My name is Sam. In 2018, I earned a Master of Divinity in Christian Apologetics at Rawlings School of Divinity, Liberty University. An apologist is one who uses multidisciplinary academic tools in a logical approach to DEFEND the Christian faith, answer hard biblical, philosophical, and existential questions. I am currently finishing a PhD in Public/Foreign Policy at Liberty. Since I rarely have time to socialize in my environment, I came to CDFF in the hope of finding The One - hopefully.
Anyways, while here, I would like to entertain any HARD questions you may have. It doesn't matter what - I will provide you with an objective research-based godly response. No topic is off-limits for me. Only serious-minded believers that are honestly seeking solutions are wlecome. This is not an advertisement for personal services but my way of contributing to the enhancement of the quality of the CDFF platform while I am still registered here. I have seen some posts suggesting that this site is "low grade" just because it is "free" for everyone. I dissent with such views.
So, you're ON - shoot your best question. If it's too personal, inbox me and we could discuss on live chat.
Thank you for your fascinating question!! That's what we call the question of theodicy - i.e., why do bad things happen to good people without distinction. In philosophy, we call it the "Problem of Evil" - and it's older than Socrates and all those ancient philosophers. In the Bible, we see the man Job dealing with it also (Job 1 - 2 etc). The prophets, such as Jeremiah, Isaiah, Elijah and others had their moments of theodicy too. In fact there is no simple answer to provide - not even to a recent believer. However, we donot also misrepresent God in trying to assure potential believers of how God's Three O's would help them (Omnipotent, Omnipresent, Omniscient). Jesus himself made no false promises about God relative to unavoidable bad experiences on planet Earth: "in the world you will have tribulations" (John 16:33). But here's a good way to actually communicate (assuming the new believer is uninformed of the philosophical problem of evil)...you could use St. Augustine's approach of blaming all evil on a devil and human rebellion. It simply says that the all-good God set the good world in motion in perfect goodness, but the bad devil (after rebelling from God with some of his angelic supporters), infiltrated God's good world and infected it with evil. The devil also encountered the first humans - Adam and Eve - and corrupted them too. So the Earth and the human race were immersed in the evil power. God's Solution: According to St. Augustine, God sent his son, Jesus Christ, with the singular mandate of defeating the devli and his cohorts and redeeming humans from the power of evil. Christ accomplished the task, however, there is still an ongoing aspect that requires humans to continue relying on Christ for ongoing victories over evil. The Holy Spirit helps believers in that contest as they apply the biblical principles in confronting life's challenges and bad times. Hopefully this helps - even though it is just a tiny bit of the complex question of theodicy (why do good people suffer like everyone else?). Also St. Anselm had the idea of eternal rewards as incentive for believers who may think that it doesn't pay to be good on Earth if everyone suffers alike. Helpful - somewhat?
Interesting trifflings you have going on there - hence the "Little"?. For a so-called "Christian" I anticipated a modicum of decorum and focus on the fantastic subject matters being discussed by the awesome minds here. Surprisingly, apart from your unnecessary ad hominem that you splashed all over your comment, what academic contribution are you actually making? Bright minds do not descend so low in the face of a monumental topic. And, yes, biblical discussions do revolve around philosophical and logical reasoning - instead of dogmatic nonsense! And if at any time in your life you think you can handle a vigorous debate here or elsewhere, I would kindly oblige to show yu a better way of contemporary defense of our Christian faith that doesn't thrive in minimalist name-calling and morbid disrespect. Your call.
I would say scripture disagrees with you on this point, the problem of pain was so that we would look to God, rather than ourselves. Paul explains this in Romans 8, "All creation is eagerly waiting for God to reveal who his children are. Creation was subjected to frustration but not by its own choice. The one who subjected it to frustration did so in the hope that it would also be set free from slavery to decay in order to share the glorious freedom that the children of God will have. We know that all creation has been groaning with the pains of childbirth up to the present time. However, not only creation groans. We, who have the Spirit as the first of God’s gifts, also groan inwardly. We groan as we eagerly wait for our adoption, the freeing of our bodies from sin. We were saved with this hope in mind. If we hope for something we already see, it’s not really hope. Who hopes for what can be seen? But if we hope for what we don’t see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance."
In other words the rule of decay and frustration is God's ordering not evil's and he did this so that we would realize that He is the only thing that can truly last. A man will not leave a ship that is safe on the ocean but he will leave it if it is sinking.
"Interesting trifflings you have going on there - hence the "Little"?. For a so-called "Christian" I anticipated a modicum of decorum and focus on the fantastic subject matters being discussed by the awesome minds here."
Sighs....first off, your invite discussion/debate and then you try to focus on a person's handle here trying to belittle him. Then you insinuate that he's not a Christian.
"Surprisingly, apart from your unnecessary ad hominem that you splashed all over your comment, what academic contribution are you actually making?"
Then you try belittling him some more with big sounding terms from propositional logic (I know those as well.) while ignoring the points I and others have made to your points. (Which is called a Texas Sharpshooter fallacy.)
"Bright minds do not descend so low in the face of a monumental topic. And, yes, biblical discussions do revolve around philosophical and logical reasoning - instead of dogmatic nonsense!"
And then you try berating the idea of putting on Christ as dogmatic nonsense.
"And if at any time in your life you think you can handle a vigorous debate here or elsewhere, I would kindly oblige to show you a better way of contemporary defense of our Christian faith that doesn't thrive in minimalist name-calling and morbid disrespect. Your call."
And then after rushing to bulverism fallacies (which is assuming the other person is wrong and then going into length how they think they come to that conclusion, which are usually assumptions, without actually disproving what the other person says) you finish by denouncing name calling......after you just cast aspersions and talked down to LittleDavid.....
Since I can see this Littleprince is going to be divisive, I would recommend people here consider Titus 3:10-11 "Warn a divisive person once, and then warn them a second time. After that, have nothing to do with them."
As for you prince, I would recommend that you meditate on this passage Psalm 145:13
"Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations. The Lord is trustworthy in all he promises and faithful in all he does."
God's word is trustworthy. All of it. You should not mock those who says it is. God is not mocked. I pray that you would grow in maturity and wisdom, renewing your mind with God's word.
Here'sa good scripture that is equally apt in response to the issue you raised:
"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children...." Hosea 4:6
- hopefully.
amazing.