The document discusses different perspectives on why bad things happen and God's role in allowing suffering and evil in the world. It presents the view of "Blueprint Theology" which argues that God has a specific reason for every event and allows nothing without purpose. However, it also outlines several problems with this view, such as questioning God's goodness and inconsistencies with passages where God's will is frustrated. It alternatively proposes a "Warfare Worldview" where suffering results from human and spiritual rebellion against God and His ongoing conflict with evil forces.
Experience the love, compassion, grace, and truth of the Lord’s heart in a new way through these daily readings. This 21-day reading plan is built from the NIV Discover God’s Heart Devotional Bible by Zondervan.
Experience the love, compassion, grace, and truth of the Lord’s heart in a new way through these daily readings. This 21-day reading plan is built from the NIV Discover God’s Heart Devotional Bible by Zondervan.
Find hope in Christ as you are reminded of His amazing promises. This reading plan comprised of articles from a variety of Bibles by Zondervan Publishers offers insights into having hope during a various aspects of life.
People in the Bible struggled with significant issues much as we do today. Each of the stories in this 7-day devotional illustrates a particular recovery issue from the lives of characters in the Bible. Gain insights from the life of Esther, Moses, Eve, Samson, Peter, and others for your own recovery journey.
What Is Control? Control seems to be a problem in every time of transition from an old wave of God's glory to a new wave, such as we are experiencing today. The power of control affects every circle of Christianity. The abuse of control holds people in unnecessary bondage and hinders them from fulfilling the purpose of God in their lives. There is a natural control that people can exert over others, and there is a self-control that must be exercised within the individual. But there is also a demonic control that can be exercised by one person over another. While this book will deal with the abuse of control, we will also examine the positive side of control, which is called "commitment." This God-given authority is placed on an individual who is committed to fulfill the plan of God in the earth and who looks to the Lord—not to people—for personal security and promotion. Each of us needs to exercise self-control in order to keep ourselves free from sin. We exercise that control by applying the Word of God to our lives. The Word is the balance, and we must all use discipline in our daily experiences. But people who exercise abusive control seek to become the deciding factor in the lives of others. Such individuals replace the Word of God as the balance in the lives of those whom they dominate; they react negatively if they are not the control point of all decisions made. We must realize that what is happening in the spiritual realm is being reflected in the natural realm. There is a great struggle going on in the world today for control of people's minds. This struggle is between the forces of light (Christianity) and the forces of darkness (Satanic powers).
Find peace and balance through life’s hectic pace with practical and spiritual insight from God’s Word. Life is full of obligations, emotions, and relationships. Some are life-giving, yet sometimes the weight and responsibility of everyday life is heavy to bear. As wives, mothers, friends, and daughters, we need to know we’re not alone. When our days are long, and our nights are restless, it’s easy to think we should be able to handle things on our own. Or that no one struggles like we do. Be encouraged with this 7-day reading plan with insights from Lysa TerKeurst and the women at Proverbs 31 Ministries.
As Christians, we need to know why we believe what we believe, so when we are witnessing to the unbelieving world we can knowledgeably explain Genesis and the creation story, because the rest of the Bible has its foundation in Genesis. If people don’t understand Creation and the Fall of Man in the garden of Eden, they won’t be able to see their need for a Savior. This presentation will give the viewer some foundational information that he can use in the debate of creation vs. evolution.
Find hope in Christ as you are reminded of His amazing promises. This reading plan comprised of articles from a variety of Bibles by Zondervan Publishers offers insights into having hope during a various aspects of life.
People in the Bible struggled with significant issues much as we do today. Each of the stories in this 7-day devotional illustrates a particular recovery issue from the lives of characters in the Bible. Gain insights from the life of Esther, Moses, Eve, Samson, Peter, and others for your own recovery journey.
What Is Control? Control seems to be a problem in every time of transition from an old wave of God's glory to a new wave, such as we are experiencing today. The power of control affects every circle of Christianity. The abuse of control holds people in unnecessary bondage and hinders them from fulfilling the purpose of God in their lives. There is a natural control that people can exert over others, and there is a self-control that must be exercised within the individual. But there is also a demonic control that can be exercised by one person over another. While this book will deal with the abuse of control, we will also examine the positive side of control, which is called "commitment." This God-given authority is placed on an individual who is committed to fulfill the plan of God in the earth and who looks to the Lord—not to people—for personal security and promotion. Each of us needs to exercise self-control in order to keep ourselves free from sin. We exercise that control by applying the Word of God to our lives. The Word is the balance, and we must all use discipline in our daily experiences. But people who exercise abusive control seek to become the deciding factor in the lives of others. Such individuals replace the Word of God as the balance in the lives of those whom they dominate; they react negatively if they are not the control point of all decisions made. We must realize that what is happening in the spiritual realm is being reflected in the natural realm. There is a great struggle going on in the world today for control of people's minds. This struggle is between the forces of light (Christianity) and the forces of darkness (Satanic powers).
