But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you." (Matthew 6:33 NKJV)
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16 NKJV)
I am a Christ-follower and live in the Kingdom of God on earth in Jesus Christ, my Lord, Savior and Leader. I have faith and trust in the grace and mercy of God for eternal life for my soul in Heaven when I pass from this life into paradise.
I proclaim this openly to the world, that I am sinner, that I am sorry for my sins and iniquities and repent of my sins and iniquities and receive Jesus Christ by faith into my heart, mind and soul as my Lord, Savior and Leader. I openly confess Him as Lord from this moment on, I want to follow Him, I pledge to obey Him daily, and read His word. I will include those in my prayers who are lost and have chosen to deny God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus Christ declared: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6 NKJV)
I am in the “Lamb's Book of Life” and will not face “The Great White Throne of God” which leads to Hell.
Jesus said: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” (Matthew 11:28-29 KJV)
The grace and glory be to God. God bless
I can answer that question in four simple words - there is no god.
What a pleasure to listen to...I would appoint him as Archbishop! All Organisations are power structures. All get corrupted and need reform from time to time. Religious Organisations are just as prone, in some ways even more prone, to corruption as other organisations. Take HM Post Office. The Chief Executive was a lay preacher of the Church of England - Ms Paula Vennals. To call her a disappointment would ultra British 'understatement'. Of course she should have been thrown out of the organisation. Was she a 'real Christian'? If judged by her actions not her words she was a fake. To convict religion of her crimes aint justice either. The paradox is that if you want to multiply the benefits of religion you need some sort of organisation. But organisations are terrestrial and fallible - and sometimes they succeed in multiplying harm not benefit. How did the Post Office get it so wrong? Only with the willing assistance of the 'justice' system - which is now a body or rules not principles administered by atheists.
Google Omayra Sanchez Garzon Wikipedia and then ask yourself if you believe God is love. Loving people do loving things. A loving God does not. Will God judge himself for the unnecessary fear, pain, suffering and cruelty he has allowed himself to impose on his innocent feral creatures through fire, flood and being torn apart by his created savage predators every day on earth for centuries? The RSPCA would normally have a warrant out for such a diabolical cruel and uncaring owner. Or will he perhaps as Professor Lennox often claims, like Hitler and Stalin, "Get away with it"?
You apparently missed the part in the Bible where it talks about humanity living in a paradise, and through their own actions caused the fall. This fall affected not just humans but everything. It is described in the Bible that the lion eats straw, and that no animal kills another in Heaven. God gave humanity a choice on how to keep that life. Humanity chose to ignore God. We all continue to ignore the teachings. Constantly judging one another. Constantly fighting, and treating each other badly. That is what many believe the tree of knowledge of good and evil was. The ability to Judge. It makes sense considering that's what all of us seem to do throughout our lives.
I believe the bible is the last place where we should look for truth. It is in fact a handbook of lies, violence, cruelty and bloodletting which is what we might expect to come out of that dark, superstitious and ignorant age of demons, witches, familiar spirits and hobgoblins. It is now known by unbiased peer reviewed Historians that Genesis had more than one author around the 6th., 5th. Cent. Bce, not Moses, who, together with Abraham, Jacob, Isaac and others are themselves now believed to be fabled figures. Genesis was written to set the scene for Hebrew History. It is known that many responsible Jews privately admit the Pentateuch to be fables and the entire book of Daniel to be a fake. As recently as 2001 in Los Angeles on Passover Sunday Rabbi David Wolpe shocked his parishioners by giving historical and archaeological reasons why he believed the Exodus never really happened; which of course negates the Ten Commandments. In this Enlightened Age of Science and Reason can you really believe your God allowed this little girl to suffer so for three days because a man and a woman ate an apple at the behest of a snake?
lol... You want to hold God accountable for the cruelty of the things on Earth, then turn around and make claims he doesn't exist. You whine like a mule.
You didn't read my reply. I said YOUR God.
Oh ok. Which is your belief system?
I want a solution! The problem is not that you believe in a god or not, it is what your definition of God is and what you expect from it. There is constant human suffering all over the world. So to say, for example, 'God is love' is completely meaningless and senseless.
There is also animal suffering. I also want a solution. What is life but suffering? It's all suffering of some kind.
John Lennox makes the same old tired arguments about evil and distorts those of atheists. Humans blame other humans, the universe cannot do that. That is where morality comes from. And setting up god as an unimpeachable authority and standard is a projection on to god of what humans would like to exist.
In his other lectures Lennox says how good and non-violent Jesus is. He is non-violent in the NT, a fictional book full of legends and myths but he threatens eternal damnation if you do not believe in him and his religion. He is the ONLY way. NOTHING could be more violent than that. He is no weak victim and of course he knows, in the myth, that he has the power of god behind him, and that his death and suffering are not really going to have any permanence.
Believe in me or you will suffer eternal torment. Utterly immoral and depraved.
Yes, Justice can not be fully done in this life. Inventing another life to solve that problem is not a solution it is wishful thinking.
You sound like you've been very hurt by religious people, your mis-understanding of John's positions suggest that. Open your heart to healing and God may come into your life and change for the better, forever. I'll pray for you.
@@SMacCuUladh if you don’t know already please look up what an ad hominem argument is and why it is iuseless in an open debate
@@markacohen1 Interesting comment. Do you believe there is a God?
And, do you believe there is such a thing as "evil", or is it just a man-made concept?
@@OnceTheyNamedMeiWasnt Please explain what difference it makes to good and evil whether there is a god or not? I think it makes none. If you rely on a person, however perfect, to ground your values, you still have to say WHY they are right, otherwise you fall into a tautology: because he SAYS it is good therefore it is good.
If god is the foundation of good ad evil presumably you think he is absolutely good and can never do wrong.
So we CANNOT judge anything he does, WHATEVER he does, as evil even though if it were anyone doing exactly the same thing we would consider that evil. god has an automatic get out of jail card free.
If he tells the Israelites to kill everyone in a village including the animals, if he destroys the whole world and drowns everything in it, even if the latter is far worse than anything the worst human being in history has done then you have to say that is good and justify it somehow. If god orders an abortion then we must do it. But when you do you will come up with excuses and special conditions: god has the right to destroy everything because he made it, his purposes outweigh our humanly limited view and so on, or what god tells Job (who are you to question me? I am all powerful) or back to a tautology IF he does it it MUST be good.
So god is exempt from moral commands and moral judgments. He is above morality as we humans understand it. Any tyrant could and many have justified their crimes that way.
Yes but you will say he created us out of his goodness and he loves us out of his goodness and he wants to save us for eternity not this life...but then are you saying IF someone did that no humanly comprehensible moral restrictions should apply to them? What kind of love destroys what it has created and nurtured like that? A mother 'creates' a child? If she leaves it to suffer or worse destroys it because it is sinful we would call that a terrible crime.
No I do not believe there's a god. I never have. And I'm vegan so I don't think it is right for humans to make animals suffer in any way for our pleasure if we have other (and better) options for food. Yet god has created a world in which animals suffer in countless ways which have nothing to do with human actions. If you believe in sin and heaven and hell for humn beings because of free will and that we are special in god's eyes, fine, that is nonsense to me but let's grant it is true, still what possible justification could god have had to make ANIMALS suffer like that?
@@markacohen1 I took the family out tonight and we eat nice tasty Cows! I thank these cows for their suffering so that my family could eat and enjoy their meal.