An Offering of Hope

In response to my last post, I'd like to refer avid readers to some quotes from two of the professors on campus that offer hope in the face of suffering. And since they can say it far better than I, here they are. Here's proof of why they have PhDs and I don't:

First, in reponse to the Oklahoma bombing:

If one continues to believe in God, one retains the hope that even such a
terrible situation as this can be resolved in the end. God can and will
restore the lives of those children. Indeed, no innocent sufferer will be
lost or forgotten in God's final reckoning.

In his recently published spiritual autobiography, Peter van Inwagen
remarked, "I have never had the least tendency to react to the evils of the
world by saying, 'How could there be a loving God who allows these
things?' My immediate emotional reaction has rather been: 'There must be a
God who will wipe away every tear; there must be a God who will repay.'"

Of course if there is no God, such reactions are futile emotions in
an undifferent universe. If atoms, quarks, gluons, and energy are
ultimate reality, then our cries of pain and anger will fall on deaf
ears. But the Christian faith, more than any other religion, gives us
reason to hope ultimate reality is not indifferent to our plight. God
hears, He cares, He has come among us and suffered with us and for us in the
person of his Son. Evil will not have the last word. Every tear
will be wiped away.
~Dr. Jerry Walls, Asbury Herald, 3-5 1995

And another quote offers hope from a Biblical standpoint when it comes to the problem of evil

My friends, if we are to have any hope of resolving this question of suffering and divine justice, we will have to listen to the biblical roundtable. And we will do well to refrain from claiming more than Scripture warrants and more than honest assessments of life can really sustain. We will do well to stake our faith in the cross and know that God is for us, that God loves us, that Jesus died for us...
...The apostles say God isn't just with us, as Job evntually discovered, but He is for us. He cares about us even as we suffer. And, He will, in the end, work His purposes through us. He will lead us to a day when we will know that God is just and our faith has not been in vain. That's the good news of the gospel. And it's no end run on the problem of evil. Let us go, my friends, in the confidence that God will be with us. And, as we give our lives and minds to follow Him, He will accomplish His purposes in us, even in our suffering.
~Dr. David Thompson, Asbury Herald, 6-9 1995