Elihu In The Book Of Job

If God is powerful and loving the humankind, then why does He permit evil as well as suffering in this world? Various answers had been offered by many Christian philosophers and many victims of suffering, but there was not a lucid answer that could settle this argument permanently. God uses malicious acts of this world to rise up His own people and remind them that there is an opportunity that they can posses their eternal life. Literature, especially biblical literature has exploited this biblical nature to its fullest in various types of forms, including the play J.B. by Archibald MacLeish. In the play J.B, Archibald MacLeish reanimates and modernizes elements taken from the story of Job to come up with his own response to the ultimate

There is one question that everyone asks but to which no one knows the answer: "Why do bad things happen to good people?" The misfortunes of good people raise problems not only for those who suffer, but also for everyone who wants to believe in a just and livable world and in a fair and compassionate God. Rabbi Kushner, author of "Why Do Bad Things Happen To Good People", attempts to bring light to this difficult question. In doing so he evaluates past attempts to explain suffering, offers his own approach to the justification of suffering in today's society, and makes suggestions for how one can deal with suffering and continue his or her journey into the future. This essay will examine these

Why Does God allow suffering? This question is probably as old as religion itself. It is a stumbling block for some of us, and for many more at given moments of tragedy. There are as many answers to this question as there are people who care to engage in theological dialogue. One understanding is that yes, God allows "bad" things to happen; God does not cause them to happen.

When life hits us with problems and obstacles, we ask: “Why did this happen to me? What did I do to deserve this?” If we believe in God, we direct these questions to Him. In Classic Christianity, Bob George shows an example of this when he talks about a man preparing himself for a wildness trip. Each day he pushed himself harder to get ready. He wondered what his body would say about his preparations. “Why are you doing this to me?” “What have I done to deserve this?” Were the two thoughts that came to his mind. We do the same thing with God. We wonder why the Lord is punishing us. The Lord doesn’t punish us; He loves us unconditionally. The Lord is preparing us to face even greater challenges in life with perseverance and faith.

It is perhaps one of the most frequently asked questions of all time: if there are gods who have control over humans’ lives, why do they allow good followers to suffer? How can there be any justice in that kind of world? Philosophers and thinkers like Seneca and authors of the Bible have debated and written about these questions since ancient times. Perhaps because hardships affect every person, many people continue to debate the same topics today. Seneca writes extensively about the topic of suffering in his essay “On Providence,” which is contained in The Stoic Philosophy of Seneca. Likewise, Paul writes about how to face hardships in his letters to the Romans and the Corinthians, and the book of Job in the Old Testament contains

Throughout history, humans have displayed beliefs in the existence of some sort of higher being. The existence of God gives an explanation of why the world is the way it is and is a reassurance for life after death. However, even believers of a deity find themselves questioning their own god, asking themselves, “If there is so much suffering in the world, how can God exist?” and this is understandable. Suffering is defined as the state of undergoing pain, distress, or hardship. Theorists have attempted to answer this question, some arguing for the existence of God and some arguing against it, but there’s no real way to answer this question. After all, there’s no definite proof of God’s existence in the world. Two dominant arguments for the existence of

I have been asked hundreds of times in my life why God allows tragedy and suffering. I have to confess that I really do not know the answer totally, even to my own satisfaction. I have to accept, by faith, that God is sovereign, and He’s a God of love and mercy and compassion in the midst of suffering. The Bible says that God is not the author of evil. It speaks of evil as a “mystery.” In 2 Thessalonians 2:7 it talks about the mystery of iniquity. The Old Testament prophet Jeremiah said, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” He asked that question, “Who can understand it?” And that’s one reason we each need God in our lives.