Find peace and balance through life’s hectic pace with practical and spiritual insight from God’s Word. Life is full of obligations, emotions, and relationships. Some are life-giving, yet sometimes the weight and responsibility of everyday life is heavy to bear. As wives, mothers, friends, and daughters, we need to know we’re not alone. When our days are long, and our nights are restless, it’s easy to think we should be able to handle things on our own. Or that no one struggles like we do. Be encouraged with this 7-day reading plan with insights from Lysa TerKeurst and the women at Proverbs 31 Ministries.
As Christians, we need to know why we believe what we believe, so when we are witnessing to the unbelieving world we can knowledgeably explain Genesis and the creation story, because the rest of the Bible has its foundation in Genesis. If people don’t understand Creation and the Fall of Man in the garden of Eden, they won’t be able to see their need for a Savior. This presentation will give the viewer some foundational information that he can use in the debate of creation vs. evolution.
This is the fourth and last message in the sermon series for March 2017 at Abundant Life Fellowship in Chesapeake, VA. The Lord gave me great grace to prepare and give this message. Some of the best of what I have learned and lived in the last 70 years is in this message on this topic. I hope it gives you insight into how an all-powerful God sees the suffering of His people.
Exposing the flaws in Theistic EvolutionSimon Fuller
A Bible class given on the 24th January 2018 at Laindon Old Paths Christadelphian ecclesia on the flaws in TE and the truth of Creation (as explained in the Bible)
Knowing the real God volume 2_God is OmnipotentTOMISIN AJILEYE
Do you want to know God? Do you have questions about God? Do you wonder about who you are? This is a series you need to read. Do you wonder how much God knows? Do you wonder about God's Al-knowing knowledge?
Sermon Slide Deck: "Your Kingdom Come" (Matthew 6:5-13)New City Church
Jesus teaches us to pray for the coming of God’s kingdom because if focuses our attention and desire on the restoration of all things and the Restorer of all things.
This message was given on March 8, 2015 at New City Church in Calgary by Pastor John Ferguson. For more info visit: www.newcitychurch.ca
Jesus was god's angel protecting israelGLENN PEASE
This is a study of Jesus as God's angel protecting Israel. Jesus was the angel of the Lord who guides and protected the people of God all through the Old Testament.
The Designated Of Deity! The Raising Of Our Spiritual Perception! The Kingdom Of God Being Within! If The Lower Self Of Man Is The Trouble Causing Culprit, How Did Demons Originate! Tabernacles A Most Progressive Exciting Experience! We Cannot Help Applauding The Restoration Of All Things! The Fullness Of The Son Of God, The Limitless Christ! Our Higher Source Is From The Above That Is Within! The True Status Of Man Involves An Upgrading As Opposed To A Downgrading! The Designated Of Deity!
The Art Pastor's Guide to Sabbath | Steve ThomasonSteve Thomason
What is the purpose of the Sabbath Law in the Torah. It is interesting to compare how the context of the law shifts from Exodus to Deuteronomy. Who gets to rest, and why?
Welcome to TechSoup New Member Orientation and Q&A (May 2024).pdfTechSoup
In this webinar you will learn how your organization can access TechSoup's wide variety of product discount and donation programs. From hardware to software, we'll give you a tour of the tools available to help your nonprofit with productivity, collaboration, financial management, donor tracking, security, and more.
Palestine last event orientationfvgnh .pptxRaedMohamed3
An EFL lesson about the current events in Palestine. It is intended to be for intermediate students who wish to increase their listening skills through a short lesson in power point.
How to Make a Field invisible in Odoo 17Celine George
It is possible to hide or invisible some fields in odoo. Commonly using “invisible” attribute in the field definition to invisible the fields. This slide will show how to make a field invisible in odoo 17.
Operation “Blue Star” is the only event in the history of Independent India where the state went into war with its own people. Even after about 40 years it is not clear if it was culmination of states anger over people of the region, a political game of power or start of dictatorial chapter in the democratic setup.
The people of Punjab felt alienated from main stream due to denial of their just demands during a long democratic struggle since independence. As it happen all over the word, it led to militant struggle with great loss of lives of military, police and civilian personnel. Killing of Indira Gandhi and massacre of innocent Sikhs in Delhi and other India cities was also associated with this movement.
We all have good and bad thoughts from time to time and situation to situation. We are bombarded daily with spiraling thoughts(both negative and positive) creating all-consuming feel , making us difficult to manage with associated suffering. Good thoughts are like our Mob Signal (Positive thought) amidst noise(negative thought) in the atmosphere. Negative thoughts like noise outweigh positive thoughts. These thoughts often create unwanted confusion, trouble, stress and frustration in our mind as well as chaos in our physical world. Negative thoughts are also known as “distorted thinking”.
