Pslam Six: Freedom From Suffering

The existence of pain and suffering in a world created by a good and almighty God is a fundamental theological dilemma and may be the most serious objection to the Christian religion. In the book, The Problem Of Pain , author C.S. Lewis addresses the issue of pain as a mere problem that demands a solution; he formulates it and goes about solving it. "If God were good, He would make His creatures perfectly happy, and if He were almighty He would be able to do what He wished. But the creatures are not happy. Therefore God lacks either goodness, or power, or both" (p. 16). According to Lewis, this is the problem of pain in its simplest form. In his attempt to solve the problem of pain Lewis evaluates the past and the origin of religion, he

How are they different? Let's start with Christianity. Christians follow Christ and believe in the resurrection of Jesus. They believe

Christians believe that salvation is a gift from God that is offered through the death and resurrection of Jesus. This gift is accessed through faith in Jesus. The Christian understanding of salvation draws heavily from the Jewish tradition of Moses and the Exodus, where the Hebrew

Drew Gilpin Faust’s This Republic of Suffering: Death and The American Civil War tackles a subject that is not widely written about: the ways of death of the American Civil War generation. She demonstrates how the unprecedented carnage, both military and civilian, caused by the Civil War forever changed American assumptions of death and dying, and how the nation and its people struggled to come to terms with death on an unimaginable scale. The war created a veritable “republic of suffering” and Faust vividly portrays the United States’ ordeal, transformation, and

Suffering joins people closer to Christ and his sufferings, especially in persecution (1 Pet. 4:1-2, 12-16, 19; 5:8-10; Luke 9:23; Phil. 3:10).

The attitudes towards religion is often determined by how well the religion can give themselves off, especially when it comes to answering the question on how to deal with suffering. With Christianity, Jesus taught his followers that suffering is eliminated through salvation, which is by repentance and dependence on God. While with Buddhism, Buddha taught suffering is universal and that the only way to deal with it is by forsaking oneself and following the Middle Path, thus achieving a worked out salvation. Though these teachings do resemble each other in meaning, they differ in their purpose.

Why humans suffer and where God is during it are theological questions that have constantly been debated on. Rabbi Kushner in the PBS video Suffering: A Time to Love and a Time to Hate, John F. Haught in his book Responses to 101 Questions on God and Evolution, and the Bible each provide their own analysis on where God is when humans are suffering and persecuted. Thomas West is his chapter “The Human Response of Hope” gives his insight regarding life after death especially hope for salvation. All these sources aid in answering personal questions regarding theodicy: suffering, death, and hope.

The Church explains how humans have grown hateful and abusive to each other. Humans have also became more selfish and arrogant, hence establishing sins, and forgetting about God. This is seen in Romans 3:23 “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Thus, the Catholic Church believes God is creating suffering, in order for humans to turn back to him and become renewed from sins. God has unconditional love, towards humans, as a result he is waiting for sinners to ask for forgiveness. Therefore the Church response to why humans experience suffering is, in order for humans to turn back to

Christians believe that when they die, they will go to heaven if they had lived according to will of God while in earth. The Buddha believes in rebirth after one dies and thus the patients see sickness and death as a stage in life where every person has to undergo through hence the patient in both religion see death not as the end but as a start of new life. Another similarity that exists between the Buddhism and Christianity religions is the moral precepts in Buddhism and commandments in Christianity. These moral codes in both religions help the patient to make choices on medical care given to him. In both religion for instance, procuring abortion is seen as murder and hence prohibited in both religions (Young & Koopsen, 2006).

The Christianity is a belief that was founded upon salvation through Jesus. However, there are questions why Jesus had to die, or how his death signifies. The Penal Substitution View views Jesus’ death as price for our sins. However, the Christus Victor View views Jesus’ death on the cross as dethroning of Sins of this world. Furthermore, the Moral Government View sees Christ’s death as example of righteousness with consequences of

The concept of suffering plays an important role in Christianity, regarding such matters as moral conduct, spiritual advancement and ultimate destiny. Indeed an emphasis on suffering pervades the Gospel of Mark where, it can be argued, we are shown how to "journey through suffering" (Ditzel 2001) in the image of the "Suffering Son of Man" (Mark 8:32), Jesus Christ. Although theologians have suggested that Mark was written to strengthen the resolve of the early Christian community (Halpern 2002, Mayerfeld 2005), the underlying moral is not lost on a modern reader grappling with multifarious challenges regarding faith in the face of suffering. In his article "A Christian Response to Suffering", William Marravee (1987) describes suffering

Pslam 19 is a hymn with a focus on God’s creation and His revelation to the world through scripture. Through this psalm we are able to see how God has chosen to reveal Himself to the world. He chose to reveal Himself through creation and through His Scriptures. This Psalm also defines characteristics of God through how He describes His Word and Creation. The psalm scientifically provides insight as it describes the heavens and the action of the sun. As insightful as the psalm is, it’s important to recognize the poetry that lies on the pages.

righteous individuals are revealed not only through patient acceptance of their own suffering, but also through their good works for others. And if suffering is a consequence of unbelief, then good works will relieve pain.

God created the world, a place free from suffering and pain where humankind could live in peace and harmony,however when man chose the way of Satan by eating the forbidden fruit, this was the beginning of sin in the world. God makes it clear to Adam and Eve the consequences of sinning, and from this moment on suffering was declared. Since dying on the cross, through the letter of St Paul to the Colossians, Christ expects us to bind our sufferings with his. As a result of sin, God allows us to suffer because he loves us and wants us to have free will and the choice whether to love/not love. With this freedom, mankind has broken laws which result in pain and suffering which act as an early warning system when we exercise wrong decisions. Catholics believe that suffering is a test of faith and this is exampled in the book of Job where God lets good people suffer: Job loosing everything he owned, the death of his childer etc. Job examples the reaction to our own suffering. Instead of asking why, the Church teaches us to endure through our suffering and remember that God loves us and no matter the situation will lead us back home. In Pope John Paul’s apostolic

Christians believe that Jesus is both God and man, incarnation of God, and man -gives man two natures, physical and divined that they are united in one person. Thus the mystery of God becoming a human being, Jesus, and suffered and died, and Mary (Jesus' mother) was the mother of God. God resolved himself to mankind in 3 ways, as God the father, God the sun and the Holy Spirit. From this we can see that Christianity is based on the