This passage best accounts on the reasoning that God is not the creator of pain and suffering. He made humans in his own image to do good and rule over the fishes of the sea, birds of the skies and to domesticate plants and crops. He also gave humans free will to make their own decisions, for we can experience the greatest amount of love. But with this, he did give us a mission to spread his kingdom, and follow his words. As time began to pass, humans turned away from God's mission and love, and now as a result created suffering and pain for

The Christian view of evil and suffering is probably what most are familiar with. Christians believe that some suffering is because of evil, caused by sin and disobedience from God, and is entirely intentional, called ‘Moral suffering’. So how do Christians justify or explain suffering? While there are many theories, the most widely accepted, coined by Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, is that due to the fact we have free will, we have the potential to choose evil, and suffering is the result of that choice. However, suffering is not senseless, as shown in this verse from Romans: “More than

“Why does God let men suffer?” That is the most common question made by atheists. On the other hand people, such as Billy Graham, believed that God lets us suffer to test us. Billy Graham believes God does this “because we don’t know how strong we are” (Billy Graham). Pain exists because of humankind's choice to sin, its origin, scholars’ views, and contemporary suffering.

Job 33 The posture of Elihu’s heart was right, but his words were not. In this chapter, Elihu tells Job, “In this you are not right, for God is greater than any mortal. Why do you complain to him that he responds to no one’s words” (Job 33:12). Elihu wanted to speak God’s truth to Job; however, this circumstance left even those with the purest motives without adequate encouragement. As I have mentioned in previous journals, I believe these conversations were another part of Job’s torment.

If God loves us, why does He allow us to suffer? The central question in Shadowlands challenges traditional religious and moral conventions. It is a question asked by many, with few satisfactory answers. Before attempting to answer the question, and explore its relationship to Shadowlands, let us first define the question, so its implications may be more clearly understood. At the heart of the question is a doubt in the goodness of God, "If God loves us". From the beginning it is clear that God is being judged and criticized by the question. Then the second phrase follows"Why does He allow us to suffer?". The assumption made in the second phrase is that God has enough control over the world to prevent suffering. If He can prevent

Its impossible to reflect on the origins of evil without bringing up the concept of free will. God created man with this idea of choice; the choice to believe and obey, or the choice to disobey. It was this free will that allowed Adam and Eve to fall from their initial glory and introduce evil and suffering into the world. We can justify a large amount of sustained suffering by acknowledging that it actually benefits us and is not incompatible with God's loving nature. We learn lessons both physically and spiritually that allows us to grow and mature according to God. Some suffering is used to spark revival or for a great advancement in his kingdom, cause after all we're

Why does god allow suffering to happen in our world? The first five words of that sentence have been repeated probably since the beginning of religion itself. The majority of people have more than likely asked this question when they were present in a moment of suffering or tragedy. God does “allow” suffering, but he does not “cause” it. In order for the people of God to be completely free to love and serve the Lord in the greatest way possible, there has to be free will and free choice. We are free people not robots that are controlled by a superior being. This enables us to enjoy the gift of life that god has created for us. If there was not any suffering in our world we would have nothing to be thankful for. Granted, there are very extreme cases of suffering that have came and gone throughout the years, but on the other end of that, there is also an incredible amount of rejoice and happiness that occurs everyday. Rejoice and happiness would not and could not even be conceivable by the human mind if there was no suffering. “Consequently, such a world, however well it might promote pleasure, would be very ill adapted for the development of moral qualities of human personality” (Hick, p.25). We wouldn’t know what suffering is, therefor, not knowing the difference between happy and sad, therefor, causing us to be boring and lack our greatest ability, to love one another.

We see this in The Book of Job too. To Job, suffering happens as a result of God testing us. A Satan questioned the followings of God's people. This led to God testing his best subject, Job. God made Job suffer in the worst way any human being could. This would be physical suffering and mental suffering. When God took away Job's family and possessions, he suffered mentally. All of his possessions and loved ones were gone without a reason known to him. It was physical suffering when he was struck with sores about his body. This also gives reason to suffering that happens when you can't explain it. Even a person who thinks that they are perfect can suffer. You could be just like Job, almost a perfect worshiper. That would be even more the reason for you to be tested. The Book of Job is one of the teachings of the Bible, a spiritual and religious guide. A person reading this would believe that suffering is a test. It is a test of your faith, your faith in God. Therefore, if we were suffering, as long as we keep faith, the suffering will end. As long as we keep faith the suffering will stop, and better things will happen and develop.