Ethnobotany and Ethnopharmacology:
Ethnobotany in herbal drug evaluation,
Impact of Ethnobotany in traditional medicine,
New development in herbals,
Bio-prospecting tools for drug discovery,
Role of Ethnopharmacology in drug evaluation,
Reverse Pharmacology.
3. “The dark threads are as needed
In the Weaver’s skillful hand
As the threads of gold and silver
In the pattern He has planned.”
–Benjamin Malachi Franklin
“Lord, You see a grand design
that You imagined when You
breathed me into life. And all
the chaos comes together in
Your hands like a masterpiece of
Your picture perfect plan.”
–Casting Crowns
Q. 27. What do you understand by the providence of God?
A. The almighty and ever-present power of God whereby he still upholds,
as it were by his own hand, heaven and earth together with all creatures,
and rules in such a way that leaves and grass, rain and drought, fruitful
and unfruitful years, food and drink, health and sickness, riches and
poverty, and everything else, come to us not by chance but by his fatherly
hand. –Heildelburg Catechism
4. “Is a trumpet blown in a city, and the people are
not afraid? Does disaster come to a city, unless the
Lord has done it?” (Amos 3:6, ESV)
“The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is
from the Lord.” (Proverbs 16:33, ESV)
“I form light and create darkness, I make
well-being and create calamity, I am the
Lord, who does all these things.” (Isaiah 45:7,
ESV)
“And we know that for those who love
God all things work together for good, for
those who are called according to his
purpose.” (Romans 8:28, ESV)
“As for you, you meant evil against me, but
God meant it for good, to bring it about that
many people should be kept alive, as they
are today.” (Genesis 50:20, ESV)
“this Jesus, delivered up according to the
definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you
crucified and killed by the hands of lawless
men.” (Acts 2:23, ESV)
Blueprint Theology
5. • “Everything happens for a reason,”
• “God has his reasons,”
• “God’s ways are not our ways,”
• “Nothing happens by accident,”
• “God knows what he is doing,”
• ‘Jesus wanted to call her home.’
• “God’s timing is the right timing,”
• “This tumour will not grow 1mm
beyond what God ordains/allows”
Blueprint Theology
8. If one falls among robbers, or ravenous
beasts; if a sudden gust of wind at sea
causes shipwreck; if one is struck down by
the fall of a house or a tree; if another,
when wandering through desert paths,
meets with deliverance; or, after being
tossed by the waves, arrives in port, and
makes some wondrous hair—breadth
escape from death — all these
occurrences, prosperous as well as
adverse, carnal sense will attribute to
fortune. But those who have learned from
the mouth of Christ that all the hairs of his
head are numbered (Matthew 10:30), will
look farther for the cause, and hold that
all events whatsoever are governed by the
secret counsel of God
John Calvin, Institues 1.16.2
15. Problems with Blueprint Theology
(1) Moral Responsibility
(2) Questions God’s Character
(3) Inconsistent with Scripture
Genesis 6:6 (ESV)
6 And the Lord regretted
that he had made man
on the earth, and it
grieved him to his heart.
Matthew 23:37 (ESV)
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city
that kills the prophets and stones
those who are sent to it! How often
would I have gathered your children
together as a hen gathers her brood
under her wings, and you were not
willing!
See also Exod. 34:9; 33:3,5; Deut. 9:6, 13; 10:16; 31:27; Judges 2:19; 2
Kings 17:14; 2 Chron. 30:8; 36:13; Ne 9:16; Isa. 46:12; 48:4; Jer. 7:26;
Hos. 4:16
• God’s will is frustrated
16. Problems with Blueprint Theology
(1) Moral Responsibility
(2) Questions God’s Character
(3) Inconsistent with Scripture
1 Samuel 15:35 (ESV)
35 And Samuel did not see
Saul again until the day of his
death, but Samuel grieved
over Saul. And the Lord
regretted that he had made
Saul king over Israel.
See also Gen 6:6, Ex 32:14, Judges 2:18, 2 Samuel 24:16, 1 Chron
21:15; Jon 3:10
Jonah 3:10 (ESV)
10 When God saw what they did, how
they turned from their evil way, God
relented of the disaster that he had said
he would do to them, and he did not do
it.
