Getting real with God:
How to keep the faith
Dr. Jim Denison
Psalm 22
Our spiritual lives are never so tested as when the hard times come. That’s when we need to walk with our Father the most, and are tempted to do so the least. How do we keep the faith when the faith is hard?
Claiming Psalm 22
The problem of evil
Definition of theodicy: “The question of the compatibility of metaphysical, physical, and moral evil in the present world order with the justice and absolute power of God” (Leibniz, Theodicee, 1710).
Statements of the problem:
•Habakkuk 1:3: “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?”
•Boethius: “If God exists, from whence comes evil?” (the classic expression of the problem).
•Schopenhauer: “The shortness of life, so often lamented, may perhaps be the very best thing about it.”
Conditions of the problem:
•God is loving