In this video, I reflect on the death of my father to Alzheimer’s in theological perspective while interacting with the eulogy I delivered at his memorial service in April 2019. The lesson: A Christian worldview should equip you to view life, suffering, and death in the light of hope, grace, and the cross. Unfortunately, the […]
suffering
Hell and the Image of God: A Response to Scott Clifton
Scott Clifton (aka Theoretical BS) offered a response to my YouTube video “If an atheist says they don’t think hell will be so bad, what do you say in reply?”. I’ve included his video below followed by a quick response: Scott’s main argument in the last half of his video appears to be that I’ve […]
Adjust Your Expectations
Christian discipleship is made more difficult when people imbibe the notion that God wants us happy, healthy, and wealthy. As a result, when things go awry, as they inevitably do, people often experience a crisis of faith for which they could have been far better prepared if their expectations had been set properly from the […]
Coming to Terms with the Problem of Evil
If you want a simple and effective way to identify a Christian apologist worth listening to, ask them to share their thoughts on the problem of evil. If they keep their discussion of the problem in the abstract and if they suggest that it is a problem easily solved, you should keep looking. But if […]
Why doesn’t God give everyone a miracle?
Some years ago, a friend of mine told me how, after losing his wife to cancer, he encouraged his embittered young adult children to return to church. On their first visit to a small group, several people shared their recent answers to prayer — miracles, they said — while the two young visitors sat quietly. When they […]
C.A.N.C.E.R.
I love discovering new bands: some are new new; others are just new-to-me. This weekend I discovered Architects, a new-to-me UK metalcore band that remind me a lot of Underoath (an American metalcore band which is one of my favorites). Now before I go further with this whole metalcore thing, let me point out that I also […]
God and the Problem of Suffering: An Interview with Paul Buller
In this interview I discuss that most difficult of problems, God and suffering, with Christian apologist Paul Buller. Paul is a co-founder of the Network of Christian Apologists in Calgary, AB and the author of the book Suffering: The Heart of the Matter. But while Paul loves to pursue the intellectual side of Christian faith, his perspective on suffering […]
The omniscient God as the jilted lover
In “God in the terrifying image of a jilted lover” I provided some reasons why readers of the Bible should not interpret descriptions of God’s tumultuous emotional life literally. The focus of my analysis in that article was to point out how this yields a picture of God as unpredictable, emotionally needy, and threatening. In […]
88. Euthanasia, Death, and the Good Life: A Conversation with Heidi Janz
“Euthanasia.” The word derives from the Greek prefix “eu” or good, and “thanatos” or death. Hence, euthanasia promises a good death. But what is a good death? And what right do medical practitioners have to bring it about? These questions press themselves upon us with increasing urgency as various jurisdictions consider the adoption of new […]
85. No Easy Answers: Kelly Kapic on God, theology, and suffering
“Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” So go the words of the Celebrant in the Ash Wednesday service that initiates the season of Lent. Dust we may be, but we are dust that thinks, dust that knows, dust that feels. We are dust that suffers as it is forced to grapple with […]
Joe Biden talking about loss with Stephen Colbert
I was among an apparent minority disappointed by the debut of Colbert’s The Late Show. Apparently I’m still grieving the loss of the right wing pundit of The Colbert Report. But seeing the real Colbert does have its upsides, and chief among them is his deeply moving interaction with Joe Biden on suffering and faith.
Stephen Colbert on providence and the problem of suffering
Stephen Colbert is one of the funniest and smartest comics/entertainers around. He was always engaging, thought-provoking, and hilarious playing his satirical conservative pundit on The Colbert Report. And he promises to carry that same brilliance into his new role in network late night in a couple weeks. Last week GQ published a fascinating profile on […]
The Man I am Today: One soldier’s testimony and the problem of evil
This past Sunday 60 Minutes broadcast a story titled “Coming home” which chronicles the physical and emotional difficulties of soldiers returning from war (Iraq and Afghanistan) and attempting to integrate back into society. As I watched I was reminded of two documentaries I reviewed which deal with similar themes, Hell and Back Again and Body of […]
61. The Chaplains: Notes from the Frontlines
Given that C. S. Lewis wrote one of the most influential theodicies of the twentieth century, The Problem of Pain, you might have thought he would’ve been uniquely prepared for the shock and grief of losing his beloved wife Joy to cancer. But you’d be wrong. Whatever the value of theodicies may be in the intellectual […]