• God’s will is frustrated
• God changes his mind
17. Problems with Blueprint Theology
(1) Moral Responsibility
(2) Questions God’s Character
(3) Inconsistent with Scripture
• God’s will is
frustrated
• God changes his
mind
• Lord’s Prayer
Matthew 6:9–10 (ESV)
9 Pray then like this:
“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
10 Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
19. WARFARE WORLDVIEW
“The warfare worldview is based on
the conviction that our world is
engaged in a cosmic war between a
myriad of agents, both human and
angelic, that have aligned
themselves with either God or
Satan.”-Greg Boyd
21. Rebuking Hostile Waters
“You covered it with the deep as with a
garment; the waters stood above the
mountains. At your rebuke they fled; at the
sound of your thunder they took to flight. The
mountains rose, the valleys sank down to the
place that you appointed for them. You set a
boundary that they may not pass, so that they
might not again cover the earth.” (Psalm 104:6–
9, ESV) See also Psalm 29:3, 77:16, Prov 8:29
22. Rebuking Hostile Waters
Job 38:8–11 (ESV)
8 “Or who shut in the sea with
doors when it burst out from
the womb, 9 when I made
clouds its garment and thick
darkness its swaddling band,
10 and prescribed limits for it
and set bars and doors, 11 and
said, ‘Thus far shall you come,
and no farther, and here shall
your proud waves be stayed’?
Tthe sea “as a somewhat sinister
force that, left to its own, would
submerge the world and forestall the
ordered reality we call creation.” And
then he adds: “What prevents this
frightening possibility is the mastery
of YHWH, whose blast and thunder …
force the sea into its proper place.”
Levonson ‘Creation and the
Persistence of Evil’
23. Rebuking Hostile Waters
Psalm 69:14–15 (ESV)
14 Deliver me from sinking in the mire; let me be delivered from
my enemies and from the deep waters. 15 Let not the flood
sweep over me, or the deep swallow me up, or the pit close its
mouth over me.
Psalm 144:7 (ESV)
7 Stretch out your hand from on high; rescue me and deliver me
from the many waters, from the hand of foreigners,
Psalm 93:3–4 (ESV)
3 The floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have lifted up their
voice; the floods lift up their roaring. 4 Mightier than the
thunders of many waters, mightier than the waves of the sea, the
Lord on high is mighty!
24. Defeating Cosmic Monsters
Psalm 74:10–17 (TNIV)
10How long will the enemy mock you,
God? Will the foe revile your name
forever?
11Why do you hold back your hand,
your right hand? Take it from the folds
of your garment and destroy them!….
13It was you who split open the sea by
your power; you broke the heads of
the monster in the waters. 14It was
you who crushed the heads of
Leviathan and gave it as food to the
creatures of the desert.
Leviathan and Behemoth by William Blake
25. Defeating Cosmic Monsters
“In that day the Lord with his hard
and great and strong sword will
punish Leviathan the fleeing
serpent, Leviathan the twisting
serpent, and he will slay the dragon
that is in the sea.” (Isaiah 27:1, ESV)
War in Heaven, M.S Douce 1270 A.D
JOb 40: Leviathan Job 41: Behemoth
Job 41:33–34 (ESV)
33 On earth there is not his like, a creature
without fear. 34 He sees everything that is
high; he is king over all the sons of pride.”
c.f. Revelation 13, Dragon, Beast & Sea
26. Conflict with Heavenly Beings
“God has taken his place in the divine
council; in the midst of the gods he
holds judgment: “How long will you
judge unjustly and show partiality to
the wicked? Give justice to the weak
and the fatherless; maintain the right
of the afflicted and the destitute.
Rescue the weak and the needy;
deliver them from the hand of the
wicked.””… “I said, “You are gods,
sons of the Most High, all of you;
nevertheless, like men you shall die,
and fall like any prince.” Arise, O God,
judge the earth; for you shall inherit all
the nations!” (Psalm 82:6–8, ESV)
Angel by William Blake
27. Conflict with Heavenly Beings
Daniel 10:12 (ESV)
.12 Then he said to me, “Fear not, Daniel, for from the
first day that you set your heart to understand and
humbled yourself before your God, your words have
been heard, and I have come because of your words.
13 The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me
twenty-one days, but Michael, one of the chief
princes, came to help me, for I was left there with the
kings of Persia,…20 Then he said, “Do you know why I
have come to you? But now I will return to fight
against the prince of Persia; and when I go out,
behold, the prince of Greece will come. 21 But I will tell
you what is inscribed in the book of truth: there is
none who contends by my side against these except
Michael, your prince.
29. • YHWH tolerates honest questions
• Traditional Answers are not always adequate.
• YHWH is not a Mechanistic God
• Suffering is a Mystery (The Problem of Evil cannot be
answered)
• Divine Beings Effect Earthly Events
• Evil Forces Exist
How does the Book of Job contribute towards our
understanding of suffering?
30. Why the Hell do Bad Things Happen?
Suffering, Satan and the Problem of Evil